Creating a Windows 7 USB flashdrive on XP

[FinZeroX]

Since more and more modern computers are able to boot from USB flashdrives, installing Operating Systems with a DVD looks a little outdated. This tutorial will show you how to create a bootable USB flashdrive with a Windows 7 installation on it. There are of course several ways to create such a flashdrive. Here's one of them.

 

Requirements:

• A USB thumb drive with capacity over 4GB
• Windows 7 DVD or .ISO file
• An extracting program
• PowerISO test version
• Some time

First you should go to Start>Run and type cmd. A command prompt pops up, look at the adress and remember it (for me its C:\Documents and settings\Hipu)

Then download MBRWiz and paste it to the directory from the command prompt. Extract the file with i.e. WinRAR.

 

Then start with the USB drive. Go to "My Computer", right-click on the USB Drive and select "Format...". Set the file system as FAT32 and specify the drive's name. Then cllick OK to start the formating.

 

Next comes some commands so open the command prompt Start>Run... and cmd. Rememb to do this as an administrator.

First type mbrwiz /list. It lists all the found drives. Find the USB drives disk number and execute the next command: mbrwiz /disk=<USB Drive number> /active=1. Use the mbrwiz /list command to make sure the drive is activated.

 

[skip this part if you have a Win7 DVD, it's for ISO file owners]

Run the PowerISO and mount the Win7 ISO file to a virtual drive. Make sure that the new drive appears on "My Computer" with the right files.

 

Next thing to do is to create a boot sector. Open command prompt and type the letter of the drive which contains mounted ISO or Win7 DVD i.e. H:

Then type CD boot. And the bootsect /nt60 /<USB drive letter>:

Now it should create a bootsector on your drive.

 

Next thing to do is to download Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool. Open PowerISO and extract an ISO file from your Win7 DVD if you're using one. Otherwise just skip it and proceed. Run windows 7 usb dvd download tool and choose the right ISO file. Click "USB device" from the second screen. From the third screen, select your USB device from the drop-down and start it up!

When the process is ready, boot your computer to the USB drive and your ready to go.

This is just a quick tutorial, please ask for more info or help.

 

~Fs

 

Ps. Thanks to Krauersaut who let me do this based on his tutorial

Edited March 30, 2018 by Fearless Staff

[FinZeroX]

Add as a prove of this tutorial working, here I am browsing these forums with my Win7 for the first time:yahoo