Create Windows 7 Installation Usb

Hi there,

I have a computer that I need to reinstall Windows 7 Professional on. This computer does not have an optical drive, but does have several USB slots. I have a 64GB USB key that I am trying to use to create a bootable USB install disk. I have been sticking to using the 'Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool' to create the USB drive after having downloaded a third party application and getting a bunch of bloat ware and malware from the program (even though it was a highly rated CNET download).

I have read several different methods for how to create the USB key, most of which have not worked for one reason or another. The furthest I have gotten is an error saying 'BOOTMGR is missing'.
I think the most important thing to note in my case, is that in all the guides I have read the people having trouble creating the USB key have gotten their Windows 7 ISO from a DVD that they own.
I bought my copy of Windows from the Volume Licensing Service Center, and downloaded the ISO directly from Microsoft, so I have no physical media, and the ISO itself appears to be somewhat different from what people describe if they own the DVD.
For example, some of the guides I have read mention extracting the ISO (the one from the DVD) so that the user has access to bootsect.exe, and other files important for creating the key. When I extract my files from the downloaded ISO, I only have the following files:
autorun.inf
setup.exe
windows6.1-KB976932-ia64.exe
windows6.1-KB976932-X64.exe
windows6.1-KB976932-x86.exe
To further complicate things, the reason I am trying to install Widows with a bootable USB, is that the computer only has guest user access (One guest user account, and one administrator account with an unknown password). The administrator password was lost, so we cannot run the Windows 7 setup.exe from Windows itself. Recovering the administrator password was a whole other situation that I tried to figure out, and have had no luck with either.
I think I am in a particularly ridiculous situation with this computer, can anyone offer any advice?

Sep 27, 2016 You can just create a bootable Windows USB drive to install Windows 7, 8 or 10 by plugging in that USB drive. It is actually quite easy and free to do, all you need is a USB drive, Windows ISO image and a dedicated software. However, the process and tools are actually different for the installation of each version of Windows.

If you choose to download an ISO file so you can create a bootable file from a DVD or USB drive, copy the Windows ISO file onto your drive and then run the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool. Then simply install Windows onto your computer directly from your USB or DVD drive.
For additional scenarios in which you may want to create or use a bootable USB flash drive, see the following topics: Restore a full system from an existing client computer backup. Restore or repair your server running Windows Server Essentials. To create a bootable USB flash drive. Insert a USB flash drive into a running computer.

Want to install Windows 7 on your computer but the device doesn’t have an optical drive? Perhaps you’re using a laptop without a built-in DVD drive, or even an old netbook or Windows tablet. Whatever the case, you’ll need to make a USB installation disk.

You can do this without any extra software, or you can use tools provided by Microsoft and third parties.

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Two Ways to Make a Bootable USB Windows 7 Installation Disk

You have two choices for making a bootable USB drive that can install Windows 7.

Create a bootable disk using Windows tools: this requires no additional software
Download the install from Microsoft: this is a far simpler solution

Let’s take a look at each option.

What You’ll Need to Install Windows 7 from USB

Without an optical drive on the target computer, installing Windows 7 as your preferred operating system is impossible. But if you have the original installation media and a USB flash drive, you can make it work.

To get started, you’ll need:

A working Windows 7 computer with a DVD drive and administrator rights
A Windows 7 installation DVD
4GB USB flash drive or larger

This will also work with external USB hard drives instead of a USB thumb drive. However, all the data on the drive will be formatted and deleted.

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The following steps can be completed on a Windows 7 computer. However, they’re almost the same whatever operating system you’re using, including Windows 10.

Open an Elevated Command Prompt

To start, insert your USB flash drive in your main PC—the one with the optical drive. You should also insert the Windows 7 installation DVD.

Click Start > All Programs > Accessories and right-click on Command Prompt. Select Run As Administrator. Of course, you need to be able to authenticate as the administrator on the PC you’re using.

On Windows 10, click Start then type “command”. Right-click the first result and select Run as administrator.

In the black command prompt window, open the disk partitioning tool with the command:

This will open in a new command prompt window. Here, call up a list of disks attached to your PC.

One of the drives listed will be your USB drive. You’ll probably be able to spot it based on the drive’s capacity. Make a note of the disk number of the USB drive.

This is important to get right; otherwise, you’ll end up losing data on other drives.

Next, partition the disk. Begin by selecting the disk and cleaning it.

Where you see the # sign, substitute it with the disk number of your USB device.

You can then create a new partition.

Make the partition active, then format as NTFS:

Next, issue the single command to set the disk as drive E:

Finally, exit the DiskPart tool.

The USB flash drive is now ready for Windows 7’s installation files.

Make Your Windows 7 USB Bootable

The format step may take some time, depending on your computer’s specification.

In the command prompt type

(This assumes D: is your DVD drive with the install DVD inserted, and you named E: your USB drive. This may differ on your PC, so check before entering the command.)

This will make your USB drive bootable.

Copy Windows 7 Installation Files to USB

The final step can be done from My Computer. Just open the installation DVD, highlight everything, and drag it across to the USB drive.

