Installing Windows 7 Without Using DVD/USB Drive [Method 2]
Posted January 14, 2009 – 5:51 pm in: Windows 7, Windows 7 TweaksThree days back I blogged a guide “How to install Windows 7 Using USB Drive” which has got much attention and applause from Windows 7 users. Readers are sending many mails asking me to write a guide on “Installing Windows 7 without using a DVD or USB Drive”. So after reading those mails I am starting this guide. I hope this guide will help many users to install Windows 7 on their PCs and Netbooks.
So you can continue this guide in keeping these three points:
* By using this guide you will be able to Install Windows 7/Vista, if you don’t have a DVD drive as well.
* You can also use this guide if you don’t have a 4GB USB stick. If you have a 4 GB+ USB drive then try out my “Install Windows 7 using USB drive” for a quick installation.
* We are not using either CD/DVD drive in this guide so you can even use this method to install this method for Netbooks.
There are two ways to install Windows 7/Vista without using A DVD or USB. The first one is using VPC (Virtual PC) and the second one is mounting an ISO file using free tools like Daemon tools or Virtual Clone Drive.
Method 2: Installing Windows 7 without using a DVD or USB via direct method
In this method we install Windows 7 on a clean partition like the normal DVD boot method. Only change is we don’t use a DVD drive in this guide. Please follow the below instructions carefully and don’t skip any steps to make things quickly!
1. Download the Windows 7 ISO files from Microsoft. I hope you have already downloaded one.
2. Download and install Virtual Clone Drive from here.
3. Firstly, go to the directory where you have saved Windows 7 ISO file. Right-click on the ISO file, select Open with and then select “Mount files with Virtual Clone Drive” to mount your ISO file.
4. Go back to My Computer (or Just Computer) and then double-click on the Virtual Clone Drive icon to start Windows 7 installation process.
Yes, you are installing Windows 7 without a DVD or USB drive!
5. Next, follow the normal Windows 7 installation procedure to finish the installation. Windows may restart during the install process. Worry not, everything will go fine.
You can also refer my “Windows 7 installation procedure” guide if you have doubts about the installation.
Below is the another way of installing Windows 7 without using a DVD or USB:
Method 1: Installing Windows 7 Without Using a DVD or USB via Virtual PC method
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30 Comments
When I try this method exactly as you’ve explained it, I am given this error.
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b42/mason4300/W7B_error.jpg
I am trying this from Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit. I am trying to install the W7 Beta 64-bit to a secondary drive. Is this happening because I am trying to install the 64-bit OS from a 32-bit OS?
WARNING THIS WILL INSTALL OVER YOUR CURRENT VISTA INSTALLATION.
This is an upgrade. If you want a clean installation you need a dvd or a usb drive
Hello, thanks for this very useful guide! I did all of the steps and my files were all transfered to Windows 7. Now, when I want to switch back to Vista, what exactly do I have to do so that I don’t have to reinstall everything over again?
Thanks in advance!
- Alex
WARNING – THIS WILL OVERWRITE YOUR CURRENT OS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“WARNING THIS WILL INSTALL OVER YOUR CURRENT VISTA INSTALLATION.”
That’s your fault pal.
You should’ve read the entire thing, and created a partition.
Can someone help me. Has someone tested installing windows 7 with virtual drive clone. ( when i tried the virtual drive did not boot after restart) can some one help?
Hello everyone never try method 2 it doesnot work. it doesn’t work because once the installation process restarts it does not work. i have tried it in both daemon tools pro and virtual drive clone. it doesn’t work. Don’t bother trying.
Hi John.
It’s sad to know that this method is not working for you. But, it doesn’t mean that this method doesn’t work. I have been installing all the builds of Windows 7 using the same method and also with the same tool. This method works 100% as there are many users who have installed Windows 7 using this method itself.
I have been trying this method for my notebook with no optical drive. It boots up, but when it gets to expanding files it say windows can not complete the installation because some files are missing or may be corrupt. I’ve redone everything 4 times with no success. I had this error when I installed Vista and found a dirty dvd to be the problem, but this one I can’t fix. Any Ideas?
Jamie, as you have tried four times already, I don’t say that you have been doing something wrong. You are doing everything correct but it seems you DVD which you are using to copy files to USB stick might be the culprit.
Yo, what do u do when u have to restart? my PC just freezes on where it stopped, like the periods still go which means its downloading. is that only cuz the upgrade is slow, or is it because i need the DVD or something?
I installed Windows 7 Build 7100 from an XP partition onto another blank partition and method 2 worked wonderfully. When I tried to install Windows 7 Build 7100 64 Bit version the same way (on a 64 bit computer) I always get an error saying I am trying to install an incompatible version of the OS. Do you know what is wrong? Can it be done? Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!
