How to install Windows 7 from a USB drive!

This is even easier than installing Windows XP from a USB drive, and will also reduce the time taken to install Windows 7, it took me about 15 minutes!
The advice in the guide is also applicable to installing Vista.
You need basically:
a USB flash drive at least 4GB in size
a Windows 7 DVD
To sum up:
Format your USB drive, with the NTFS filesystem
Open Command Prompt as an administrator, and run the Bootsect.exe program off the Windows 7 CD to make the USB drive bootable
Copy the contents of the Windows 7 DVD to the USB drive
Restart your PC, press F11 (or whichever key it is) to access the Boot menu, and select your USB drive to boot from
Full guide here:
http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-windows-7vista-from-usb-drive-detailed-100-working-guide/

Quote from: bnborg on 16-February-11, 10:28:04
I have done this and it is simple.
I cleaned and (re)formated an 8GB flash drive under Windows7 using diskpart. I chose quick format and a fat filesystem. It doesn't need to be ntfs. I had diskpart mark the partition active. I copied the DVD contents to the flash drive. I also made a folder on it for motherboard drivers.
After that, I booted the drive on a new machine. Windows7 setup came up, and didn't find any hard drives, other than the USB flash drive. I clicked the button to load drivers, and pointed it to the folder I had copied them to on the flash. Windows installed without problems.
Hi bnborg..Do u mind sharing with me your motherboard driver folder? I have the MSI U135DX Netbook and each time I hit the button to install Windows 7 it asks me for some mobo driver...Think i might need it to get tru with a successful install..

Similar Messages

How to install windows 7 using usb as the bootcamp doesnot have the option of creating a bootable usb. please help

I have an intel based mac with 10.6.8 mac os x. How to install windows 7 using usb as the bootcamp doesnot have the option of creating a bootable usb. please help

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
You can install Windows from a USB drive in one of these computers:
- MacBook Pro with Retina display.
- Mac mini (Mid 2010 and newer).
- MacBook Air.
- iMac (Late 2012).
If you don't have any of these Macs, you can't install Windows through a USB drive. Instead, buy Windows on a DVD. Follow Apple's steps > http://support.apple.com/MANUALS/1000/MA1519/en_US/Boot_Camp_Install-Setup_10.6. pdf

Re: How to install Windows from recovery media on a new hard drive?

Immediately after a Windows update, my computer would not restart. It said disk error.
I could not start it from the recovery media and F8 would not work. I bought and installed a new hard drive. Now when I put in the recovery media to install Windows on the new hard drive, it gives an error message.
What can this be? Should I be able to install Windows from the recovery media?
It is Windows 7 and the laptop is Satellite A500, 64 bit.

Hello
Generally speaking you can install recovery image on every compatible HDD so thee should not be any problem about it.
Please tell us what happen when you start recovery installation. Which error message is shown?
Is new HDD recognized in BIOS. Before you start recovery installation set BIOS to default settings.

How do you autorun a Flash Projector (Windows) from a USB drive?

I got a Windows Flash Projector (.exe) that I need to autorun from a USB drive. I just want the user to be able to plug in the USB drive to their machine and have it start running without any menus. I've been using the following with no luck:
[autorun]
open=KSF_USB_main.exe
The project is composed of a number of .swf files that load into the "KSF_USB_main.swf" file. There are also PDF and FLV links within some of the movies.
I have the "autorun.inf" file and all other files (including the .exe Projector file) on the USB drive. When I plug it in to a PC it brings up the "What Do You Want To Do?" window and doesn't autorun.
I've tried some 3rd party software that creates a menu file with no luck.
Any suggestions?

This feature may have been disabled in some versions of Windows and some types of USB drives:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971029
read carefully because it might be misleading at first glance.

2011 MBP 15", how to install Windows 8 via USB?

I successfully got my Windows 8 installation files on a USB. I just upgraded to Mountain Lion and no longer have the option to install Windows from another source. How can I install Windows 8 off my USB? BootCamp Assistant only offers the CD option.
Best regards.

