How To: Install Windows 7 Or Windows 8 From USB Drive [Detailed 100% Working Guide]
Posted January 11, 2012 – 3:58 pm in: Vista Tweaks, Windows 7, Windows 7 GuidesThis guide works 100% for Windows 7 and Windows 8 unlike most of the guides out there. I have seen many sites/blogs that have “Install Vista from USB guide” but either with incomplete steps or not working guide. I have also seen some guides that don’t’ use proper commands in this guide. After spending many hours I have come up with this 100% working guide to install Windows 7 and Windows 8 from USB flash drive.
I just did this method on one of my friends machine and installed Windows 7 and Windows 8 . The main advantage is that by using USB drive you will be able to install Windows 7 or Windows 8 in just 15 minutes. You can also use this bootable USB drive on friend’s computer who doesn’t have a DVD optical drive.
The method is very simple and you can use without any hassles. Needless to say that your motherboard should support USB Boot feature to make use of the bootable USB drive. And if your PC doesn’t support booting from USB, you can still install Windows from USB by following our how to install Windows 7/8 from USB drive even if your PC doesn’t support USB boot feature.
Requirements:
- USB Flash Drive (Minimum 4GB)
- Windows 7 or Windows 8 installation files.
Follow the below steps to create bootable Windows 7/Windows 8 USB drive using which you can install Windows 7 or Windows 8 easily.
Procedure:
Step 1: Plug-in your USB flash drive to USB port and move all the contents from USB drive to a safe location on your system.
Step 2: Open Command Prompt with admin rights. Use any of the below methods to open Command Prompt with admin rights.
*Type cmd in Start menu search box and hit Ctrl+ Shift+ Enter.
Or
*Go to Start menu > All programs > Accessories, right click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.
Step 3: You need to know about the USB drive a little bit. Type in the following commands in the command prompt:
First type DISKPART and hit enter to see the below message.
Next type LIST DISK command and note down the Disk number (ex: Disk 1) of your USB flash drive. In the below screenshot my Flash Drive Disk no is Disk 1.
Step 4: Next type all the below commands one by one. Here I assume that your disk drive no is “Disk 1”.If you have Disk 2 as your USB flash drive then use Disk 2.Refer the above step to confirm it.
So below are the commands you need to type and execute one by one:
SELECT DISK 1
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
SELECT PARTITION 1
ACTIVE
FORMAT FS=NTFS
(Format process may take few seconds)
ASSIGN
EXIT
Don’t close the command prompt as we need to execute one more command at the next step. Just minimize it.
Step 5: Next insert your Windows7/Windows 8 DVD into the optical drive and check the drive letter of the DVD drive. In this guide I will assume that your DVD drive letter is “D” and USB drive letter is “H” (open my computer to know about it).
Step 6: Maximize the minimized Command Prompt in the 4th step.Type the following command now:
D: CD BOOT and hit enter.Where “D” is your DVD drive letter.
CD BOOT and hit enter to see the below message.
Step 7: Type another command given below to update the USB drive with BOOTMGR compatible code.
BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 H:
Where “H” is your USB drive letter. Once you enter the above command you will see the below message.
Step 8: Copy your Windows 7 or Windows 8 DVD contents to the USB flash drive.
Step 9: Your USB drive is ready to boot and install Windows 7 or Windows 8. Only thing you need to change the boot priority at the BIOS to USB from the HDD or CD ROM drive. I won’t explain it as it’s just the matter the changing the boot priority or enabling the USB boot option in the BIOS.
Note: If you are not able to boot after following this guide means you haven’t set the BIOS priority to USB. If you got any problem in following this guide feel free to ask questions by leaving comment.
Update on Jan 11, 2012: If you find this guide difficult to follow, please use the easy-to-use guide to create a bootable USB to install Windows 7 or Windows 8 using official tool.
This guide works 100% for Windows 8 as well. Make sure you follow all steps correctly and launch the Command Prompt with admin rights (as given in the guide) to avoid errors. Good luck!
Tags: Bootable USB, Install Windows 7
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1869 Comments
Hey thanks! I’d love to try this soon
I hope it’s working
I don’t think XP shows usb drives in list disk, or maybe it’s just me. Is there any other alternative to step 4?
This is cool…Hope it will work the same way with an external HDD….
Keep up the good work bro…
^ That’s why I have mentioned only Vista & Windows 7.
Works 100% on Vista & Windows 7..Thanks.
i am also trying to do this from xp, and it doesnt work, im not sure if step 4 needs to be done in comand prompt (i formatted the stick in disk manager) but i got stuck on step 7 because there is no such thing as bootsect.exe
When I run bootsect.exe it says that this version isn’t compatible with my version of windows even though it is running the vista version.
Please use Vista or Windows 7 as bootsect.exe is not present in XP CD.This guide only works on Windows Vista & 7
This guide doesn’t work for XP..Only for Vista and Windows 7..I have mentioned in the title of the post.
@ben
Please follow the guide step-by-step and don’t skip any step.
THANK YOU! I was having problems getting the boot sector to work…
and you fixed it. Definitely better than any other guide… SCREEN SHOTS = TEHWIN!, they help sooo much when you can’t see what you’ve done wrong, even picked up a few new cmd tricks.
I’m a fan, thanks man.
Hey man your methods does not working in XP. Please reinform us.
I was doing fine up until step 5. I figured the whole point of booting from a USB drive was to avoid having to burn a disc with the Windows 7 files on it, or install on a PC without a DVD drive. Anyway, I don’t have any blank DVD’s, so I was trying to install it from my USB drive, but I can’t get past step 5, since I don’t have my Windows 7 files on a disc. They are on my hard drive, and my USB drive. Help!
Got it working in the second attempt.good guide.
Thanks…very excellent guide…
any working method for xp usb drive installation? Tried many…but non of them working
OK nevermind I just had to optimise the drive for performance… Sorry about that!
This worked an absolute treat. Nice write-up.
I did it on an XP box using Windows 7 mounted onto a virtual DVD drive.
I had to do the format using the windows tools as wasn’t available as part of diskpart in XP.
All the rest worked as described.
Leechie!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR INSTRUCTIONS FOR XP!!!! Wow, I have been searching for past two days and you explained it in 4 steps, you are AWESOME! Thank you VERY VERY VERY MUCH!!!
Does it also mean that we can install windows 7 on a usb drive?
i just formated my usb pen, and done show all files on the DVD and copied the contents over.
i didnt use the diskpart tools.
installed w2in 7 fine
U can also achieve booting from a usb drive by using daemon tools. Don’t mean to dis on the author graet walkthrough by the way. Its just an alternative, and no need for any command prompt scripting.
i tried both the XP method and VISTA method. both i managed to do without any problems. but when i try to boot from the pen drive i get this error
file : \Boot\BCD
status : 0xc000000e
info : An error occurred while attempting to read the boot configuration
some help please?
Hey, I followed all the steps, and everything worked perfectly until I booted from the Usb device and tried to install windows 7. It said that “Setup does not support installation to disks connected through a USB port. Is there a way around this?
@Darin
Firstly, let me apologise for the experience you’re having.
The error means, your motherboard doesn’t support USB booting. I have also mentioned this in my guide. And there is no way to boot USB unless your motherboard support.
@Vikrant
No this guide doesn’t for the users who like to install Windows 7 on USB.
@Omar
If you don’t have a DVD drive/USB(4GB) then use my guide “Installing Windows 7 without using USB/DVD drive”. There are two methods, direct and via VPC method. Please follow my guides.
@All
I am glad that this guide helped you to install Windows 7.
Thanks.
i downloaded windows 7 from microsoft and dont have a cd/dvd for it so what do i do do i extract it to the usb then restart using the flash drive or what?
@Joey
If you don’t have a DVD/USB then use my below guide which shows “Installing Windows 7 without using USB/DVD drive”
http://www.intowindows.com/installing-windows-7-without-using-dvdusb-drive-method-2/
http://www.intowindows.com/installing-windows-7-without-using-dvdusb-drive-method-1/
Hello i can’t see my usb stick with diskpart.
all i can see, is my 4 HDD’s on my computer.
What can i do in this case?
When I try step 7, I get: “The system cannot execute the specified program”
Bootsect.exe problem!
I think that there is a problem occurs when you want to install “64 Bit Windows 7″ from your 32 Bit Vista.
Here is the message after typing BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 H:
“This version of F:boot\bootsect.exe is not compatible with the version of Windows you’re running. Check your computer’s system information to see whether you need a X86 (32-Bit) or X64(64-Bit) version of the program, and then contact the software publisher. “
What if I want to create a x64 boot in a x86 environment? I get this error message. “This version of g:\boot\bootsect.exe is not compatible with the version of Windows you’re running. Check your system information yada yada contact software publisher.” I am running Vista 32-bit, trying to create this USB boot thingaby for Windows 7 64-bit.
Thanks mate.
When I tried to boot from usb it will not even get finished copying the files when it gives me an error code. It sometimes will start installing updates. But what is with this damn error code. I,m waiting on it to do it again……..Expanding files (0%)……….
Windows cannot install required files. Make sure all files required for installation are available, and restart the installation. Error code: 0x8007045D
I would be very grateful for anyone’s help.
Hey tweakwindows i think we need to make use of xcopy command havent tried it for xp did u try it out /?
I have followed all instructions.
I tried the flash drive one of my main machines and it works. However, on my test rig, I only get a Missing Operating System message. Boot priorities are set to USB Boot.
What could be wrong?
My USB becomes Bootable, however when it is installing it gets stuck at 8% and then nothing happens??? I’ve tried many times and it doesn’t seem to work, it always gets stuck at 5% or 8%. Sometimes it errors out with the error code: 0x800703ee
Can the USB-stick after having Windows7 installed, be used to get in the complete recovery enviroment as well?
Works like a charm, thanks
First of all, sorry for the delay in reply.
@ PeterNLD
Of course, you can use as a replace to DVD.
@ Laker_Fan32
Sorry for the delay. I think you need to copy all the files once again. Just try it.
@ Siddarth
I didn’t try that method. But I have another method which works on XP as well. Will post the guide soon.
@ Nick
Make sure you copy all the Windows 7 files to USB correctly.
@Suavi
Basically, I haven’t tested this method on 64-bit machine. So, I can’t find a solution for you.
Thank you.
Into Windows
Hi, I read d comments & got confirmed that this method works although i didn’t try it. I want to install windows xp by USB method. Can you also give a method like this for windows xp also?? I am currently running windows vista & don’t have an optical drive.
Only one minor issue if you are trying to create a W7 64-bit bootable drive on a 32 bit install of Vista. In that case you’ll have to run the bootsect command from a 32-bit W7 DVD, because the version on the 64-bit DVD will not run on a 32-bit OS.
Thank you! Absolutely brilliant – your guides have been very helpful!! It all worked just as you have so thoroughly described.
Um, couldn’t you have skipped step 5 and onwards? You just need to do the diskpart and then copy contents of the CD to your USB, at least, that’s what worked for me
Also, why are you formating to NTFS instead of FAT32?
Just wondering..
If I had Vista pre-installed when I purchased my computer —
what different steps would I take to make a bootable USB drive??
Thanks,
Bob
Thanks mate for this, very detailed and very user friendly, i tried to install Win xp on my EEEpc 1000H but for some reason it wouldnt boot unless i put the USB stick in….lol, its mad when Win 7 is much easier to setup and install than XP.
Anychance of letting me know how to dual boot with Windows 7 and Ubuntu Easy Peasy ?
Thanks mate your a star
Correct me if I’m wrong, but step 5 states that we need a DVD. I use this guide because I don’t have one. Am I right?
Great article. Worked like a charm.
Hi.
In the list disk step,I can’t see my USB drive. What’s wrong with it? (My Operating System is XP.)
Does it only work in Vista?
Thank you for your teaching.
HEY I HAVE PROBLEM IN THE LAST STEP .. MY DVD ROM IS NOT WORKING CORRECTLY.I HAVE IMAGE(NRG) OF WINDOWS VISTA.I LOAD IT USING A IMAGE READER SOFTWARE (POWER ISO),WHEN I TRYING TO EXCUTE THE LAST STEP USING VIRTUAL DVD ROM THAN THE ORIGINAL DVD ROM,I GOT A EXCEPTION
“COULD NOT FIND MAP DRIVE PARTITION TO THE ASSOCIATED VOLUME DEVICE OBJECT:
ACCESS IS DENIED”
HOW CAN I SLOW IT ..?,PLS HELP ME .. SND ME MAIL ON MY MAIL ACCOUNT…
Sorry for the delay in replay.
@Man
This method works fine on Vista and Windows 7 only. I will be writing a guide for XP users in a week. Stay tuned!
@Nick1
I wrote this guide to make the installation faster. In my personal experience Windows 7 took just 15 minutes to get installed from USB compared to 35 minutes DVD method. Of course, you can skip the step 5 if you can mount the image and copy the files.
@Andy
Sorry, I am not planning on that. But, it should be easier if you install Linux over Windows 7.
@Bob Sauve
Follow the same procedure. This method works on both Vista and Windows 7.
@Tyson
Wait for few days to get a detailed guide.
@Fzang
NTFS is faster than FAT.
Admin
http://www.intowindows.com
Awesome,Think!!!
well im gonna try this from my phone. hope everything works out ok
About th LIST DISK command, I can not see my USB drive number (As you so the instruction below). so how? i see only my Hard Drive. what can i do?? pls help me!!
Hi thats an awesomely explained method! great work!
but i’m on Vista x86 and i was trying to make a usb with Vista x64 on it, but the cmd prompt gave me this error! –
“This version of X:\boot\bootsect.exe is not compatible with the version of Windows you’re running. Check your computer’s system information to see whether you need a x86 or x64 version of the program, and then contact the software publisher”
Is it that i need Vista x64 to create a USB x64!??
Pls help
Thanks Worked like a charm.
No luck from XP on my Asus 1000HE…
I used leechers method and continued from step 5.. wehen attemping to boot from USB I get “disk read error”
Hi, i tried it using my 4Gb microSD but like Darin my HP mini-note 2133 (which offers boot option through “USB generic STORAGE DEVICE”) boot manager comes with an error “the boot selection failed because a required device is inaccesible”.
I worked through all the steps as described above without any errors.
But i notice that diskpart command DETAIL DISK shows that “Bootable = No”
Si is it bootable yes or no and what might have gone wrong?
thx, btw great job this site !!
Correction, it works again !
noticed that i did not copy my w7 dvd properly
great, you made linux disappear for us, thx again tweakwindows !
Hi ive tried and tried but DISKPART wont see my usb key, can u help.
hey it is showing cannot find bootmngr press crl alt del to restart
Great guide. You need to update your requirements section to point out that these instructions only work when done on a Vista or Windows 7 platform, or specifically state they will not work on XP
Thanks for the reply. Will edit the post soon.
@ajin
I hope you have followed my steps correctly. Try to repair your bootmgr file.
Sorry, if you can’t find see your USB drive in the DISKPART command, I can’t help you. However, if you have only one hard drive, then you can use the “1″ as your USB key. But try this on your own risk.
Formatting may take few seconds ^^
It has bee taking maby 30minutes for 10percent with my 250gb drive …
56% now. thos are way loong seconds.
I have try all the step by step but on the stage command E:\boot>BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 F:
I got this message ‘Could not map drive partition to the associated volume device objects:
Access is denied. Any idea what went wrong. Please help. Thanks.
awesome guide does exactly what it says on the tin, thanks so much i’m now installing windows 7 on all my mates comps via usb.
excellent guide. thanks very much. you saved me aged of messing with BartPe again trying to make a bookable installation drive.
thanks.
list disk DID NOT detect a 4GB or a 16GB memory stick
Let’s say I have a hdd box with 2 partitions (Y, Z), can I use your method to create boot install for Vista on partition Y and for Windows 7 on partition Z?
Great write up. Works perfectly!!
Thanks a lot! Worked no problem. It also fixed the partition tables on my USB key!
Windows XP/2000 users !!!
Diskpart will not recognize removable storage, so don’t bover
This only works under WIndows Vista or 7.
When are the mongs gonna read and understand this guide does not work on xp.
For everyone having issues with diskpart in XP not seeing the USB stick, it’s because that’s an XP issue. The way XP and Vista handles USB drives, Vista sees them in Diskpart but XP tends not to. There is a reg hack to fix it but I haven’t bothered to search for it.
Just spotted someone beat me to it
Works 100% in my Notebook. I wanted to install Vista Ultimate with a 8GB USB Pen and i made it!
Thanks!
Best write-up ever! Clear and concise. Oh, and it works!!!
Great job, and thank you!
Funny thing I noticed on Win7, when you EXIT the DiskPart and try to continue in Command Prompt, while copying the bootsector to device, you may face an error – Access Denied for no priviledge in copying the bootsector to device.
Solution – just Exit the Command Prompt and Run it again (still need to Run as Administrator).
I’m sure this is another arrengement with MS and USB driver manufactuer to make money LOL joke
Nice guide I will have to steal my girlfriend’s USB drive (Which I bought her for christmas LOL) to try this. Looks like it’s worth it thanks
so if you do this tut correctly on a vista computer then you can use the pen drive on a Xp computer?
Hey Bro can one dual boot using this…. ie. Vista and Windows 7
perfect. great guide. thanks
Dear,
I want to install windows 7 RC through USB/Pen drive.
But when i open the command prompt and write LIST DISK there (after DISKPART), it only shows my hard drive there, that is DRIVE 0 only, though i try it after inserting USB.
Y is it so?
FORMAT FS=NTFS
(Format process may take few seconds)
Yeah lol, it’s taking a loooong few seconds on my 8GB drive
I have a question for you, admin.
What if I want to rollback changes made to my USB drive? Or can I leave it like that (partitions, ntfs) for regular use after installing windows 7?
@Jay
Yes, you can dual boot.
@ pirater2113
You can use this to create bootable USB on Vista and 7 only. If you have created on a Vista computer then you can use it on a XP computer to boot.
i tried it and it won’t work, i am using an old portable hard drive which is 5 gb, is it alright with it?
10x for this useful tutorial
it’s working on vista tomorrow i will try on win 7.
10x a lot
Can I do this with an SD card and USB adapter?
made a usb with above tutorial, will install windows 7
i wanted to install windows 7 64 bit but have 32 bit vista
now in order to install windows 7 64 bit, it seems, i will have to burn a dvd
@Trave
I haven’t personally tried using SD card. But you should be able to do that.
@All
We are going to close the comments for this post.
I used this method successfully on two computers. I was very surprised that when I was unable to change the boot sequence to USB in the BIOS on an older laptop, windows 7 installed anyway. I was pretty sure that it wouldn’t work but I tried it and presto! It went through the three reboots and installed perfectly. Has anyone else had this happen?
this method from microsoft takes out the last part using bootsect. and it still works.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd535816.aspx
Worked like a charm, great instructions, thanks!
Hi,
Great guide. However, I am stuck after:
bootsect.exe /nt60 h: (h is my usb drive letter)
The message I get is: “Could not map drive partitions to the associated volume device objects: Access is denied.”
I followed the steps twice niowand get the same result. Am I missing something? Would greatly appreciate any help…I have a netbook down and would like to put Windows 7 on it using a USB stick.
Thanks!
Please ignore my last message – I was not running command prompt as Administrator!
I m very very thankful to U for such HELP…..
You can follow my guide to creating a bootable usb disk under windows xp then follow this guide from 5 onwards.
I want to ask something. Can I return my flash drive back to normal after this? Leave a tagg on my guest book
or email me rather.
Hey..hv vista already installed on my pc..need 2 install win 7 as dual boot..i tried once dual bootin with xp bt resulted into bootin f only xp..cud u pls help me out hw 2 dual boot win 7 wid vista…
Best guide I have ever used… Thank you, hats off sir.
I find it funny that you say this is a 100% working guide but you don’t mention that fact that the Win 7/Vista USB boot drive needs to be created on computer running Windows 7 or Vista. That should really be added to the Requirements section so you can call your guide 100% working. I seen a few comments from people saying it doesn’t work because they’re trying to make the boot drive from within XP.
Other than that small piece of missing information, the guid e is great!
(I’m hoping HTML will work
)
trying the F:CD BOOT command (where F is my DVD drive location), it returns the following functions
Firstly, from DISKPART (which you didn’t say to leave, not sure if you meant to or not)
Secondly, from C:\Windows\System32 (where your screenshot is taken from)
Sorry, images weren’t displayed from html
I’ll just explain it
from C:\Windows\System32, after running the F:CD BOOT
it returns a simple “Parameter is incorrect.”
from DISKPART it gives me a list of about 25 sub commands
not sure about the right word for that
thankyou but, your guide seems very will explained (just having some technical issues
Awesome work! Clear and very simple! For everyone having problems, keep in mind the guide is only for:
- Windows 7 installing / not running from an USB drive
- MB with USB boot support
Just follow the steps.
Thanks for this guide!
PS:
Great guide… cheers bro!
Thank a lot. Very useful tutorial… I followed it all through until I boot through usb and setup program comes up. When I get to, select which drive you want the installation I cant select my usb drive it comes up with the message below:
“WINDOWS CANNOT BE INSTALLED TO THIS DISK. SETUP DOES NOT SUPPORT CONFIGERATION OF OR INSTALLATION TO DISKS CONNECTED THROUGH A USB OR IEEE 1394 PORT.”
I tried 3 different computers and a few new laptops and come up with same message. I read these forums and people successfully installing them, What am i doing wrong. Can you please Help.
I’ve been at this for almost 2 weeks.
I can boot from usb but can’t install onto it. I am trying to install vista.
CAN YOU PLEASE HELP.
THANK YOU
@Shaz
You can’t install Windows on USB using this guide. You can only use this guide to create a bootable USB and then use it as installation media.
Thanks a lot for fast reply. Is there a way that I can install vista onto my external hard drive? if so how is it possible.
Thank you
Thanks, this worked really well.
Couldn’t get my old DVD drive to read quickly/effectively enough and this did the trick!
Well chuffed ;D
It works fine, except one problem: when I run the windows7 64bits RC1 \boot\bootsect.exe in my Vista 32, it doesn`t work. I did it running from the \boot folder of the windows7 Beta1 32bits and it is OK.
If you have a version problem with bootsec.exe, just use bootsec.exe from a Vista DVD. Put back your Windows 7 after and continue following the guide
Thanks !
Have a nice day.
very nice toot.
as an Ubuntu user I enjoyed being able to do this kind of stuff from Win7 7127 on my desktop to make this 7210 for my netbook without using linux.
imagine that.
Great guide, thx
Had a problem with step six but thats because the written command is wrong, but I figured it out when I saw the command in the scrren
thx again – just what I was looking for.
I used this method and created a USB drive for my Windows 7 installation. Works flawlessly! Oh, and the installation of Windows now takes only 8 minutes.
Step 2: don’t you guys know if you hit winkey + R you get the oldschool run box which automatically starts whatever you run from it with admin privledges?
Great guide, thanks.
To those, like me, that are (were) running Vista 32-bit and wanting 7 64-bit:
In step 7, use bootsect.exe from your Vista CD. Barring any other issues, it will work perfectly. It did for me.
Hello, TweakWindows, and thanks, but… I know what you mentioned about Vista, which I AM using, I used a Sandisk 8GB and waited half an hour for the formatting process (hardly a few seconds, but I wasn’t surprised, and I’d like to know how you get that on a 4GB flash drive), I followed each of your steps in order twice while running an Administrator command session, with positive feedback after each command was completed, and then I reordered my BIOS boot priority (which had the same effect as hitting F12, other than F12 not requiring another BIOS session to boot normally from your hard disk again). Looks like I did everything right, and STILL I can’t boot from a flash drive. I see most others have not had that problem, but I made sure that I did what you said, with the right stuff, and still I crashed with this error: “BOOTMGR NOT PRESENT (or MISSING, something similar), and that was after the “BOOTMGR.EXE /NT60…” command completed with success! I know nothing of boot managers, much less repairing them, but I sure would appreciate a clue (wherever it is)! I am close to hopelessly frustrated on this, even if this is the best tutorial I’ve seen so far, and if I can’t resolve it here I will probably give up – please help!
Oh…did I misunderstand that this is for making use of an image file? Is that not how Vista is normally distributed, on a normal DVD? I am trying to install a modified version of Vista, distributed by .iso, for two very good reasons: 1) I’m on a bloatware diet, and 2) I’m trying to replace what I already paid for, after it got wiped (yeah, the whole freak’n disk), and if you Microsoft pirate hunters have a problem with that, then you can go impale yourselves on your own swords! To any who would clue me in on what else may be needed besides the image file (after following the above steps), or explain any non-troll reasons why this method would not work with what I am trying to do, I’d be most grateful.
If you have Windows XP all ready installed just fallow 6. 7. 8. 9. Before this steps format your USB FLASH drive in NTFS format. It’s all ready works to Windows 7 and Windows Vista
On #4 where the file system is being set, you can use QUICK to speed up the formatting like this:
FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK
It’s so much faster!
Thanks!
This would really help me a lot installing on Vaio Type P.
I am getting a window at the installation process to select a driver. I can not go pass that.. any idea.. I tried to select windows/inf folder as well.. but no luck.. installation does not proceed.
Hello, I’ve already tried this guide a week ago and it works. I have windows 7 in my hp mini 2140. But now I want to downgrade again back to Windows XP.
Can I use this guide again? but rather than to put the windows 7 installation in the usb it would be the windows xp? Or should I search another guide for this? I haven’t tried it yet. I just want to ask here first before I try.
Regards,
it works flawleslly tnx man
Sorry, JonJon.. This guide is only for Windows 7 or Vista.
Hi,
Is it possible to create a multi boot?
So one can select what version to install from the same stick:
Windows 7 x64 or x86
Windows Vista x64 or x86
some bios don’t recognise NTFS formatted usb keys as boot device, so you might still want to format as FAT32, even if it makes your key slower
Very great work! Thank you very much!
Hi Admin,
Quick question- Would this method work with my Vaio boot disk? instead of a standard windows cd. Thanks in advance.
When I tried executing “LIST DISK” in command prompt,I couldnt find my USB drive listed in.
So I couldnt proceed.
Please guide me
Excellent tutorial, thanks!
If the flash drive has been previously used for as a bootable installer for a Linux distro then the MBR needs to be reset, which can be done by modifying the Step 7 command to:
bootsect /nt60 H: /force /mbr
This will remove the Master Boot Record so Windows boot loader will kick in, instead of Linux (GRUB).
@Peter
Bootable Windows DVD or Image is required to make this happen.
For the ones that do not want to burn a blank DVD, you can mount the .iso file you downloaded (e.g. using VirtualCloneDrive) and do the copy from there.
Will give this tutorial a try shortly to get the SevenRC on my X200 (small & great but no optical drive).
Hi. I followed this guide to make a bootable Windows 7 usb drive a few weeks ago, and it worked perfectly!
Now I have downloaded a new version of Win 7 (The RTM released just recently), and I wonder if I have to follow this guide from step 1 to remake the bootable drive, or is it enough for me to erase the content on the flashdrive and then copy from the image, the last step?
Nice tutorial… will do installing!!
usb drive will be not available when use diskpart command in windows xp. you should use vista or later versions of windows.
all that is necessary is to format your USB and then copy all files from the the cd/dvd(iso or whatever) to the device. Then just to be sure to boot from the device via the bios or boot selection.
Has anyone found out a solution to the problem of it sating BOOTMGR not found. Press ctrl alt dlt to restart when trying to boot it. I can’t get passed that.
I have a U3 Software on my USB, its basically there for Exploring and locking the USB, if i copy entire system File(U3) and then paste it back after a format for the purpose of above guide will i be able to still use it the U3, and if yes must i format it back to FAT32?
After trying over and over i finally got it. It was bringing up my vaio recovery tools, so I had to take my hdd out of the boot order and it worked like a charm.
I got the install to run on the X200 using the USB, but I had to deal with a “cannot create or locate system partition” error. That is an error linked to the usage of USB media and not DVD.
If the USB is first in the BIOS, then the Custom upgrade option simply fails to find the HDD where to create the system partition (100MB)… I initially wanted a dual-boot of my Lenovo-Vista, but I had to completely format the drive finally. Once blank, I could put it first in the BIOS (since not bootable yet)… and the system booted on the USB.
From that tricky point, it went smoothly. This guide is great.
nice article..thanks
Hey, thanks for this great article. I’ve used this several times already, since I felt my original windows 7 64-bit was not to my liking on my new laptop. I found out why the “bootmgr is missing” message was showing after correctly carrying out all the instructions. I put the Windows 7 ISO on my usb instead of the folders/files inside the Windows 7 ISO/CD!
Great guide. Worked perfectly thanks a lot. Now I don’t have to worry about finding a disc drive just for a folding rig.
If you click right, you get properties of the drive – any drive – and then click “format”. I think that will short this procedure of formating drive, for those who do not like to typing.
I have a problem here !! someone could help me please ?? When I’m formatting the USB Drive and after it finish I got this msg: “DiskPart has encountered an error: The parameter is incorrect.
See the System Event Log for more information.” What’s that supose to mean ?? Could anyone give me the solution please.
Thanks for the guide. Perhaps you should update it with Shom’s comment(#137). I was using a usb stick that formerly had the linux grub loader on it. I was getting the missing bootmgr error message until I used the /force /mbr option like Shom suggested.
Also, formatting is very slow – I would add the QUICK option on the format command. Although in Windows 7, I can just right click on my usb drive letter in my computer & quick format it using NTFS – bypassing DISKPART altogether.
Worked fine, though format was a little slow.
Thanks for an easy to follow guide!
its really works.
Thanks for this guide! Exelent job. Thank you again! Pali from Hungary.
does this work with XP?
This article is really only awesome guide which works.
Worked 100% without any flaws and mind irritating drills.
Please don’t try this on your Windows XP Pro Operating system and waste your time.
It is only for Windows Vista and/or Windows 7 Beta users.
I tried it as instructed on windows 7 beta and worked like charm.
Can somebody please tell me similar 100% working guide for triple booting Windows 7 + Windows XP + Ubuntu Linux.
Any help in this regard is highly appreciated.
Rds, Gaurav Akrani
Troubles… I can boot from the USB stick into the Windows setup 7 fine. However, every time the computer restarts, it restarts the setup.
So… During the next restart I pulled the USB stick out and Windows “started”. The setup picked up where it left off. The green bar wasn’t moving at all though.
So I ran it all again – I rebooted (with the USB stick plugged in), reformatted the destination drive, re-ran the full setup, pulled the stick out for the first restart… You know that black screen where you can choose safe mode or regular mode? There are 2 Windows 7 options there and every time I repeat the above, it adds another Windows 7 option.
What am I missing??
Thanks for any help….
Oh hey! Never trust a green bar… It worked after a loooong time.
Step 6 works more efficiently if you enter it as one line:
CD /D D:\Boot
thx a lot You save me many Hours from searching external dvd drivers… Perfect JOB!!!
Very good, I’m going to boot it in a few seconds from now…THANX
If you have problems with the BOOTSECT.exe part, just add /force to the end.
Thanks a bunch for this tute, it has saved me hours of frustration and bad words.
I created a USB install and will use it tonight on my guinea pig system.
Thanks – the format took ages on my 16gb cruzer…
Also, my source was an ISO of the x64 RTM build. First try, I mounted this with MagicISO and copied files with explorer – had a problem with a missing file “boot\bcd”, so I started again, but used 7-zip to extract the iso, and am now through with the install, which flew by in just 20 or so minutes.
I think that copying files from the magiciso mounted iso was not the ideal way to go… 7-zip seems to have done the trick for me.
GUYS GUYS GUYS!!!!!!!
Go to device manager and go to properties and select policies, and select the “better Performance” the bottom one for you to use the BOOTSEC.EXE part.
You might have to reboot.
I also suggest you use KILL U3 utility for san disk.
Thanks !
Johannes from France
Excellent stuff. I tried following “other” sites’ instructions only to find they didn’t even create the boot sector. This worked like a charm. Thanks!
Damnit, can’t do it on a x64 Win7 DVD from XP 32 :/
Hi ! Thanks. It works fine . Thanks a lot for your effort and clear instructions.
“FORMAT FS=NTFS
(Format process may take few seconds)”
This is bad . Very bad.
It doesnt take few seconds.
It does take very many seconds.
Formatting quick is much faster and enough (I already did to this stick two times before) .
