WinToFlash – Make Bootable USB Drive, The Easy Way
Most of us do not like DVDs or other optical media, they get scratched and need a lot of space to keep. And sometimes the data written on them gets lost for no obvious reason. And writing them is another headache. Saying that USB drives do not have any of these disadvantages, they are small very fast compared to optical media and easy to copy the data onto them.
How to Install Windows 7 using a USB Hard disk
Earlier I wrote a tutorial on how to install Vista from a USB flash drive, the method given in that post worked for some and did not work for certain drives. Recently I tried to install Windows 7 the same way using a USB Hard disk but it didn’t work. So here’s a tutorial on how to use a USB hard disk to install windows 7 (its similar to Nam’s post a while ago) .
Why use a USB drive to install Windows 7?…
- Its faster than installing from a DVD
- Can be used without a DVD drive
- It does not require a blank DVD for every O/S version released.
Even though I used a USB HDD it should work on USB FDD’s as well. Also there will be the occasion when this method doesn’t work, then check the other method I have mentioned above.
Requirements
# A copy of windows 7
# A USB drive
How to
1. Right click Computer, select Manage, and Disk Management.
How to Boot/Install Vista from a USB Flash drive
There’s already an article about this on the site but since its not complete I’ll be writing this tutorial on how to create a bootable Vista installation USB flash drive.
Requirements
- A 4GB flash drive (I’ll be using a much lesser one here as I don’t have one)
- A Vista Installation DVD
- The bios must support booting with usb devices and it must be enabled. And boot priority must be set so that the Flash drive boots before the Fixed HDD
- A x86 usb bootable drive can only be created within a x86 operating system
- A x64 usb bootable drive can only be created within a x64 operating system
Important:Backup the USB flash drive as this will delete everything in it.
Instructions: Create bootable Flash drive
1. Plug the USB drive in
2. Open a command prompt window with administrator privileges.
3. Type diskpart and press enter
Installing Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) KB948465
Well the latest build of the vista SP2 (build number 6002.16497) is out, I know that a lot of you will be wanting to upgrade and some of you might be scared that it may ruin system stability (and with the history of Microsoft Betas, your fears are justifiable) but do not worry as I have tried it and it installs fine. SO I decided to make a small guide on how to install it without getting into a trouble spot.
Before even thinking of adding the registry patch using our script (see below), backup your System Drive (in most cases the C: drive) first.
Install iTunes without QuickTime
When you download iTunes, it has a whole bundle of softwares with it. iTunes is one of the best music management softwares out there with superb album management coupled with album art browsing and some nice trendy features. It will be more useful for people who use ipods and like to sync their ipod with the PC.
Unfortunately most people do not like QuickTime an Apple audio playback and encoding plugin. Instead most use QuickTime Lite or QuickTime Alternative.
So here is a tip to install iTunes without QuickTime.
Backup and Restore Your Drivers with DriverMax
Have you ever struggled with finding the correct drivers for your computers? when installing a new OS or re-installing an OS in an OEM PC, don?t you run around for driver disks? Since most manufacturers do not provide driver discs with computers when you buy them. this makes a nightmare to re-install the OS.
The need for driver disks comes up during the following situations:
- When there is a driver corruption
- When installing a new OS
- When re-installing your OS
Cast all your fears away because this wonderful freeware is here, DriverMax is a freeware that cleverly backs up and restores your entire driver collection with a nice and friendly wizard and with a few mouse clicks.
When you first install this freeware you will get a screen like this:
Fix Firefox 3 Error Message ?plugin does not provide secure updates. The plugin will not be installed?
Sometimes when you install plugins in development like SmoothWheel in Firefox 3 beta x, you get the error message as “plugin does not provide secure updates. The plugin will not be installed”, this is quite annoying as SmoothWheel has full compatibility for firefox 3.x.
Here is a way to get around this problem
Open your Firefox 3.x
