Herbalist Dr MziziMkavu
JF-Expert Member
- Feb 3, 2009
- 42,295
- 33,079
- By James Bruce
We described a similar method before, but it required a few external utilities. This time I'll assume you have a working Windows 7 computer with an existing DVD drive somewhere – and a working installation DVD to go with it. You'll use this machine to format, set up, and copy over the relevant files to a USB stick. You could also do this without a DVD drive from the ISO, but in that case your job would be a whole lot simpler because you could use the official ISO -> USB creator.
Note: You cannot use this method to install to a Parallels virtual machine. Your only option in that case is to use either a physical DVD or an ISO download and connect to that to the VM instead.
You'll need:
- A working Windows 7 system with a DVD drive and administrator rights.
- A Windows 7 installation DVD.
- 4GB USB drive or larger.
Open An Elevated Command Prompt
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.
Partitioning The Disk
Type:
DISKPART
This will open up the partitioning application. Next, type:
LIST DISKFigure out which of the drives listed is your USB drive, and note the number. It's crucial you get this right, or you're going to end up losing data on other drives.
Next, type the following series of commands, but replace the DISK number in the first line with the appropriate number from the above list. Here, my disk is number 1. Don't confuse this withPARTITION 1. That number should not change, even if your disk is 3.
SELECT DISK 1CLEANCREATE PARTITION PRIMARYSELECT PARTITION 1ACTIVEFORMAT FS=NTFSASSIGNEXIT
Make It Bootable!
The format step may take a little while (it actually took about 30 minutes on my machine). When you're done, put in your installation DVD if you haven't already. Note down which drive letter your USB disk and Windows installation DVD are located at.
Go back to your command prompt and type – assuming D: is your DVD drive with the install DVD, and U: is your USB drive:
D:/BOOT/BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 U:This will basically make your USB drive bootable.
Copy Everything
The final step can be done from My Computer. Just open up the installation DVD, highlight everything, and drag it over to your USB drive.
This will also take a while.
Now you should be all set – just insert the USB disk into your new PC, and enter the BIOS to adjust the boot order, or choose the option during start up which says Choose Boot Device.
Let's hear it for computers with no noisy and clunky DVD drives! Death to physical media! Or not – what do you think? Are you ready to go DVD-less?