Please correct.
Just tryed it worked perfectley thanx!!!!!!!
AWESOME!!!
Replace format fs=ntfs
with format fs=ntfs quick
to make it format faster.
thanks bro..
thanks man thats ur great work keep on doing……..
For those of having the 32/64 bit problem, just follow the beginning of the guide and after you finish formating, copy & paste (drag and drop) the contents of the dvd (which you can virtually mount on your hdd) onto the usb stick. it will be bootable and will work!
hai dude it really works great.
can u also tell me how to create an live pendrive (like live cd).
work like magic
Thanks alot
Keep posting !
XP users follow this method:
Just for completion
1. First create your bartpe files using UBCD4WIN
2. after you have done that create your usb flashdrive using UBUSB
point to the files of your bartpe
be sure you check create cd image and let de default Z in place
check if you have selected the right drive
press go
after finished you have a bootable usb drive which is able to get in a xp environment.
3. Now copy the content of your win XP CD to a folder XPCD on the flash drive (x:\xpcd)
4. after copying boot the drive in the PC and select Compatibility Mode (Memory Mapped)
5. after finished you select the commandline and type
X:\XPCD\i386\Winnt32.exe /syspart:C: /tempdrive:C: /makelocalsource
6. first enter the xpkey and name of the computer and region then click next
7. Now you’re asked if you want to upgrade to the XP NTFS filesysten, select “NO” for this then hit Next.
8. It’ll now see “Copying installation files” and the familiar green progress bar. Shortly after “Copying Installation Files” is complete, setup will close without notice or any type of prompt, this is normal.
9. remove the flash drive and Reboot your computer and setup will continue from the hard drive where you can choose to install XP or do a repair install if XP is already installed.
http://ubcd4win.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=11375&st=570
Working. Perfect. Thanks for it, amazing work.
Kingston 8GB
Windows 7 RC
on Dell Optiplex GX270, BIOS A07
Only … little mistake at point 6:
Quote: “D:CD BOOT and hit enter.Where “D” is your DVD drive letter.”
The right command is: ‘D: CD Boot’
Need space between D: and CD BOOT
See screenshot.
I have installed windows seven using the method provided by you but I am not able to play my pen drive in my car CD player. I mean when I try to play songs in my car, it do not work now. Please give a solution.
@Simran
Format, and write songs again on it.
FAT32 will be OK.
do you have to copy the entire contents of the win7 disk? my thumbdrive isn’t that big.
D:\boot>bootsect.exe /NT60 H:
Target volumes will be updated with BOOTMGR compatible bootcode.
Could not map drive partitions to the associated volume device objects:
D:\boot>
——————–
Any suggestions?
i will tell you one thing,this is the first advice i have gotten from that internet that works perfectly,i wanted to upgrade my pc to 7 so i formated my vista not knowing that my cd rom was messed,so i was running out of options to install 7 until i saw this and i saw all the instryctions carefully,here i am with my pc typing this and my pc is perfectly in shape,thank you very much,you are a saviour
@Acme
Yup. You need to copy all the contents you your thumbdrive.
good job…. my laptop dont have DVD drive. Thanks for the post
I love this guide, it works flawlessly. Thanks for sharing!
It works like a charm
thx alot
you most do these commands in windows “safe mode” to avoid the “Access denied” message.
Hello,
I have the folders for Windows 7, and I want to burn a DVD to install from (I need to format my PC, so I can’t just install from within XP). However, I can’t just burn the files to the DVD, cus then it won’t let me boot from it.
Any ideas on how to do just that? How do I make it bootable?
So.. can I still used the usb drive after this? Can I reformat it to fat32?
hey really great guys, but i couldnt show my usb drive in step “LIST DISK” only the local drivers…
please help.
Can i use an external hard drive? A partition of it from which to install w7?
@ mugurelu
Since you are going to create a bootable drive, you need to format the drive completely. So, you can’t use just one partition. And about external drive, it should work fine (I have tested on flash drives only).
@ Jackson
You should be able to format it with FAT 32 or NTFS.
simply does not work. One of the main reasons being is you have typed out the commands in the text differently to what you have input into the command screen, you have ommitted the spaces in your text yet placed spaces in the command prompt, and even after correcting those errors all you get is:”bootsect.exe is not recognised as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file”
Yet another waste of yours and my time……
Thank you very much for sharing this trick.
My DVD of Win 7 was corrupt & I was not able to install.
Then after searching on net I got your trick & applied on my USB. It successfully worked & Win7 was installed in less than 30mins with all drivers.
I would be really happy to help you if you need any help in future.
Once again Thanks.
Great share, thanks.
Worked on my DVD-less home server, saved me alot of time. Only problem I had was my systems BIOS settings, missing USB option in the boot order, but did let me enable boot from USB, just needed to remove memory stick at the right times during restarts.
Thanks again.
If you have XP do this instead of diskpart:
1) Right click on the USB drive and click format.
2) Run a quick format
3) Open up DOS box and type convert i: /fs:ntfs (Where “I” is your USB drive latter)
4) After that goto step 5 on this list
Works great in XP
I just tried to install win7 using this guide but when I tried to boot from the usb drive it said bootmgr is missing. But I did every step here and the bootsect command was successful.
Thanks, a great walktrough!
What if i dont have the cd and i just have the files on my pc what do i do then??? any help would be much appreciated.
If you have Windows 7 ISO, you need to extract it first to a folder and then to the USB.
what if i hav 2 install windows xp??
Thanks dude, worked great!
I was successful in following your instructions, that is after I initially screwed up and selected my slave HD as though it were the flash drive. My question here would thyen be; Is there a way for me to restore the partition and data on the “slave” that I inadvertently cleaned and partially formatted? I know, you need not say it: I am an idiot!
I was successful in following your instructions, that is after I initially screwed up and selected my slave HD as though it were the flash drive. My question here would thyen be; Is there a way for me to restore the partition and data on the “slave” that I inadvertently cleaned and partially formatted? I know, you need not say it: I am an idiot!
This worked awesomely on vista. Thank you very much.
But how does one reverse the procedure?
Do I simply reformat the USB shtick?
awesome guide, works for me with win 7 oem bie final x86. thanks alot dude!
nice one, thanks.. the BOOTSECT command made my usb drive become a viable source to install Windows 7 on an Asus EEE Pc.
It’s not that cool dear. I am trying to do the same(i mean using bootsect.exe) from Vista. Still there is a problem saying “Your version of bootsect.exe is not compatible with the current version of windows”. Please suggest.
Thanks
@ Diptiman
If you trying to create a Windows 7 or Vista on Vista/7 you should not face any such problems. And if you trying to create a bootable USB of Vista/XP/7 on XP, you will see error.
Thank you for this wonderfull solution. It’s easy and worked for me.
HELOO ,I HAVE A PROBLEM WHEN I PUT F:/BOOT>BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 I: IT SAYS THAT “COULD NOT MAP DRIVE PARTITIONS TO THE ASSOCIETED VOLUME DEVICE OBJECT:ACCES DENIED
WHAT TO DO PLS HELP
Hi there,
for all the people having problems at step 6 try this
6. Type in the cmd window CD/DVD DRIVE LETTER: and press enter i.e.
D:
Then Type CD BOOT and press enter
Then proceed with step 7
Hope this helps
I did EXACTLY as it says and my netbook doesn’t wanna boot from USB…I checked BIOS settings couple of times and it is set to boot from removable device…which is correct I guess…no idea what to do
OK I found it….when EEE PC starts you need to press ESC key in case to display BOOT DEVICE SELECTION menu
For those having problems with “access is denied” during the bootsect command, be sure to open cmd exactly as mentioned in the instructions. I assumed that being logged on as an administrator or using /runas was sufficient, but I guess things are different in Vista/Windows 7.
problem:
“Could not map drive partitions to the associated volume
device objects: Access is denied.”
————————————————-
answer:
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe
On the pop-up right click context menu, select
“Run as Administrator”
100% working… confirmed! Thanks for the tutorial… it was easy, and accurate.
Brilliant Guide… Worked a Treat….
Any method to know your win7 and vista compatibility (x64, x86…) before installing win7?
Have you made the XP guide yet?
@Nicered
You can use official Windows 7 upgrade advisor (it’s free) tool to check compatibility issues. Here is the link:
http://www.intowindows.com/test-your-pc-software-compatibility-with-windows-7-using-windows-7-upgrade-advisor-final/
Hi~ Thanks for the tutorial currently copying the files hope it works!
I LOVE YOU!!!
my cd drive doent work so USB was the only option.
GREAT TUTORIAL!!!
Worked as advertised on my Dell Mini 9.
why do all this when you can just make virtual cd drive and boot from it? 2 minutes work lol.
Hi,
Please help !!! Here what I have done:
1.Download Windows 7 iso file,which I put it in isoBuster and extracted.
2.Coz I have listen it is better to make clean instalation,I bought new WD external HDD-Passport Studio 500 Gb and put it all information from my PC to HDD (around 90Gb very important data + windows 7 of course)!
3.I run “cmd” and get in DOS
- “diskpart”
- “list disk”
(coz there were nothing,not disk 1,2,3-i just select disk 1-don`t ask me why,coz i don`t know for myself,coz i am stupid!!!)
- select disk 1
- clean…
After i wrote “clean”,I discconect usb cable,coz I afraid-what does “clean” means!!??
For god sake-i have all informations from last 6 years on my external hard disk…
Now,my WD doesn`t work,everything is ok in “drive manager”,when i conecct usb cable there is the external usb hard drive showed up on the Safely Remove Hardware list right down,but I can not enter into the disk-inside and I am so affraid and desperate and don`t know what to do…
How you can see,I am bigginer,but please tell me what is the best solution for me to do now and to don`t lose my data on WD (if i already didn`t lost
Please,please help-with days I don`t know what to do….
My e-mail is via_makedonia yahoo dot com please write me there.
What I have tried:
coneccting my WD with 3 dieferent cables-usb and firewire in dieferent ports.
installing drivers from wd site
When I check Device Manager it shows that the device is installed and working properly but it will not show in “my computer” and I can’t access it.
before the problem,my HDD appeard as drive H:
I wouldn’t be half as frustrated if it hadn’t been working properly before this.Plus-ALL data is on my HDD,and I don`t even know if it is still there
I do it this:
2 Step Solution for XP users:
Part 1:
Go to
Control panel -> Performance and Maintenance (cannot be in classic view to see this link) -> Administrator Tools -> Services -> Universal Plug and Play
If Universal Plug and Play is set to manual switch to automatic.
Part 2
Double Click Safely Remove icon on the bottom right-> Select device->click Properties -> click Volumes -> click Populate -> hit OK -> if nothing shows it may need to be formatted
Also i was in DISK MANAGEMENT,but except formating disk,I don`t see solution
And formating will erase all data on the disk,isn`t it?! (if i have it,of course).
again nothing
Thanks in advance !!!!!!
great work …………….
thanks a lot
great job ……….
thanx a lot.
have tried your process a few times with vista and 7 and works great but whilst installing windows i get an error code 0×80070241? any ideas why i get this code. pls help
Finally found a method that works. This actually works!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you, awesome.
I just finished assembling a new computer that only has SATA connections and all I have are PATA CDROM drives. Your guide saved me from spending money on a drive I’d only need once.
Many thanks.
I did every step right and got the right results. Even the Bootsect.exe part. it told me it successfully created it. i went to boot desktop from USB and STILL got the BOOTMGR is missing. Now i did it with vista from XP and it worked great. i had the vista install cd. now from vista to 7 its different. its an .iso file. is that why i cant make it work?
When I get to step 6 and type CD BOOT, I receive an error message:
“They system can not find the specified path”
I have a crappy Sony upgrade CD and it is not bootable. Could that be why I get that message? If the CD is not bootable, does that mean I can not create a bootable CD?
I can’t thank you enough.. my dvd-rom has been down, tryed fixing with the filter delete but computer still doesn’t recognize it, but it spins up at start up, I can put dvd in and it acts like it wants to but nothin..(yes all the bios stuff been checke, enabled and so on) —– so needless to say this little fix has been a God sent.. Works like a champ.. the only think that didn’t work was
“Format fs=ntfs” I formated it the old fashed way..
and in step 6. “D:CD Boot” I had to do “CD/Boot” amazing how that little / makes all the difference…
I was a computer with xp and a good dvd drive to set up a third drive to boot from and re-install vista on my laptop..
Thx again..
This is an excellent guide for anyone and I am very greatful you took the time to do this.
Quick note that may confuse people, in step 6 where it states “D:CD BOOT” should be “D: CD BOOT” as shown in the screen shot.
Thank you for the brilliant guide!!!
Hey Thanks Man , for your help.
and i don’t understand onething.
how do u find about disk 1 or disk 2 of usb . explain that dude.
thanks in advance
hi again one more doubt.
BOOTSECT.EXE/NT60 H: ?
so my usb drive name is 1201(E)
i have to type 1201 E: or must type NT60 E: ?
Works great, thanks.
I am not sure if this is posted but for everyone that has the CD as an ISO file you can use MagicISO to mount the ISO file to a virtual drive so that the system sees it as a CD/DVD. then just use that drive letter in place of the CD/DVD drive letter in the guide. Worked like a charm for me.
everything went fine. booted on the flash drive, but can’t partition using win 7. installation stopped there. what to do? tried it on asus Eee mini.
i get a disk read error occurred when i try to boot from the usb i followed the guid and it should work, whats wrong?
worked great. thanks.
I had a problem in start.
As in window Xp in command prompt Diskpart command LIST DISK doesnot show usb as disk.
It shows it as volume.
kindly guide me whats the problem.
Regards
Hey, great guide!
Before I start I wanted to confirm something; when I’m done, if I want to use the pen drive again, I just format it from My Computer right?
Thanks for this wonderful how to..GRRRRRRREATTTTT!!!
INSTEAD OF GOING THROUGH ALL THIS PROCESS WE CAN JUST USE “WIN2FLASH” APPLICATION FROM WIN2FLASH.COM OR JUST CAN GOOGLE WIN2FLASH AND EASILY GET IT.
I AM USING WIN2FLASH FOR SOME TIME AND BEST PART IT CAN INSTALL WINDOWS XP AS WELL AS WIN 7 BOTH FROM USB PEN DRIVE.
TESTED BY ME ON ACER LAPTOP(7), HCL LEAPTOP(2), AROUND 19 DESKTOPS
Thank you very much!!! It took a lot of configuring and restarts but I finally managed to recover my OS with zero data loss. After I back up my stuff, I’ll be installing Win7 using microsoft’s boot tool.
Worked perfectly. Used it on a 4Gb SD card with a USB SD reader to install Win7 64-bit on an Acer laptop. Many thanks.
If you are doing this guide from XP, use the HP USB Flash Disk Format tool instead of steps 3 and 4. This is because XP’s DiskPart Tool does not support The NTFS Formatting for USB flash disks. Thank you for a great guide. I am working on a tool which does it all for you, called 7toUSB.
If u get this message ‘Could not map drive partition to the associated volume device objects:
Access is denied.
goto C:/Windows/System32/ (before doing anything (or before running DISKPART)
right click on cmd.exe
Run as administrator (just second option)
and repeat whatevr is given in this website…..DONE
‘A disc read error’…plz help me.i changed the BIOS priority to USB HDD.there were other options USB FDD,USB CDROM,USB ZIP.
Thank you very much, this worked perfectly for me.
it is very very helpful for me.
thank’s.
I have a question for you, I have done this guide
over and over again different ways on different operating
systems and I cant get it to work, I am wanting to install
windows 7 iso on my desktop pc which is an xp machine. I changed the bios boot sequence so it detects the usb first actually I made them all usb and it still gos straight through the boot sequence and right into the xp bootup screen. I dont know what to do please help.
thank you, david
@ David Dizzle
It seems your PC doesn’t support USB booting, or your Windows 7 ISO is not bootable.
If it doesnt support usb booting then why is it an option in the boot sequence?
this works like a charm, did a vista install from usb. thanks!!!
“Could not map drive partitions to the associate volume device object: Access is denied.
This happened right after bootsect.exe/nt60 E:
(The usb key is considered by the comp as drive E)
I tried the so-called easier guide link, it couldn’t even find an iso file in the windows 7 files. (It’s on a cd)
And i know there is nothing wrong with the windows 7 cd, i just used it last night to install it on my uncles comp, which is where i’ve been trying to go through this guide)
I need it on a usb key so i can install it on MY notebook. Help anyone?
Okay so, access isn’t denied anymore. but it still says the same thing besides that
Thanks for this easy tutorial! Now, just a easy question!-)
On my USB-pen drive there is space enough for both the 32 and 64 bits version of windows 7. Would it be possible to have a menu from which one could choose which OS to install?
A new easy tutorial maybe!-)
Thanks Chase (post 226) finally found that out and was going to post with solution but seen yours. Took me 20 minutes to realize that you have to right click and run as admin in Vista and 7
thanks man for this guide!
hey i got an iso file i downloaden from school
(we get free software there)
and i cannot do step 5 is that a problem?
and i got an iso file when i want to select is with the dvd usb tool program it said that it is not valid
can anyone helpe me?
Hello,
great work,
for saving time you can use “format fs=ntfs quick”
that can save some time if you have a big usb stick.
Hello and BIG THANKS FROM CROATIA
100% WORKING,
EASY AND FAST WAY TO INSTALL WINDOWS WITHOUT DVD
This is AMAZING! THNX MAN! Nice Tutorial!
Keep doing making tuts like this!
Just thought others should know, command in step 7 must have a space after EXE
As published BOOTSECT.EXE/NT60 H:
This works BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 H:
(shown in the screen cap correctly)
–Sam
thankx… its work.
Well, accidentally formatted my external HDD with my movie library, .ISO library, and all of my pictures on it, but, my fault.
HEY,
MUCH APPRECIATED! GREAT TUTORIAL! AND IT WORKS!! YOU SAVED ME SOME DOLLARS. THANKS VERY MUCH!
KIRITH SIVA.
Man… After days of searching and trial and error, FINALLY this is a guide that WORKS!
I have just installed Windows 7 on my netbook and I am sooooo freakin’ happy.
I blog about computers, software and web development in German and I would like to ask your permission to translate this guide into German and publish it on my blog. With full credits to you and a link to the original guide of course.
Great guide, but MS has now made it much easier for us:
http://store.microsoft.com/Help/ISO-Tool
Awesome. I could restore my system from what you could call as disaster.
Thanks so much.
Vaidy
thank for this update…….all of u………..
any new update so mail me this mail id……..
i will wait your reply………………….
This worked flawlessly for upgrading my wife’s PC. She had a DVD ROM drive that refused to be recognized and this was an awesome work-around and super fast.
Thanks!
go here for these things in a nutshell from micro$oft
http://store.microsoft.com/Help/ISO-Tool
you cant copyright anything in the command prompt screenshots that you did using MSFT instructions for this process.
dolt.
About step 6:
D: CD BOOT
The “CD BOOT” is not doing anything. Just D: is enough, anything after that is ignored.
For the rest: thanks for the guide, it’s really helpful for a lot of people I think.
nice i will try this
Thank you,Streamlined instructions,it worked perfectly.
hey it wont let me do the last command, BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 F: , my flash drive is f and it says could not map drive partitions to the associated volume device objects: access is denied???????.. what do i need to do
Excellent work, thank you. This is good help the beginner users.
Many thanks
bye slownie
i had some problems at the begining, as i have raid 0 with amd southbridge.
so guys, for Windows 7 x64 you need the folder /boot from a 32 bit dvd instalation if you want to prepare the usb drive on a 32bit PC (i used from the DVD of RC win 7 a had from may 2009…)
it worked fine, i tried first with an Ultimate version x64
now i want to install the Profession Win 7, because i have the license from the university for it
thanks!
great.. thank you. it worked like a charm.
you should clarify step 5 for those who dont have the windows dvd. Mounting an image isn’t something everyone knows about. Like myself, I am assuming most people who are gonna use this guide only have the .iso file and not the dvd.
;( well, mine went bad, really bad, my disk 1 was my second hdd (i realized that after) u should add how to discover what disk is the usb, i’ve deleted all my most important files;( i reached active, i didn’t made format, is there a way to take back my stuff?
Worked Perfectly. I can now have the great W7 on my laptop with a burned up DVD drive, lol
Worked perfectly. Thank you.
This is stupid, I didn’t have to do all this crap, all I did was format my 4GB flash drive in fat 32 format, copy the contents if the Windows 7 DVD contents to the USB flash drive. And then set the bios to boot from flash. all done with my mouse, no diskpart or cmd prompt.
@khang, if you only have the .iso file of windows 7 and not the dvd, (install power iso trial-free online), nxt double click .iso image and it appears in power iso, in toolbar of power iso click on ‘mount’ select ’1 drive(in drop out menu) follow a couple of prompts and its mounted….nxt…go to ‘my computer’ and you will see a virtual drive(DVD Drive) their with the windows 7 in it, right click on it and explore(or open in new window) all the files are their and you can now copy them to your pen drive.
a much easier and quicker way is (assuming you have power iso installed) is simply right click on .iso image and mount from their, my computer, explore or open…copy files//simple really,
@ patryk
if you didnt get as far as format then you should be able to recover files, im assuming your disc drive has dissapeared from ‘my computer’?? if so, go to start menu>>type partition in search bar (dont hit enter) clcik on the ‘create and format partitions’ file>>a box will appear and take a minute or 2 to load in all your partitions…..once loaded you should see your missing partition/drive…if so right click on it..select ‘change drive letter and paths,>>select ‘add’ from the nxt pop up box>>type a letter in, make sure the letter is not assigned to any other resources (egzample…type letter R ) once you put the letter in, just click ok, your partition should be back as normal now in my computer.
This works like a charm. If your having problems try the other easy installation that he has posted on the link at the top of the page. That one has only 4 steps that u follow. In any case both of these installation guides have my 5 star rating*****
very very tankssssssssssssssssssss……my rateing is 5*****
it worked you are a star i bought my note book for £50 coz it wouldnt load up,, best £50 ive spent in a long time thanks to your help,,, cheers
1st off, nice tutorial! I used my iPod touch as a flash disk, and used ultraiso to make the image<—so far so good, everything loads but I get a message stating that 'device drivers are missing' [paraphrased] I read around and it looks like it may be cd/DVD not being supported, but I'm installing from USB, no need for DVD drive help pleez
that sir,
simply put, is ‘the bollox’,
TUVM
Hi, does this step’s will reformat my flash drive?
@Antonio
Yes, it will format your drive.
Worked perfectly!!!
The funny thing was my Windows 7 Ultimate DVD was scratched, so I tried to use my Windows 7 Home and that didn’t fit on my 4gig USB stick.
Than I tried an 8 Gig microSD card and that did fit…and booted perfectly on my Asus R1600.
Thanks for really well written and detailed instructions.
This tutorial is awesome!
Thanks for the helpful tips.
Cheers,
Victor Aroma
Perfect .. 10/10 !
Thanks for sharing this valuable info ..
my netbook is 32 bit and my win7 is 64bit.. im wondering if this can be installed..
and if it cant can yyou please tell me how i could upgrade my netbook to 64bit?
The easiest way how to install Win7/Vista from usb is just to format your USB stick (from windows, no cmd line needed!) and extract files from *.iso into root of your USB stick….nothing else…tested million times
thx! 100% working like you said
Thanks a lot! The MS tool kept erroring out when trying to create a bottable USB installer from the DVD. However your instructions worked like a charm…Thanks!
Although there are a couple of tools out there to help simplify this process, I just ran across a new one that works under XP as well. Bootsage is another nice utility to add to your toolbelt. http://firesage.com/bootsage
You are a legend. Got a SFF here and no DVD or CD-Dom. Used your instructions to get Windows Home server up and running. Thanks for the info.
yea, this is stupid…..just format and copy windows 7 files to usb…DONE
Thx dude !
once i hit “format fs=ntfs” it just says 0 percent and stays there.
Help!!
I am not getting my pendrive disk number.
when i type list disk
only disk 0 is visible
i have tried on all USB ports
Excellent guide.
I need to save this site on my pc.
Extremely useful and helpful
Thanxs.
Thanks for the guide ^^ verry usefull! You saved me from CD/DVD’s with windows and others!
nice work!!!
can anyone tell me how to put xp in the usb and make it bootable..please
thanks
In case you get error message “Access Denied” in the last step you may need to start “Virtual Disk” service from Start->Run->services.msc
Excellent tutorial worked like a charm!
Thanks!
Really helpful.
thnx
You should really give the _original author_ credit, instead of pretending like you wrote this guide yourself.
Just a couple of weeks after it’s posted here:
“link removed”
You turn around and post it here.
You can try to deny it, but it’s the _exact_ same steps in the _exact_ same order, on top of using the _exact_ same commands, again, in the _exact_ same order.
Plagiarism is baaaaaad.
@Padam
How can you say that just because order of commands are same? You know, one can’t create a bootable disk by entering those commands in random order. So steps will be same if you refer other sites too. I can’t blame other sites for that right? You need to execute the step 1 first and then 2.. You can’t reverse it!
Looks like you guys did a great job copying the instructions from here:
“link removed”
Way to pass it off as your own.
Kevin
“just because [...]“? It’s kinda cute how you ignored the other points. The order of the commands is important, but they do _not_ have to be executed in that exact order.
Furthermore, I’m even more convinced you have no idea what any of the commands posted do – as you’re misleading users into thinking that bootsect doesn’t work on XP installs or vista installs with XP as the target. It’s a matter of changing the /n60 argument to /nt52 for it to use the master boot code that’s compatible with NTLDR (rather than BOOTMGR, which is what Vista/7 uses).
To quote you in case you decide to go deleting it:
“This guide doesn’t work for XP..Only for Vista and Windows 7.. [snip]“
@Kevin
I don’t know what to say! For your kind information, Microsoft has given the how to make bootable usb in its WinPE help guide. Do download and read it before making such comments.
AWESOME man! solved my prob.
I… AM… YOUR… FAN… NOW…
The fact that you removed the link to his blog from both of our posts speaks volumes in itself. There are other links all throughout the comments on this page, _none_ of which have been removed.
kmwoley.com/blog/?p=345
Leave it up this time, let the users make their own decision as who stole it from who.
@Padam
I have deleted the links just because I don’t allow readers to post links in comments. You might get two or three links in the whole comment section (in this post). And mind that I could have deleted your comments if i had done so. Hope you got it. Also note that I will be deleting your future comments as I don’t like to argue on a useless topic.
@admin
y wasting time on useless things/people……..
plzz help me out through the problem soon…..
Works perfect.
Thank you very much for youre efforts!
If you have the following error:
“COULD NOT FIND MAP DRIVE PARTITION TO THE ASSOCIATED VOLUME DEVICE OBJECT:
ACCESS IS DENIED”
Then when you opened your command prompt you did not right-click and run as admin.
Working fine & smooth.thanks for the tutorial!
Thank you very much..it is working fine…..
im trying to make a usb with Win7 64bit my OS is Win7 32bit and i have problem in step 7.
system sayid:
version of F:\boot\bootsect.exe is proper with version running on this PC….
anyone know what to do ??
correct:!!!!!
version F:\boot\bootsect.exe is NOT proper with….
Great guide. For those of us who are not builders or very familiar with computers, including a detailed step on how to change the boot priority in BIOS from HDD or CD to USB would make this guide complete…
Thanks for your time and effort on what is here though – Much appreciated!
Thanks! After trying a lot of “tutorials”, this one WORKED. I’ve finished installing my Asus 904 HD
Thanks again!
Thanks a lot!!!!
It worked good for me… Only thing you could further mention is that “diskpart doesnot recogonise removable storsge in xp” it works only in vista (or) win 7.
CD BOOT Problems you need to *press ctrl c then type the commands below 100% working for me now
D: CD BOOT and hit enter.Where “D” is your DVD drive letter.
CD BOOT and hit enter to see the below message.
superb expalanation…. anyone will easily understand…keep it up..
Excellent
Works great for me
Thanks
Really great!!!
This tips works fine for me.
Thanks!
i cannot burn cds or photos onto a disc when i try it says put disc into cd drive d .Thanks if you can help me
Hi
Thanks a lot for info.
Can I have both, vista and win7 on usb stick at the same time? Just out of interest.
Thanks
I did this from a Windows 7 computer and was able to install Windows 7 from USB with no issues at all.
Well done!
I did this process on a SATA SSD 16gb harddrive I had, and it worked!
Beautiful.
Thanks Alot man, This is very usefull for me…….
Thanks buddy……
Man, just worked like a charm in the second try. First try I had error “COULD NOT FIND MAP DRIVE PARTITION TO THE ASSOCIATED VOLUME DEVICE OBJECT:
ACCESS IS DENIED”
Solution:
C:WindowsSystem32cmd.exe
On the pop-up right click context menu, select
“Run as Administrator”
Repeated all the steps once again.. and Voila…
thanks a lot my Friend..
Thank you very much! Great detail!
I did all the steps up until 5 now I was wondering I don’t have Win 7 on a disk just on my hardrive can I just copy over to my USB at this point? and would I still have to change the Bios settings?
Hi, excellent instructions…I’m almost there but when i run format fs=ntfs I get the following error message right at the end of the format..
“100 percent completed”
“diskpart has encountered an error the parameter is incorrect”
have you seen this before and if so any suggestions?
i’m on Vista
actually you can’t continue with the instructions, if you try assign you get “There is no volume specified. Please select a volume and try again”
When I put the usb in, it gets to the boot screen and says “BOOTMGR IS MISSING” and I’ve repeated the BOOTSECT steps already.
Thanks for the tutorial, it work perfectly.
i also have a WINDOWS 7 AIO DVD 33 in 1 i had put together and put that on a USB too, also works perfectly.
thanks again
TO AMOS
make sure you fill all details in CAPITAL LETTERS and just take your time to go through it again.
i hv problem with this technic.. the command sound like this..
“Could not map drive partitions to the associated volume device objects :
Access is denied. ”
someone please help me….
To Zaid
try to run cmd.exe as administrator and it will be fixed
u r the best men i think bcz u simply tell us the setp for install window frm usb.anybody easily do it. thanx for ue help.
You need to add > Type EXIT < To exit the diskpart after formatting. Like this:
5. Type EXIT to exit DISKPART
6. Maximize the minimized Command Prompt in the 4th step.Type the following command now:
D: CD BOOT and hit enter.Where “D” is your DVD drive letter.
Otherwise very helpful indeed
Thanks
Great article!
Helped my friend’s laptop
i gotta try vpc mode…………… tnx
LeAhCiM
THANK YOU… !!!
YOU ARE THE GREAT!
try dis guyz its vry easy
http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-create-bootable-windows-7-vista-or-xp-usb-flashpen-drive-with-a-single-click-must-try/
insert the usb flash drive hit any key depending your pc you have to go to the system bios
Works with doing a quick format aswell, as it takes long time to do a regular.
Super guide!
This excellent work / / / I will by experience
Try wintoflash and forget all your usb problem, all you need installation cd win7/vista/xp wintoflah and usb stick 4gb for 7/vista 2gb for xp… drivers and stripcan do it later.
now microsoft provide their own tool to create a bootable usb drive to install windows vista/7/2008/2008-R2
32 bit and 64 bit. This method works on both vista and win7. either 32 bit or 64 bit.
now because 64 bit capacity is more than 32 installation CD or DVD.
I have 16 GB card. On this card i have
win 98
win me
win professional 2000
win server 2003
win NT networks
win xp ( all in 1 ) home, professional, media center edit
win vista (all in 1)
win 7 ( all in 1 ) 32 bit and 64 bit is only win 7. above rest os are only 32 bit…
I have installed too many times on different system different os what customer ask for it. via using this memory card…..
simply booting and them select from the list what i need to install then after that setup for that windows will run up…..and so go on….
waqas _ akash AT yahoo DOT com if some one need please send me personal email….
tnx i like it
sir after installing windows i got error on pendrive that window was unable to format nw ho to format it into fat again.
Thanx man.. great work..
Thanks man. Worked a treat!
May be I am in biggest trouble of my life with computer, I was following your steps without knowing that my main backup data hdd (500gb) was attached and I follow all the steps till the formatting ….where I realized I have formatted the wrong one..and if I don’t get my data back I will be at zero….al my work and everything was in it n I don’t have a dvd back up as well…..i know it’s stupid fuc’ed up situation ……any help will be life saver….please pls…..get me out of this………..