On computers which Apple shipped with an Optical drive, then the Boot Camp utility expects you to use that optical drive to install your Windows OS. Since the 2011 MBP shipped with an optical drive, the Boot Camp utility expects you to boot the Windows installer from that drive.

NB100 - How to install Windows 7 without CD drive

Hi. I wondering if some one knows how to install Windows 7 whit out a CD player.
I have an external HDD.
Is it posibel to do a image on that one to boot from?

I'm typing this on an NB100 (Upgraded to 2GB of RAM) running Windows 7 RC .
Make sure to update your BIOS to the latest version (1.9 I think) and then you can mount the Windows 7 .iso as a virtual drive using Daemon Tools in XP and run it and do a clean install.
Windows 7 will back up all your documents, music, videos etc in a folder called Windows.old and it will find all the new drivers you need all by itself (at least it did for me). If I remember correctly the only one I had to install again was the Bluetooth Stack.
All the Toshiba drivers and manuals etc will still be on your hard drive too, I think they're all stored on a small separate partition, which I think is pretty neat.
It took me a while cus I did as much research and reading up as I could beforehand but in the end it was really easy. Shouldn't take you more than an hour really.
Windows 7 is also running pretty damn well too. The only problem I have is that sometimes the taskbar disappears after the screensaver has been running, but a friend of mine is having the same problem on his Samsung netbook.

How to install Tiger to external USB drive?

Hi!
I have external 80 GB USB 2.0 LaCie Hard Drive and want to install Tiger to it. But i have some problems...
I have bootable install DVD.
I'm inserting it, waiting, then choose language.
Then I'm starting Disc Utility, formatting whole drive to HFS+ filesystem, and then install Tiger to a new partition. All seems to be great, installation finishes, and says that i need to restart. Restaring... And my computer boots from DVD, not from HDD... Also, i looked in Startup Disc util, but thre is no my HDD, only boot DVD.
Also i've noticed in install log when installing process comes to end, some strange words:
-Disc partition is not MBR
-Can't set bootable device /dev/disk2s10
disk2s10 - its my HFS+ partition in external drive.
Maybe im doing something wrong? Wrong partitioning, etc.?
Please help me.

Without knowing how or what was on the USB drive (FAT32?) you might need to go into Disk Utility -> Partition -> Options and set the drive format to "GUID" from whatever it is now.
that should do the trick. PPC uses "APL" format which won't allow installing on an IntelMac.
I think "MBR" is probably "Mac Boot Record".
Anyway, give that a shot.

Install Windows from external dvd drive?

ok.there is my problem.
I have a Mac Pro here.Last week the dvd driver stopped work and I do not have time to fix it now and I need urgently install the windows xp because need to use a specific app for windows.
Is it possible to install windows xp on bootcamp using a external dvd drive (usb).
thank you.

I have the exact same problem - my internal SuperDrive died and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay over $500 to get a new one. It appears to be utterly impossible to install Windows from an external DVD drive. At least it seems to be that way for me and my machine.
I've tried my drive connected with USB and with Firewire. I've tried rEFIt. I've tried booting with the Option/Alt key. My Mac seems unable (or unwilling) to do this.
I've found many many people with the same problem and only a very small handful that seem to eventually get it to work.
I've even tried to use the 30 day trial of VMFusion (which is not a long term solution because it doesn't use/mimic sufficient video drivers to support the games I want to play) to install Windows to the partition and I can't get that to work either. The Windows installer seems to refuse to install an older version of the system when the boot version has already been updated to a new one.
Does anyone out there have a way to reliably install Windows on a BootCamp partition?
Cheers,
Fusilier