Thanks a lot for the instruction. It did not work for the first time, but second time I tried, it worked perfectly. May be first time I opened several application, may be that could be the reason.
Hari
For those trying to install a 64 bit Vista/Win 7 OS from a 32bit OS – It can’t be done by this method. The setup files and suport utilities on the 64 bit DVD are complied to be run from a 64 bit windows OS only.
Therefor the only option is to do a clean install generally by booting from a DVD or alternativly from a usb stick as per tweakwindows other excellent and simple guide:
http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-windows-7vista-from-usb-drive-detailed-100-working-guide/
Incidentally, if your computer bios supports it, you can use the exact same method as the usb stick guide to boot from a memory card reader via a memory card (such as a SD card). I used this method to put win7 RC on my Eee 900 using a 2 gig SD card I had lying around.
Will this method work for installing win 7 my mounting the image on XP ?? mine is not working..its giving me a error “Windows Setup cannot find a location to store temporary files.To install Windows,make sure that a partition on your boot disk has 685 MB of free space.” even when my C: drive (XP) is still 21GB free.Also the drive where I want to install win 7 is 58GB free.
So what’s the problem ??
@Shyam
Windows XP to Windows 7 direct upgrade is not possible.
Method 2 works great, I hooked up my external HDD with the installation files on it and installed on an empty partition of my netbook. I now have dual boot XP and W7
.
You indeed have to make sure you install it on a different partition than the one with XP. Mounting is not necessary, you can also extract the files out of the .iso file and place them in a folder on your XP partition.
I’m already thinking about throwing XP off my netbook and using W7 only!
wow…..this method rocks…i was using XP on my HP mini 1129TU and i just installed the Virtual Clone Drive in XP, then copied the iso to my c drive in XP, and mounted it…ad clicked on istall and seleted “Customs” Method….it got installed seamlessly on the same partition…and i have no issues…in the last 6 hours…
Thanks for the wonderful tip.
Challu
Oye dude. Sorry to interrupt. Before i proceed to the final stpe of installing windows 7, i have a 15Gb usb drive(Actually my Phones drive) and was wondering to not make the same mistake screwing my computer that lost its boot manager after it failed installing Windows 7 at the final step. So i thought to make a Recovery disk, rather than a dam Drive that is costly buying 16 of them of high capacity, my phones Drive is 15gb….i use it for all the types of cmd commands you give for making it into drives and stuffs..and all was successfull…but this time, i need something better and backup of my windows. SPACE REQUIRED: 8.75GB’s. Location: External drive..my simplest result i could think of is, Cloning my usb drive into a DVD drive JUST like the “Virtual clone drive” that cloned a space of memory into ROM and DVD. So now, can you help me make my PC vista 32bit “Toshiba Recovery Wizard” identify my USB(phones drive lol) as a DVD drive?????Please reply me in mail fast, because i’m running out of holiday time..so i thought i could try out the new system in multi-boot.
“That’s your fault pal.
You should’ve read the entire thing, and created a partition.”
That’s right! Make a new partition, format it, and install the new OS on it. If you try to install on the C partition your mounted image will go away upon formatting and installing the new files. By making a new partition and installing there you can later wipe the C partition and reclaim the space.
Hi, Nice Tutorial, Bigup to you..
But i was wondering if we can install MAC OSX without using USB/DVD
Can you please direct on how to install MAC OSX with just an .iso file.??
Why would you want that? Every Mac got a DVD-Drive…
Mac OS X Doesn’t work on a PC, except for the hacked, illegal version, wich is very unstable.
Why? Because the OS is locked to Certain Hardware.
If It detects other hardware then those in a Mac, it will cancel the installation.
could someone explain for me:- in the deamon tools method how it resumes after a restart?
I just figured out how to do a home network between my netbook and desktop. Now I’m using the DVD drive on my desktop to install 7 on the netbook. It wasn’t hard to figure out and its going along very nicely.
The only bummer was that I’d have liked to repartition my hard drive but you can’t do that if you start the install while windows is running.
Worked perfectly for me, though I used Alcohol 120% which i already use. Mounted the iso file and ran the setup and installed into a new partition and it ran smoothly with no hiccups.
Thnx for this awesome article. You save me some trouble.
Can you boot it from the Hard Drive? [upgrading] please let me know lil_luke55@hotmail.co.uk
where on the microsoft site can i find the windows 7 iso files?
Great treat m8;)
Hi Guys,
This method works perfectly, I prefer using Virtual Clone Drive, as Daemon Tools doesn’t seem to be compatible with Win. 7 Download the .iso file, mount it using V. Clone Drive and start the installation process, everything will go perfectly. I’ve upgraded my PC to Win7 from Vista both x64 using this method. Good Luck!