@Setu
You can try EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard free edition to get back your data. I hope you will get back your data.
After copying is complete, delete the file ‘ei.cfg’ to make all Windows varients available.
or HP USB Format Tool
OMG, this works so well, thanks, i have tried so many other “guides” and they did work.
THANKS
To anyone else still having the error in DiskPart, you MUST right click the CMD shortcut within your Accessories folder and select RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR.
Otherwise, permission denied errors.
I put forward my warm thanks for the help this post provided me.
This process is working fine with windows 7
Thanks Again
Suneev
suneev.lpu@gmail.com
I’ve used this guide before with success, but it’s not working this time. Every time I type in “cd boot”, I get an error message stating “The system cannot find the path specified.” I’ve already tried two computers and I get the same message. I also tried replicating the exact steps I did the first time by using a virtual drive, but that isn’t working either. What’s wrong?
Thanks a lot for the excellent guide!
After step 7 it shows an error stating “Could not map drive partitions to the associated volume device objects: Access is denied”
Any idea how to solve this problem?
Thanks for the article, worked perfectly.
Thanks! Works great!
In the step 5 you had mentioned “insert your Windows7/Vista DVD into the optical drive” but what if i don’t have optical drive, i am unable to go further this step.
GREAT WORK THANK YOU !
Very well written guide, woks like charm
Thank you
This is a good article, but it has an error. It says:
> 6. Maximize the minimized Command Prompt in the 4th
> step. Type the following command now:
>
> D: CD BOOT and hit enter.Where “D” is your DVD drive
> letter.
>
> CD BOOT and hit enter to see the below message.
What you meant to say was:
6. At the prompt, switch to your DVD drive. For example, if your DVD drive is drive D, type:
D:
…then press Enter.
7. Type CD BOOT and press Enter, to see the message below.
(I would make typing CD BOOT a separate step.) Cheers, Ander
I did this the first time and it worked fine- But i copied the wrong version of Win7 which had expired. Do i need to run command prompt again for the newer version or can i just copy the files over from the new DVD and go straight away?
for windows xp users format usb with petousb tool you can get by googling around and runbootsect as instructed , other wise boodsectis also available standalone on many websites to make usbs bootable .it even supports making xp bootable usb
HEY GUYS JUST MOUNT THE WIN 7 ISO FILE IN DEMONS TOOL IN XP AND INSTALL IT TO THE PARTITION U LIKE….THERE IS NO NEED TO USE ANY DVD OR USB PENDRIVE…….ANY PROBLEM!! MAIL ME satadruhalder@yahoo.co.in……..
Todo funcionó a la perfección.
Gracias !!
thank you………dis is very interesting..
work wonderfull on my external hard drive…
thank you.
Just awesome. Very nicely done, easy to understand and exactly what I was after.
Thanks, I used it on my Sony Vaio upgrade media on my NW180J
It worked perfectly.
Thanx a lot !!! work perfectly……… Use full for me….
EXCELLENT GUIDE THANK U VERY MUCH…it worked in first time
Sir,
At present I am using Windows XP which I would like to replace by Windows 7. Please help me to install Windows 7 on my computer.
Thanking you.
thank you post is very useful for me. but does it work?
I’m currently at the copying files to USB end stage. But for anyone who reads down here, make sure to check that you’ve selected the right disk in stage 4, one way to do this is by typing DETAIL DISK and hitting enter after the SELECT DISK 1 line, brings up a load of details and a volume list at the bottom, with name, size etc, mine was Disk 4.
(Using a different guide I manage to format my D:, good thing I’ve got a server backup. DON’T MAKE MY MISTAKE)
Hey,
Thanks a lot, this helped me to resolve my issue after a 5 days struggle
hi,anyone can help in bios settings,how it is done to select pendrive ..i cannot do it although i have new m/b and all above trick ..but i can’t detect my bootable drive…may i lack this idea…help me out …..thanks
I was a bit sceptical about this actually working. It just seemed too good to be true, this being Windows and all. But it actually works.
Like mentioned earlier it’s not possible to run bootsect from 32-bit windows on a 64-bit version.
Also, I had to run cmd as admin or else bootsect would complain about something I can’t remember atm.
OMG THANX !!!!!!!!! I HAD A MAJOR FKING ISSUE, ! AND BY JUST SAYING the first 2 commands the SETUP started and i was good to go
THX ALLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT
i found this article helpful because recently i had problems with usb and booting. THANKS
Don’t know why everyone post hard guides with cmd promt. There is a program directly from Microsoft to do that same thing in 3 clicks. It also works on pirate/cracked copy of windows 7 .
Download and guide: http://store.microsoft.com/Help/ISO-Tool
Thank you so much for this tutorial. It was easy and helped things run much more smoothly. What a relief!
This guide didnt work for me. When I try to boot the USB drive it just says “invalid partition table” and halts.
I fixed it, it didnt have anything to do with this guide. If you get the error “invalid partition table” try configuring your usb drive to load as hddd and not removable/fdd.
it works on 16 Gb USB Disk ???
there is a maximum size of USB Disk ? 10x for answer
There is always an easy way, download the tool from windows website and vollla sit back and relax it will do everything for you !!!
http://store.microsoft.com/Help/ISO-Tool
Great written guide!
I just had to tell you this was so easy, even for a non-techie like me, and by far the easiest setup instructions on the web. I am installng Win 7 on my (6-yr old) son’s netbook as we speak 7 he is so impressed!
Perfect explaination.. Many many.. many many..man thanks
To get this working in XP just use a Windows 7 virtual machine. Virtual Box is easy enough.
It’s working for me.
PS. Not sure if it has been said, but not looking through all the comments lol
I have a doubt in 5th step whr u say to insert Win 7 DVD…but if my cd-rom is not working how can i insert DVD in tht place..my rom is not even opening if i press the button..then what should i do??
This is really cool man, buy 1 thing in the step 7 when i type BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 H: it was not working but next time when i tried it was working.
Any way thanks for the real tutorial. I hope i will see more useful tutorial soon.
Thanks! 100% Working for me. Well, before I was able to install Ubuntu only.
ThanX allot to whoever brain is behind all this…. Works 110% clean & safe install. No problems faced. Follow the steps as written
Thank you!!!
Your tutorial is excelent!
Simple, safe and easy to follow.
Thank you, thank you!
Really great guide, easy to understand and follow, thanx a bunch!
THANK YOU Soooooo Much Man… you saved me…
Your The Best Boss!!!!
OMG.. This saved my whole day..
FANTASTIC.
OMGH!!!!!!!!
Im back on my own pc – it worked
TYSM !!!!!!!!!!
how can i sure that..this is working…and it is good to used it.?
excellent work m8
what a legend!! I was completely lost and you have saved me – worked a treat.
Many thanks -
Everything worked fine down to copy the files from the DVD to the USB. I get a ‘Can’t read from the source file or disk. bootsect.exe.mui’
Any ideas are appreciated.
DiskPart> select disk 3
DiskPart> clean
DiskPart succeded in cleaning the disk.
DiskPart> creat partition primary
DiskPart> succeded in creating the specified partition
DiskPart> select partition 3
The specified partition is not valid.
Please select a valid partition
there is no partiotion selected.
thats the eror i get please help me.
What a guide, 101% working. People still leaving comments every day after one year. One of the best guides ever if you ask me! THANK YOU, you deserve it!
Jesus, how many times has the guy got to say it. ITS FOR WINDOWS VISTA AND 7 NOT XP . Bunch of retards!
Followed instructions and worked great, no issues. Created a Win7x64 usb install from a Win7x64 machine. Install was for a HTPC with no optical drive.
The easiest method yet
OFFICIAL FROM MICROSOFT
http://store.microsoft.com/help/iso-tool
I had an error, when I tried to format, that said Virtual Disk service error: the file system is incompatible. I fixed it by using quick format instead. Use this command
format fs=NTFS quick
I hope this helps somebody. =)
by the way I’m using MSI P55-GD65 motherboard and transcend 4GB USB drive.
is it my board or the usb drive….A Read Error…
please help
This method will not work if you are running on Windows Xp.The best alternative will be to use either use either the microsoft method or try to use softwares like WintoFlash to automate it for you.
This method worked for me 100%, i am installing right now from a 8GB USB. Thanks a lot !!!!!
worked well with windows server 2008 ENT, on my xeon server
Also if you are making the usb disk from a 32 bit machine and your having problems, saying incompatable stuff, than go to a machine which is 64 bit, and do it over
anyway good luck with everyone else, and these steps
Windows 7 USB/DVD Tool , takes your ISO and makes a bootable USB Drive or DVD.
Works under Xp/Vista.
http://store.microsoft.com/help/iso-tool
Wow this was so Educational… I tried to do it with both x64 and x32 and there it was on my EHDD! Cool Guide! Thanks man
When you said insert the Windows Vista/Windows 7 disk, did you mean insert a blank disc or the disc that already has the software on it?(The $100 disc from store that comes in the software box)
Thanks
It was a success.. Thanks mate…
Frankie, put the disc that has Windows 7 on it. Good luck!
I followed this guide but when booting up i have an error message ‘A disk read error’
What is the problem?
I do all the steps but on step 7 then i write “bootsect.exe /nt60″ he write this:
This version of G:\boot\bootsect.exe is not compatible with the version of Windo
ws you’re running. Check your computer’s system information to see whether you n
eed a x86 (32-bit) or x64 (64-bit) version of the program, and then contact the
software publisher.
then what should i do??
Appreciate such a good info. Deserve moar views&comments.
Such success made me cum four times in a row, thanks mate. You need a one gosu sexy treat like good asss penatration.
Wish u good sex GG.
This worked well for me to create Win7 32 bit usb version,
but when I tried to make 64bit version on another flash drive using a 64bit DVD I got boot\bootsect.exe is not compatible…..I am using 32bit Vista to make these drives. Can I modify the code to make this work? Or do I need to find 64bit machine with DVD drive?
Thanks,
Valdez
Try to do it on x64 version of Windows.
I can’t copy the autorun file from the Windows DVD to the USB stick. It says I need to provide an administrator to copy to that folder. Everything else is copied, just the autorun has this problem. What can I do?
Thank You.
Thanks dude great job, very easy & good explanation
I want to know the detail steps on how you can repair window operating system.
Thanks
Also i want some things on Virtual LAN, the problems and prospects of it.
Thanks for your help.
hi, have a problem in step 6..my dvd drive is E, and my usb is G……
E: CD BOOT
E:\boot>bootsect.exe /nt60 G:
Target volume will be updated with BOOTMGR compatible bootcode.
Could not map drive partitions to the associated volume device objects:
Access is denied.
pls help me in this problem..thanks
hi
i am using this method to install snow lepoard on a previously windows machine will it work??
btw my snow lepoard image is on my comps HD so i cant complete step 5 onwards?? what do i do??
also is there anyway of reversing this procedure after i haveinstalled the OS so i can use the HD as a mass storage device after??
thanks
hi am i able to use this method to install MAC OS snow lepoard. i have no disk just the .DMG file so i cant complete step 5 onwards. will it still work??
also am i able to reverse the effects on my external HD so i can use it as a mass storage device after??
thanks
@ John
Sorry, I have no idea about Mac OS.
Thanks man this is by far the best and accurate tutorial for making a win7/vista bootable usb…
@John, no you can’t as NTFS relates to windows file system only.
Hey, I tried it and works perfectly, thanks a lot…i’ve tried other guides with no success but your guide is fantastic…keep up the good work…this world needs more helpful people like you.
MANY MANY THINKS SIR BUT I HAVE A PROBLEM TO COPY “SETUP.EXE” FILE
WHY IT NOT COPY. PLEASE EXPLINE ME SIR
Nice How To, but the command: format fs=ntfs needs HOURS not minutes…
Works like magic….. Thanks
@Fi156 better use format fs=ntfs quick This will take you a few seconds. that command without quick will take long time because it performs a complete format. thanks
actually i have a another problem .i have a pen drive but its don’t show its original memory and it is not to be formatted .this pen drive is 8 gb but showing 69mb.if you give me a suggestion that how i am recover from this problem so iam glad ti you.
You rock man! Thanks for this guide. I’ve spent two whole days trying to repair my corrupt Windows 7 installation on my Netbook, which has been a challenge as it has no optical drive, so having a bootable Flash Drive was the perfect answer. Thanks again!
A few tips to others:
- The format of the USB drive takes a while, just be patient (I used the full format, not quick, just to be sure!)
- If you’re getting an Access Denied error when trying to map partitions, it’s because you didn’t run the command prompt as Administrator. Right click on the Command Prompt program as select “Run as Administrator”
- When setup has completed, don’t forget to set your boot priority back to the Hard Drive in the BIOS!
Thanx a lot mannn!! it really works!! u r awsum!!!!
I have done this – what method of copying files from cd to usb is best, I Right clicked copyed then right clicked and pasted. When I tried to boot up I got BOOTMGR.exe missing and it wouldnt boot up. Am I doing something wrong?
will this work for Windows 8?
i’ve already try your method, but i have a problem here which is, after my computer restart to finish the installation, it came back for the begiining to format my computer and not proceed for the “completing installation”…how to overcome this problem?please help me…
Worked for me. Thanks to all of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you are using Windows XP to create your bootable USB, these steps worked for me. I just omitted steps 1-5
Download and install http://i.thepcspy.com/USB_Boot.zip
Archive Password: “pasta”
Open and find your USB drive and format using NTFS
6. Now open another command window and type following command
J: (Drive letter of Windows 7 iso mounted with demon tool or ultraiso)
CD boot
bootsect /nt60 Y: (Y is drive latter of your USB drive )
Update BOOTMGR for USB Pen Drive
7. Now copy all files from drive where you have mount Windows 7 iso
8. Now reboot your computer and press F9 to get your BIOS screen and select USB drive as your boot drive.
9. If every thing goes fine, Your Windows 7 Installation should start from your USB drive
Worked like a charm!
i’ve already try your method, but i have a problem here which is, after my computer restart to finish the installation, it came back for the begining to format my computer and not proceed for the “completing installation”…how to overcome this problem?please help me…
It was a perfect explanation.
Thanks for such a nice tutorial.
Only problem, I faced with BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 H:command.
Once you invoke Command Prompt like run as Administrator there was nothing like …
Windows Xp does not recognize removable drive under: LIST DISK segment.
Pl. keep it up.
Does not work on my vista laptop….. tried several times now keep getting “‘BOOTSECT.EXE’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file,” Thanks to the author as I have used this for Windows 7 previously and it worked fine but any help with vista install would be appreciated!
Worked great for me except the clean command run as (admin) gives me an access denied on v*sta and w*n7 but I skip this step and even use the same window to perform the partitioning and the bootsect, worked great on both.
Thanks.
for those whos stuck at step 7 coz Could not map drive partitions to the associated volume device objects:
Access is denied. run cmd as administrator that would do the trick
problem with could not map … access denied but here is the solution:
you have to go into run and go into cmd. then you have to minimise it and on your taskbar right-click the icon for cmd and also right-click on command prompt then click on run as administrator
Hey…Can i install windows 7 with usb * i dont have dvd reader atm * if i dont have a windows before it..Like my old windows crashed & now am without windows at all & i wanna install windows 7 & no dvd reader ,thx alot
Just wanted to say thanks for posting this. Worked like a charm for me with Windows 7 Ultimate x86 installing to an Acer Revo 1600 (which I’m using to test out the new XBMC beta release of Dharma).
hey buddy thanx
its working and the way you have explained the steps its easy to understand.
thanx again
if more solutions are available on any problems regarding windows please tell me.
Pro Tip:
When formatting the USB Stick, use the following:
format fs=ntfs quick
Takes about 30 seconds to format the drive. Incredibly handy if your USB stick is 8GB+ like all of mine are. I dont want to wait 20 minutes for it to format…
I think the guide will also work for XP USB boot.
We have to use Vista’s bootsect.exe which can reinstall XP’s bootsector.
To (re)install an NTLDR or BOOTMGR bootsector you will need Bootsect.exe.
Copy it from a Vista DVD if you want to include it on the USB root directory.
bootsect.exe /nt52 H:
I would suggest try to format the USB key as FAT & then install the boot manager followed b dumping of the XP CD to start testing.
Start with FAT/FAT32/NTFS to see which one works.
If NTFS on key works, it will also mean a super fast Windows install over USB 2.0.
Catch: ensure to use correct bootsect.exe for x86 & x64 OS.
Hey!
I don’t know how you saved my life. I shall thank you for thousand times for this and once more thousand times for your efforts on this. It really worked. Thank man, appreciate it…
work just fine,.. thank you..
Thank you so much! It’s so simple and yet I could not manage to install Windows from USB. Now it finally worked! Thanks!
Worked well for me, the only thing is I had to pull the drive out during the first reboot or the install would start all over again.
I did steps 1 to 4. My usb was plugged and so was my 500GB external hdd. It was too late when I realized that I did step 4 on my external hdd. Now, I cant open my external hdd – it always says your drive needs to be formatted. Please help =<
Thank you so much, it worked like a charm!
can i just say if u are using a bigger hard-drive eg a 250g external it takes about 1-2 hours to format to ntfs
THANK YOU!! this guide is awesome. worked without any problems.. and the speed of install increased! now it installs about 5x faster.. it used to take 1 hour. now it took 20 minutes :O!!! thanks!
Good advice is hard to get, thx for complete instructions.
I dont trust downloaded tools, got some probs with english cos i´m from germany but this was site was best i found
1)why do we use optical cd whilst basing on pen drive to install windows?
2) Can installing windows wit the help of pen drive be apply on any computer capacity?
Hi, Thanks very much.
Thnx allot for this great guide
I had the official ms tool to make your usb installer disk, but somehow it always ended up telling me it couldnt copy the files to my usb drive. Doing it manually worked like a charm!
Thnx allot! (again ^^):)
When I followed this method, I manage to get the OS to boot from the USB, but then that creates another problem. Vista confuses itself by reading the USB as another hard drive. The error “Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for installation.” shows up in the Disk Partition page. My computer only has one hard drive so it must be the USB causing the problem. Can anyone tell me how to get around this problem?
AWESOME GUIDE!! IT WORKS WHEN I INSTALLED WINDOWS 7 ULTIMATE. YOU’RE A BOMB!! THANK YOU FOR SHARING THIS..
KEEP IT UP!
This will work on non-vista computers if you use an external hard drive and skip the format command.
amazing… this guide really worked!!! plus you don’t need to use any programs.. /heh
Is it just me or does it take more than just a few seconds to format the selected drive????
Maybe a few minutes….
Great write up!! this really helped me out and btw this can work on non-vista computers if you use an external hard drive
I got “Bootmgr is missing”. I m using dell
hi i m using win xp above all steps done n my bios have option usb hdd but i its not booting plz help
This works perfect. Thanks !!
I was just looking for this guide! Tnx!
hey, the guide is dreat but like some ppl here I have the “missing bootmgr” problem, You sad fix it… but… how ??? please help me , I am trying to set win 7 on HP notebook wich has vista, and your steps I^ve done on other PC wich has win 7 on it,because dvd rom on notebook doesnt work. my USB drive is external HDD 1Tb.. folowed all steps one by one, then attached ext hdd on notebook and set booting from USB… still have msg missing bootmgr….
heeeeeeelp! thx!
Awesome tut, just got windows 7 32bit on my nieces Acer Aspire One, straight on everything installed. I’d say 10-20mins faster too than conventional DVD installs.
Pressed F2 on boot to get into setup, Acer Aspire will see the USB and show it by name, I just moved it to the top of the Boot list using F6 saved changes and rebooted. Once W7 has installed you have to go back into setup (F2) to change the boot sequence back to the HDD. Just finished updating. If only life was this simple’s lol!
look’s like a nice method but! how do i ‘reverse’ the disk-on-key properties to it’s defaults,i mean in this whole procedure you actually change the file system of the disk-on-key and some other properties,how to reverse all that?
Great work….it worked for the first time…thanks a lot …..
Hey, Thanks! great guide. I even got it to work using Windows XP!
Tom
when you say copy ALL the files, does that mean hidden and system files contained within the CD? do you recommend drag/drop copy or a CMD Copy?
what if the windows 7 copy isn’t on a dvd but has been downloaded iso?
Actually /active= should have 0 (most of the time) it’s the partition number OF the drive (0 as it’s formatted) otherwise you’ll get “invalid parameter…”.
nice thx for the guide
hello . i did all steps and it end successfully .
but when restart my pc and set usb boot .
my system cannot boot from usb and display this message
” … read disk error …” .
while i use slax in this usb pen and working truest.
but not working for this way that you say.
please help me . and contact by me via email adress .
thank.
Perfeito com Windows7 ENG. Muito obrigado
please help me. i need to this.
hello . i did all steps and it end successfully .
but when restart my pc and set usb boot .
my system cannot boot from usb and display this message
” … read disk error …” .
while i use slax in this usb pen and working truest.
but not working for this way that you say.
please help me . and contact by me via email adress .
thank.
i cant do the “clean” bit. error occured, unable to access. help pweez
i cant see my pendrive in command prompt in list disk…
what i have to do ???
thanx for the tips but i am getting a message saying could not map drive partition to the associated volume device objects: acces is denied on step 7 can you help?
thanks alot dude!
Thanks a lot . Worked like a charm, very detailed and precise. Great job keep it up
Great step by step instructions. Even though I’ve done this dozens of times, it’s great to have a site I can trust to refer to when my (poor) memory fails me.
Thanks!
Dave Sanders
Microsoft MVP
Great JOB . Thanks
Thanks for your kind words Dave Sanders.:)
Beautiful! Flawless! Stupid sata DVD died and with no replacement and no time to spare this worked perfectly. Make sure drive is emptied as he states. Make sure! Otherwise, awesome. Thank yooouu.
i have a question that before reading this tutorial or finding it i bought a 2gb pen drive and i think this procedure does not work with 2 gb pen drive or does it?
WOW – Thanks a lot. It worked like a charm. I really appreciate your help. Keep up the good work. It is people like you that make the world a better place.
Thank agian
Thanks again
plz tell me how to edit bios settings?
This works great, thanks alot.
I just have to ask
Why not just copy all the files from the installation image to your drive, and have bootmgr ran from there instead?
This thread is getting long, but it is only fair to say thank you for this great guide. Thanks a lot.
MAN ITS AWESOME IT WORKS GREAT
Tres bonne solution
elle marche à merveille
i am using win7 32 bit. can i use bootsect to create a bootable USB to install win7 64 bit? i have the ISO file for win7 64 bit, but have no clue how to get it to work.
PS- my DVD drive is kaput.
Thank for tutorial installing windows 7
When I received this error:
file : \Boot\BCD
status : 0xc000000e
info : An error occurred while attempting to read the boot configuration
I used another thumb drive and the problem was solved.
hello . why you dont answer to me .
i did all steps and it end successfully .
but when restart my pc and set usb boot .
my system cannot boot from usb and display this message
” … read disk error …” .
while i use slax in this usb pen and working truest.
but not working for this way that you say.
please help me . and contact by me via email adress .
thank.
Since I’m trying to make a LiveCD bootable through USB, it’s not a normal official Windows 7 CD, and there is no BOOTSECT.EXE whatsoever, so I can’t make it BOOTMGR Compatible. Any other solutions?
my dvd write is not working.how can i do this step D: CD BOOT.pls mail me ans.
I tried with both vista and 7
no prob in installation,
but in vista, no user profile is being created to log in.
In 7, finalisation takes all its life n after shutting down after first use, in gives problem from second use on ward.
it was irriteting..
wasted full night..!
@nishant-this process only creates the way by which u can boot the setup progress with the pendrive…comparatively faster than cd or dvds….the problem you are facing is due to wrong installation files
Thank you very much!
I’m Russian, but I didn’t find any working instruction for my problem on russian lanquage.
This quide helps me to install Win7 Starter on my netbook using USB HDD.
P.S. Sorry for my engligh
Can i use this for install windows xp to?
This worked fabulously. Thanks for the easy to follow instructions! I had been looking for this solution for a long time.
Thanks a lot.
Worked perfectly!
Very well described.
You really should put a link to the MS USB/DVD tool more prominently on your site, why bother with this complicated method?
http://store.microsoft.com/help/iso-tool
Excelent it works great thank you, you save my life
You can also check the drive number designation in the device manager under “disk management” if you have trouble selecting the appropriate disk as described in step four of this guide.
Worked great! Thanks a lot.
THanks for the insight, I was going crazy trying to get this to work. A lot of sights miss the part about this only working in Vista/7!
Thanks a lot dude..it is awesome..installed in 11 minutes..WOW
When you say copy windows 7 contents, you mean the documents or a iso file?
what if i dont have a win7 disc? what if i just have an ISO but not on a cd. because i have an ISO on my downloads.
Works perfect, thank you.
Well, it worked as advertised (Windows7), but only after going to Control Panel – User Account Control Settings and specifying “Never notify”. Before taking this step, the Bootsect command failed with “Access denied”.
Now, on to setting up BartPE on this bootable 4GB USB drive…
Thanks!
Nice Tut man. Easy to follow and love the pics
If you have an .iso file just mount it with magiciso. Google it.
Each tutorial to this Thema goes that way:
“First you use this Tool ,then use this tool and then do this dont mind why…”
What about people dont have Windows?
I have only a far idea what to do with the USB Stick when i dont have those super special Windows Tools…
Always those Windowlooker with there freaky tools xD
Never have a idea what they do ^^
Nice one works a treat.
Additional info:
1.) during the diskpart in command prompt, users need to cancel or ignore any prompts by windows to automatically format the drive.
2.) If you get the message from command prompt when coppying the boot info that the device is currently locked, it’s probably either your antivirus trying to scan the empty drive, or it’s windows that has automatically opened the drive contents in a window. Stopping the antivirus or any open windows other than commandprompt associated with the USB or external drive and trying again from where it said “device locked” works.
Thanks for a brilliant post. Saved me hours. I’m setting up a PC with old DVD drives and three have failed! Saved me getting a new DVD drive!
PLEASE HELP!
I am having troubles with step 6:
I have typed in C:\Windows|System32> D: CD BOOT
Then when I type in D:\> CD BOOT
it says that The System Cannot Find The Path Specified.
My disk is definitely in the drive and is definitely drive D: so what is wrong?
make it work
I have a 4GB usb pendrive. When I try to do ‘CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY’ it tells me the drive isn’t big enough te create a partition without extra parameters. Please advise.
Ultimate guide..Fully working on Lenovo..
hey, i keep getting “… invalid ms-dos command” when copying the disk content in step 8.
and my explorer crashed.
I created this in win 7.
sir pls tell me about how to create usb bootale for install windows xp-7 by usb device like pen drive.
ya its really nice to do but in between i got some error .. but i think that the inspections given above are really gud .., the same time after i did some steps my usb drives crashed , after that i cant able to use d usb .., so please avoid stop in between.. thanks
Hey Sorry For My Previous Post .., I Tried once again these steps i finally got thanks
Its Working Great ….
Thanks 
i have no cd drive so haw to make bootable pen drive
thanks dear its greet. working and help me lot
thanks again
Great post..!! Followed all the instructions step by step and works like a charm..!!
The only tip is that this wont work for xp since in xp, the MS DOS disk manager does not show usb disks. it will only show the HDD as disk 0. There is no disk 1. But when i tried with vista, then it shows usb as disk 1 and all the steps worked easily.
Thanks again man..!!
i tried but it does boot.
It works great, thanks for sharing this man.
where u download window 7 file
This worked perfectly for a system that I was fixing which had a broken DVD drive. The method used was able to make my external drive bootable with Lenovos DVD image.
Thanks a ton.
THANKYOU finally one of these guides works YES!!!!
hey bro i’ve read all the instructions, i’ve never try it myself but on about the comments above, it’s a kind of 99% of believing you!!!hope i could make it!!!thanks
thank you sir for your assistance on how to install windows from a usb , i have a oem cd with all of the versions of windows on it and it works flawlessly with the usb method . i have sucsescfully install starter, basic, home premium x86, x64 , and so on but my faviort useing this method is what i have on my asus mini netbook with 500 gb hard drive and 4 gb memory with windows 7 ultamate x64
F:\BOOT>bootsect.exe /nt60 H:
Target volumes will be updated with BOOTMGR compatible bootcode.
Could not map drive partitions to the associated volume device objects:
Access is denied.
dis is d error i am facing plz help me out
i solved that prob…. thanks for the artical….
Brick both of the usb drives I had thanks.
Worked like a charm good job buddy.
Have used this a bunch of times, really good guide thanks.
The only difficulties i had were resolved when i ran command prompt as an administrator.
Awesome write up, worked like a charm! Thank you!
after giving this command BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 H:
it gives error
could not map drive partition to the associated volume device objects:
Access is denied
Much appreciated. I have an old Pc with org CD drive. It just wouldn’t read the Win 7 CD. My HD was dead and I had to install a new one. Luckily I had my laptop with WIN 7 installed. Took a while but we are up and running again.
after instalation if i want to use my flash drive as a normal storing device, what do i have to do?
just format? or it will stay a bootable device 4 evar?
this tutorial was what i was needing for my cd driveless laptop
One of your command prompt lines is formed incorrectly but will still work:
i.e.
D: CD BOOT
CD BOOT
should be just
D:
CD BOOT
or:
cd /d D:BOOT
but the guide works perfectly anyhow. Thanks very much.
for those who have trouble with all these instructions
try downloading wintoflash. very simple to use
Right, it looks good, but I’ve yet to try it, for a few reasons:
1. How do you reverse the process for the USB, in case I want to use it as normal again after I’ve booted up my PC with it? Can it be done? How? Maybe it works anyway? I don’t want to ruin a good 16GB USB for it otherwise.
2. I’ve got my Win7 on an .ISO on my HDD, and I COULD install it using e.g DaemonTools or some such directly, but there are things that are better with a booted installation, thus I want to go with that option. But, my question is this, can I do as with the CD/DVD drive with a virtual drive, where I mount the Win7 .ISO and do Step 6 with the mounted drive?
Many thanks in advance!
thank you!
I got a problem on the final step: BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 H:
The error reported an inability to complete the step due to a compatibility issue with the version of windows I’m running….. suffice to say I’m PRETTY MUCH flabbergasted at this point, any help hopefully? pending thats enough information
A very good and easy to follow guide. Thank you.
this is great. it works great. thanks!
I did this and installed Windows 7 Ultimate successfully….
THankx….
Great technical post! Tnx for sharing!
I did everything, but when I tried to boot, It says “A disk read error occurred, Press control+alt+del to restart.. Plz help me.
Thank you Thank you Thank you
easy to follow and worked like a charm!
Thank you Thank you Thank you
Awesome. Well done pal!
So i was on a mission for a free netbook. the job was to fix a laptop without a cd drive that worked. SO i turned to this. needless to say. Thanks for the net book. Your a money saver bud thank you!
yOU ARE GREAT
tHANK,S
um in stuck at spet 7 help plz it says it does not recognize “bootsect.exe as an interal or external command”
help plz
im stuck not “in stuck”
sorry typo
I get Invalid MS-DOS function and I cannot copy boot folder…
Thanks for help!
works great,… thanks man. cheers
If you really want to claim “100% Working” then why is step 6 still wrong?
It says:
====================================================
D: CD BOOT and hit enter.Where “D” is your DVD drive letter.
CD BOOT and hit enter to see the below message.
====================================================
when it should say:
====================================================
D: and hit enter. Where “D” is your DVD drive letter.
CD BOOT and hit enter to see the below message.
====================================================
This is easy to fix and it is confusing a lot of people.
Also, I think FAT32 would work ok; speed difference would be insignificant.
And I think the BOOTSECT.EXE part is redundant because DISKPART prolly already did that. That’s why some ppl have got it to work when they left out that step.
Anyway, the main thing is it works. You just need to shout in caps that it DOESN’T WORK IN XP. Maybe the morons would see it then.
I tried this solution. “List Disk” works on Vista, not XP.
I don’t have any Drivers when I try to install Windows 7 on my Netbook with no OS, what do I do?
hey… after copyin the files to usb, i tried to install it on other comp by changing the boot order… i’m getting a error BOOT MNGR MISSING… please help me with this…
i followed this instruction and I unfortunately 2 of my drives are now missing. i only have my drive C visible
i am running windows 7(32bit) with 1 SATA HD(had 3 partitions now only C is visible) and 1 IDE HD
can someone please help me with this??