Installing Sol10 from DVD - USB drive as flash source

OK. First I managed to format the removable USB drive as UFS. Then I
could mount it as a UFS drive and copy my flash archive file onto it.
I've got another machine that I want to install Solaris 10 and use
this flash archive. So I boot from DVD and was hoping to be able to
specify the USB drive as location of flash archive. Trouble is even
going into the mini-shell it doesnt seem to work.
Any ideas? Or are there easier ways to do this?
I did think of Jumpstart or specifying the flash location as netwrok
drive or FTP but I dont think thats going to work. Trouble is first
time around I had a job getting the network interface to work - not
supported during the solaris 10 install but had to install a driver
later.
Is there any way to slipstream this driver into the Solaris 10
install? (like you can do with windows)

z92 wrote:
I am trying to install Windows (8, specifically, but that has nothing to do with my problem) on my MacBook Pro 15-inch, mid 2009 (3.06 Ghz Intel Core 2 duo, 4 GB 1067 Mhz memory) running OS X 10.8.2.
I have a Windows 8 ISO and a 8 GB USB drive, so it is my understanding that I should be able to create a Windows install disk on the USB drive using boot camp. This looks incredibly easy based on every tutorial I have found online, and if I got the screenshot they all show me, I'm sure I would have no trouble:
However this is not the screenshot I get. Originally I was trying to do this last night on OS X 10.7, and I thought the issue might be with my version of bootcamp, but I have now purchased and upgraded to 10.8 and have the same issue with boot camp 5.0, that is my Boot Camp initialization looks like this:
As you can see, I am missing the key option of creating a Windows install disk.
I've exhausted my google-ing capabilities trying to find out why my Boot Camp does not give me this option, or trying to find a work-around, but it seems to create a Windows install disk from an ISO on a USB without Boot Camp can't be done on a Mac.
Can anyone please help me resolve this issue?
You are nearly right, it can't be done on a Mac that has an optical drive, and yours does. Burn the ISO to a DVD.

How to install archlinux from pendrive/usb?

I downloaded archlinux-2010.05-core-i686.iso.
I unmounted the pendrive.
Would i format the pendrive with ext3/ext4 or fat32 or fat16 format?
After that i would do dd if=archlinux-2010.05-core-i686.iso of=/dev/sda
If i use unetbootin, should i format the pendrive with ext3/ext4 or fat32 or fat16 format?
Has anyone used unetbootin to install archlinux from pendrive/usb?

jasonwryan wrote:I'm pretty sure all of your questions are answered on the wiki: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ins … lash_drive
I did:
dd if=arch.iso of=/dev/sda
But after setting bios boot option to usb and reboot,it's not booting from usb.
What's the problem?
I get the normal grub menu.
Last edited by cola (2010-06-17 09:49:34)

How to install windows from usb??

Ok i am trying to install windows on a mid 2007 macbook. in some forums it says no and in other it says you can . What i dont understand is how to install it if you do not have the option to click when you are going thru boot camp. The mac is running Lion so i dont understand why it would be a problem. Do i Have to have a physical disk????? If so thats trrible because my disk drive is broke.. I had to replace my harddrive awhile back and when I went to the apple store they loaded snow leapard thru the usb port. Any ideas?? Thx as always.

Try this and see if it works (using UNetbootin):
http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/install-windows-7-from-usb-drive-requi res-2-simple-steps/
If you already have the Windows 7 ISO, it's a two step process: Install UNetbootin and Burn the ISO.
I have not personally tried this (I have the DVD), but it looks promising. And UNetbootin works for Mac too.
If you DON'T have Windows 7 ISO, and your drive doesn't work, there's not a lot you can do. You have to have an ISO to make a disk or USB install.
If you bought Windows 7 online from Microsoft, you can download an ISO version from them. If you don't already have Windows purchased, that's probably your best bet.