This can also take a while. When complete, you should be all set. Insert the USB disk into your new PC, then enter the BIOS to adjust the boot order. Your target computer may even have the Choose Boot Device option during start up.

Use Microsoft’s Windows 7 USB Installer Tool

If you want a simpler solution to installing Windows 7 from a bootable USB drive, try Microsoft’s dedicated, downloadable tool.

Download: Windows 7 USB Download Tool

The main download is just 2.8MB in size, so this should complete quickly. While you wait, insert your USB flash drive into your main PC. A 4GB drive should be large enough.

Meanwhile, you’ll also need an ISO version of Windows 7. You can download it from Microsoft with a valid product key.

Download: Windows 7

While you wait for the download, install the installer tool, then launch from the Start menu.

You’ll be prompted to find the ISO image file for Windows 7. Find the ISO file on your hard disk drive, then click Next.

Here, select USB device for the media type you plan to create. In the next screen, use the dropdown menu to select the USB drive, then Begin Copying. Wait while the process completes.

When the bar reaches 100%, you’ll spot some status information. Any problems that occurred are listed here. If you need another bootable USB Windows 7 installation disk, click Start Over to repeat the process.

Otherwise, click the X in the top-right corner to close, before safely ejecting your USB disk. It is now ready to install Windows 7 on a suitable computer of your choice.

It’s Easy to Create a Windows 7 USB Installation Disk

If you’ve been stuck trying to get an operating system set up on your old laptop or netbook, you’ll be relieved to see how simple it really is. Indeed, Windows 7 and later already have the tools built in to help you make a bootable USB installer.

Failing that, you can take the simple option by grabbing Microsoft’s own USB installer tool for Windows 7 and later.

Create Windows 7 Install Usb With Drivers

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Explore more about: Boot Errors, Computer Maintenance, Install Software, Troubleshooting, USB Drive, Windows 7.