Thanks.
btw, you can do (if you know that you pendrive is not defective):
FORMAT QUICK FS=NTFS
instead of
FORMAT FS=NTFS
Hi, I’ve tried to install win 7 from usb using wintoflash but faild due to ther error that I need cd/dvd drivers. The solution was removing the usb and reinserting it then I cancelled the setup and went to repair options. I then chose command prompt. After reinserting the usb you will have 3 discs. Mine were X: which was the boot disc (supposedly the usb but it wasn’t) c: (the usb after inserting it again) and d: (the cd-rom). On the command prompt I had to navigate to X:\windows. (type: “cd X:\windows” without quotes) then type: “bootsect /nt60 C: “(this loads the bootmgr on the usb. the usb in my case was C: so you have to find yours) after that just restart and the setup will continue without errors. best of luck
great how too now i want a very easy how too on putting x86 and x64 bit of windows and of vista on one disk. Then should be able to do this guide and have both on 1 thumb drive. In the process of putting each os from xp up on 1 thumb drive each. Much faster installs and no more burning disc. Thanks
All of you who get “Could not map drive partition to the associated volume device objects: Access is denied.”
Try running cmd as administrator!
Out of curiosity, do folder permissions have to be set so that hidden files and folders must be enabled? I tried this with my USB stick, and I get a missing operating system error. I copied everything I could see from my Win7 DVD, but if there are hidden files on the DVD that could explain the missing operating system error that both Jonathan and I are getting.
I have a Net Book that came with Windows 7 Starter. I would like to install the Ultimate Edition on it but it has no CD Drive. I got my hands on the Windows file but they are in ISO format ready to be copied to a disk and boot off of said disk. Is there a way I can copy these files onto a Flash drive instead and boot off of the Flash drive?
Thanks!
what happens to pendrive is it able to function normally after this…
Thanks man it really worked
i did this to a tablet pc that had no dvd-rom, and did NOT support USB boot option….i simply yanked the drive from the tablet pc, connected it to a different pc via usb bridge, followed the procedures above, put the hard drive BACK into the tablet pc, fired it up, and windows began installation. Worked great, and didnt even create a second partition to do it lol
Thank for this article I’ve made a working bootable USB of my own. I need this to make my computer renewed and prepare it for my SEO work task.
I haven’t the window 7 dvd disk. can I use above tips for Windows Xp or where can I get win 7 files. pls help.
We’re in 2010, and for those of you that have had no success (ISO-file not recognized for example) using the Microsoft ISO-tool mentioned on occasions in this thread, the real solution that ALWAYS works is here:
AWESOME dude!! This worked 1st time, better than buttered popcorn
For those who had the error
Could not map drive partitions to the associated volume device objects:
Access is denied.
REMEMBER TO OPEN CMD WITH ADMINISTRATOR PERMISSIONS!!!
admin permissions doesn’t fix this problem thomas
how do they do it??
I have used this method several times and it works GREAT. Instruction are very easy to follow.
For those having trouble with not being able to copy the contents of the DVD to the thumb drive b/c you dont have a DVD drive. I would suggest to either perform these steps on a PC that has a drive or if you have a iso or a rar image of a DVD you can use magiciso (free) to create a virtual CD ROM drive and then mount the image to a virtual Drive.
Works GREAT.. I used this for Vista and Windows 7 32 and 64 bit.
If you cant figure it out READ the instructions Carefully or take your USB thumb drive and DVD to a local computer shop and have them do it for you. Make sure you give them this sites URL b/c it works just fine. Quick and Easy.
Thanks
Thank you! I keep this page on my favorites and use it often.
This worked without issues.
Those having problems are either using the wrong drive letter, have a syntax error, or don’t have the USB as the first boot device on the BIOS.
Another thing to consider is that not all boards allow booting from a USB drive – especially older one.
Don’t drive yourself crazy if the option is there, your computer is somewhat old, and it doesn’t work. Chances are booting from USB is not supported.
Good luck.
I was installing Windows XP on old laptop, but installation process aborted in the midway giving me some error, while I was using similar guide to install XP. So, I have removed HDD (2.5 with IDE interface) and formatted it on using another laptop which is running on Windows 7 (I used IDE to USB adapter to connect it). Thus, now when HDD is clean and I try to boot up from USB (setting it in BIOS to boot up from USB), it gives me only blinking cursor and it does not go anywhere. If I remove USB and tries to boot up from HDD it gives:
BOOTMGR is missing
Press ctrl+alt+del to reboot
As I remember on Win 98 there was ‘copy SYS’ command to start command prompt. Any alternative on XP? I simply need to get command prompt started and than I’ll take it from there to install XP.
Please help if any one can!
if you get this message after typing BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 H:
“This version of F:boot\bootsect.exe is not compatible with the version of Windows you’re running.”
meaning you are running 32 bit windows and trying to execute a 64 bit bootsect.exe
all you have to do to fix this is to copy your 64 bit windows 7 on to the usb and then insert a 32 bit dvd and execute the 32 bit bootsect.exe on to your usb
Awesome. Worked exactly.
it required software like “wintoflash”
please me give more details through email for this process
please me give more details it required any software like “wintoflash”
To ice
Any idea about my issue?
It is working! Good instructions,and easy to follow. Thanks
Wait.. There’s an official tool? You could have put that at the beginning xD
To George
reasech how to get BOOTMGR back on the HD.
The orginal problem, before you formated the HD, sounds like a bad Ram, run a memory test in bios if you have it, or get a new ram chip if you can to make sure.
win7 usb
Hi. I have been trying to do this and I get stuck on this part where it says to do:
Go back to command prompt and execute the following commands:
D:CD BOOT and hit enter. Where “D” is your DVD drive letter.
CD BOOT and hit enter to see the below message.
BOOTSECT.EXE/NT60 H:
Is there something Im doing wrong? Also can this be done on a computer running windows 7 for a vista? My desktop is windows 7 and my laptop which im trying to fix was vista. I erased everything on the laptop hard drive on my windows 7 computer so did that mess it up?
I would appreciate any help.
Thanks
To George:
Did you figure it out? My laptop does the same thing with the blinking cursor and I have tried everything I can think of.
Thanks
I used this guide 3 times now, still havent gotten the commands tattooed on my backbone.. but.. works 100% every time. I installed win7 on my own laptop, my pc, one work pc, and now using it on my girlfriends laptop. thanks a lot for the simple guide, everyone saying it doesn’t work, either aren’t following the steps, or should check to see that they arent trying to install windows on their washing machine or something. if u follow the steps, it will work. I actually get a error message on the final step, but I have still been able to complete the installation every time. thanks man, people like you are what makes the www great.
Sincerely
Phil
Thanks a lot ……i was having problem in cd/dvd drive….u solved it…thanks again.:)
I am very glad right now. I was highly frustrated because I thought my computer is not gonna be compatible for windows 7. I tried many things even went to repair guys. Only this page worked for me. I thank you guys! really I’m happy!
Nice Guide, took me 5 minutes to complete this tutorial. You Rock!
I am using a 8GB usb, but in “LIST BOOT” command Disk 0 mean only hard disk is mentioned no other disk there.
SO what to do?
To Ice
Thanks, I’ll give a try. I do not think its RAM issue though.
To Paulette
Once I try it, I’ll update you here.
how do I get the uninstall windows 8? please in reply
how do I get the windows 8 install? please in reply
itz awesome thankz alot ……….
i thought
it may not work but it worked after that
thankz thankz
can i know ur name plzzz
itz awesomw
excellent..
Thanks a lot
hi……… i have not yet checked it whether this works or not but hope for best….
Thank you sooo much for the guide, really simple to follow up !!!
Kudos for you and your website !!
I FOLLOW ALL THE PRECEDURE THEN ITS GAVE ME BOOTMGR IS MISSING
Perfectly worked for me…
Just followed your instructions…. Great and Thanks…
I was actually trying to install over the network where two systems were connected to the same home group, But it was little scary. This one was easy.
Appreciate if you could give a tutorial for the installation over the same network.
Thank
Srini
*Waits for a 200GB HDD to format F_F *
it works like a charm
i’ve installed windows 7 in my precision workstation 490
Thanks alot
ok what do i do if i dont have the disk but i do have all the stuff i need saved on another flash drive?
I have only one question, can i make the bootable flash drive on any win, i mean, im using xp and i want to make win7 x64 bootable flash drive, is that possible?
Works great! Keep up the good work. Thank you.
very nice guide. thanks. only issue im having is its taking FOREVER to format a 8gb usb drive
i am thinking i mightve been better off specifying ‘quick’ in the format
this tutorial works only with the computer u have made the changes? or if i plug out the usb and put it in other computer it will work!?
I DIDNT GET A VISTA DISK WITH MY PC, IT CAME PRE-INSTALLED!!
Hi all!
Here are some tips.
1. Can only be created from a computer running Windows 7 or Vista
2. You can only create a drive that is the same type as the os your using. i.e. 64bit drives cannot be made on 32bit installed!
3. Do not install to flash/pen/usb drive, install to hard drive!
4. Make sure you have backed up all your data since this is clean install.
5. Format and install speeds vary depending on your flash drive and its capacity. i.e. A 4GB drive will be quicker at formatting than a 8GB model.
Hope this helped!
@marmar
Download a program that can create .iso files or if you have the .iso on another drive simply mount with Virtual Clone Drive or Daemon Tools (Virtual Clone Drive is easier, once you have got the .iso with all the files in mount and use the virtual disk drive letter in the cmd and it should be easy!
Thanks,
Win7easyinstall
I am going to reinstall my Win 7 now! WAs having problems with when on startup it would say File: James and the ‘OPEN WITH’ box i would have it close 3 of them every time! :/ Hopefully this works cause my pc take months to load up win 7 ultimate (1GB Ram) also I get blue screen of death! (I got too many programs on startup
)
win7easyinstall
Thanx, it’s 100% working.
thank u for giving this code
Please help me its not working!??!?!!? I got an error during my first install so I checked to make sure my hardrive was okay. I opened it up and noticed a wire was disconnected so I soldered it back in place(I’m rather smart hardware type stuff) and then I further proceeded to make sure the physical hard drive disk didn’t have any scratches on it (it was pretty clean). So yea, It is beyond me why it is not working, have any ideas?
Man, thank you for making my Win7 USB installation as easy as possible. You steps worked like a charm. Had to go this route after the DVD installation would error out. Thanks again!!
Use your brain, put the UPDATE call in the first line not in the last one! This is all a waste of time since MS Tool does it all instantly.
have anyone used this tool:
http://store.microsoft.com/Help/ISO-Tool
Hey, the instructions were great! during the installation process, setup returned to the initial installation screen instead of restarting after expanding the files. I rebooted the computer and after that it finished setup without issue.
I followed this guide and succesfully installed windows on a computer.
However using the same USB on another computer, I get the following error (yes, all bios settings are correct, such as boot from usb, usb legacy)
I have the right version (32bit).
A disk read error occurred; Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart.
any solution to this?
Thou art a god among men, and I shalt worship thou as such. No seriously this is the most useful thing I have seen the past two years. You have saved what little life I actually have.
Awesome! Well written, easy to understand, and worked well. Thank you!
awesome tutorial
Thanks a huge huge amount!!
Acer Aspire One froze while running XP recovery. Dead computer…
Used your instructions and loaded Windows 7.
Worked Great!
awseome
Make sure you run the command prompt as Administrator if you are doing this within Windows 7.
Hi, thanks for the tutorial, this was thew only one that worked over network. LAN. BooT.
this is great! I accidentally erased all the content of my external drive during the process but its my fault.that doesn’t matter anyway I can install Windows 7 Ultimate to a computer from usb flash drive now.thank you!
Wonderful, i fixed my netbook. Super
the steps are nowhere near difficult to follow, but this just flat out doesnt seem to work for me, I always always always get the BCD Boot Error :
file : BootBCD
status : 0xc000000e
info : An error occurred while attempting to read the boot configuration
when trying to boot.. Can anyone point out what could be causing this? which thumbdrives are people using here that have experienced success?? ive tried with a patriot Xporter XT 8gb and a Lexar 8gb Secure and no go so far with either of them…
ok so i just tested the usb from the patriot xporter XT and it works on the machine ive created it on, but not on the machine im trying to use it to install on, do you have to make the disk on the machine that you are using it on?
THANK YOU! I really do appreciate you writing instructions on how to properly do this. I saw a bunch of those guides where folks said to just ‘copy all the files over to a FAT32 drive’ and I knew that couldn’t be right… sure enough it wouldn’t work for me. You are a gentleman and a scholar.
its working fine.. but problem is that… booting started automatically from pen drive and files expanded… then when it restarted in the middle… again booting started from beginning by reading files from usb… its an unending cycle… wat to do??? im panicked…. tell a solution asap…
hey guys to make the format faster enter..
FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK OVERRIDE
DarkAthena
I like the fact that people will follow all steps but fail to read the title. Its A Tutorial For Vista And 7 Based Systems. Xp Does Not Have The Tools To Do This.
Anyway.
Life Saver Thanks Buddy !
awesome. worked on the first try. you rule.
Hello,
Some motherboards, (like mine,) DO support booting from USB, but the bis lists USB devices as ‘Hard Disk’s instead of ‘Removable’. So in order to get it to boot from USB you must change the hard disk boot order. So when you are installing windows 7 it comes to a point where it needs to reboot to finish the installation. But when it reboots it begins the install sequence all over again. This is because it booted from the USB again.
FIX:
-just watch and wait for the reboot, then hold ‘del’ or whatever key gets you to your bios on your system. then switch the hard disk boot order back to device #1 being the partition where you chose to install windows.
voila! your install will continue as normal.
BTW my motherboard is ASUS P5N-D
Also, this guide is totally awesome – works perfectly, thank you.
Jeremy
my previous post was directed to ‘vamsee’ of post #713 to answer the question there.
When i am trying to boot from Pendrive i am getting below error message.
A disk read error accoured.
ctrl+alt+Del to restart.
I am using Asrock P4i45GV Mothoer board with Bios versio 3.0.
Anyone can help me?????????????????
Thanks a lot! This help me so much, especially because my dvd was broken…
IT WORKED 100%
JUST FOLLOW EVERY STEP AND THAT’S IT.
I wonder if anyone has accidentally formatted the wrong drive aka Disk 0. Would be a laugh.
i got error coping bootmgr code it said
program to big to fit
i m using 4gb kingston pendrive
plz help……
hey… so if i put my copy of windows 7 on flashdrive it should boot right…. i do not have windows 7 disk the file is just in my computer…. so do i just put it on flashdrive then follow next steps
not working the 1st time i try it. im on 2nd attempt now. the thing is, i keep my windows installer file and everything on my hard disk(H) and not dvd/cd. So, does it mean that I have to alter the 6th step correspond to the letter of my hard disk?
“No device drivers were found. Make sure that the installation media contains the correct drivers, and then click ok”
i can reach the “Install” part but then it comes up with the error message above. i cannot load drivers since when i browse. i cannot seem to see the USB. ive put an AHCI and Chipset driver there but cant browse because i cant see it. help pls.
help please. putang ina kasi tong gumawa ng tutorial eh. gago.
Works Great , Thank you very much
Just for the record;
You don’t have to do the steps after step 4. All you need to do after step 4 is to copy the contents of the Win7 DVD to the flash drive and then it’s good to go.
hi, in step 4, u’ve mentioned to format the pen drive. i did it but the process is very slow because the format command is applicable for thorough formatting. can i format the pen drive in that step in quick mode? thnkx
I followed these instructions to the letter. Diskpart showed my USB drive to be disk 3. I formatted disk 3. Whoops, my 250 Gb data drive just lost everything on it! <:-{
Why tell people to use such a truly shit utility as diskpart when you can format a disk from Windows Explorer?
Worked like a charm! Thanks!!!
This version of F:boot\bootsect.exe is not compatible with the version of Windows you’re running. Check your computer’s system information to see whether you need a X86 (32-Bit) or X64(64-Bit) version of the program, and then contact the software publisher. “
hi,
my cd drive is not working and when i put any usb drive and boot my system it shows some error like disk not found.
please help me. i want to use windows 7 on my laptop.
Can I do this to install it on a new pc? dont have any OS on it.
There is problem !
“Operating System not found”
problem arise at the time of booting from usb
Thanks for ur post. But when i’m installing win7 through usb wen it is restarting for the first time it is again automatically going boot again. Thus my installation stopped in the middle. Please help me in installing my OS..
Thanks,
regards,
Shivams
hey bro i dont have cd of windows 7 but i have an iso image of it in my drive. How to use this process without cd?
please tell
Anshul Kataria, please use Virtual Clone Drive (free) software to mount the ISO file.
I locked at step 5… i thing the problem was my anti virus program… turn it of and voila!
I tried to install Win xp on my EEEpc 1000H but for some reason it wouldn’t boot unless i put the USB stick in….lol, its mad when Win 7 is much easier to setup and install than XP.
Thanks
Thanks man, it’s worked…
What if I am doing this on a netbook where there is no dvd drive but I have the files on my desktop already? I am lost on what to type in when the instructions say to insert dvd
thanks a lot..its working !!!!!…
To open cmd prompt,please do the following
All programs—>accesories—>cmd—>right click and click run as administrator…
then follow the instructions given in the guide…
once again thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!
thanks m8,
many many thanks.. with my optical drive malfunction, I had no other option to reinstall the OS, you really hav been of great help.. thanks again..
Its work…thank you..:D
Works on Windows 7, even without bootsect.. thanks!!
Uhh… guys… You do realise there is a Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool that does all this ridiculous hard work for you, right? And it’s from Microsoft too.
Save yourself 5 hours and use that instead.
Thanx work good.
Really it was helpful to me.
@Brandon Only Works on VISTA AND WINDOWS 7.
Excellent post. Very helpful.
You can also try BOOTICE to set partition active and write Windows 7 boot sector
Double thumbs up!
thanks alot
Goog for this information and we can load two operating system in USB so that we can insatll at time windows 7 or windows server 2008
The best tutorial, i have used this many times without any problems and it rocks any time with no problems …thanks for posting this
Hey followed the instructions and everything seems to work to a point. When windows starts it gives me the splash screen that says “Install Windows” or whatever, when I click it the box disappears for a second, and then reappears. Can’t actually get to the install, weird.
its rewlly good abd i try it later
Helped me very much to install windows 7 using usb. Just ensure that you run Command Prompt as Run As Adminstrator (Right Click Option on cmd). I wasted much time using normal mode.
Guys please help me. CMD crashed when I was doing the FORMAT FS=NTFS at 23%. Now my USB-Stick isn’t working because it is displayed as NTFS. I can’t access it at all. How can I get it right again?
Thank a lot. Very useful tutorial
i did everything but i wanted to install but what will i have to do in the bios setup?
Hey i am trying to follow your steps… But when i write BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 F:(MY USB DRIVE LETTER IS F) THEN I GOT THIS MSG
“TARGET VOLUMES WILL BE UPDATED WITH BOOTMGR COMPATIBLE BOOTCODE.
COULD NOT MAP DRIVE TO THE PARTITIONS TO THE ASSOCIATED VOLUME DEVICE OBJECT
WHAT TO DO ?
Thanks….
Hi. i have followed you guide and i got to boot the usb successfully, but when windows 7 starts. it doesn’t get to the installation process, it’s just stock on the windows 7 background and the mouse pointer, what do you think is the problem? is my motherboard not compatible ? i have asus p5sd2-vm. or is it with my installer that has the problem?
thanks in advance!
dude, you so rock!!!
i hav espent hours creating stupid osis using low quality tools to get to this point.. and yet it was so simple this way!! thumbs up dude
Super…USB win7 boot disk is working fine…Thanks a lot !!!!!
Hi there,
this guide is working fine.
thank you for shared with us
@ Jan
Just leave it, it will eventually bring up the language option and continue..it just takes about 5-10 mins and appears as nothing is happening..just be patient!
Some times /nt60 do not work for whatever reason then we can use /nt52.
Its 100% working
BUT since its other laptops bios are new now. Its not removable devices for me but Hard Drive
wish you would have stated that if you do not have a win 7 dvd/cd, and the info is already on your flash drive, proceed to step #x. I just wiped out my usb drive which had all of my win 7 data on it. thanks a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Hi I’m facing the same error as sandy in post #601.
Access denied error running Bootsect.exe Please help!
Thanks, –Al
Thank you so much for your help.
It’s very cool.
Any one faced this message when trying to copy file into USB stick? “”Can’t read from the source file or disk. bootsect.exe.mui’”". When I presses skip I got same message for other file names!!!!!
Post #441 had teh same problem
regards
If you have access denied error, run cmd in run as adminstrator mode.
Works just as described. Thanks very much, saved my bacon after realizing Mom-in-Law’s PC didn’t have DVD drive.
To Al: had same error. Make sure you are running CMD as Admin. If it doesn’t prompt you for permission on launch, you didn’t launch it right. Use the right-click “run as administrator” option.
Hi, i would like you to guide me that how can i deploy xp/vista/windows7 wherein the os to be loaded from the centralized server to the client desktops. Is there any software or freewares available. Can anyone help me how to proceed with
Hi Al
I had the same – look at #577 and change to “never notify”
BUT I had to reboot – after I changed to “never notify” – before it worked.
After reboot – you can go step 6 – by open the cmd again.
F**king awesome!!! Thanks brawah
Works great!
Worked a treat !!
Thanks !
(remember guys – right click on the cmd to run as administrator or the boosect.exe wont work)
HI !!!
I’m Palestinian , So please excuse my English!!
I want to ask about the commands
SELECT DISK 1
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
SELECT PARTITION 1
ACTIVE
FORMAT FS=NTFS
(Format process may take few seconds)
ASSIGN
EXIT
Are these commands affect the machine I’m working in ?
I have a windows CD BUT My lptp DVD machine is out of work , and i need to install windows 7 on my lptp
IF I used this guides to install the CD contents to USB on my friend lptp ,,, does this affect hers ?
Thanks a lot
if step 7 fails, run command prmopt as administrator.
Hey man, thanks a lot. i was searching this type of method from last few days and now i got sucess. it really worked. THANKS alot bro.
After using BOOTSECT letter on the USB drive chnaged from F: to G:, if that is of help for someone there. Check the drive letter before doing step 7
I can’t figured out whats going on >__> I’ve changed the bios and I get an error. “bootmgr cannot be found”
hi Thnx a lot its work properly. if i want to make Bootable USB for XP
is i will follow above steps or some other steps
Thnx for it
Worked perfect…
Tryed with 7, 32 and 64 bits
Ty
it works
Thanks a million tonne. You’re a savior. This really works. My DVD drive isn’t working and I had no choice.
Thanks for the great DIY article! One question: what to do for people without the Windows7/Vista DVD? Software came pre-installed with licenses stick to the bottom of the netbook.
How do i get my USB flash drive to function as a mass storage device again?
I tried to install the way this tutorial said but at the formating the memory stick as NTFS it taked me samething more than 1 hour and got an error of formating also. So I had formated as NTFS in Windows 7 and copyed the files from the win7 image mounted with daemon tools (drag & drop – I had unchecked “Hide protected operating system files” from Folder and search options)and worked just fine with installing windows 7 on another computer.
It can do bootable usb with Transcend . I have tried to do bootable drive with Verico usb but I cann’t .
wonderfull guide man…you rock!!
Thanks! This really help me out in a jam. Not having a dvd-rom with my netbook can be a pain at times.
Worked great! Dell Optiplex 160 – no DVD ram, only USB. Thanks!
thanks alot
LIST DISK only shows my 2 local harddisk, and not the USB flash drive.
Pappi Boss Aap Chaa Gaye !!!!!
Master Brain Bhai!1 kya baat hai,
It helps me a lot on my mini laptop to install windows on my own.
Thanksss!!!
Bravo Yaar
Thanks! worked like a charm
So Dammnn Good, Marvolous Work, Grt,
U Must be some Windows Co-worker na.
Win 7 get installed only in 15 min compare to DVD Rom drive which takes 20-30 min.
Time, Money & Pressure, CD Cost etc. everything I saved
I purchased a new Flash Drive of 8GB and it works for me so good.
Bye, Have more fun and also give me the XP Booting related post.
Thanks Admin
sir when i type list disk , my USB volume is not listed, please help !!!
i’ve been follow ur steps and instruction to the last steps.. but after the bootsect.exe part i’ve got this
“target volumes will be update with BOOTMGR compatible bootcode.
could not map drive partitions to the associated volume device objects: access denied.”
can u help me with this thing please..
Thnx man, it workd
can i use win to flash and get the file on to my usb and follow the steps? if so what file type should it be after i format so the cpu can read it?
How to copy the windows 7 on Flash drive, directly copy and paste as we usually do in Flash drive or through command?
Thank you so much – this was the easiest install I’ve ever done.
thank u very much…..a sigh of relief…..phewww…..!!!
god bless u…. keep rocking….
can i do that all that work in my desktop for formating my laptop, or all this work have to be in that computer wich will be formated?
I followed sucessfully all the steps of this guide under Windows 7 Pro but when booting on my USB pendrive
I get the same error as mentionned earlier by madmax :
file : \Boot\BCD
status : 0xc000000e
info : An error occurred while attempting to read the boot configuration
I could not find in this discussion above any answer to madmax’s question so could please help us
Do you think this error message related to the preparation of the USB pendrive or to the capabilities of my mainboard ?
I get the same error message when using the official MS Tool
http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-create-bootable-windows-7-usb-to-install-windows-7-from-usb-flash-drive-using-windows-7-dvdusb-tool/
100% is nothing … MANY THANKS!!!!!!!!
Fantastic guide… thanks!
Hi,
thanks for the support it worked perfectly!!!
i have a little problem altough, i used my phone memory card as boot usb and now i can’t use it in the phone again, somehow the phone can’t recognise it… how can i fix it?
Yes it is “100% working.”
Thanks dude!!
i am very happy bcz it is very simple formula.
to avoid ACCESS DENIED errors, run cmd from system 32 folder “Run As Administrator”
For those having issues with not having a dvd to copy the files from. Use a virtual drive, there are a few good free programs that will mount iso images into a virtual dvd drive.
For people having issues with the bootsect.exe step, you will need to make sure you are using a 64bit OS to create a 64bit usb installer. I ran into this myself using 32bit vista on one of my laptops. I had to use my 64bit vista laptop to create a 64bit windows 7 usb isntaller for my netbook.
And remember to run Command Prompt as admin, if you run into issues with cmd prompt dropping admin privileges after exiting diskpart, you may be having an issue with the UAC. Just open a new cmd prompt as admin (easiest fix).
Great guide btw. Allowed me to format and reinstall 7 (using the DVD provided by the manufacturer) on a netbook without using an external dvd drive which I did not have the money to buy.
@Alex
Sorry, forgot to add this to my previous comment.
There are a few options for restoring the memory card to being usable in your phone.
Option 1: Delete the partition and create a new fat32 partition (I’ve noticed a lot of phones don’t recognize ntfs easily, some do). This is the easiest option
Option 2: This is for advanced pc users.. You can download and burn off a “Live” version of linux that will boot from disc and provide a full linux environment and use a disk partitioning program like gparted or Disk Utility
I recommend option 1, worked for a co-worker that had run into the same issue.
hi,
thanks for the answer! sorry for being stupid, but how do i delete the partition?
:)
hope this works..
I need to reinstall my windows 7
I have got a problem with my laptop that it is comfortably running the video DVD’s but it is not detecting the bootable DVD. How can i install the windows. Shall i copy the contents of DIsc image file in to USB and then make USB bootable and boot through it..
Please suggest …..
Great stuff. Worked like a charm. I tried another method that didn’t boot at all, but this one worked on the 1st try. I dir get an ACCESS DENIED when it tried to lock the disk for the ‘bootsect.exe /NT60 h:’ command, but it worked anyway. If you do it this way you’ll end up where you wanna be. Thanks!
Hi
I have got the problem in step 4.
In step 4 my flash drive do not show in command promt.
please solve the problem and reply me. Thanks
Can I use an sd card instead? I tried and it can’t create a partition when I type in create partition primary.
i tried the steps suggested to format laptop using usb . in second step i typed LIST DISK
i tried the steps suggested to format laptop using usb after insert the usb(pen drive 4gp) in usb port. in second step i typed LIST DISK . it list out disk0 only. it did not list any other disks such as disk1 for usb that i was inserted. so i cant proceed further .please tell me that how can i proceed further.
Everything went smoothly and I could boot from the USB but after that there is a message thy says: Bootmgr missing press ctl alt del to restart how to fix?
Hi! I have been using this Howto coz its really working. One observation though, after I converted the usb as a bootable win7 installer, I couldnt use it as file storage anymore. This happend to a brand new usb as well as my good old usb that has write protect switch.
Everytime I try to store files on an already bootable usb, its as if the the system releases the usb (like as if I ejected it) then after a few seconds, the system detects it again that its there and will offer for a scan for error. If I choose to scan, it wont push through and re-offers it again and again.
Btw, I cant format nor do anything to the usb’s partition.
when i install. it can not create system partition. why?
This is a perfect guide that does exactly what it says. Anyone who has problems with this guide is a noob.
Help
boots from usb, loads ok, then restarts but just starts the “load windows 7″ process again. if i take out usb it says no operating system.
sorry, as you can probably guess, i am a bit dim at this stuff
hi i got to step 7 and tryed it but got
could not map drive partitions to the associated volume device objects:
access is denied.
can someone please help
Tnx a lot! mounted .ISO with daemoon… works perfect
But is possible to make multi boot usb key?
windows X64 + 86 + Linux I now linux don’t like ntfs…
Can be this created on fat32 oh “forget it should be linux tool”
Tnx for this!!!
ok it’s already in your site…
Thanks!
i’we been using this guide soo much now it’s almost abusive.
I get stuck on step 4; how do i know which disk is for my usb? I selected disk 1 anyway and typed in CLEAN. its tells me VIRTUAL DISK SERVICE ERROR: there is no media on the device.” i didnt think anything of it because the usb didnt have anything on it to begin with. so I typed in Creat Partition Primary then tells me “No usable free extent could be found. it may be that there is insufficent free space to creat a partition at the specified size and offset….”
I dont know what that means. my usb is 4GB, is that too small? am I doing it wrong?
I compelete all the steps but when I use it in my laptop, I get this message “BOOTMGR is missing”. I don’t know what is the problem.
I m stuck here.. please help..
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6001]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\Windows\system32>diskpart
Microsoft DiskPart version 6.0.6001
Copyright (C) 1999-2007 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: SUMIT1-PC
DISKPART> LIST DISK
Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
——– ———- ——- ——- — —
Disk 0 Online 186 GB 0 B
Disk 1 Online 3875 MB 0 B
DISKPART> SELECT DISK 1
Disk 1 is now the selected disk.
DISKPART> CLEAN
DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk.
DISKPART> CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
There is insufficient free space to create a partition at the specified size
and offset.
Specify different size and offset values or don’t specify either to create the
maximum sized partition.
DISKPART>
Awsome ,
.
This work like Charm,
All we me People must follow are steps,
Religiously,
I am able to install in 12min
Hey Bek. Normally the DISK # would be the last on the list. Before you start, unplug any other external device from your system. And note if you have more than one internal hard drive. So if you have 2 internal drives and the one usb drive (the one you want to load the boot on), then the list would be:
Disk 0 (1st internal)
Disk 1 (2nd intermal)
Disk 2 (external)
Also the Size column, in your case should be a little under 4 gig. Will show something like 3242 MB.
Hope that helps
Hi. I’ve read all the posts hoping to solve my issue – but no luck. I hope someone has the answer…
I am trying to make my 1TB eGo USB 2.0 Desktop Hard Drive bootable. I am running Win 7. The bios hardware supports booting from a USB drive, and I am able to select the USB drive from the boot menu. But when I choose the USB drive, I get:
A disk read error occurred
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart
I am able to read/write from the USB drive normally via Win 7 with no problems. The USB drive is formatted NTFS and could this matter – my computer is 64 bit and the USB drive is formatted with whatever you get when you select NTFS – would that be 64 bit in my case?
Lastly, when I try the Windows 7 USB Tool, I can’t even get past selecting an ISO file – it says mine are invalid.
