How To Repair Windows 7 From USB Flash Drive (Repair Without Installation DVD Disc)
Posted March 23, 2010 – 5:08 pm in: Windows 7 GuidesOne of the best features of Windows 7 is that it lets you create a repair disc so that you can use it when you encounter problems with the installation. You can use this recovery disc to access system recovery options.
We have already covered how to create a system repair disc in Windows 7. Unfortunately, Windows 7 doesn’t allow you create a bootable USB flash drive. So, in this guide, we will show you how to create a bootable Windows 7 recovery USB flash drive.
The procedure is simple and pretty much similar to our how to install Windows 7 from USB flash drive guide. And the best thing is that you don’t need Windows 7 installation DVD to create this recovery USB drive.
Method 1:
1. Type create system repair disc in Windows 7 Start menu search box and hit enter.
2. In the resulting dialog-box, select your DVD drive. Insert a blank DVD into the DVD drive and then click Create disc button to start creating Windows 7 repair disc. Wait for a few minutes to complete the burning task.
3. Once you have Windows 7 repair disc, you can now create a Windows 7 recovery USB drive. Plug your USB flash drive and make sure that you have no data on the USB drive as we are going to format it.
4. Open Command Prompt with administrator privileges. To do this, type CMD in Start menu search field and then hit Ctrl + Shift + Enter. Alternatively, go to All programs, Accessories, right-click on Command Prompt and then select Run as administrator.
5. In the command prompt, you need to execute the following commands.
Type DISKPART and hit enter.
Now, type LIST DISK and press enter to see list of disks attached to your computer. In the next step, you need to select your USB flash drive that you are using to create system recovery drive (in this example, we are selecting Disk 1).
From now on, type all the following commands one by one and then hit enter (again, please make sure that you are replacing the DISK 1 with your Disk number).
SELECT DISK 1
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
SELECT PARTITION 1
ACTIVE
FORMAT FS=NTFS
(Format process may take few seconds)
ASSIGN
EXIT
6. Now, insert the previously created repair disc and copy all the contents (contains three items) to the USB flash drive. You have just created a bootable Windows 7 recovery USB drive. Good luck!
Method 2: Users who don’t like to burn a DVD can refer this method.
1. Download Windows 7 Recovery Disc ISO file.
2. Follow the procedure given in step 4 and step 5 (under Method 1).
3. Extract the ISO file contents using WinRAR or 7-Zip to your USB flash drive to create your USB recovery drive.
4. Before you restart your PC, you might need to enable USB booting feature in the BIOS settings.
5. Good luck!
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19 Comments
This looks bang on. However, is there an easy way to put both the 32-bit and 64-bit repair disks on the pen, and then choose between at boot?
@ Dave
You can any one version (x32 or x64) to repair both versions.
although one disk can repair either version, the recovery environment won’t let you launch the installer for the other version. i would like to have one pen to be able to install either
This really helped me out after I used GParted to repartition my hard drive, after which Windows wouldn’t start. If I’d have looked up what to do, I would have known what was coming, but I’ve never been one for instruction manuals. Anyway, thanks a lot!
thank you3X . everything works find now. this guide help me a lot.
I downloaded it, added it into my USB flash drive, but I do not really understand what I am supposed to do next. :/
Can someone help me out?
is it okay if i format it to fat?
format fs=fat
hope to hear from you. cheers!
I blindly followed these instructions and I am now waiting for my usb drive to format, I’ll point out that you can save yourself 5-20 mins(depending on usb size) by doing a quick format instead of a full format.
This worked like a charm on a Windows 7 netbook where I trashed the MBR installing a Linux dual boot, but did not have a portable DVD to boot the netbook.
I got this Recovery. But when I load it, The System recovery option is stuck. I cannot get to the next step. Please help.
when i boot it from a flash drive but i get stucked in a black screen with a blinking cursor at the top left of the screen. what will i do? please help
i did what was written but when i finshed and closed command prompt when i try to open my flash drive “please inset a disk into removable disk (F),, is there anyway to restore my flash drive back !?
This article only helps if you actually CAN get into windows 7 already!? Step 1: “Type create system repair disc in Windows 7 Start menu search box and hit enter.” .. what?? FAIL. I CAN’T GET INTO WINDOWS 7! How can I access the windows 7 Start menu search box if I can’t get into windows 7??? Thankfully I have a dual boot system with xp so I can still use my pc to write this heart warming response to your unhelpful article. Nothing personal, but this didn’t help at all.
Hey PJ – you have to have Windows 7 in some format. However, if you don’t have access to a CD because Win7 isn’t working, you have easily download the ISO, format the USB drive (which you can do in XP, so that wasn’t a problem for you) and then move the files over to the USB. Once you have done that, you could restart the computer and use your shiny new bootable USB to fix your Win7. Just saying – the command prompt works no matter what kind of Windows you are using…. and since you have a dual boot system, obviously you know how to get around a computer enough you should be able to get to the command prompt without a search box. lol
This was unbelievably awesome. After spending way too much time trying to get UNetbootin to create bootable Windows ISOs, this took less about ten minutes. I guess Windows begets Windows.
Hi all,
After reading through the entire post I still have the following doubts.
Firstly, does downloading the Windows 7 ISO and transferring it to the usb works for the windows 7 starter editions too??
Then, after creating this bootable usb, can i remove the recovery partition from my HD??
And finally, will the above mentioned USB(after its creation) be able to restore my system if i completely remove windows OS??
Thanks in advance.
Thank u very much for this information, this is work properly in my test, Trims
thanx i applied it n it worked to perfection.
thanks very much for this guide it helped me out with a non booting laptop