How to install Windows from an external cd-romd

since my previous thread was pretty much ignored - i dare someone again:
To all,
I am not able to get Boot Camp to load vista from the external CD-ROM since the internal one is totaly disconnected. It does nothing. It spins the CD when it restarts then continues on to loading the login screen.
Bare with me - this is the fun part -
I got a 24" white iMac. CD-ROM was stuck and refused to take in new CD's. Took it to Apple, they replaced it. I bring it back home 2 days later and the screen is dented. They fix that in 4 days. Now I am finally able to start installing Vista.
Put the CD in - nothing happens - it kicks it out!!!! Well - its brand new - its even a different brand than what was in there before.
I take it back to apple, i give the lady all the ** in the world because this is not supposed to happen, etc.
They decide to give me a new iMac. While I am waiting, the manager approaches me and give me the 13 cents which were found in the cd-rom drive (thanks to my kids)
So I appologize - totaly ignored her wanting $450 to replace it, so I went and bought a Sony external DVD reader, burner.
Problem --
Boot Camp, Front Row + the DVD player software won't work off the external drive.
I took the mac appart - disconnected the dvd-drive from the motherboard thinking that if its not there, then boot camp will attempt to run off the external drive.
Put it back together - and rebooted - everything came up fine until using front row or the dvd player.
Boot Camp still won't read the external drive - no errors nothing - it attempts then quits and moves to the login screen.
Guys - I need help - i make my living off Windows so not having access to it - its killing me.
Please do not recommend parallels or anything else like it.
I am willing to try anything at this point. Before I go and spend $450 i will rather buy a new machine.
HELP!!! Anyone Please!!!!

OK, I reread your original post and you don't say if the Sony drive shows up in Finder if you insert a disc, it should.
That said, the point I think you're missing is that when BootCamp Assistant (BA) asks you to insert the Windows disc, the BA application does not read it. Instead BA tells OS X to reboot off the cdrom drive. Thus it's the bootstrap loader that has to know how to read off the specified device. Bootstrap loaders reside in firmware and are very limited programs. They generally only know how to detect selected key presses and how to read boot sectors of certain devices and pass execution to the loaded code. Reading from a USB connected optical device is not within the scope of a bootstrap loader.

Install Windows from a virtual drive?

I'm trying to install windows in a partition of my hard drive, but i can't burn the ISO for some reason and I don't have a USB flash
Is it posible to do it from a firewire external drive?
and what about a virtual drive with Daemon Tools?
Thank you
PD: im working on an Intel Core 2 Duo OS 10.9.2

I didn't know the process, I kind of get it now
Any clue of how would it be done with the firewire drive?
Thanks

How to Install OS Tiger on USB Drive

Hi,
I tried to install Mac OS X Tiger on the newly purchased USB HDD. When I try to run the install from within Leopard, the setup will prompt me with destination hard drive. It doesn't allow me to select the USB drive and says "It cannot install on external drive because it cannot boot from this volume".
How can I install on the external drive?
Thanks, Pj

I need some help. I backed up my wife's iMac to an external USB drive using Superduper. It said it created a bootable clone. However, when I go to startup disk in the Preferences, the disk does not show up.
I see people talking about whether it's GUID, and I don't believe I set it up as that. Didn't know I needed to. I can't believe you simply can't boot from a USB 2.0 external like a Firewire.
Anyway, there's very little space left on this external, and I need it to be bootable. Can anyone help?
Message was edited by: Journeyguy

How to install Windows 7 64 bit driver for Canon i9100 Printer?

When I try to install my Canon i9100 printer on my HP laptop running Windows 7 Professional 64 bit, Windows cannot locate a driver. Visiting the Canon website, I find an update module for the Windows driver. Canon says the printer MUST be installed using Windows Updater before their driver update can be installed. I have tried everything, but I cannot get Windows to find a driver. Windows Updater says that my computer is Up To Date.
What am I doing wrong?
Thank you,
David

Hi Honeycutt,
The Windows 7 driver for your i9100 is only available from Microsoft through Windows Update. Please try Microsoft's web page for assistance with troubleshooting this:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/find-and-install-printer-drivers
If you continue to have difficulties, please contact our support group using the following link:
http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/standard_display/contact_us_consumer
Did this answer your question? Please click the Accept as Solution button so that others may find the answer as well.

How to download pics from a usb drive

well i stuck the usb stick inn the usb port and nnothing happpned i am doing this righht I wannt to add pics from tthis usb drive

Hi,
Under Windows, the USB stik should turn up as a removable drive. You can use Windows (or Files) Explorer to copy files around like any drive.
Regards.
BH
**Click the KUDOS thumb up on the left to say 'Thanks'**
Make it easier for other people to find solutions by marking a Reply 'Accept as Solution' if it solves your problem.

How to install Windows 7 from a USB drive!

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for