Is there any help for me??
please help me i am having an error (could not map drive the partition to the associated volume device object:access is denied) please help me
thank you
Hello, I am trying to install win7 ,I am reaching till getting install option after boot but I am getting error like “required cd/dvd drive device driver is missing.if you have a driver floppy disk,cd,dvd or usb flash drive,please insert it now…plz help me urgent
Installing operating system through usb flash drive is really a difficult task how ever installing vista and windows 7 are now made easy using the usb flash drive. The above listed post explains a step wise approach to installation using sub flash drive. impressive post , keep updating more important stuff.
Great Guide Man
Working Very well.
Thanks for your Post………
Thanks much, had a problem with access denied but read thread and I was not running CMD as administrator. Went back and ran CMD as admin and worked great!, needed win 7 for a NETBOOK format and reload.
thank you for this guide!.
I get following error message after BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 G: command
If I make the key on an ASUS windows 7 will it work to repair a totally f-ed up medion vista who always gets a blue screen while booting in evey single mode?
I have made an usb also with this methos, i have always the same problem. at the first it does not ask me to press any key to boot which it begins automatically. So it never finishes the installation since when the system reboots after the first phase, the installation starts again loading the files. any suggest please?
From a DVD there is no problem since it asks me to press any key to boot…
Thanks a lot. u really really helped me.
keep it up.
Had problem at bootsect but this [http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd535816.aspx] simple one worked at windows vista 32bit to install a windows 7 64bit.
forgot to add: use the ntfs instead of fat32, it’s better for larger (>4GB) drives
hi all got a problem. try to instal windows 7 from pendrive and after i make a choice with language time etc, on next screen showing me message i havent got some drivers and i need put a cd with windows. what i cant do becouse i havent got a dvd rom.
when i turn on my system it’s comming as BOOT ERROR, Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart.. my os has geen corrupted nd i dont have the DVD drive also.. can u tel me hw to install Windows7 using Pen Drive….
well thanks alot brother for this usiful lesson but i have a small problem , my windows which i want to download is not original , and its crack is built in it , when the setup reboots i had to change the boot priority from flash USB to HDD in order to complete instalation BUT when i do so the windows will not be cracked !!! what shall I Do ;
I’m trying this on a portable without any hard disk nor cd/dvd reader. It has just 2 USB entries. It works fine with Linux (no surprise!)
Thanks for your work !
Amadeu
Is there a way to get the USB to work for other purposes again afterward? Please reply to me asap, and preferably by email, if you can see it.
Regards,
Kairoko
Installing Windows 7 SP1 HOME PREMIUM on Emachines E528 in 6 minutes. Super!
Kairoko,
Hi – all you have to do is plug it into any machine and right click on the drive and format to either FAT32 or NTFS
and then VOILA!
awesome as i`m a tech noob i`m returning over and over to this site its awesome helped me several hundreds of times (a false exaggeration) keep making posts like this tnx a million (ROFL i like to roll on floor allot)
i cant get past step 3 lol, im on win 7 x64 and ive typed in diskpart and its shows the first part of the msg but not the diskpart> bit :S it wont let me type either.
i have left it alone for a while just incase it was having a moment of fail and being slow, ive even tried it from the start again (making sure i follow perfectly step by step and i still get the same thing.
im not a complete noob on computers but this is new to me
hi..
when a am execute bootsect.exe /nt60 f: (f is my usb drive letter) command the message I get is:
“Could not map drive partitions to the associated volume device objects: Access is denied.”
please give me the solution i’ve been follow ur steps and instruction 4 times…
does this process work on older systems which do offer booting from USB devices for instance a dell dimension 2400 please post when you get a moment.
WOW big ups to you sir, i can confirm it does work on older systems. Provided the system has the option to boot from a USB device,it will work. everything went great! thanks you very much.
p.s this was my first attempt at booting from a USB device and you made it very clear and straight forward.
i can’t thank you enough. keep up the great work. K + + +
Not sue if this has been mentioned before, if so, please delete my post.
First of many thanks for this great guide!
Created a Bootable pen drive with it and pluged it in only to get the message: “BootMGR file is missig”
Solution in my case:
Removable device Boot in Bios was enabled, but the Bios maped the Pen as a harddrive, so even if i manually chose: “Boot from removable device” BIOS didn’t find any and jumped to boot from Harddisk where it found no BootMGR.
When inspecting bootsequence in BIOS i could expand the entry “Harddrive” the expanded entry showed the built in harddrive as first device and the pen as second.
Well i switched the pen to first device and it worked.
Sry for this long explanation, i hope it can help.
ON STEP #8:
MY QUESTION IS WHAT IS FIRST THING TO DO BEFORE I COPY WIN7 INSTALLER INTO THE USB..BTW I GET THE INSTALLER IN TORRENT WITH THE .UIF EXTENSION.
hey thanks so much this was so hopeful keep it up man. hey and once you figure a way to install xp please post the link thanks.
My friend’s computer is not working. The system starts, says windows is starting and then again goes to first stage of statrup and this cycle goes on. I have pen drive which has Windows 7 Ultimate installation files in it. How to do it now.
HELLO
I DON,T THIS ON XP
NO DISK 1 APPEAR IN CMD COMMAND
LIST DISK
I HAVE NO DVD WRITER SO HOW I COPY THE FILE FROM DVD TO PENDRIVE
PLS SEND ME FOLLOWING STEP THROUGH EMAIL FOR XP
nice how-to, thanks
just add explanation that if your flash drive already has some letter, that last ASSIGN command is not needed (actually it will give error)
GREAT GUIDE!
my optical drive is damaged and in step 5 it is written that
insert windows disk………..can u help me?
I have the contents in my PC to copy but don’t have the CD with me how to proceed help. I am at the stage of DISKPART>EXIT now it shows C:\windows\system32>
how to proceed.
Regards
hi gys i found that problem……
Hlp is here XD ….late but Got it
4. Next type all the below commands one by one. Here I assume that your disk drive no is “Disk 1”.If you have Disk 2 as your USB flash drive then use Disk 2.Refer the above step to confirm it.
So below are the commands you need to type and execute one by one:
SELECT DISK 1
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
SELECT PARTITION 1
ACTIVE
FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK
(Format process may take few min)
EXIT…
u will be back to c:
then again type…your drive name “D:” (DVD Drive name)
AND SAME AS GIVEN THERE
D: CD BOOT
D:BOOT>BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 H:
Relly u did it Finaly
Thx..tweakwindows….add like be your frend i am your fan…xd:P
thx for this tweakwindows
boz of this i got how to use pendrive in ps2 ……thx alot
hope u have more prowrfull idea….
Hi i’m able to do all the steps right but i can’t make it sure whether it is bootable or not. When i attempted all the mentioned step the windows “icon” appeared on the USB drive. Now when i open it by double clicking instead of opening the autorun setup window, it explores the USB. Wat indication will help me know whether it has become bootable or not. Plz urgent help required.
what if my windows 7 dvd is not a bootable 1??will it work ??like will it copy all the files on the usb and work as a bootable 1?
guys, you gotta remember to move the files on the root of the USB drive. IF THEY are in a CD_ROM folder, Bootmngr will not be found by the BIOS
good luck and thanks for the awesomeness
Thanks so much for the effort here, really comprehensive guide, saved me alot of hair pulling. A very important webpage! Keep it up!
Thanks man working 100 percent
@Mazahyr
Try it on VMWare or VirtualBox.
@Jogh
If you don’t have a working optical drive and have an ISO file of Windows 7, simply mount it using Virtual Clone Drive.
hey i am also getting the error “a disk read error occured Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart” after trying to boot from the usb
i see there are several people who has this issue but is not resolved. admin if there is no solution, can u please provid an expaination
To all those receiving ‘disk read error’
I had this problem and strangely evaded it by simply having a second USB stick in the computer at boot up.
It was a Ubuntu USB boot that I had made but strangely somehow it managed to prompt the Windows 7 Install USB to boot.
Makes no sense at all but it worked!
Good luck
hey, I screwed another hard disk with these codes, it’s obvious that I made a mistake. I had more than 600gb data in it. Now when I double click on it in my computer it says it’s not been formatted.
Is there a way I can recover my files?
@feyaz no if it said its not formatted then all the data on it is already gone.
On another note, this worked great thanks.
I don’t know why my last entry wasn’t posted. Did I do something wrong?
i am create a bootable for 2 gb pen drive for xp.
but pen drive is 1time runing and then second time create bootable 2 gb than my pen drive is finish.
If you want a easy way (no need using command prompt, also avoid the problem of not seeing your usb drive when using the ‘list disk’ command) for creating a bootable usb drive for installing windows 7, download and use the tool from here. You can find the instructions here
http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-create-bootable-windows-7-usb-to-install-windows-7-from-usb-flash-drive-using-windows-7-dvdusb-tool/
Hi, I followed the guideline upto step 7. I used a 4GB usb stick but the Windows 7 DVD contents are 4,78 GB large. How is it supposed to fit into the stick. Thanks
very good
in addition for ppl who downloaded windows on their pc , in step 6
u first extract iso file of windows if it is
then u type that command but not choosing D: the driver letter u jst write first letter of drive u saved extracted files
then CD full path of location of ur files.
freaking awsome worked great thanks bunch and i tried like 5 differnt program that where just headache you saved the day THANK YOU
thank u so much, i tried many other trick but i fail all the time. this guide and screen shots make it easy and i succeed. once again thank’s a lot. it makes me ur fan.
I dont have a windows 7 dvd but i have windows setup in my computer can i make bootable usb from this. If yes plz tell me how
sir i dont have dvd drive. I have copied the installation files of windows 7 on my hard disk .I am not able to get how to use D; CD BOOT command
can we use that USB drive for further use ?
Thank you for your post, it helped a lot,
every step was correct, and it is faster,
than using DVD.
This is so so cool. I’ve done it and it’s working 100%. Thank you very much for this guide.
thanks a lot but , can i do this without DVD / Flash ?
hey guys wy wasing time on windows try linux mint one dvd will install all of ur needs. vlc open office image editor all drivers and u can boot live using a pen drive no need to install it!!!
and best part no viruses and a very stable system with superfast booting time give it a try
Works 100%, tested and running windows 7 installed from USB Stick! Nice work!
Tnx bro. Tnx for sharing such valuable info.
May GOD BLESS U.
how to make usb noramal. I cant format my usb pls help
Diskpart is different on XP to Vista and Windows 7. So the above guide probably won’t work in XP because some features of Diskpart that work in Vista and Windows 7 don’t work in XP. We found this out at work over a year ago when attempting to do the same thing.
Extremely useful guide – you’re a STAR!!!
thanks a lot dude
Can we format our pen drive or sd card after installation??
Can that be used as a normal pendrive after installation??
hey,
can the USB be used again as it was before copying windows 7 setup in it? or its turned into permenently a Windows 7 setup drive ?
@Karaciite
You will able to use it again for other purpose.
For some of you who cannot get the USB to recognize or the USB to boot, chances are your USB flash drive itself doesn’t like to be a boot device.
My 4GB Cruzer Micro refuses to be a boot device, while my 4GB OCZ ATV has no problem. Keep this in mind.
Wow…Thanks…That’s great
Oh My God, I cant do anything when the error display the message in the empty box:
”
Install WIndows
No dirves were found. Click Load Driver to provide a mass storage dirver for installation”
”
Notice: I did step – by – step as 9 steps above,all ok. But when I install windows 7 (set BIOS priority to USB ok), the error displayed.
I hope you help me.
ok thnx
dude…. it just stuck in 100 percent!!!!! what should i do??????????
Works Perfect with Windows 7. Followed the guide and worked like a dream..!
Thanks for a super duper guide.!!
Did this with Windows 2008 R2 .iso Worked flawlessly. Thanks TweakWindows!!
Excellent article. Got it working first time. Saved me ball ache! Thanks mate.
Great post!!!
By any chance do you have a similar one for Windows XP?
Thanks
Just wanted to say “thank you”, I’ve been using this guide for a while and it always works and always helps! Thank you
Hi,
Great doc – thanks.
I’ve done this now 4 times – but I get stuck at the end.
The whole process works as described, and I *can* boot from the external USB disk.
Interestingly, the bios quickly flashes that there is no boot device – but then it does boot from the external USB disk and runs the Win7 installer.
However…when I try to install Win7 (clean install) – and I list the 2 partitions (1st one is the main C: Drive and the second listed in the USB partition [Disk 1 Partition 1]) I get the message:
“Windows cannot be installed to this disk. Setup does not support configuration of or installation to disks connected through a USB or IEEE 1394 port.”
Any hints?
The bios does allow booting to USB – and as above, the laptop does boot OK into Win7 installer – I just can’t install it?
Thanks.
Additional to post 909;
On a separate PC, boot from Win7 CD – try to install Win7 to the external USB disk – and get the same message as above.
Not sure why it’s not working for me.
For those getting the error of “There is insufficient free space to create a partition” …
I was getting the same error. I had to CLEAN again and then it worked. You might also have to clean all.
Hope that helps.
Thanks for this guide, it saved me having to replace an external DVD rom, for all those that got the problem of “read error” all you need to do is substitute fs=ntfs to fs=fat32, that fixed my problem.
Update to Post 911.
For what it’s worth – this post worked for me:
http://reboot.pro/9196/
Hi,
Thanks for your help and article.
I test it and it work.
Thanks for he helpful tip. I just got a new CPU/MOBO and turns out it doesn’t have any IDE interfaces, and I have no SATA DVD drive! I used to image XP machines from a USB drive using GHOST and an HP/Thin Client utility… I figured there had to be a way to do this in Windows.
Thank you very much , ……
I was looking for this from a log time , i tried and is success.
Thnks once again …..
This guide is much better than any other I’ve come across, esp for how to format the usb drive. Thanks!
it worked perfectly! thank you so much!!
Hello,
I just wanted to thank you for this step-by-step guide.
It was amazing and it worked PERFECTLY fine.
Thank you again.
I completed the task upto 4th step completely..
as i m not having the optical drive, is there any other way because i am having the setup files of windows7 in my harddisk.
Hey there, I don’t know if this question has been answered before but, can i use this on my external harddrive ? And can i use this without having the installation files? since i dont have a Installation DVD is the installation files somewhere on the current harddrive?
Can i know how to restore my usb drives lost space?
Actually when I was trying the upper steps..my usb is showing 125Mb memory while it was of 16GB….Please help somebody….
Awesome post. thank you very much. worked fine for installing SBS 2011.
Question:
If my optical drive is not working (that’s why I need this tutorial to reinstall/reformat my PC using Bootable USB) and I have my ISO image (also the extracted file) of Windows Vista on my hard disk, how about step 6? am I still using the CD BOOT command on this matter?
Help, thanks!
mine says
couldnot map drive partitions to the associated volume device object:
access is denied
PLEASE HELP!!
sir when i type the command “BOOTSECT.EXE/NT60 H:” IT SAYS that”could not map drive H:to an associated volume device ” what should i do man?
I am getting “BOOTMGR is Missing” any solutions ?
thanks a lot man!!! this realy works !!! its awesome
You’re amazing, thanks
Hi Team,
I have a problem with my DVD writer. Hence, I could not be able to do the Step – 5. Please advice.
What if the USB drive is already formatted in NTFS file system? Is it ok to skip the “FORMAT FS=NTFS” step?
Reply me as soon as possible.
I’ve used this guide 4 or 5 times in the last week. Lots of users here seem to be getting cd/dvd drive-less laptops.
Even the walkthrough on MS’s website doesn’t have step 7. Great walkthrough for booting to a Windows 7 installation from USB.
Thanks very much.
@phil and @Hero,
Make sure you’re aopening the command prompt with admin rights.
Start menu -> cmd -> right click “Run as admin”
its still works on may 2011….simple, clear and awesome guide….
Did exactly what you said and it worked exactly as you said it would. Excellent documentation.
hey,please tell me how to do the same work in windows xp
Hey for people having problems you should explore other ways to do it lol http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd535816.aspx try this site or just google windows 7 usb evangelist the first link is the site anyway i used to try this method but odd enough i couldn’t get past after certain step and as pointed out by those that fail even when the method works during installation problem occur so here you go i wasn’t going to type my comment in at first till i realize its 2011 and more than ever people are still doing this so here is an alternative cheers
Genius! Worked like a charm. Thanks for posting.
WinToFlash applications works perfect. Im using Windows XP on my laptop and i want a usb bootable thumb drive containing windows 7 to install on my another desktop pc.. I’ve used wintoflash and it works great on my Kingston 4gb usb thumb drive.
thanx….
100% working
great tutorial…
illustrated….
@phil
type the command after restarting your pc…
same problem occured here….
i just restarted my pc and it worked
Greetings!
can you give me a link where i can download win7 ulti 32bit?
thanks
Thank you very much for this tutorial. Works great!
@phil: H: has to be the drive letter of you USB Stick!
why windows 7 starter cannot set picture at desktop?
@ joshua
Check this post: http://www.intowindows.com/download-windows-7-enterprise-90-day-trial-now/
Hi Thanx allot handsome. Its 100 percent working.I was under presser with a Laptop you helped me. Wish u all the best. Tc
Hello. I have a 8gb kingston pen drive. I have did all the steps. At the end i have copied the files from the dvd win 7 ultimate to the stick. On boot it says : pen drive without operating system. Please help.\
I did a mistake. Now i now what it was. My stick is bootable. Thanks for this tutorial.
thank u so much work perfectly. it really help
how to revert the flash drive back to normal file transfer usage?
Thanks my friend the command line way works really nice!
i want to intall windows 7 using bootable pendrive
but they show me error drives not found so what can i do?
plz mail me suggestions
Hi, i have one concern because you see i have already a soft copy of the windows 7 installation files. There is no DVD file on it. So, my concern is that what am i gonna do in step 6 and step 7? what should i skip? or is there something else i should do? Please Help. email me PLEASE..
hi tnx
i did evry rules but i have a problem
in boot select in bios i have 4 USB choos
usb cd rom
usb zip
usb hdd
usb fdd\
which one i shoul choos ?
when i choos USB HDD an error acored that press crt+del+alt to restart and cant boot
why ?
Thx for the advises
THe thing is, that is has been impossible for me to do it from my laptop. But when using my friends stationary there is not any problem.
when using the command function, it can only find my harddrive (C:)
Working perfect Big Thanks!!!
I got this Error in step4: bootsect.exe/NT60 E:
” Target volumes will updated with BOOTMGR compatible bootcode.
could not map drive partitions to associated volume device objects: access denied.”
hi,
i am the whole process, it works fine but in the end it states
“could not map drive partition to the associated volume device object: access is denied”
can somebody please help me with this!
@EVERYONE WHO HAS HAD THE “BOOT MGR MISSING ERROR”
SOMEONE ELSE HAS ALREADY MENTIONED THIS, BUT IT WAS RIGHT SMACK IN THE MIDDLE AND UNNOTICEABLE. IF YOU ARE HAVING THIS ERROR CHANCES ARE THAT ON YOUR USB FLASHDRIVE OR HARDDRIVE THE NECESSARY FILES ARE SAVED IN A FOLDER PROBABLY CALLED “CD-ROM”. YOU MUST EXTRACT THE FILES FROM THAT FOLDER AND MAKE SURE THEY ARE AT THE ROOT OF YOUR FLASHDRIVE/HARDDRIVE INSTEAD OF BEING TRAPPED IN SOME ADDITIONAL FOLDER.
HOPE THIS HELPS!!
I was able to do all the steps on a 4 gb flash drive, but i ran out of space so I purchased an 8 gb. When I get to step 4 – creating the partition I get the following error: there is insufficient free space to create a partition at the specified size and off set. Specify different size and offset values or don’t specify either to create the maximum size partition.
I have tried several times with same error. As I noted above the first time on the smaller flash drive it worked fine. Any idea?
why it said no device driver were found??i have followed all the steps to transfer the file from dvd to usb device.
Plz help..thx
hey man i was just wondering if i can copy the file of both windows vista and windows 7 on the same pen drive.
Thanks for the steps..
God Bless … Thanks sooooooooo much!
COOL!!! This is the most easy & most detail instructions ever! Thanks a million!
@Themba & hamza: Be sure to run the cdm (or command prompt) as administrator. Step 2.
Thanx for the method
But be sure not to do the ‘clean’ action on just a partition of your drive. Clean works for the whole disk (even if you selected just a volume/partition). Just lost 350Gb of files because of that -_-
But thanx anyway
btw: if you just have an iso, you could mount it with Deamon Tools (free)
read your post..followed the steps. really worked for me .. thanks a bunch.
there are a bunch of idiots in all these post this method works fine and even works to creat a xp install from usb but for all the dummies who dont read the directions right just leave your computer the way it is yes you need x86 to create 32 bit boot disk as you need x64 version to creat x64 also less you doo all this from a virtual machine you can bypass all the steps after diskpart and use the simple “xcopy d:\*.* /s/e/f e:\” with the actual disk or mounted iso image or for even the short buss cumputer techs on here just download win to flash if you dont know how to code or understand the simple comands given to you
thanks for your great work TWEAKWINDOWS
Hi,
Since i have my Win 7 files as an iso file, i have extracted the image onto d drive. Can i use the steps you mentioned and instaed of “D: CD BOOT”, i can use the drive i have the files in and proceed as you mentined but just changing the drive letters accordingly.????
This has got to be the best how-to for usb boot I’ve come across. Thank you very much for it.
Yep! It does work!
Thanks m8!
Great docs, easy to understand. What I found is I had to do the bootsect /NT60 h: after the file copy, then it seemed to work.
This works everytime
Been using this every now and then and it works allways! Really great tutorial. Works just as well with Windows Server 2008 R2.
Thanks for a great tutorial.
Didn’t work…. When I typed in LIST DISK it first showed only my hard drive… Then I put my flash Drive in another port (K) and when I typed in LIST DISK it gave me a list of dos commands…. Do you know why?
Thanks
OK I get it… Doesn’t work with xp
Has any one done a write up for doing this for XP?
And if so what is the web address?
OR what are the steps for doing this for a XP installation?
Works great for windows 7! At first I was afraid of what’ll happen to my USB drive. After typing CLEAN, it displayed an error report and my USB device light kept blinking. I exited disk part and restarted the procedure. This time it worked perfect. I was able to reformat my HP laptop flawlessly. Thanks!
“BOOTMGR is missing ” I m getting this message although everything else was successful as mentioned in the guide and then I copied the Win 7 all files into the USB flash .. but its not working and displaying the message i mentioned at the start .. plz guide
Thank you so so much!
I was an idiot and tried to use my previous DVD Drive to install on a new system, just for my luck I had a I/O error…
I followed this guide and it was perfect… Windows installed in minutes!
The only hiccup that I encountered was a failure in CMD to do a format, so I just used the Right Click > Format > NTFS and then did the CD Boot commands and it worked wonders
Thank you, Sir.
PS – Your face should be printed on money!
you said Format process may take few seconds ! but it take few hours for me ! why ?
thanks
This is awesome, My DVD drive on my laptop allowed me to format my hardrive before trying (and failing) to install Windows 7. I have struggled for hours to get my drive to read the DVD correctly and install an operating system to no avail. This guide has basically turned my laptop from a paperweight with no OS to a fully functioning Windows 7 machine once again. Cant thank you and the work you have done on publishing this enough, very much appreciated !
This is the best “Make Win7 bootable pendrive” post.
Thanks dude
great information…….
thank u so much for sharing
can it will work on netbook
ur guide is almost done. but at the end part i did format the “c” drive and click “NEXT” button.so its display a error massage that is “setup was unable to create a new system partition Or locate an existing system partition.see the setup log files for more information”.
so plz rly to me.thanks to u
hi,Thanks to you for sharing this.Actually my DVD drive was not working and i was not getting any way to install my new copy of windows so i copy all my data in my USB drive attached with other desktop machine and by using this process i installed windows on my laptop.It is really an amazing way for installation.
Worked like a charm! I was having network connection difficulties on my HP mini 210. It would connect wireless for about 15 minutes then drop and not come back. HP determined that it might be a windows issue and wanted me to reinstall Windows 7 Starter with their USB drive. Rather than wait over 5 days for the drive, I followed these steps (very clear btw) and it booted right into the reinstall and it kicked off just fine. Now I can put a fresh install of 7 Ultimate on and see if that fixes it. Thanks!
All the steps went fine and I have set the removables to the 1st place at the boot priority order but still nothing happens. Why?
I did everything but when i try to install the operating system it says
Windows cannot install required files. Make sure all files required for installation are available, and restart the installation. Error code: 0x8007045D
I try deleting and saving the files from the dvd again to the usb but the same thing happen. I am mounting the iso and saving those files, does it not work like that?
Please see below, what’s wrong? =(
———————————————————X:\BOOT>BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 M:
Target volumes will be updated with BOOTMGR compatible bootcode.
M: (\\?\Volume{41bc0891-3a3e-11e0-92ec-1c6f6590ed84})
Updated NTFS filesystem bootcode. The update may be unreliable since the
volume could not be locked during the update:
Access is denied.
Bootcode was successfully updated on all targeted volumes.
X:\BOOT>
———————————————————
Hey,
I tried doing this on my external HDD and it didn’t work. So I used a USB Flash Drive and it worked great. But now when I try to use my External HDD, it won’t work at all. Any help?
Thanks.
Man, works like a charm. Tks very much.
Cheers
fantastic!
nice update it really help keep it up,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
how to windows7 install from usb drive detail
ihave a doubt in the 8th step,where u say to copy the windows files to usb.there what’s copying,does it mean to copy image file?.
Thankyou, after running into the problem of the windows 7 installation hanging when it expands files when i used the dvd was doing my head in, then using this method and booting the setup via usb, made it work like a charm
Hmz, you can skip the step with Diskpart
mostly because it takes too long (16gb stick)
You can just reformat it quickly into NTFS format.
then do the step that comes after Diskpart.
Works like a charm aswell.
I had follow all your instruction and I got it all smooth. But when I tried to use my USB to boot my Acer 4530, I got the message BOOT MGR MISSING. What’s wrong?
great !!!
my problem is,
‘BOOTSECT.EXE’ is not recognized as an internal or external command operable program or batch file.
what i need to do?
Why not “show hidden folders and files” in folder options and open the windows 7 disc and copy all the files to a flash drive. works for me 100% of the time
How can i understand what is my usb disc number? pls help
i will try this process ok bt thanks for this
M gonna try this right now. My cd/dvd-rom are not working since 2 months. I thought i wont be able to format until i get it right.. lets see if it works:-)
Thank you very much, the guide was extremely helpful!!!
great stuff!!
1. My disk no. of USB flash drive is disk 2. Do i need to type SELECT PARTITION 1 or 2 in my case?
2. My CD-ROM and DVD-ROM are not working, it don’t detect any CD or DVD. Everything went smooth till i typed F: CD BOOT (F is my DVD RW drive). The error comes: “The device is not ready”. What should i do now??
For those who got the message “COULD NOT FIND MAP DRIVE PARTITION TO THE ASSOCIATED VOLUME DEVICE OBJECT:
ACCESS IS DENIED” you did not run cmd as administrator that is why the access is denied. So, close de de cmd and open it as describe in step 2:
*Go to Start menu > All programs > Accessories, right click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.
I know very well that one windows 7/xp/vista in one bootable pen drive but i don’t know that how to creat Bootable flash/pen drive of Windows 7, Vista, or XP in one pen/flash drive please help me
|Used your method as described, works great, thank you.
U save my day…thank u…
Followed to the letter, multiple times. Doesn’t work for me. Says bootmngr is missing, and yes USB is set as primary boot drive. Help?
On windows 7 removable drives will not appear in the list of disks. If your usb is not showing up in the list of disks, instead of LIST DISK and SELECT DISK 1, type LIST VOLUME and SELECT VOLUME 1.
Oh, and cheers for a great guide!
I have a question why doesn’t Windows Copying 100% all files
it is just copying 10% the files ? please answer
Just a notice. I downloaded a fresh copy of Vista, and i used daemon tools to mount the iso file. And everything worked 100%.. GL, and great guide, best out there, Would be nice with a guide for XP too
hi sir,its good but end of part its shows error msg that ìs set up was unable to create an system partition or locate an exits system partition.see the setup log files .
plz how could u slove this. and rly to me
Ben… try this…
Type “G:” (g being the flash drive and with out the quotations) Then press -Enter-
xcopy h:\*.* /a /e /k (H: being the drive where your windows 7 disk is)
Then press -Enter-
Opps Tony not Ben…
Thanks for this. The DVD drive in my kid’s PC died just before they managed to destroy the XP install that was on there. I was going to have to rat a DVD from another machine until I found this article.
Thanks a lot !! it worked just fine on the second attempt…Very useful..keep up the good work
hi there…
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!
u made my day…
thanks bro..
Great dude…
Thanks..
Good onya mate.
That’s great
It worked. Thanks for the article. 5 stars on the clarity, compare your solution to others, refer to a simpler soluiton for less technical users, and make it #1 rank on search engine.
i got same problem like few ppl here which someone described like this
“Here is the message after typing BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 H:
“This version of F:boot\bootsect.exe is not compatible with the version of Windows you’re running. Check your computer’s system information to see whether you need a X86 (32-Bit) or X64(64-Bit) version of the program, and then contact the software publisher. ”
I SOLVED IT
just unomounted the iso from virtual drive and did all the steps again..
BUT I found out that i mounted wrong file to virtual drive!
this is why ppl got this problem
just mount the instalation of w7 in the drive. do this all steps and it will work for sure!
good luck
Hey great Tutorial.
Tried it on my laptop and works like a charm
But the second time around when I accidentally chose my Backup disk, during the FORMAt FS=NTFS process I realize it was my hardisk. So I closed CMD, and there it was my Harddrive was gone and undetected by my Comp. Can Someone help me? Really appreciate your help guys
Could someone please help me? I have basicaly 3 issues.
1. My Dvd player is not running (reason why I’m here)
2. I erased the partition containing the official Windows 7 file…
3. No OS running on my PC.. so no VPC possible.
Could someone please guide me where I could find downloadable Windows 7? I have an official OEM Windowns 7 key. But realised I did not receive any CD with.
Can I create a bootable USB key without burning DVD?
Thanks
hey man u rock.!!
although i did it from a win 7 32 bit version for a 64 bit win 7 setup and it did give an error as many of the above comments have..yet i continued with the copying all the files and EUREKA…
the usb became bootable!!
thanks a lot man…u r a genius..!!
plzz…ma laptop says”BOOTMGR is compressed”….ma cd rom isnt working so…am using usb..i copied the recovery disk to the disk but its stilll showing the same thing..plz help
i tried ur command prompt n its telling me cannot map drive partition, access is denied
For anyone having problems with the initial setup starting again from scratch when the computer restarts, it isn’t necessary to remove the USB drive at any point.
Simply monitor the installation process closely and when the computer restarts for the first time, re-enter BIOS immediately and change the boot device priority so that the (non-USB) hard drive is the first boot device. Save settings and exit BIOS.
This only needs to be done once and the rest of the installation will complete successfully, regardless of the number of restarts.
That was an excellent guide. Well done.
Yep. Worked fine for windows 7. Good technique without using any kinda software. Thanx for d info.
Confirm that this works on Windows XP computer being used to download the torrent
First I got an error so I used an 8GB FlASHDRIVE drive and then it worked
Cool!
i’m having an error that “bootmgr file is missing” what can i do for tat…
A really usefull post – Thank you very much I wish you will not mind me writting about this post on my website I will also link back to this post Thank you
thanks a lot.u rock man.
Thank you, it works.
Hi …
Well, it actually worked perfectly according to my Windows installation but in “damaged” my usb device in some kind.
I usually use that one for having live Linux-Images handy, created by “UNIVERSAL-USB-INSTALLER” from pendrivelinux.com …
The thing now is, that it is not possible for me to get that working again. I think this is caused by the action of BOOTSECT.EXE … Is there any possibility to undo the changes bootsect.exe has made? I’d be very glad, if you can help me. I will also write a more detailed description if needed.
Regards
hringriin
Thank you so much! stroke of awesomeness! I have used this guide now 15 times! and have it permantly saved on my hard drive! You are amazing and your that kind of people that make the internet not complete trast
this is the best tutorial ever!!!!!!!!!!!! A total retard can do this!!!!!!!!
thank you, really! it works…….Gracias…. Gran idea. funcional..!
could you help me PLEASE!! i followed everything up until bootsec.exe /nt60 g:
“it tells me that acces is denied”
any suggestions?
ty i love how u explaned it u should be on every problem site. ty again
i followed all the steps mentioned in the guide and all went well, until… when i boot into the usb drive successfully, it says “no operating system detected”? why doesn’t it start the setup files?
