Installing Windows 7 from a USB Drive: Newbie Guide

Posted on August 7th, 2009, by blacknoise 11 Comments

usb-flash-drive

There have been a lot of installing Vista/Win7 via USB articles in the recent past, all using different types of methods. Now with Windows 7 round the corner and with the RC version being a success people have started to tryout Windows 7 and I’ve received a lot of mail, some stating it works and for some it doesn’t. Mainly there are responses about these methods being not easy to follow unless you have a fair knowledge about these stuff.

So in this tutorial I have used the easiest way to create a bootable USB that you can use to install Windows 7 (or Vista) and this will probably be the final post as well.

Creating the bootable USB drive:

Requirements

  • An ISO Image of Windows 7 (any version)
  • UltraISO (not free, but a trial version would do)
  • A USB drive consisting more than 2.5GB (4GB drive is more than enough)

1. Download the ISO image of Windows 7

2. Download and install UltraISO

3. Plug the USB drive to the PC. backup any data as they will be deleted.

4. Start UltraISO go to File->Open and select the downloaded ISO image

usbultraiso-01

5. In the Local tab (lower left) select your USB drive. Make sure its the drive you want to make bootable. In this example its “USB Flash (M:)”

6. Now click the Bootable tab from the menu and select Write Disk Image

usbultraiso-02

7. In the Write disk image dialog box click Write. (You can also tick Verify, this will check the data for errors.)

usbultraiso-03

Wait until the write operation finishes. Now you can use the USB flash drive to install Windows 7.

Related posts:

  1. Install Ubuntu Linux Using a USB Stick – The 3 Step Guide
  2. How to Install Windows 7 using a USB Hard disk
  3. Tips: How to boot/install Windows 7/Vista from USB Flash/Hard Drive
  4. Guide to Install Windows XP Using USB Stick
  5. How to Boot/Install Vista from a USB Flash drive

11 Responses to “Installing Windows 7 from a USB Drive: Newbie Guide”

  1. f3rns says:

    Ohh yeah, i was waiting for this. Thank you blacknoise newbie guide FTW.

  2. Meena Bassem says:

    does this work for xp?

  3. netbox says:

    Yeah! this is the easiest guide ive seen so far :)
    Thanks for that very easy to follow to tutorials,
    It will be usefull to me, as soon as i get a hand to that windows 7 :)
    Thanks again bro! Keep up the good job..

  4. charlie says:

    does this work with 64-bit windows 7?

  5. SliquadW7 says:

    So i have done so meny attempts with cmd and bootsect nothing goes, i am trying this method seems to be solid lets see what happens

  6. sarra says:

    sadly I get to the write part and it says I need to run it as an admin. I AM the admin. Jesus H…. all I want is to get windows 7 on my pc…….

  7. blacknoise says:

    Right click Ultra ISO and select run as admin. Although that kind of error is not possible in the first place.

  8. joobar says:

    Thank you! its freaking lazy program, but hope this works. Thank you!