Create Win 7 Installation Usb

This doe not work when trying to create a bootable Flashdrive on a machine that has booted using UEFI
Went through the steps and all appear to have gone fine but my thumb drive was assigned, 'CD DRIVE (G:)'. Will that be a problem?
- Never mind. Somehow the 'ASSIGN' function didn't take. Tried it again and now it is assigned 'Removable Drive (F:).
THANK YOU!! This usb boot instruction worked great!
Much appreciated!
Hi all,
I tried to follow the steps, everything was worked fine except this one: A can't copy the install.wim file from the original DVD. Could I have supporting ideas?
Does this apply also to windows 10 and do i have to do D:/BOOT/BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 U: for windows 10 usb installation
Thanks, I will give this a try.
Thanks a lot. I just followed the steps and got Windows 7 Pro onto a 8 Gb stick and it is now installing from the stick.
thank you. my dvd drive was not working but I found a way out. great article!
Hello,
Thank you for this article!
After inputting
D:/BOOT/BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 E:
I get a bunch of different lines. example:
active
add
assign
attributes
attach etc.
Can you explain what is happening here, and what I've done wrong?
Thank you
- Exit out of partioning application. Need to access C:/windows/system32 instead of diskpart
Worked for me. Thank you!
Dear Team,
all work perfect for me. however, when i go to the step 'D:/BOOT/BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 U:' it gives me an error of 'this tool can only be run on system booted using a PC/AT BIOS. this system is booted using EFI or some other firmware type'.
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how to go about it from here? please assist.
- Did you ever get any help on this? I'm having the same issue
- Also having the same problem..
  Can anyone help?
Thank you. Worked for me!!
No Dont make 1st boot device as pen drive, leave it as its, just press F12/F9 for fast boot option and press any key to continue . . . .
Hi !
My DVD drive is F and my USB is J
I've tried many times and still get the same error.
C:WINDOWS/System32>F:/BOOT/BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 J:
Target Volumes will be updated with BOOTMGR compatible bootcode/
Could not map drive partitions to the associated volume device objects:
access is denied.
- Try opening CMD with admin rights, So right click it and then run as administrator!
  Good Luck!
  Cheers
Awasome article. But guys you need to know After format disk you need to write it on cmd ASSIGN EXIT. If you won't do it, I won't able to see flash drive.
consice and clear instruction. and it works!
may i ask or know if you have instructions on how to create system recovery on usb?
After making my USB Bootable my i able to use USB as a drive disk as i use before.??
Because I need both things waiting for your response
I did what you sayed and I succesfully transfered it over but I am having an issue with the startup when ever it restarts to load the system it starts from the begining
- If you already installed windows and then your computer restarts. Unplug your USB-Flashdrive so that the installation will continue.
I REPLACED A HARD DISK ON MY LAPTOP, AND DOWNLOADED A W7 ISO FILE on dvd.
i tried everything above but the last part tackled your help.
D:/BOOT/BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 E: my laptop didn't respond on this??
gave a list of words. SO i installed windows 7 from a dvd instead of a 'bootable 'usb..e voila..
computer was also saying missing bootmanager on usb.
my usb flashdrive is disk 1, is that the disk youre supposed to clean?
Great article
My DVD drive is D and my USB is F. What am i doing wrong!!!??
Ive tried many times and still get the same error.
C:WINDOWSsystem32>D:/BOOT/BOOTSECT.EXE /N6
The system cannot find the path specified.
- Sorry forgot the NT in the last one, but doesnt make a difference.
  C:WINDOWSsystem32>D:/BOOT/BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 F:
  The system cannot find the path specified.
- I believe thats what the issue might be, the disc is a Reinstallation CD that came with the laptop. Says Recovery Media for Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Svc Pack 3.
  Does that mean i can use it?
  IThe only thing im trying to do here is fix my Dell Dell 1012 Mini Inspiron that has no media drive.
  Here is my issue; so i thought i would fix it with the usb fix?
  I got this error (windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: WINDOWSSYSTEMvgaoem.fon)
  I have the original boot cdrom but don't have an internal cdrom drive on this laptop. So i have been trying to get it to run from an external cd rom drive but it wasn't installed before this happened. What can i do?? Ive changed the boot sequence several times and this did nothing.Not recognizing the cdrom. How can i fix this laptop!!?
- ok, I was referred here from another site to try to get it to boot from the USB drive. Im not even looking to reinstall Windows, just dont understand why i cant get around this error. Im assuming id have it fixed by now if the damn thing had an internal cdrom drive.thanks
Excellent. I've tried different methods, but this one actually worked. Thanks.
Hi,
Such a clear and to the point tutorial, good one, thanks James. I had a problem, when I try to entering the code H:/BOOT/BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 G:, then this message came.. 'H:/BOOT/BOOTSECT.EXE' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. ..
The disc I used is an .iso file that I mount with DT lite, is that the problem why it can't be done ?
thanks for this tutorial, Bruce! I used your method to prepare a harddisk (in an external USB case) for WIN7 installation in a Portege M200 and it worked flawlessly. Probably the simplest way to install an operating system on this machine without CD or DVD drive.
Worked like a charm on the first try! Well done and many thanks :) This brought my laptop back to life after a disk drive failure.
I did everything and it was successful, however when it came to loading on the target PC it came up with disk read error. hence, no good for me :-(
Don't know what else to do.
Great tutorial.
If you are ever having problems with the default Microsoft USB-DVD tool, this method works great.
Guys help me Plz.
I have sony Vaio Laptop.I have problem With my laptop SuperDrive.its not working.and i want to install window from usb.Now problem is that my laptop dosn't have the Usb Boot option.still is there anyway to insall the window..
Help plz..
- instal usb dvd rom that easy way to install window.... another use usb hdd in ur bios .
Hi, I got through formatting the drive and assigning it a letter. Once I attempt to make it bootable I receive 'Could not map drive partitions to the associated volume device objects: Access is denied.' Any tips to move on?
This is great, but is there any hope for someone who has a PC (with a legal copy of Windows) but not an installation disk. My PC (HP, x64) came with Windows 7 (home deluxe) installed, but no disk. I would like to have something just in case, but for now all I have are the emergency disks they let you burn.
- Visit partition-saving.com and get Damien's 'Partition Saving' program. Current version allows you to save your partitions to an external USB drive (I use a 1TB). A fantastic program!!!!!!!!!
- I followed the instructions to the letter, but get an 'NTLDR missing' error when trying to boot my machine from the USB drive. (Machine boots A-OK with a Hiren's Boot USB.) Anyone have any ideas?
All the command line work is not really necessary. All you have done is format a USB drive as one NTFS partition with a boot flag and copied the files from the DVD on to it. I use Gparted to do this with no command line necessary. Also works for making a bootable USB for the Windows 7 Recovery Disc.
Some other tips:
After you enter the SELECT DISK # command, re-enter LIST DISK and you should see an asterisk next to the disk you selected. Double check that this is the correct disk, because using DISKPART is an easy way to really mess up your disks if you aren't careful.
There really is no need to use the SELECT PARTITION command in this case. After you clean the disk and create a primary partition using all the available space, there will only be one partition. There is no need to specifically select it.
As long as you know the drive is good, you can save a lot of time by doing a quick format. On the format step enter FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK.
FWIW, I have done this many times with many machines and I have never needed to use the BOOTSECT command. I just follow the DISKPART steps and then copy the files to the drive. Every machine I have tested has booted up from the USB drive made that way.
can you please explain how to make an UEFI usb boot disk
hey,
I have another BEST and easy way to make USB bootable Windows 7....
Nothing to do...
Step 1: Explore your Windows 7 DVD or ISO File( in case of ISO file just mount is using any utility like Nero or PowerISO..even u can use trial version of these)
Step 2: Now copy all files including Hindden files and paste it on your formatted 4 GB( or more ) pendrive
Step 3: Restart your PC and go to BIOS and select USB as a first boot device then save and quit
Step 4: Your PC will boot with USB and now you can install or repair your Windows 7 faster than any DVD installation ... enjoy...
I have installed this way... :-)
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- Nice Tip! I may try that if I need a USB Windows 7 disk. Thanks and that's really easy than using CMD's ;)
- For multi boot usb flash drive visit this link http://making-a-bootable-usb.blogspot.com/2012/01/make-usb-bootable-windows-7.html