Hi,
I had ‘disk read error’ with Transdcend 8Gb card. I switched to aData 8Gb card and everything worked fine.
Regards,
Algis
thanks tweak it works smoothly on windows 7 this really help a lot. very detailed on explanations and job well done. =)
hi there!
this is really great, i just have 1 question though
when you Copy your Windows 7/Vista DVD contents to the USB flash drive, do you need to create a folder first or just copy all the files to the USB.
also does it matter if the windows 7 is in .iso format? or you need to extract all files first and then copy to USB? thank you so much!
BRO I LOVE YOU YOU ARE A GENIOUS I WORKS IS PERFECT YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Hey
Firstly to the author of this article, this was terrific. A fantastic guide with very clear instructions. Thanks very much for this.
Secondly to Jeff; you don’t need to create a folder. After following the instructions set out here, make sure that there is nothing on the USB drive and then copy the contents of the windows disk (in their entirety) onto the drive. Make sure that the BIOS loads from the drive first, or press F12 during boot, and you’re set.
Tom
Can’t get it to work, I can boot Linux distributions fine with this BIOS settings and I followed all steps.
Thank you so much, i’m copying the files right now, you are saving me a lot of frustration if this works !
Hey some one pease help me
I am getting this error while creatimg primary partition:
There is insufficient free space to create a partition at the specified size
and offset.
Specify different size and offset values or don’t specify either to create the
maximum sized partition.
My USB is 8 gb and completely empty and formatted
PLZ help I need this to work
This guide is terrific. I’ve been using this for years. The directions are clear and concise. If you cant follow it, perhaps, you shouldn’t be installing windows via usb and go grab yourself an external dvd drive.
BLESS!!!!!! TO THE FULLEST fatB……Jamaica
does this work if the laptop im trying to use the usb with is windows 7 starter?
I am stuck at part 6. when in CMD entering D:CD BOOT IT TELLS ME D:CD is not a recognized command so I entered D: to bring me into D: and entered CD BOOT that brought me to D:\Boot> after entering BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 G it says that is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. Can anyone help me navigate around this problem?
@ Alex
Should work fine.
worked perfect for me,,really got me out a bind,,,thanks
I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU!!! I have trying to boot and install Windows 7 my stubborn HP mini all day – you just save me over $200!!!! Thanks so much. Keep up the good work!!!!
Great how-to. Thanks
Thanks so much, I repaired my computer with a USB Win 7 64 bit, by using your help guide. Praying for you…
Instead of using format fs=ntfs use
format quick fs=ntfs
This will take a few seconds, where just format can take up to a few minutes depending on the USB drive.
Thanks alot! Worked like a charm!
awesom information very good thanks for sharing.
Hi there thank you for the great guide, it worked well!!
ButI do face some weirdo problem here. I am installing Win7 64bits and the install will require a reboot. At the beginning usually we press any key to enter the windows setup but after the reboot it is not required.
However by using pendrive as bootable driver the “press any key to continue” screen doesn’t appear anymore and it keep self entering the setup and stopped me from completing the setup…anyone have clue on this problem?
please describe this in a video
Can I install windows 7 64bit version on a windows 7 32 bit version? if yes… then how can I do this?
thnx =)
man how to find whether my mother board supports usb bootable,,…
Amazing! i never thought I could do it by myself. Thanx for ur help.
hey dude, nice guide.. now i can use my usb as a primary boot device cause my netbook doesnt have a cd/dvdrom.
Cool,thanx dude. This help me a lot
Hi there i have done this and put my USB in and it sarted to take me throgh the set up process, but the computer is then asking me for the drivers. The drivers are on a seperate disk and i have no idea what drivers it would need etc. can you please help me??
Striky just change your bios on restart to start hard drive before usb.
It worked perfectly for me…
My system copy installation files and extract files and restarts and after that again and again system restarts
great article, thanks
Recently my DVD drive is being damaged. I could not setup windows. This USB windows setup tips helps me a lot. Thanks to the author…..
Wonderful post…i am installing windows with this method.
Thanks dear
So… I got through the guide splendidly, the PC booted, but the data were somehow corrupt, so the installation couldn’t get to an end. But when I inserted the stick and wanted to rewrite the data, so I could do all that again, Win just couldn’t find it. No trace of inserting anywhere. Anyone any hints? I never heard about making a brick out of USB, but I might have just done that xD
Cheers,
- DZ
its very slow format i think that will take a days for formating my flash only
Thanks anyway for shared information
very concludent guide, ty
As other have said above me (#286 for one), you don’t need to type “D: CD BOOT” and then “CD BOOT” the first command “D:” and then the second command “CD BOOT” is fine. Anything after the space in the “D:” command was ignored. All you are doing is navigating the command prompt to “D:\BOOT”. That’s just how the command line works.
p.s. Aside from the above mentioned bug, great article. I didn’t know you could do all this with just command line tools
Thanks, it works perfectly!
okay i did every ting step by step and i still get when i put it into my laptop boot manager missing :/ any suggestions?
Don’t bother reading those computer nerd guides that never works. After spending hours of reading similar guides, i finally saw someone in the comments field mentioning the program win2flash, that made it work in a few seconds!
*** USE Win2Flash (if you want to save time and troubles) ***
hello sir
i did exactly what you said.process was a complete. But when i tried it in my system it showed “A disk error occurred. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart”.
Please reply ASAP
i have followed this tutorial to the letter and the usb boot works perfectly but on installation i get ” No device drivers were found make sure instalation media contains the corect drivers ” the media i used installs on any machine i have and works perfect … any idea why it dont install from usb
thanks in advance
redbeard
hi man. it used to be as easy as copying the windows 7 ultimate cd to my ext hdd and i’d be able to use it to boot up. but suddenly it didnt work anymore. after finding this site, i’m able to install frm my ext hdd.
thanks loads man!
my problem is i don’t have optical drive.
If you’re having trouble finding your disk in list disk you can just type “select volume D:” for example (where D: is the drive letter of your usb). Also for the format selection you can also type FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK so the format is a quick format rather than a 5-10 minute one.
Good Luck!
hello.
i just have one question:
after formatting the usb, and i don’t have windows 7 installed in cd but i have a copy of windows 7 activator.
will i just send a copy of windows 7 on my reformatted usb?
thanks a lot and god bless . ..
Please note that Windows 7 setup doesn’t support USB 3.0 device to boot from. This causes a error during installation that the installer needs drivers. Very simple solution is to put the USB stick into a USB 2.0 port!
Thanks for this guide, works perfect for me!
I tried using this and it worked. But when the setup is restarting the system, it again loads windows 7 and installs a copy again. The setup isn’t getting completed.
Is it ok if my ext hdd has other content?will it be erased or be affected if I will follow your process?
I cannot get past step 1. After I type in diskpart all bthe shows up except diskpart> so I can’t enter the rest of the commands.
works like a charm ,thanks a ton
Thanks,i was tried and it works perfectly!
works like a charm. I’d buy you a beer or 3 for all the time you saved me. cheers!
hey i got a multi boot usb key with win 7 in it but when trying to instal windows it says it can’t find drivers for HDD but useing a dvd it finds the drivers. Please help
Great. Don’t have any idea what i just did but it worked. Followed every step carefully and my netbook is right now next to me finishing the install.
Thank you!
Tried it and it works 100%
Great tutorial
When i go to boot from my usb device it tells me i’m missing the boot manager and to hit ctrl alt del to reboot.
i followed all the steps and the boot manager step installed correctly. Any idea what the problem could be?
It works on windows 7 32bit. gonna try on 64bit
thanks bro…for share…
Worked a treat! Thanks!
Guys…My USB is working with this things
Thank you very much for this guide. This is a great effort.
THANKS MAN ITS WORKS I AM HAPPY COZ OF YOU THANKS A LOT
thank u verry much for this tuto
Hi. I tried this twice now and have seemingly ruined 2 seperate usb thumb drives (Lexar Echo and Verbatim Tuff n Tiny). An error appeared after attempling to clean the thumb drives. After that point the drives are no longer functional and I can’t complete the rest of the process. Any ideas?
I’m running Windows 7 Professional 32-bit on an HP Mini
Thanks
Great Teacher, very well explained free-of-cost unlike to most web sites which takes the readers a ride and finally request for credit cards. You are a Bonafide Samaritan…. Good Job and keep it go…. We are there with you… Viji, Sri Lanka.
hi , any one knows below pls help me.
I just tried this and works fine. I just installed win 7 from the USB pen drive. but after that my pendrive is not working. Its just blinking and i see its size as zero (0).
Who can help me fix this. pls pls pls pls pls
@ phantom-IT
Please try to format the pen drive.
@ Dean
Sorry to hear that your USB thumb drives are not working after trying out this guide. Is Windows detecting the drive? Can you see the drive in My Computer or Computer?
wooo it works 100%…. thanks dude
The thumb drives are no longer recognised. It’s no big deal as I just returned one of them to Best Buy. I would really like to know how to re-install windows on my netbook though so I’m wondering is there’s any work-around to the clean process. Or if there’s some other way of formatting the thumb drive for the installation process.
Thanks for the help.
u rule man .. works like a glove
to enable listdisk in windows xp download this tool
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/confirmation.aspx?id=23711
darnn… you should’ve wrote the quict ntfs forman command, not the standard, it’s taking forever on this aspire one xD
hey man i havnt got the windows 7 cd but got a torrent. do you know exactly what files i need to download/mount. thanks.
Technology make me live and without advance and new tech life is not good.. New OS With New features Windows 8
Hi i want to block this side please help me. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHh My God
THANK YOU!
u r awesome, m a big fan of urs,u rock…..:)
Just one small problem, it doesn’t seem to detect my flash drive I’ve tried everything I know and no matter what, it doesn’t appear when I type List Disk. Any advice?
guys igot my usb “no media” … can you help me out.? i almost done it.. but i might have skip a step..:(
u r rock man..
I ALREADY MADE IT WORK.(USB) JUST THAT IT SAYS THE DEVICE IS NOT READY WHEN I TYPE “D: CD BOOT”
Step 6,7 are very important. Otherwise the install will say Device Driver missing.
hey i created bootable pen drive n i want to install windows 7 in boot options they r showing usb-hdd,usb-fdd,usb-zip i do not know from where to boot pl tell
but isn’t that dvd drive would already be the usb.coz the dvd files(win7 instalation files are in usb already)? it only says device not ready TT
Thank u very much , this thing really worked for me. I appreciate ur work!!!!!
how would u install from usb if you don’t have the windows 7 disk but have the windows 7 iso file on the usb onto a pc with no operating system?
Thanks, I have been wondering how to do this!
Can you please explain me step no 8. How to copy windows 7 content in usb drive.
I mean wheter we should exit commaond prompt after step no 7?
thank u very much for this tutorial!
thanks dude….,,,
thanks man
Works fine. But the total beginner needs to be told that they need to have bootsect on their machine and perhaps a link to download it.
hey man i have win7 ultimate files in my sony walkman who could i copy those using cd boot command i’ve tried this command
g: cd boot
as my sony walkman is on g drive
but it didn’t work and showed this msg
diskpart>
can you help me
keep the good work man!
You’re my hero
is there any way tat i can disable this on my usb?
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn and post comments in your site.
Hello and help, I tried this on my eeePC 1005PE but it is not recognizing the USB stick, I tried 6 of them but nothing. Always: “Reeboot and select a propper boot device …”
What can I do? My current win 7 installation is not working anymore. I tried even to reset the Cmos and removed the battery … but nothing…. help please, i am going mad…
any idea??
cheeers
I had some troubles with step 7 as well, but found out I needed to run the command as an Administrator and had nothing to do with x64 and/or x86.
it works….
could i convert my usb again to previous version…???
AWESOME!!! Thanks.
thank you very much. it was very very helpful. it saved my computer
Great post … works like a charm … 10 out of 10 dear!!!
I had some troubles with step 7 as well, but found out I needed to run the command as an Administrator and had nothing to do with x64 and/or x86.
Great!
It worked perfect and fast.
Very good guide.
Thank You!
TO – MADMAX, franz99, Doug, chrisNova777, and anyone else experiencing the BOOT 0xc000000e when trying to boot to the flash drive, I have firgured it out. I tried this with 3 different flash drives and every one of them gave me the EXACT same 0xc000000e message when trying to boot. c:\bootsect.exe /nt60 x: /force That did it for all 3 drives. 1 Patriot drive, 1 PNY, and 1 Super Talent, 1 SanDisk, and 1 Kingston and they all worked just fine after using the “/force” command after /nt60 – I hope this helps all who encounter this problem.
Great guide
A good idea is to share the USB stick with full acces for everyone – I got an error when trying to write to my 8G usb pen – but after sharing , nada problem
// Finni
Hey, This is a great guide.
however I was wondering how can I format the usb back to the original OS?
Great…
Good Guide!!!
Thanks
I have boot usb but when I plug it to boot the screen put a flashing dash and nothing happen ?
Help !!
nice info, but easy to use win2flash, anyway that software make errors some times, so manual metod it;s better
Must wait till the beta release come out. hope they will make it quick..
Robin.
I followed all the steps but when i booted message appears boot manager missing..Plzz help!!
E:\BOOT\BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 I:
COULD NOT MAP DRIVE PARTITIONS TO THE ACCOCIETED VOLIUME DEVICE OBJECTS:
ACCESS IS DENIED
Always returns the same message…. WHY?
not working on Vista
on typing J: cd boot getting message
the device is not ready.
In windows explorer I can see and browse dvd drive J, not problem.
Any idea?
I followed all the steps but when i try to us eit it says
BOOTMGR is missing
press ctrl+alt+del to restart
Can someone pleasee helpp?
It works perfect!!! This guy is the bomb!
Works perfect, used this guide to install 7 like 10 times! Thanks!
perfect.. awsome procedure.. thnxx..
Really awesome work.. 1st time I am writing any comment on ny pst to thnk.. tyvm..
Hello,
I have Toshiba NetBook With Win 7 Starter
And im trying to install win7 on it again But I have a Problem My Windoes Not Responding And it wont Install Any Hardwere of a USB flash device or External CD/DVD rom
When I Turn It On It Just Shows:
Reboot And Select Proper Boot Device
Or Install Boot Media In Selected Boot Dvice And Press A Key
If You Know What To Do Plz Helpme!
Thanks, Shayan
Im getting a “The Device Is Not Ready” when i do step 6 with the CD Boot
Hai
I have diskparted my usb stick by following the above mentioned steps successfully. But while copying the contents of Windows 7 Dvd to my Usb drive i see this error message…(can’t read the file INSTALL.WIM from the source)…..i even tried copying it individually….but i can’t..please help me out….
thanks….
My thumb drive is undetectable now.
Till step 4 every thing was good and when I inserted the dvd and followed the step 5.I encountered the below error.
Included from the end of step 4
===============================================
Leaving DiskPart…
C:\Windows\system32>D: CD BOOT
D:\>CD BOOT
D:\boot>BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 G:
Target volumes will be updated with BOOTMGR compatible bootcode.
Could not map drive G: to an associated volume device object.
==============================================
when I tested my thumb drive in Linux, it said it is an “Unmounted removable medium”
any body know what to do to make my thumb drive working
after BOOTSECT.EXE/NT60 I:
WHEN I HIT ENTER…..”could not map drive partition to the associated volune device objecs:Access is denied”
plz help me…………what to do……
what about windows 8 beta? I had this software and i want to install it on my netbook… and i want to use my usb to install it. Is this tutorial can also work to windows 8?
works great on my laptop Windows 7 ultimate x64……
thanks…….. its very helpful to boot from usb…
Roshan, you must open Command Prompt with Administrator rights to execute it.
I EFFIN LOVE YOU!!!!!
hey!! i hv acer emachines 350.
in d boot priority list d options r :
1 IDE0 :TOSHIBA MK1665GSX
2 IDE1
3 USB HDD
4 USB FDD
5 Network boot
6 USB CDROM
M instaling windows 7 thru pendrive ….
SO WICH OPTION SHOULD BE PUT TO 1st
Thanks Gustavo!
“This guide works 100% for Vista & Windows 7 unlike most of the guides out there. I have seen many sites/blogs that have “Install Vista from USB guide” but either with incomplete steps or not working guide. I have also seen some guides that don’t’ use proper commands in this guide. After spending many hours I have come up with this 100% working guide.”
Hummmmm. Doesn’t work for me. I have no USB drive listed when I use list disk command in diskpart.
Great!!
I had tried multiple instructions with all failures. This worked perfect and I took my all versions image and it worked so that I could choose from all versions of either 32 bit and 64bit versions. Now all I would like to do is include a SP1 slipstreamed onto the flash drive and I would be really happy:)) Any suggestions to being able to modify configuration for a slipstream update?
Thanks,
Scott
great job well done
this works for the windows 8 beta too thanks man
Not able to “CLEAN”. You mentioned in the 4th step.
Can please provide the solution.
Thanks in advance.
Thank you for sharing your valuable knowlege, It has saved alot of Hardwork and times trying to install from a Slow DVd and CD, Thanks man, See you in future with more informations and knowlege,God bless You
Great! Thanks a lot.
STEP 8: Copy your Windows 7/Vista DVD contents to the USB flash drive.
Do you mean that one should copy Dvd contents using cmd ?
Can I simply copy and paste the files as usual ?
@ Thomas
Simply copy using the the copy and paste option available in Windows Explorer.
Thanks for the info, it was most valuable. I’ve been trying to reinstall my SO from the recovery DVD but my cd drive went nuts… this was the only option, and it worked fine.
Thanks again and keep up the good posts….
thanks, it work
Great Article – Works a treat -Much appreciated
Nice post. Been looking for this step by step method. Keep up the good work!
thanks man its really working.Good job keep it up.
This Blows. I Google Searched for How To Install Windows TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO a USB External drive not FROM. so disappointed. Took all that time just to come up short.
@Dumplump
This guide is only to prepare a bootable USB so that you can install Windows 7 from USB. If you want to install Windows 7 to an external USB drive, check out our this guide:
http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-windows-7-to-usb-external-hard-drive-must-read/
Yea why only windows 7 from usb and not the other way around?
Thanks a lot!
Thanks a lot..!!!! Really help me this
Please create a video!
It works fine, please guide me to install xp, i want to install xp from pen drivr..
hi this is hari it is a good one to install the windows7 i have already use it but now i want to install the windows xp using the same following procedure can i do it please tell me if not whats the reason…..
Its not working for me. I don’t know if that’s because I don’t HAVE an optical drive, which was the whole point of this tutorial.
plss do help me bro.. as am not eble to complete the process sucessfully, i think its just because am not having a proper dvd drive in my pc.. i tried using a usb flash drive bt the cmd is showing that they cannot recognise the file…. so plss do help me in this situation…
@Aravind
If you are having issues in following the above guide, do check out this guide:
http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-create-bootable-windows-7-usb-to-install-windows-7-from-usb-flash-drive-using-windows-7-dvdusb-tool/
URE A GOD! thanks very much!
please could you help me i did to format the fs=ntfs so i saw the 100 percent completed but when i go to 5,6 and 7 i could not able to go in the cd boot and i was tried to type the bootsect.exe /nt60 h: so when i enter that it’s not working…. hope you gonna help me for this problem thank you
While running and cmd.exe from windows; go to system32 folder in windows installed on your pc. then find cmd.exe and right click on it and select “Run as administrator” to run the cmd.exe
You will not get any error in the above given process…
hi…
everything i have done properly but my usb device doesn’t work..and do not run auto..only i shows the win7 logo on my usb device give me a solution about how to autorun and boot …….
i have only C drive in 500 GB HDD in my Acer Laptaop. in that C drive i have company loaded original window 7 home basic. i want the partition of my C drive without format my window7.
plz give me a solution about how i can partition of my C drive 500 GB HDD.
ALL DONE. all steps, commands, etc.
But I had a problem:
Status:0xc0000017
Ramdisk device creation failed due to insufficient memory.
QUESTION: What could I do?
WHEN I PUT THE CD IN MY DRIVE
AND START A NEW PAGE OF CMD WITH ADMINISTRATOR
THEN I PUT D: CD BOOT AND CD BOOT THEN
BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 E: FOR MY FLASH I GET A MESSAGE
SAYING
This version of D:\bootsect.exe is not compatible with the version of Windows you’re running. Check your computer’s system information to see wheter you need x86 (32-bit) or x64 (64-bit) version of the program, and then contact the sofware publisher.
so i was guessing i need to do the setup of cmd from a x64 bit computer to make my flash drive get the info from cd x64 to the flash drive
but im clueless now, since i dont think that matters since it didn’t read the disk yet, any suggestions?
Hi sir,
thanks for your share.but the ‘FORMAT FS=NTFS’command line just to install legacy Win7 O.S. only. It can’t install the UEFI Win7 O.S with Win7 64bit DVD Disc.
You can changed the command line like as ‘FORMAT QUICK FS=FAT32′ to format the USB flash disk.
Thanks!
Tim.
Hi BATZZZ19,
To create 64BIT O.S. to USB flash disk, you need to install 64 bit O.S. to your platform and then typing the ‘BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 E:’ command line with cmd prompt under 64 bit O.S.
Best regards,
Tim
This f*cker CMD took me 30min to format 16gb USB.
Hey guys,
It also work fine with me,just a few tips that already said above.
1.open cmd in admin mode only,if dont ur access will be denied.
2.if you are running win 32 bit(x86) and wants to install a 64bit(x64)windows you will have a problem.you should find a win 32bit and try to update the USB drive with BOOTMGR compatible code with that dvd.after that you can put your win64bit files on USB and change the boot priority at the BIOS to USB from the HDD or CD ROM drive.
notice that you need to change this priority after copying win files into HDD to continue installing from HDD.
Hi. I used a 8 gb flash drive to do the steps but after i finished the steps my WD 1tb it’s not recognized by windows i try 3 other laptop but same. it’s working perfect b4 i do the steps. Please help it’s has all my data and i don’t have the backup for it
It shows a error that “boot manager missing”
does it works for intel g31 board……….
with hp pen drive 4gb…….
if i set my boot device priority as
1. usb
2.cd rom
3. hard disk..
plz ans. and thanxs in advnce…..
I have done this all, and when restarted with bios boot from usb, install screen came up, it copied windows files, then expanded windows files, it then self restarts and instead of finishign nstall process it bring me back to install screen to reclcik install and select which partition? why is that?
Works like a charm! Ta!
after typing bootsect.exe /NT60 G: I GET MESSAGE “bootsect.exe is not a valid win32 application”.My current OS is Windows 7 (32-bit).however my G: drive is a virtual drive
thank you so so so much for this guide….it works like a charm and you ended a nightmare for me….thank you
tnx so much man,
this guide just saved my life.
successfully instaled W7 on sony vaio.
tnx alot once again
cheers
Works fine! Thanks! I did in XP using VMWARE to create a Windows7 virtual machine, then installed it on my other laptop.
i proper support for this guide
and i make pendire bootable for window 07
and installed window 07 successful
from jaipur Rajasthan
gr8 work…. im looking for dis frm a long time.thnks a lot
thnx a lot dude…..
how can i copy the OS file after the procedure 7. can i use GUI or CMD?
thanks mate i did using GUI to copy the files and it works. I don’t need to buy a external dvd. its really help-pull
The shortcut version:
1. Format your USB to NTFS using the Windows GUI and keep it plugged in
2. Open your iso using MagicISO or some other app and extract boot/bootsect.exe
3. Run bootsect.exe /nt60 :
4. Copy all contents of iso to your USB
i hope that this method will be useful.
sir when i insert the usb in my pc it get conneted but when i type “”list disk”" in cmd it shows me only my harddrive not the connected usb flash drive to continue this process plz help me as soon as possible i will be thanksfull to you.
Found everything was pretty self explantory Great Guide. The only that that tripped me up was copying the files. I had them in a subdirectory… As soon as I put them in the root of the drive it worked like a charm. Thanks for posting this guide.
CinCityNewKid
Help!! please help ..
Master, I have problems after doing these four parts. FORMAT FS = NTFS (Formats the process may take several seconds) at first it went well up to 20 per cent, after that it turned to 0 per cent to wait too long. So I did re-from the first part, and it does not run again. So how to return the flash drive to the original as not doing the things above?
Please, I hope the Master can help my problem.
DISKPART>LIST DISK
Disk###(Disk 2) Status(Online) Size(3819 MB) Free(0 B)
DISKPART>SELECT DISK 2
Disk 2 is now the selected disk.
DISKPART>CLEAN
DiskPark has encountered an error: The system cannot find the file specified. See the System Event Log for more information.
Please Help
Hi all, i just see this great tut and i diced to try!
I buy a TDK 4GB usb pen. when i try to copy all the DVD files, i says you need 87MB more space! and i see the USB pen i have 3.77. =/ WTF
What can i do now?? plz some one hellp me here! can i zip some files?
Hi, can I ask for help in making this work? I’ve done the all the steps several times already on an 8GB usb drive but I can’t seem to make it bootable.
Also, if it helps, the autoplay to Setup.exe does not work. I am trying to install Windows 7 on a laptop with a brand new HDD.
I downloaded a IMG file from Microsoft, how to continue from there?
i have been successful in setting bootsect.exe /nt60
i’ll start to setup…hope it will work…
This will take a few seconds (Yeah right!
even my 8gb sticks takes 10min to format… doing my 700gb hdd atm… 15min gone, and still at 1%.
but love this guide, used it a few times, just as a quick look up for the commands.
super sexy man…thanx a lot…gt sum minor glitches
if u get any error stating “install drivers from the select folder”
then jus plug ur USB in USB 2.0 port. USB 3.0 drivers are nt installed by default
thanx a lot
man
Thanks!
Worked for me with a Dell Precision M6300.
My 8GB USB stick took more than a few seconds to format in step #4. More like minutes.
Also, in step #8, typing ‘robocopy D:\ H:\ /MIR’ in the command prompt box worked for me.
Excellent guide, thanks.
You can use daemon tools to mount a disc image of OS and then use the drive letter it assigns as your DVD drive.
Thanks..its work…..
Thank you for this post.
I tried to step 6, it is going to fine. When I reach step 7 and type BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 I: in H:\boot> prompt It will be something wrong! what happen? Please someone help me.
Detail for Error message…
H:\>CD BOOT
H:\boot>BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 I:
Target volumes will be updated with BOOTMGR compatible bootcode.
Could not map drive partitions to the associated volume device objects:
Access is denied.
H:\boot>
—————————————————
Note: H: is Windows 7 DVD drive and I: is USB drive
—————————————————
Thank you!
this trick is not working so plz any one can help me plzzzzzzzzzzzzz its very urgent because my cd drive is not working…
Hey, i tried following this but when my laptop boots i cant continue with the format because it says that I am missing the drivers for the hard disk!!
The iso i am using for the setup is the legit downloadable copy of win 7 home prem.
any ideas?
by the way, step 8 failed for me as I couldnt copy the files, but i had to mount the win image on another drive and then copy to the usb
Easy to follow, commands were correct, good job on the tutorial brotha.
-Tony
Hey to all, i Just have a question,after i make a bootable usb drive to install windows and if im already finish in installing,can i still use usb for saving files,or after the installation is complete can i still erase the installer of windows 7 from usb?Thank you guyz,and i will be waiting for your opinion
can you explain the installation of Win07 OS without an optical CD drive in the machine
Can I know the procedure to install the OS on a system that has no optical CD-Drive??
Thnks dude,
Worked like a charm just 25 mins to install windows 8..
Keep it up..
I’ve tried this 3 times now, and only get as far as formating to 100% complete, but then it never returns to say “Diskpart successfully formated the volume”, nor does it return to a prompt that I can type further commands.
I’ve tried searching through all these responces to find an answer, but I’m just not seeing one.
Thanks for your help
n0thing 2 say. JUST PERFECT!
i’m at step 9..but after i click ‘instal now’ , the screen display was ‘setup starting’ for the rest of mu life…whats the problem?
Very, very nice tutorial.
My PC didnt boot on the USB when priority was set to ‘Removable’. Worked fine however, when set to HDD. Weird eh..
From where did DVD came to picture. At starting you assumed DVD drive is not working?
Greate guide. Worked perfect. Quick and excellent.
this is not working for me,the process stop until format and before that automatically hang on the command prompt..
nice,worked a treat. cheers.
the above commands are not working for winxp,so plz any help for winXp.
awesome.
Great, It Works well, A very good post
Hi . I am Milad . I form Iran .. Help Me to PLS :
I have 1TB Hdd USB Hard Drive And I Need a use it for Setup Windows 7 But I Cant Make Bootablet It ..
HELP ME To make Bootable HDD Drive
Works a treat with windows 7, no problems at all, simple instructions, big thanks for posting this up.
superb…post..thnks man
hi there,
you have done simple and easy tutorial. i just finished reformat using your instructions. millions thanks to you..
HOW TO FIX ERROR WIN32. PLS HELP ME
I was formatting win xp. while windows is set up time show blue screen, how to fix blue sceen in formatting time. pls help me. thanx
This one really works.
If you get the message:
BOOTMGR not found. Press ctrl alt dlt to restart
try to make the bootsect.exe command with the /force tag
That’s what helped in my case.
Thanks for the great tutorial
Thanks dude. Awesome instructions, worked PERFECTLY!!
I am sir. Thanksalot
Should you also copy over the auto run from the windows disc? It asked me if i wanted to keep, replace, or use both auto-runs.
I didn’t know an auto-run was already created on the USB drive but I opted to keep the one on the USB drive and it seemed to work. Would it not work if i had used the auto-run file from the windows disc?
Excellent tutorial, thanks
Possibly worth adding that you can speed up the format process by typing “FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK” at Step 4
These instructions are like a gift from the heavens! I got to “permission denied” when running bootsect.exe, but just read the other comments above to get past that roadblock.
Now I’ve got XP and 7 running on my netbook… ohhh, it’s a good day!
done..thanz….
Absolutely perfect.. many thx!
after doing this all…my pendrive became slow………my pendrive is of 16 gb from sandisk
Thanks Dude
It works…
I’ve followed this to the letter, but still can’t seem to get it to work. Upon trying to boot I get message “BOOTMGR IS MISSING, PRESS CTRL ALT DELETE TO RESTART” ….Updated bios, and went through the whole process again and got the same result. Any help?
ASUS Sabertooth 990fx
Corsair Vengeance 8gb 1600mhz
AMD Phenom II BE 3.2GHZ
WD Caviar Blue 500gb
XFX 6870 HD 1gb DDR5
hey thanks man u fucking confused me with disk 1 i was supposed to put disk 2 and now ive lost a whole 500 gb hadd my only hdd is there any way to get this data compltey back as i had shitloads of movies n game iso’s n fmaily pictures tht cant be replaced ?????
I am sorry if I confused you! Sorry to hear that you have lost some valuable data. You can try out some data recovery software.
Thanx buddy,, its great………
This works perfectly.
I was pointed here from ##windows IRC
Even though I use Linux as my main OS, I was easily able to follow this guide.
Works perfect, thanks!
Really helped Dude… thanks a lot, u just saved my lifeJ
Hi Admin,
I have the same issue as Daniel
“BOOTMGR IS MISSING, PRESS CTRL ALT DELETE TO RESTART”
How can I resolved this?
i love that
thanks bro i was about to buys a new dvd rom for my laptop
many thanks love it
Thanks you very much… works like a charm…
Thank’s a lot. It’s works…
Thanks!!! It works great
thanks………………..
A little thing i ran into is that if it won’t boot from the USB (in my case my Acer Aspire One ZG5 just beeped constantly) try another usb slot. If anyone has a ZG5 (AOA-150) try the slot on the right closest to the front.
Thanks! Worked perfectly!
I see atleast 3 people asking about which usb *** to use at boot sequence selection…
I have the same problem
I’ve got
usb cd rom
usb zip
usb hdd
usb fdd
to choose from… none of the other atleast 3 people got any answer…
Very good guide. Thanks. Just used it now.
One thing to note, though. In diskpart I used “format fs=ntfs quick”.
I have a 16gb stick and it took way too much to fully format it. A quick format took only a few seconds indeed.
@ Erik Karisson
It’s simple. If you are using a flash drive (they are mostly small thumb drives with 4, 8, 16, or 32 GB capacity), then select USB FDD. FDD If you are using an external hard drive, select USB HDD.
I have a question…..if you can help me!!!!! I did all the steps, till the fifth….because now i`m using my mother`s computer, and I downloaded the windows….so…..my windows, is on the pc, not on a dvd…… what i have to write at the sixth step? cuz is not D: CD BOOT….and don`t wanna do smth to ruin my mother`s windows……
Thank you….
Here is a simple way to do it, no typing in cmd needed:
Acquire Windows 7 .iso (do not unzip)
Get an empty USB flash drive with 8GB+ space
Format the drive to NTFS if it’s not already (Start -> Computer -> right click the drive -> Format… -> select NTFS, uncheck “quick format”)
Google “Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool” and download from the first link, microsoft store
Install, open and follow directions to make a bootable USB.
Thanks.. it works..
Thanks, very easy to follow guide. Congrats
hello
i need help, quick i have managed to get up step 6. but when i type D:CD BOOT is just said incorrect function. i need to re-boot my computer asap PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!
i use this to boot from hard disk
thanks alot
Hi all.thank you very much i just hit the installation button all works fine,nice guide i will make a pdf from it ..thank you again
Awesome, works really well
Well it just works like the man says great work….
what is d cmmand to copy os from dvd to usb
This is incorrect information for those using SSD SATA for the operatiing system (Dell 2012). Must use CLEAN ALL, not CLEAN. BTW: CLEAN ALL will not run from USB device, so unable to properly format SSD to install Windows. E.g., any registry problems will simply pick upo where they left off. Sorry folks. Win 8 may, “may” resolve.
what if the windows don’t start? How do we install windows then?
+ cd roms isn’t working.
@ Anup
Do you have the ISO file??
Thanks…it also reduced the installation time significantly…….
i did on ‘exit’ as the last on step 4 and it did close the cmd. i am using virtual machine for win7 installer. as i go on step 6 it says ‘the system could not find the path specified’
and my flash disk was wasted.. can my flash disk still be recovered? how?
I have windows xp on my netbook and i would like to install windows 7 instead but I do not have a slot for CD’s since it is a netbook. Can I install windows 7 from a pen drive and do i first have to remove windows xp and then install windows vista?
I have the same problem as Daryl over me here, I used exit to get of the “Diskpart” part of the guide.
Now my External drive dossn’t have an assigned letter, It dossn’t let me assign a letter and it dossn’t show up in “My computer”
I used a program called “USBDeview” and I could see that the External drive was infact still connected, but diddn’t have an assigned drive letter nor could i assign one.
My question here I guess is: “How do i “Recover” the drive and after doing that do i have to format it and all again?”
Because that took 5-6 hours on my 500gb drive on this shitty pc, and would just seem like a waste of time.
Therefore if you cannot help me with this I’m off to go buy some fucking CD-R’s and do it the old way
super that is working
I keep hitting this wall….
“The system cannot execute the specified program.”
I have nothing browsed the web, have nothing for troubleshooting. . .
thanx for the tutorial.
I did as you mention in the tutorial but after 4th step
i got message disk part sucessfully the volume
but in cmd window its in disk part only
when i punch cd boot command it show some help
kindly help me
nice tutorial my cd drive got damaged and i could not find any solution until i chked ur article it worked out for me….thanks for sharing this useful information
Thank you very match one of the best guides, kep up the good work
Didn’t quite work, as I was using a netbook without CD case… the netbook was believing it was a CD, needed to boot the usb with usb booting with the universal usb installer… I don’t really know what happened, what I can guess is that the Netbook was believing to have a Cd inside since it started to ask me to insert a volume with the CD/DVD device’s drivers
the method u explained worked properly..but when the windows installs and it shows windows restarting in 15 seconds then when restarts windows 7 load as usual and itz wriiten setup is updating registry then setup is starting services then completing installation tier shows an error…i think in that part pendrive doesn’t load files..!
works! for sony viao on windows 64bit
thank you! even though this article is a few years old still works on 2011 models!
Nice. This one actually works.
An oversight by Microsoft ensured that I can’t use a 64bit install DVD on a 32bit system without booting from the DVD. Part of this oversight also prevented the DVDs from being able to boot AND their process for making a 64bit bootable flashdrive doesn’t work on a 32bit system. Your explanation for how to make a bootable flashdrive allowed my to use the 32bit bootsect.exe from the 32bit DVD to turn my nook into a bootable drive with the 64bit install software. My solution is jury-rig, but your explanation was a fine piece of work! Bravo!
Used this on a linux machine running Virtual Box – when I gave the FORMAT FS=NTSF command it gave a virtual disk manager error. Did the rest of the steps and exited DISKPART, then formatted the drive through windows explorer (NTSF quick format). Worked great. Thanks, the only way to install on my netbook.
Thank you, works perfectly
Plz help me for how to make a dual partition(Dual windows) through USB flash drive in cmd
Dude your awsome! THis works!
Hi, great article, very helpfull!!! I had win xp on my pc at home and had trouble with cd rom as it didnt read any cds so i couldnt rewrite the windows. This guide solved my problem. The only thing id like to add is that it takes ages if you are formating a 64gb usb.
Thanks very much!
I would like to know if it only works for windows 7 32 bit ? i have a windows 7 64bit
@Jess
Yes, you can use it to create both 32 and 64-bit versions of Windows 7.
Plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz help me for how to make a bootable pendrive as dual partition(Dual windows:xp & win7) through USB flash drive in cmd
@ happs
Check out this guide: http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-create-multiboot-usb-flash-drive-with-windows-7-and-xp-in-just-three-steps-simple-guide/
normally i use the WindowsPe(windows?????)and Wim Installer and Windows’s mirror like *.wim(such as install.wim),it’s so quickly and it doesn’t need reboot
sorry,my english is so poor,i’m chinese
thanx admin for reply my question, but my problem is that :-how to make a bootable pendrive through command prompt as a dual partition(Dual windows xp & win 7).Send to me all commands of bootable pendrive to sort out this problem.
after I finished how can I restore my flash drive? I mean how can I make it to be a normal drive again instead of a booting disk?
thanx admin for reply my question, but my problem is that :–how to make a bootable pendrive through command prompt as a dual partition(Dual windows xp & win 7).Send to me all commands of bootable pendrive to sort out this problem.
THX for this clear list.I agree there are a lot of non working “manuals”on the net.I also tried the “Windows usb/dvd download tool” but it wont show my USB ext.hard disk in the drop down box.
I have a question.
I have a 1 TB USB ext. disk connected to my PC, but I also have a 1 TB hard disk inside the PC I am working on.
And I can’t tell which is which using disk part.
Both look identical showing as 931 GB disks with no empty space. It might be a stupid question but I really cant find the answer.
How do I identify(command)hard disks inside disk part?
THX in advance.
when i hit bootsect.exe /nt60 h: apears : could not map drive partitions to the associated volume device objects: access is denied
can someone help me ?
leave that crazy method its really confused one
to format a usb in NTFS
just simply go to your device manager look out for your usb check its properties and go to policies tab than check the optimize for performance button after that format usb in NTFS. USING NORMAL FORMAT METHOD.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
Thanx from Argentina!!! Very useful guide!!!
It does not work in xp.
yor title is misleading twat.
i am using xp to create a bootable usb to install win7.
twat!
I see a lot of complaints, but I just want to say that it works perfect. I used it several times without any problems… and I’m not an IT-expert! Many thanks for this tutorial!
Hello Guys…How r u!
When I make ready for My USB to be bootable I have type this code:
But it replies a message like this…
So what can I do….Thanx 4 Ur support…..
@DanielF
Does your thumb drive or SD card have a ‘write protect’ switch on it? If not, chances are your card/drive is dead – most of the time the ability to write dies first, so you can read the contents of a drive, but not write to it. I would try another thumb drive to see if the problem persists across devices.
Thanks! Almost perfect guide. This works flawlessly, but all little boys and girls should be told that they are going to have driver instalation problems in very begining of w7 instalation if they use usb3 port instead usb 2. i had this gaind problem when i was using usb 3 port: A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing. If you have a driver floppy disk, CD, DVD or USB flash drive, please insert it now. Note: If the Windows Installation media is in the Cd/DVD drive, you can safely remove it for this step” After i changed my usb stick to usb 3 port instalation works just fine. =)
typo *to usb 2 port
Honestly, I thought this absolutely amazing! I have searched high and low, most sites want to install software to apparently do what you instructed, while saving a minute or two, which also lead to an array of annoyances. Thank you for the input.
The skin and the all the steps of installing will remain the same know?
‘could not access’ please help!
Exactly what part of those pictures validates the use of the Copyright symbol? Do you own copyright on MS-Dos or Command Prompt? Do you own copyright on the process of formatting a drive?
Did you know it is illegal to claim copyright of something you have no rights to?
Can i keep win 8 & 7 in a same usb drive if it is bugger in size?
You don’t mention ‘Microsoft Windows’ as a requirement – ie you have to already have a copy of Microsoft Windows installed on your computer in order even try this. I only have the iso files for Microsoft Windows 7 (and lang pack) – my computer is running Ubuntu (or no OS at all, of course).
@xnamkcor
I know Microsoft is the copyright holder of Windows and everything that comes with it. I have added watermark to prevent other spam sites from using my pictures.
what if the dvd content is at my desktop? everytime i write C: cd boot it goes to c:\windows\system32
Need help..
F:\boot>BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 g:
Target volumes will be updated with BOOTMGR compatible bootcode.
Could not map drive partitions to the associated volume device objects:
Access is denied.
Wow the extra step described here @ 6 and 7 was REALLY necessary to got my USB working otherwise I kept getting these annoying “No Device Driver Error” error.
Was installing Windows 2008 server.
THANKS MAN!!!!
Why isnt Microsoft aware of this???
@Rex
Start the command prompt with administrator rights.
That fixed the problem on my PC.
It worked perfect as you said. Thank you!
Use WinToFlash instead if you are having errors showing up in command prompt.
the installation started but when the netbook restarts the installation starts again.. please help..
can i download win 7 ultimate from net, if yes share link,
n can i further copy it (as in step 8)in booting pendrive ??
plz reply soon..
Awesome.
No applications needed
Very helpfull
Hy!
It will work if i creat the bootable usb on computer with xp?
Cristal Clear,
I believe you could improve the article adding a description regarding how to mount a dvd virtually.
cheers
and tks.
In my pc pen drive is not showing in my command prompt as active disk… resolve me pls
I have done all but i choose my virtual drive as optical and i coppied files from it there is no problem but my sistem when i choose that i want to boot from my flash detects some problem on flash,btw bios is detecting it only as hdd and dont say me just use your optical drive bcs its complicated so if there is anyone who knows how to solve this yust reply. CHeers
Thank you. The best guide
Remember to “show hidden files” before copying the content from cd
I have tried what u posted. i had problem that after LIST DISK command, mine pen drive disk is not shown i mean it reports only hard disk. whats wrong in this… can u please help me
can i use this for mac os x
@tanmeet
Sorry, I have no idea about Mac. It won’t work if you want to install Mac from USB. But if you want to install Windows 7/Windows 7 on Mac, follow this guide: http://www.intowindows.com/install-windows-8-on-mac/
thanks for the help.what about returning the flash to the normal working i.e the way it was before before putting on that OS?
Awesome simple THANK YOU
:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
@Emma
A format should do the job.
This is a simple guide that works perfectly. Grazie!
my command prompt shows 100% completed (format step)and then it doesnt says that diskpart successfully formatted volume and i cant type commands any more.please help sir
ok thanks a lot
In the list disk step,I can’t see my USB drive. What’s wrong with it? (My Operating System is XP.)
tell me hurry up
plzzzzzzz
Hey thanks dear! u really solve my problem. I’ll love to try this soon, I hope it work properly.
Thanks…
dude…if I were a chick I’d bang ya….this worked like a charm..buddy had a laptop that had vista on it that went corrupt…I could boot to a Winxp disk every time but NOT Win 7, tried multiple disks…..??….followed your instructions and it installed from my flash no problem…3 1/2 years later and this thread is still getting the love…finally a well written tutorial on this subject…props brother
Excellent may allah bless you…
i got an error after this command:
bootsect.exe /nt60 f:
Target volumes will be updated with BOOTMGR compatible bootcode.
Could not map drive partitions to the associated volume device objects:
Access is denied
you have said to insert windows7/8 dvd into optical drive, but i don’t have that cd rather i have those files in my hard disk. so how to make it?????
Umm… Is there any alternative to step 5? I don’t have my OS on a disk, neither do I have any disk drive on my laptop. I have the OS as an ISO file on my computer.
Hi there,
Step 4, FORMAT FS=NTFS
i get this error ‘ a concurrent second call is made on an object before the first is completed’
i have used your guide many times before and it has always worked. could anyone please help with this error?
Thanks heaps.
just wanted to say thanx…
will this work on external hard dive
I have tried this upto 4 step,but iam getting error there.so i withdraw my plan to install os from usb.and when i tried to format the usb it was showinng the error that ‘windows cannot format the drive’.please help me in formatting my usb .it very important for me to have my usb back.so please help me.
@Andy
That error means something is trying to format the drive already. Either wait until it is done or reboot and try again.
It also helps(is quicker) to use the command:
FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK
That command does a quick format which takes significantly less time.
@Sevs
Decompress the iso file in a folder on your C Drive, so the directory will be C:\Win7\(winrar will do this) and then instead of :
cd boot
bootsect.exe
Run this:C:\Win7\Boot\bootsect.exe H:(where H: is your drive letter for the USB)
thanks james, that was just the thing i was looking for
but it doesn’t work :S
100% working…. 100% recommended
Thanks dude..
i understood but not proper…. so can u make a video and upload in youtube?
i have windows 8 in my usb { image file } so i am not getting idea to install it so wt to do….. please help me…..
Perfect!!! Thanx..Keep Continue Good Work Friend…
Thank you so much!!! worked like a charm
It worked perfectly! Thank you so much, fantastic work!
thanks
wow very nice
Hi,
I have a simplistic question. how is the ISO file copied over to the USB? is it simply drag & drop or use the command prompt to copy it? could you please outline these steps. everything went fine upto this point.
Thank you for this post, I know it will work for me and bring my Toshiba back to life again.
thanks a lot, working great !!!
@Liam
Just extract the ISO file contents using WinRAR, WinZip or 7-Zip software to the USB.
“(Format process may take few seconds)”
Lol just Lol.
I Know, at times, it takes it takes hours.
good day!
please help! i did the first and second step, but it seems that my removable 8 gig doesnt appear on the list disk command…. what should i do with this…..
I’m having a small issue with the guide, my laptop restarted overnight after “format fs=ntfs”, but before “assign”, and if i redo the steps now he will not select partition 1 anymore even though it is in the partition list.
I tried reformatting the USB through windows and redo all from the start, but it seems the partition is still there, and so i cannot create partition primary again, cause there’s not enough space.
Is there any way around this or should i find a different USB?
Is that possible to install windows 7 on usb,because windows during the installation not letting me to choose to install to external location like another usb ?
diskpart is not showin my usb drive…plz help me..
This procedure worked perfectly. The key is to follow the instructions exactly. No skipping. Thanks very much.
Well if you run cmd from the run box
ctr + shift + enter
doesn’t seem to work. your
bootsect.exe /nt60 g:
comand would be denied as admin so kindly run you ctr+shift+enter after typing cmd from the search programs text box. thanks
Very useful guidance indeed but I have a win8 OS file extracted from image and I want to reconvert that extracted file to bootable image which could be burnt in the DVD. As I lost the image file.. Is there any mechanism to do so?
I need to format my Computer soon… Please RSVP this post.
@Krish
Use a free tool named Windows Bootable Image Creator. Google it. It’s free and does the job for you.
thanks!!
This is by far the best guide I’ve read. It has simple yet detailed explanation, but the “formatting might take a few seconds” part.. makes me mad, I am at 10% right now.. and its already been 5 minutes.. damn USB. Anyway, I will post again when I get to try it out.
Thanks so much for these awesome information
i tried this way and it really works with me when i was running windows seven
but if i have running windows xp list disk dose not appear disk 1
so is any other method to make a windows 7 bootable usb bt with running xp system ??
Hello, its working good nice job.
I have written extensively about this and I can confirm that the above method works 100%.
hi,
i tried the way you listed on this webpage but when i go to install the os from the pendrive it says BOOTMCG not found or missing or something like that. i tried each and every step . please help me its iregunt. i think it might be late if you answer it afterwards but still i need a solution.
thank you in advance
Hi!
First of all, this tutorial is great and I just loved it!
Second of all, I was wondering if it’s possible to use this method with windows XP? I haven’t been able to so far, I’ve tried formatting with ntfs and using /nt60 with bootsect, and tried formatting with fat and using /nt52 with bootsect, but when i try to boot it keeps saying either bootmgr or ntldr is missing, am I doing something wrong?
Thanks!
@Kai
Use “format quick fs=ntfs” without quotes to make a quick format.
Thanks so much for the tip, it works like a charm on Windows 7 Pro… Cheers!
Thank you for this! Everything works smoothly. I just hope that you can format the usb faster. Cheers!
Thanks for the great tutorial. I would definitely give it a try as I think its much easier and quicker than using Windows 7 DVD.
Great Tutorial.. Will definitely give it a try!
easy to follow no errors and works like a charm- great tip tutorial
Hi all very good guide finally i successfully installed
but i spent time in problem-loop with command
BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 G:
with error message of
“COULD NOT FIND MAP DRIVE PARTITION TO THE ASSOCIATED VOLUME DEVICE OBJECT: ACCESS IS DENIED”
even i am in admin accounte
only thing i scuessed after
browse
C:\windows\system32\
right click on cmd.exe
select RUN AS ADMIN
thanks for this guide
hey can we re convert our usb to normal from bootable…
pls reply
HI,i have installed backtrack5 R2 (64-bit)linux os in my hard disk as “side by side”along with my windows7 now i want to uninstall bactrack from my hard disk..but i dont know in which block it has been installed…but among my 5 partitions 2 partitions F: and H: some total of 20 GB is missing..in those drives i am able to see an file bootsqm Video CD movie file in both F:&H: drives..please give complete step by step procedure to uninstall backtrack from my hard disk..
@ Navin
Performing a full format should bring back the USB drive to normal state.
FOR WINDOWS XP THE PROPER COMAND IS BOOTSECT.EXE /NT52 X: (WARE X THE USB DRIVE) HOPE THIS INFO HELPS
hey thanks for the guide but i just had a problem with step 7
i didnt get the exact message that appeared i got this
Drive E: maps to volume \\?\volume{4cefea49-42b9-11e1-b384-806e6f6e6963}.
This volume does not appear to connect to any disk partitions. Volume bootcode is always unused in the absence of associated partitions.
what should i do?
Works great!!!
Thank you, it works like a charm! One question though.
Can I add an extra folder with some irrelevant files?
For example, can I add a folder with pictures etc.?
Has anyone tried it?
Thank you.
Where would you like to add pictures? If you meant on the bootable USB drive, yes, you can create a new folder and then place the pictures in that folder. But if you are looking to add new wallpapers and themes to Windows setup, you should check out our http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-include-new-gadgets-themes-wallpapers-and-screensavers-in-windows-7-setup-iso-file/ guide.
hello, admin, ok my system has been running on 32-bit,Windows 7 Home Premium, 2gb RAM, which i want to upgrade to possibly 8gb, so based on my research 32-bit(MAX.3.5GB) doesn’t actually utilize all of ehm, this leaves me to upgrade to 64-bit, could i? if possible, then do i need to separately install all the drivers & stuff by myself, or is it when i install the windows Ultimate 64, has all the drivers, except all the software of course that i need to install form scratch, i don’t know much about drivers,
@Shaan23
Yes, you need do a clean install of Windows 7 64-bit and then install all drivers and software.
bootmgr is missing pls select ctrl+alt+delete to restart. what can i do?
On step 4 once you select disk 1 and enter ‘clean’ in the command prompt. everything on disk one will be erased correct. Can you get anything back that gets erased?
This does work, but there are steps in here that are not needed and there is a method in which you can use any Windows OS.
Here are the follwing commands, this 100% works and is alot easier.
Insert flash drive.
Run cmd as administrator
In CMD type ;
DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK X (X being the USB drive letter, seen in list disk command)
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
SELECT PARTITION 1
FORMAT FS=FAT32 QUICK
ACTIVE
EXIT
your drive is now ready to use, simply copy the contents of your instalation media, or extract an iso file to the usb drive itself. * make sure on the target pc you have USB drive as 1st boot device and this will work for any windows install.
Matt, your simplified steps work perfect, at least for Win7. Thanks!
Just have to make sure the media you are copying already has the boot manager files in the root directory.
the step format fs=ntfs is working for much time. it took 1 hour 1hr for 35% format. i am using dell inspiron with i3 processor and win7 as os
Hi! Thanks a lot! Gr8 & simple manual!
— Special note —
When you try to run bootsect.exe from win7-32bit PC, to create bootusb of win7-64bit, it’s said that you can’t run it, due to some incompatibility of 64bit boot disk. I use 64bit PC to overrun this problem. Beware!
– End of special note —
@jay, did you try @Matt’s way of doing it in post number 437?
Nice work. Thanks for the info!
i have windows 7 setup on my drive d not on dvd…i have done first 4 steps but how can i do step 5,6,7,8….?
thanks..please help me..
Tnxx..got it working on d 7th round wen I ran command prompt as admin. My Problem However is that after the computer restarts during the final stage of the installation should I remove the USB or leave it there???? Have been struck here since yesterday.
How to add ms office in windows 7 usb installation
@ Rnk
This guide should help you:
http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-include-new-gadgets-themes-wallpapers-and-screensavers-in-windows-7-setup-iso-file/
@ololade
You may remove the USB during the final round.
retard: bootect fails if the cmd is not elevated
Thanks :*
I just wanted to ask what if I don’t have any CD/DVD drive attach to my computer, is there any chances to proceed step 5->9 in order for me to continue installing using USB? any advice would be help..T_T
Works flawless when I used step #437
windows ultimate
ssd hdd
gigabbyte mobo usb3
core i7
4gb memory
Thanks a ton for the simple and well explained tutorial.
Keep writing…!!
Hey working good with windows8 i tried it on Ubuntu its not working anyway is formating my usb will get it to it first condition ?
For the format part since i know it takes a long time to do the full format, heres is the quicker way: FORMAT QUICK FS=NTFS. I don’t know why it says it takes a few seconds when on low specced machines it takes a good hour.
Thanks great for great fix. It used to be much easier to make a ‘disk’ bootable. I will leave this drive as is permanently for future problems.
well i have used a simpler way:-
format a 4GB USB to NTFS file system and then copy the contents of windows 7 installation disk to pendrive.
Restart your computer and press F12 for boot menu.
last select your USB drive in the list and press enter.
Windows 7 installation begins.
i have tested it on 7 not 8.
does it delete all your things in your usb?????please answer
ok so if u dont have a Win 7 cd and u have a iso file mount it with PowerISO now have a dirve letter then fallow the steps
to do the copy and past part go to myComputer
find the drive u mountd right click on it then click open then copy and past to the usb flash drive
What about if I have 2 DVD’s to copy onto my USB pen drive? Are the commands the same? Do I simply remove one DVD and proceed to copy the second one onto the pen drive? HELP PLEASE!!!!
thanks.
Thanx “tweakwindows”!!!… a lot!!!
@Windows 7 USB Instal
quicker?? i guess not, it takes more time to prepare the disk…
thanks bro
what do you do if when you type in the bootsect.exe /nt60 H: and then the computer says ” could not map drive partitions to the associated volume device objects: Access is denied.” This what I keep getting
Hi! Your Tut works like a charm!
Thanks for your time!
hi…. i followed all the steps… but i m not able to do the BOOTMGR part. I have my installation files in my hard disk as a folder not in cd/iso file. below is the error i got…
H:\windows 7 setup\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.
H:\windows 7 setup\BOOT>
please help me in this…
IN REF TO COMMENT NUMBER 449.
i got dat error… i tried dat without admin rights…..thanks for ur help
@Gent
Yes, when you format the drive, all data on the drive will be erased.
for those who are using 32bit(x86) system and would like to install to do this step for win7 64bit, you need to be in a 64bit system to perform the bootsect /nt60 command. else you will received “This version of E:\boot>BOOTSECT /NT60 E: is not compatible with this version of Windows. Check your system information to see whether you need a x86 (32-bit) or x64 (64-bit) version of the program.” error.
the bootsect thing didnt work if its in a folder called boot so do this command instead
cd D:boot
then do the bootsect command
hey i got all the steps completed to format my usb until step 5. but im using a netbook with no optical drive. i have the windows 7 files on my computer via torrent. Is there any other steps in order for my usb to be able to boot windows 7. or is it still going to be able with just the steps ive taken (steps 1-4). thanks
This is just perfect, thank you a million times!
Cheers!!!
I believe you have an ISO copy of Windows 7 on your netbook. If so, please Virtual Clone Drive software to mount the ISO file as a DVD and then follow the same steps.
Awesome. Worked great. Up to this point was trying to get an Acer Aspire One netbook to install a fresh version of Win7 (killing XP). It doesn’t have a internal CD, so using external Sony DVD drive. Kept getting a DVD missing driver error with the install disk. Created the USB install per your directions (from the same DVD I was using to install from external) and it breezed right by that missing driver issue.
One note – when it goes to restart the Windows installation after the fourth step, you need to remove the USB stick from the computer, else it will try to boot again from it and it looks like it wants to start the installation again. If it does that to you, just turn off the machine, pull the stick and re-start. Windows 7 install will pick up where it left off.
Terrific, concise directions! Thanks more than I can say!
i tried all the steps and all goes well, but when i tried to boot on the other Pc,
a message appears:
BOOTMGR is missing
press ctrl + alt+ delete to restart.
i restart it but same problem …any body can help please?????? thanks
Thanks a lot, I appreciate your effort.
It worked in windows 7.
Hi! I tried following your guide and at first it’s working good but after the partitioning the next step which is the “Load Drivers” part, it can’t detect my drivers, I’ve tried selecting the files on the USB drive but still not working. I hope u could help me out on this. Thanks!
Amazing guide! Thank you so much for preparing such a well guided instruction page. I really needed help installing Windows 7 without a DVD drive and this was very helpful.
I mean cmon now, who really even uses discs anymore? lol
@Maroon. What do you mean, “other PC”. Did you accidently copy over the bootmgr files from your other computers hard drive to the flash drive? Maybe put those files back.??
@Maroon. or maybe you need to change your bios back to booting from hdd instead of usb drive.
thanks man thax a ton!!
Dude, your instructions are very easy to follow and 100% spot on! Thanks for this great and easy instructions.
Man that was a GREAT tutorial!!! Thank you!!!!
What is wrong with most of you people? While there is no such thing as a dumb question, that doesn’t mean you should challenge that expression. Would it kill you to at least try to do a little research before posting? Damn, people.
for the problem:
“Could not map drive partitions to the associated volume
device objects: Access is denied.”
You have to run cmd.exe as Administrator, then execute the istructions
bye
For all you people who get Error while trying to install, try taking out one of your ram slots as sometimes windows 7 doesnt install whilst both DIMM’s are populated.. sounds silly but it works on most occasions.. Also when installing windows 7 on a laptop or pc with 2 hard drives – take the secondary hard drive out first because win7 will install the MBR record not on the primary but on the secondary. Hope this helps…
i tried this but when i try to boot pc or laptop from my pendrive it shows that “there is a problem occurred because of changing or replacing any hardware. try to start the pc with boot cd and repaire the bootfile.”
this msg shows for every system.
what shout i do or is someting missing when i tried to set the usb? plz help me
Awesome job you guys!! My HDD crashed. My ODD (optical disc drive) failed to work… and with your post, I was able to grab a friend’s notebook, created a USB installer of Windows 7!!! My thanks to the team!!
Awesome! Its in fact remarkable article, I have got much clear idea
regarding from this post.
This is an awesome guide. Followed each step and worked like a charm. Hard drive crashed and the DVD drive that is hardly ever used failed to work!
Target volumes will be updated with BOOTMGR compatible bootcode
could not map drive I: to an associated volume device object.
where I is my usb pendrive.
Until this step all are ok. can you please tell me the next step of this procedure
Hi friends I have used this ….its realy working…… good job thanks
Thanks very much for your guide. I would like to ask further: how do you load the Win7 DVD when it is an ISO file in your Hard drive?
Someone mentioned it above, but I dont fully understand,
Thanks
@javier
You can mouse the ISO file using VirtualClone Drive (free). When you mount the ISO file, you will see another DVD drive in the Explorer with a drive letter. Let me know if you need more info on this.
Dear Admin,
thanks very much for your answer. Yes, I understand now.
I have a question, though. In step 6, I am in diskpart, and when I type
[DVD Unit]: CD BOOT
it only lists all possible diskpart commands. I have mounted the Win7 Iso with UltraIso, and checked the drive letter, but diskpart does not change its prompt to c:\windows\system 32 like in the image you show.
Can you advise?
Thanks
Dear Admin,
sorry, I did not know I had to exit diskpart. I have done now and everything has followed alright.
thanks again for your work and patiente
and excuse my English!
Work’s also on my version of windows 8 had to reset it to 7 and you guide helpt me thanks
I didn’t quite understand the part where you have to copy the contents of the Windows 7 to the USB drive. Is it has to be done using the command or we drag straight out from the disc to the USB drive? Please help….
@ Revarcz
You can copy without the help of Command Prompt as well but make sure you execute all other commands as described in the guide.
@admin
Thanks, I got it right… i have executed the commands as described in your guide and copy the contents of the Windows 7 DVD like I said and it did works… Again, thanks for the successful guide….
Dear admin,
I have a netbook Toshiba NB505. The problem was that it has a system corruption where it does not able to boot to the desktop. At first I was trying to restore the OS using the built in recovery and it wasn’t successful. I then tried using the flash drive I made using your guide and still unsuccessful. What do you think would be the problem?
Thanks for the guide, but my usb flash drive isnt working after that.. help please
?
… again, why would you take the effort to do the via-USB-installation if you have an optical drive.
Hello there, first of all thanks for the awesome guide
i did everything u said step by step, i am currently running Win 7 32 bit, and i did the procedure you stated on a USB Flash drive , TO install Windows 7 x64 bit , everything worked like a charm, the only problem is , when i try to restart my computer, i am unable to boot from my usb flash drive. even thought its been set to primary priority.
My Mobo does supports, USE BOOT and still i am unable to do it, the name of my Mobo is ” Asus P7H55D-M Pro “.
More Info : I downloaded a x64 bit win 7 from torrent which works, it was a ISO file, so i extracted it, and copied the files to my USB Flash drive, and i did copy all of my files as well.
Can you help me with what could be the problem? or a Solution
Thanks
and when i try to manually run the setup when logged in, it says >> ” “This version of J:\boot>BOOTSECT /NT60 E: is not compatible with this version of Windows. Check your system information to see whether you need a x86 (32-bit) or x64 (64-bit) version of the program.” error.
WORKED WITHOUT ANY PROBLEMS! THANK YOU!
Asus EEE PC 1015PX
8GB Flash Drive
Windows 7 Ultimate
@Gaby
It looks like you are trying to install Windows 7 on USB. This guide is to help you install Windows 7 on a hard drive from USB instead of DVD. If you want to install Windows 7 on USB, check out this guide : http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-windows-7-to-usb-external-hard-drive-must-read/
@ Perform a full format (and not quick format) to restore your USB to the original state.
@Admin
Oh no sir, i am not trying to install windows 7 on my USB, what i am trying to do is, install windows 7 64bit from Usb to my Hard drive. I am currently running Windows 7 32 bit on my hard drive.
I also tried to use the software which is being given here to download from microsoft, after all the steps it all also stated that your USB was succesfully turned into a bootable flash USB, but when i try to boot it doesnt works, and when i try to run the setup from USB to install it on my hard disk, it does not let me do it.
My current windows : Win 7 32 bit
What i wanna do is : Install win 7 64 bit , from USb to my hard disk.
Problem is: its not letting me, even after following all the steps.
All the steps followed right with thorough confirmation: YES!
Please help me. i hope i am clear to u know, for what the problem is, i can provide you a screen shot, if you desire. ty
@Gaby, you can not install 64-bit Windows on top of 32-bit. You must completely wipe the hard drive first (format).
@steve
Oh thanks bro. that might be the problem which i was not aware of, i will try wiping it off and see if it works then ty ^^
Works like a dream… thanks, man!!!
Good guide, thanks!
(P.S. Step6> D: YO MAMA)
Thanks man, this is ingenious. It beats WinToFlash any day!
Thank you! This step-by-step works perfectly and was very useful to me.
hello sir after step 6 it says “the system cannot find the apath sepcified “…
please help me out of this !!!!
IT SAYS “the system cannot find the path specified”
@ Shubham
Make sure that you are typing the right USB and your DVD/virtual drive’s drive letter in the command.
Thanks for your post. i tested your method. finally, i can do successfully.
May you be free from all danger.
i will see and learn your other posts.
Tx dude…… very helpful info.
Thnks its really cool! itS really USUFULLY
thank you
it was very useful info
i got the steps..
but i want 1 more help..
Plzzzz tell me
a link for windows 7 64 bit…
plzzz..
What if i have windows 7 image file, what commands will i use?
@ Greg
If you have an image file (.ISO), first mount it using Virtual Clone Drive (free) software and then use the drive letter of the new virtual drive in commands.
its work thank you
i am trying to install windows 8. i dont ve a dvd drive so i try to install via pendrive i tried the above steps i had some doubts y i need to mention the CD boot, since my drive s not working i have to mention usb drive alone know ie my usb drive is j
Thank you so much for this guide – it was just what I needed. CLear, simple, and thescreenshots made everythign so much easier. Props to you and thank you for taking the time to publish it and saving me time in the process. Good job man.
..why to do all this just download and install power iso works every where xp/vista/win7.:)
Hey I had same problem with the list disk stuff you need to get a program that turns your “Removable” drives into a local drive, i used this thing called himati microdrive, all u have to do is a few steps like getting ur usb id and then paste it into a section of code, then lastlyy you update your usb drives with the .inf file that u edited and presto!! ur “removable” drive is now local
Thanks man you saved me with my mini notebook!!
Great job man. Thanks a lot for the time you spared to do this.
thanks mate worked l
ike a charm..
@Devasish: Maybe because the free version has 300mb limit.
After the format process is completed ,it does not go according to the commands,after that if you can explain that!@
when I enter d:cd bood it says that the system can’t find the specified path??
my usb is only alloted 100 mb space how can i copy 4 gp windows in it?
@nikhil
You can’t. Have to get a bigger usb flash drive. Instructions state 4gb minimum. They are quite cheap now.
plz help me and give me my answer,when I type d: cd boot and after that cd boot ,it says the system can not fine the specified path? what should I do?waiting,,,,,,,,,,,,
@idress, is ‘d’ your dvd drive letter or is something else? The ‘d’ is just an example.
Plus the DVD you are using must have a Boot directory on it. If not, the boot images may be in the root directory of the DVD.
@idress
You can also try the way given in comment #1437 if the boot information is in the main directory of your DVD.
Thank you…works GREAT…
Thanks a lot .. worked perfectly
GOD LIKE ++
thanks I hope Google keeps you high
Perfecto!!!
Thank you…works GREAT
Can i keep win 8 consumer preview an windows 8 developer preview to gather on a same pen drive
GOOD
IT WORKED
THANKS
the command prompt tells me that the path is not designated when I try to D: CD BOOT -> CD BOOT
brilliant tutorial, very descriptive and I can confirm working , installed via USB stick on my Asus N61JV laptop
Perfect Thank you !!!
Very soon this website will be famous amid all blogging viewers,
due to it’s pleasant articles
hi there:
your tutorial was awesome thanks and great work!
;P
can you tell me how to install mac osx snow leopard on regular windows based computer.
hopin u’ll help
thanks in advance
You forgot to mention that win8 64bit bootsect doesn’t work in any x86 OSs. I have to boot a virtual machine in 64 bit mode and run bootsect there.
How to clean usb and undo all actions if I no more require windows on usb?
Thank you very much man I appreciate the way you demonstrated the solution.
@How to undo? Just format the usb flash drive.
YOU ROCK thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaank youu YOUR POST has just fixed my damn problem
BIG THANK YOU ADMIN.
))
I get an error that I’m missing drivers.
Can somebody please help me because I’m really stuck here for days now.
@SonyHren……Missing drivers? For what, what step?
hi,
I’ve got a problem and i do not understand why.It is happenning in the step 7 after we just have typed BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 H: and click enter i get this message ”could not map drive partitions to the associated volume device objects:access is denied”
if anyone knows the solution it will hepl me
Thanks
finally i resolve it alone,
I ran command prompt as an administrator and it worked
why does the format take forever to do?
its been 15 min and its only 1%
any help ?
had access denied at step 7, then i used the “esy guide. it was much easier and faster
@stompah, just do quick format.
This guide isn’t fool proof. I can’t install autorun to my flash drive it wont allow me. Thanks for nothing.
thanks ya
y do so much commands just download wintoflash and make ur pendrive bootable
Great Tutorial mate, I have used it so many times and never have failed
im going to give it a try and see how it goes thankyou for this post very helpfull.
u r gr8….i owe u man.i was looking fr dis kind of method frm a long time…u rock..
If boot wont startup try program galled YUMI(Your Universal Multiboot Installer). YUMI is very ease to use. Install it and add isofile and reformat usb stick with yumi program.
Yumi work in xp, win7 in linux, and 32 and 64 bit computers. It builds MBR etc.
I did like this page and it worked on my 64 bit computer, but not in my 32 bit computer. In my 32 bit computer freese on startup and get message “press control alt del”.
With yumi it worked. google “yumi”.
Thank you so much! My dad’s computer wouldn’t read a cd so i used this to install Windows 7! Thanks again and I will spread this guide to many other people!
Thank u so much..bootsect /nt60 H: didn’t work for me..but the device became bootable.
thank you sir,,, it is working 100%..
My host OS is windows 7 and I have installed VMware for some R&D purpose but unable to install in VMware.
Install media is not detect at the initial step. need help
after bootsect.exe/nt60 H:i get this
target volumes will be updated with boot mgr compatability boot code.
could not map drive partitions to the associated volume device objects: access is denied
i use windows 7 ….
Hey ….!
Thnx for this method … i got upto step 7
“but at step 7 i got an errro:
Could not map drive partitions to the associated volume device objects:
Access is denied.”
& as i enetred assign in diskpart … it removed my existing ‘D’ drive & now i cant get access to my D volume
in disk manager it shows an healthy empty drive please tel me how i can get to that drive back ……. !!!! thank you .
@Kiran, makes sure you started cmd.exe with administrator rights.
Wow thank you. Also just did this with Windows Server 2008.
@Chetan, I hope you are not talking a physical HDD ‘D’ drive you partitioned and formatted. If so you lost all the data on it.
The instructions clearly state to substitute the flash drive number you see using List Disk then Select Disk. If you entered your ‘D’ drive then all is lost.
for those people with copying the autorun problem, turn off your Antivirus and copy it to the USB again, normally its the antivirus preventing you from copying. Enjoy
Works on windows 8 and 7 ISO x64
Is there any workaround to the “Must be in 64 bit mode to make a boot-usb of 64 bit ISO”? The official windows USB maker does not seem to want to recognize my WD Passport. Am looking to install official Windows 8 copy.
Thanks alot. Simple and very useful. Great Job.
Amazing , i can’t thank you enough .
Hello. I dont have a windows installation disc, but i have downloaded the files onto my computer. Now i need to get it to boot from the flash drive but i dont have the bootsect file though. i have downloaded that too in C:\Users\SDAJ\Downloads
Now what should i do to load it?
@Syed: If you have the Windows installation ISO file you can burn it to a DVD. Then you will have a Windows installation disc. You can use Nero or CDburnerXP (http://cdburnerxp.se/en/download) to burn an ISO image to a disk.
Thanks tweakwindows. Works nicely!
After changing boot sequence to USB drive and exiting it’s saying BOOTMGR is missing.. now what to do?
I used my spare HDD as bootable installing device and it all works.
sorry i meant
how do i install windowes if i have no os or cd drive
i am going to try it now …..hope it will works…….if it works i will definately come back to u
“5. Next insert your Windows7/Windows 8 DVD into the optical drive”
Man, sorry, but if I had an Windows DVD I wouldn’t need this guide, would I??
I have an ISO in my HDD and I don’t wanna burn it in DVD. How do I install?
Excellent guide.
@ Washington
If you have the ISO, simply mount it and then follow step 5.
thanks for guide, will my pen drive also be a storage jst like before?
Hi wonderful Admin…nice work…i have a problem…i have an Acer Core i7, 4GB RAM and its a kind of mini with no in-built DVD drive….i formated it wit my Bootable USB and i’m getting 4GB RAM (2.61 Usable) 32bit……pls how do i change it to 64bits…..thanks
Hi wonderful Admin…nice work…i have a problem…i have an Acer Core i7, 4GB RAM. Windows 7 64bit and its a kind of mini with no in-built DVD drive….i formated it wit my Bootable USB and i’m getting 4GB RAM (2.61 Usable) 32bit……pls how do i change it to back to 64bits…..thanks
@ Israels
You need to install Windows 7 64-bit all over again by formatting your current 32-bit installation as 32-bit doesn’t support 4GB of RAM.
For those who do not know, Daemon Tools Lite is great for mounting iso files.
FORMAT FS=NTFS
This command not working, trying to do it in windows xp, any suggestions?
thank you too much its 100% work
I followed your instructions to the T but now when I try to put the ISO file on the SD card it says Access Denied: Read Only. but I cannot change the permission and now I have a useless card…
It really worked, thanks..
Your style is so unique in comparison to other people I
have read stuff from. Many thanks for posting when you’ve got the opportunity, Guess I’ll just bookmark this site.
Superb!!!!!!!!!! In my personnel laptop DVD ROM is not working. I tried this option “Boot from USB” i could able to install windows 7. Really awesome tips Thanks a lot!!!!!!!!
Regards,
Anand
is it okay if i add other folder in the usb? bcoz i thought it will be a good idea if i can add all the required driver files into the usb ie; graphic card, soundcard, gaming mouse, etc..tq
@amarock
Yes, you can place a folder in the USB to save your favorite programs and hardware drivers.
@Beau, are you in Administrator mode?
like u said bro it before getting into this site i also followed several guides but to no help…u r the man…it really saved me the pains..thanks a ton..wud like to keep in touch n updated…:):)kudos
hi,
i get this error when i ran ‘create partition primary’. my disk space is 3894 MB. it’s a 4GB USB thumbdrive. are there any other options ? thanks.
There is insufficient free space to create a partition at the specified size and offset.
Specify different size and offset values or don’t specify either to create the maximum sized partition.
Hello Admin! how will i use step 8? am i just going to open the content of dvd, copy all the content and send it to my usb stick? pls reply. Thnks.
hi…
pls tell me that if i have no CD drive but i have the whole setup file in my system then how i make my pen drive as bootable… and one thing is that i don’t want to re partition my HD…
thanks…
It takes my USB fucking 40 minutes to format, omgosh.
@ MD Yusuf Khan
Yes, you can create bootable USB even if you have setup files. In the last step, you need to copy all setup files to the USB instead from the DVD.
@ Yes, simply copy all setup files from DVD to USB.
I’m so sad. I’ve tried everything to install w7 on my desktop from my USB flash disk. It just doesn’t work. So, I completed all the stepts. I go to bios and make sure the USB is the first boot option. Then I enter windows 7 setup. I select language, time and date format and so on and it starts installing and at 70% in expanding windows files I get this error:
‘Windows cannot install required files. The file may be corrupt or missing. Make sure all files required for installation are available, and restart the installation. Error code: 0×80070570’.
I tried installing from the same usb stick on my laptop and it doesn’t work there either, but the dvd(the exact one I made the usb flash after) boot with no problem. Guess I’ll just have to get a dvd-rw and install normaly from a dvd
@ wirowi
It seems one or more installation file(s) are corrupted. We suggest you try installing on a virtual machine to make sure that setup files aren’t corrupted.
WOW fantastic, worked a treat with no problems what so ever ! this method has definately got me out the Sh*! and I cant thank you enough, super
thankyou
Got Access Denied On the very last step
Message says:
Could not map drive partition to the associated volume device objects.
Excellent tutorial, thanks!
Prior to following this guide, I was using win-8 RTM version, I followed the onscreen instructions and finally the result was a big SUCCESS!.
Truly awesome guides to do the trick.
By pressing the last code ( bootsect.exe /nt60 H:) it denies and I get this message ” Target volume will be updated with bootmng compatible bootcode.
Could not map drive partiton to the associated volume device objects: access is denied .
Can any body help me out and solve it?
Works fine. Cheers!
Absolutely working, great job
How to extract windows 7 from folder on hard disk to USB, if I dont have windows 7 on DVD?
Dislike it when walkthroughs won’t take you to the very end.
Here it leaves us hanging where it says:
8. “Copy your Windows 7 or Windows 8 DVD contents to the USB flash drive”
… and doesn’t explain how!
@ Jo
Open your DVD drive, copy all contents, open USB drive, and then paste. That’s it!
If you have an ISO file of Windows 7, use 7-zip or Winzip to extract. To extract, right-click on the ISO file, select 7-zip > Extract option to extract everything to your USB.
And if you already have extracted files on your hard drive, simply copy all items and then paste them in USB drive.
Thank you admin
Copy and paste (9.11) I understood, but nothing about ISO files (9.13) x-/
Thanks a lot, did work from the first time. you are awesome bro
Hi. i am having problem with the bootsect. it says “This tool can only be run on systems booted using
was booted using EFI or some other firmware type.” Can you advise how i can solve it? I have copied the files into my flash drive.
thanks
Hi. i am having problem with the bootsect. it says
“This tool can only be run on systems booted using PC/AT Bios. This System was booted using EFI or some other firmware type”
Can you advise how i can solve it? I have copied the files into my flash drive.
thanks
Prolly already been said. Thank you for these instructions. The DVD drive was killing my with a brand new computer. Just kept failing. These instructions worked perfectly for me.
i hav a problem in bootsect.exe.wat to do?i am using 32-bit os..
wen i enter bootsect.exe it shows like tis…wat to do?
Target volumes will be updated with BOOTMGR compatible bootcode.
Could not map drive partitions to the associated volume device objects:
Access is denied.
Very nice tutorial.
I didn’t read all the comments, so this may be a duplicate, but I might suggest that a quick format works just as well and cuts the time way down. (Somebody posted early on that a full format took 40 minutes. I also had to wait a looooong time.)
Just add a space and the word “quick” after the format command. It will then look like:
FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK
The % counter won’t increment upward, but the format should be finished in less than a minute.
buddy i have tried this method 100s of time. each time it worked only difference is i used fat32 file system, which changes the last step.. but today it is not working at all. sop trying ur method now.. hope it works.. usb drive is not at all booting even after changing the boot priority…
After using install win 7 from flashdisk, can i format flashdisk again to use as normal flashdisk ?
i can’t see my usb drive in disk partitions list
please answer….. anyone …….????
thanxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thankz this ws very helpful !!! 1ce agn thankz !! {y}
that’s great man
Great man Thanks man its working but last command not working for me any way its installing
Thanks a lot
Is this work for windows8? Anyone know that? However, Thx.
Gj we made a 99,9 MB pendrive from 4 gb..gj.. i cant start copy the contents to the USB flash drive…
2nd try, and its works, format pendrive again, and its goes to 4 gb.. idk why.
WORKS THX
@ Sun
This guide works 100% for Windows 8 as well.
I’m writing this comment as an add-on or alternative to the main article here. The author of the article or anyone else can feel free to use anything in this comment. I don’t need credit for this comment, you may take it as free information.
The author’s method for formatting the flash drive seems a bit complicated for the average user, mostly because of the heavy command prompt usage.
To format your drive just right click your flash drive in My Computer (or just Computer on Windows Vista or later) and go to “Format…” instead of using DISKPART. The result will be the same. In fact, this entire article and be rewritten to use a single call to the command line, that command being:
D:\BOOT\BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 H:
This is something that I’m sure many users would prefer to see, because graphical interfaces are much easier to use.
Also, here is a very short summary for people using an ISO file instead of a DVD (some people might receive an ISO from their university, or purchase and download the ISO from Microsoft):
1) Get a flash drive and, if it isn’t already, format it to NTFS. NTFS is required for this to work, and you’ll probably need at least a 4 GB flash drive.
2) Open the contents of the Windows 7 or 8 ISO file and copy all files to your flash drive. PowerISO or Daemon Tools are two programs that can open an ISO.
3) Run the following command in Command Prompt, replacing both “H” letters with your flash drive’s letter:
H:\BOOT\BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 H:
If you run into problems with the above steps, remember it’s just a summary and it assumes you’ve already read the main article. I’m posting it to both potentially help users with ISO files, and to help people see the basic steps required. Even if you use a DVD instead of an ISO file, the above summary might be helpful, since only my 2nd step talks about copying files from an ISO.
Tanks men. It works 100%
EXCELENT ! THANK YOU, my asus x101ch is alive now thanks to you
You are such a Genius…. keep up the good work!
kindly hit me on facebook same name… we can work something.
hi…my laptop doesn’t have a cd /dvd port
and the one i want to install is 64 bit?
and i can can install the new windows if the acctual one is 32 bit
can you help me please?:(
Yep, this is also working with windows 8.
but if you could explain all the dos commands we’ll be so glad..
thanks a lot for the share..
You have find out the perfect way to resolve, such a kind of issues. Thanks for your status. We are expecting lot from you. You are really great…
when I enter “list disk” it only shows disk 0 (hard drive)
what do you think, it’s a problem with USB stick or PC.
@neB26
Try to reconnect the USB and also make sure that your USB is appearing in Disk Management.
Do you have to repeat the process if you switch the operative system’s files?
For example; I made the USB bootable using a x86 version of Windows 8, but I want to switch to x64. Can I just switch the files without formatting or redoing everything?
Thanks
I have iso win7. I mount it with daemon tools, it appears as dvd rom on My Computer. So at last step am i going to just ctrl+a ctrl+c and ctrl+v to usb? Nothing more right for step 8?
thnx….finaly its work..:)
Run CMD as administrator if you get this:
“COULD NOT FIND MAP DRIVE PARTITION TO THE ASSOCIATED VOLUME DEVICE OBJECT:
ACCESS IS DENIED”
SO I wanna install win7 x86_64 using a computer running win 7 x86. Impossibru?
Could I use a downloaded version of Windows / if I don’t have DVD? What commands would I have to use? Thank you.
BOOTSECT.EXE/NT60 I: is not workin.
error: bootsect.exe not recognised….
help…………………………
On Windows XP, DISKPART doesn’t sees the USB device as a disk. So you cannot create the primary device. Take that into account when you try to do the procedure explained above.
@Ertugrul
Yes, simply copy and paste. That’s it!
Worked perfectly! Thanks.
I did this even faster by changing the line;
- FORMAT FS=NTFS, to
- FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK
Formatting takes quite a long time, so I’d recommend trying
i have windows x32 and i want to install x64 and at step 8 i have problem and it says i should use x32 what should i do?
You need to have a copy of x86 version of Windows only.
I just have to say this, thank you.
It was very nice, but i have small doubts here i hope u’ll clarify my doubts.
1) Why do we need to use disk part, list disk and all that commands, i think it just converts the flash drive to NTFS file system, Why can’t we do it directly format it to NTFS either it may be quick or normal.
2) Why do we use only NTFS file format here , Why can’t we use FAT or exFAT.
3)I have tried this thing with XP but dis doesn’t work, any help how can do it ????
On the format, you can do a quick format by adding quick to the format command.
i.e. FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK
No need to wait an hour to format a 8GB stick.
This is a awesome post. I was trying to reinstall Windows 7 on my laptop Lenovo X61 which has no CD drive. This post really saved my life.
Thank you very much.
What the hell? All these years and I’ve had to go through some janky procedures to do this — some of which didn’t work. Good job man! This >IS< the easiest way to achive a bootable installation. Good write up.
And for those of you trying this with XP. It will not work, not this way.
Another thing I did was used the 'QUICK' option after the format command. It takes quite awhile to format a 16GB flash drive and I don't think there is any real reason to do a full format when you just cleaned the drive.
Dear Sir
Thank you so much for your perfect explain.
Thanks so much!! The bootsect.exe portion wasn’t working but then I realized that I didn’t run it as an administrator!
i was at step 4 when my pc got shut down (due power failure), but now my usb drive is stuck. i cant format it because when i try i get msg windows can not perform this task. below usb drive icon NTFS is written. please help
Thanks very much, worked so well I was sitting there thinking “C’mon where’s the problems?”. Just two very minor points; add the QUICK parameter to the FORMAT command to speed it up; The BOOTSECT.EXE must match your existing OS, i.e. 32 or 64bit. Also the laptop I used the bootable USB drive on has a dead DVD drive so I used a second USB drive with the OS files stored on it.
great guide
thanks for this
you can also use the short terms
LIS DIS
SEL DIS X (X being the USB drive letter, seen in list disk command)
CLEAN
CRE PAR PRI
SEL PAR 1
FORMAT FS=FAT32 QUICK
or
FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK
ACTIVE
EXIT
I TRYED 4TH STEP BUT IT DOESN’T SHOW ANY DISK 1 ALTHOUGH I PLUGGED-IN MY USB PEN DRIVE
It worked 100% for me on a Dell alienware M11x laptop which did not come with a built-in DVD drive. Thanks!
Thank U Sir
Update on Update Jan 11, 2012: If you find this guide difficult to follow, YOU ARE RETARDED AND SHOULD NOT GET ANYWHERE NEAR A COMPUTER
When I type “CLEAN” into Command Prompt, (after selecting “DISK 0″ in my case, I get the message: “Virtual Disk Service error: Clean is not allowed on the disk containing the current boot, system, pagefile, crashdump or hibernation volume.”
I’ve gone back and retried with two different USB drives, but it still won’t work and I get the same message.
Could someone help me?
i made usb bootable and when i install xp in laptop,after copying files ablue screen appeares n it tells dat run chkdsk /f facility and instalation cant proceed coj there may be sum virus in my pc or problem with hard drive
hi. the text on my netbook suddenly missing. so how i’m gonna format it? can somebody help me to solve this problem? thank you..
You help my life! thx u very much!
Hi!
I need some help here. I successfully booted my window’s 7 from my usb drive. I chose the language and the next step is this message: “Windows could not display the images available for installation”
Could anyone help me?
Hellooo!
@ Mufi
It’s because of the corrupted installation (WIM) files. I suggest you check your Windows 7 ISO or DVD using a virtual machine first.
Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!
Tnx, u saved me a lot of time
thats good, its really working….
I maked usb boot disk with Win 7 step by step…no problem.
Laptop HP Compaq 6735s tell me >BOOTMGR IS MISSING<, press
Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart!
What to do?
Thank you!
Thanks much.
This is really very helpful..
I just want to say thank you! This is the third website I’ve tried and yours was just so easy to understand! The pictures, the bold text, it all put together a really nice picture for me. Again, thank you VERY much! ^^
there is no any option for booting from USB in my BIOS system. CD Drive, HDD, Network, else nothing any option in my BIOS. Please tell me now how can I boot it from USB.
thanks a lot bro only ur method worked and it is so simple.thanks may god bless you:)keep up the good work….
I got “BOOTMGR not found” msg in black screen at the time of booting by flashdrive after successfully completed all the step above what can I do?
GREAT MAN,,, TRIED EVERYTHING SOFTWARES AND ALL SHIT BUT NOTHING WORKS FOR ME
THIS IS THE BEST,,, I TRIED IT FIRST TIME AND 100% WORKING
Just one question, can i use this to install linux?
100% working in WINDOWS7 OS thank you so much………………
superb…Great work sire….working like god came for rescue……
thanks yaar very very much
Dear Admin and friends,
My USB device does not visible in LIST DISK. Can u somebody help me to solve this problem?
well i will start by saying my 3rd grade gr daughter could make a lighter bootable with these easy steps good job bud … now think you can help with this 1 ? sup password on thinkpad edge every thing was good until i wanted to change the bios . huh! i can see the bios i can get to it but cannot change it any suggestions? it cant be easy as the battery can it?
Thank you very much sir for this helpful method… it did work like a charm
Thanks for the guide. This is the most helpful tutorial I found.
Just a few notes:
- USB drive will only show up in DISKPART under Vista/7
- If you’re making a 64-bit Windows Disk from a 32-bit OS, you need the 32-bit version of bootsect
Worked like a charm… Thanks!
what if i hav windows8 on my hard disk rather than a DVD?????
ARE YOU SURE THAT THIS METHOD WORKS EVEN ON A SYSTEM WHICH CAN’T BOOT USING A USB STICK???
Excellent work, thanks for such a nice effort.
May Allah bless you.
Good luck.
salman you must have at least an image file of windows8 on your hard drive, then you have to mount this image as a virtual dvd rom on your computer by downloading any free software like “magic-disk”. It means you may now continue without DVD rom.
I am trying to install windows 7 on my desktop, when i try to boot the USB it says BOOTMGR is missing.. I followed the instructions step by step, can someone please help me fix this?
@ Manova
If your system doesn’t support booting from USB, I suggest you check out this guide to install Windows from USB even if your PC doesn’t support booting from USB.
http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-boot-from-usb-drive-even-if-your-pc-doesnt-support-booting-from-usb/
thanks for the great tutorial. if i want to make a bootable usb drive in 64 bit using 32 bit window. so what procedure should i do? please give me a suggestion. thak you…
Thanks for sharing the great tutorial…
I,m running 32 bit windows 7, if i want to upgrade in 64 bit what process should i taken? anybody help? Thank you.
Thank you very much! Works perfectly!
This is an excellent guide, thank you so much!
I think you should point out that this approach works around a major problem with the native Windows 7 USB Tool. The latter only works with USB drives identified as “removable”. However, a lot of USB hard disks are identified as non-removable due to the Removable Media Bit (RMB) not beeing set correctly. Your approach however works for both removable and non-removable USB devices, therefore it succeeds where the native tools fails.
Many thanks again!
Thanks a lot.Works perfectly. I have a question. Can I copy drivers and important softwares on the same usb drive so I can easily use them after installing Windows 7 as it has lots of free space left.
ty
Yes, you can. If you want to automatically install drivers and software along with Windows, check out these guides:
http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-integrate-drivers-into-windows-7-installation-disc/
http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-include-or-integrate-drivers-in-windows-8-iso-image/
http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-include-new-gadgets-themes-wallpapers-and-screensavers-in-windows-7-setup-iso-file/
Dear Twaekwindows, the instructions appeared to have been working until I arrive to step 6. My DVD Drive is F; after I typed “F:\> CD BOOT” the command screen indicates that “The system cannot find the command specified.” My friend, do you have any suggestions regarding that issue?
I’m fairly computer savvy… been restaging computers for a while… ever since Win3.11 in the early 90′s, prolly before the author was born. But still, I’m no expert, which is why I went looking for answers. This bonehead has the naïveté to claim his methods work 100%. Right. Sorry Mr 100%, but it doesn’t work 100%.
You might want to publish the ANNOUNCEMENT at the beginning of the post, rather than at the very end, that a better method is available. I went through the whole thing (successfully) only to find in the end that there was an easier and much faster way…
:/
Hi
I did all steps , but i have two Problems!
I:
in BIOS are 3 types of boot usb
USB-FDD
USB-ZIP
USB-CDROM
II
When i reset the computer to install the windows
Gives This Error:
DISK BOOT FAILURE = INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND RESET THE PC
Please Help me .. My DVDROM dont work , and My Windows is very dirt
Thanks
Nearly 2000 comments, many say it works. my computer does not have a dvd drive and is not working well this is why i try to get help. i will soon get to try it, my only prayer is that it work for me as it did for others. thanks a lot in advance.
Hey, thanks a lot, it works like a charm! Win7
@Kevin
you need to type “F: CD BOOT”
you typed it as “F:/ CD BOOT” which is wrong
“F:?> CD BOOT” is wrong as well.
good luck
Thanks I have used this a lot over the last year
thanks! it’s working!
I just have one problem ,that my hard drive is 1 tb so it takes so long that i cannot format it. plz help
thank u so much 4 the info!
I`d like to try it on my school`s machines
its nice to have guys like u in the net
Hey I can format my usb key to normal (that is just to store files) after this process, right? Or will it become a bootable drive forever?
Great It’s working thanks very much>I think you are genius
good job.
HEy i’m having a problem ..im not able to select partion 1..
I have a WinXP laptop, but its DVD ROM is not working. I need to install win7 through USB or any other means….
Please help…
Perfect !
This was the easiest and shortest guide that I found over the web corresponding to this topic and it works with no errors.
Thank you to the writer.
my flash drive does not appear when I type List disk only disk 0 is detected, whats wrong?
Works fine – as long as I read the instructions carefully!
I had problems with a slow SD card but with a class 10 SD card it worked.
I made mistake. It actually works!!!! It’s installing as we speak. I am so happy I could kiss a toad!! You are BEST!!! Muuuaaaa
@arif6832
You could use this tutorial but instead of using a disc you could open the iso with winrar or something like that….
or you could mount it with daemon tools
SIR
I COPIED W8 FROM DVD IN TO MY HDD. BUT NOW I HAVE NO DVD.
THEN HOW CAN I CREATE BOOTABLE DVD OR USB.PLZ HELP ME
@ Ajeet
Please use Windows Bootable Image Creator software.
Installing Windows 7 or Windows 8 on Lenovo x100e.
The Lenovo notebook x100e doesn’t have a CD/DVD drive. Therefore you must install windows from a USB flash drive.
Make a bootable USB using Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool which also works fine for Windows 8.
I did have the issue that my usb flash drive as bootable but my Lenovo x100e didn’t boot from the usb flash drive.
Although I set it to “boot from usb” in the boot menu.
´
After some trying I found out that the bootable USB flash drive must be formatted in FAT32 not NTFS. When your USB flash drive is in FAT32 then installing Windows 8 from a bootable USB is piece of cake.
I hope that helps one or another!
Followed the guide completely. Very simple and easy to use. My issues comes at the very end. I get an error just before copying the Windows 7 files. My error is:
E:\boot>bootsect /nt60 G:
Target volumes will be updated with BOOTMGR compatible bootcode.
Could not map drive partitions to the associated volume device objects:
Access is denied.
E:\boot>
I am actually trying to use an Secure Digital card in a USB adapter. I will try with a Kingston 4gb Thumbdrive and report back.
*** UPDATE: Tried with Kingston Thumbdrive, same error.
Conclusion … for step 2, you MUST
>Start menu
>All programs
>Accessories (right click on Command Prompt and select “Run as administrator”)
pen drive does not formulated and can not b opened …window does not format it what should i do …..how to regain my previous pen-drive
how should i regain the default pendrive again …without any partition
one problem is come in win7 all step is work but in last when you type the command bootsect.exe /nt60 and drive letter then its not work one natification comes(your drive is denaid)please tell me what is the problem
hey thanks dud, i hope that it will work properly
In the last step, is it important to copy the files from the cd room drive or we can copy from any other drives as well?
Reply
Not an easy task to do but it worked! Thanks for this I learned something new. Btw, used a Sandisk Cruzer Pop 8GB.
Spank You very much
Man thanks so much. Keep it up. It worked perfectly
awsome man .. i m going to try it , i dont know whether it works or not but the way u instructed and guided us .. it was really great thanks
Greatttt guidee thank you
))
Awesomely easy.. works great.. thanks
Cant get it in ntfs,….only fat32 is working should that be a problem?
using windows 7 64 bits and a 16 gb usb stick.
i have done till assign and exit command on cmd..after that i dont have CD to install windows 7..I have the copy windows 7 CD in my D drive. So how can i install from there?
inspite of writing D: CD BOOT wat else i have to write?
i want to boot my computer through the copy of Windows 7 CD..whether i have to put that copy in pen drive or what?
Please reply soon..
@rete: Thank you so much, sir. I wouldn’t guess the problem was in the fact that I used usb3.0 port.
I am getting this error ‘could not map drive partitions to the associated volume device objects access is denied’ after BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 H:
Please help!!
if BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 was denied….try to change NT60 to FAT32…its work ^^
Really professional guide, thank u so much.
thats great thank u for this article