There should be an image here!If you’ve downloaded Windows RC1 but you don’t have a blank DVD lying around, well then you can install Windows 7 using a simple flash drive and some software. So let’s get started.

Supplies

  • Minimum 4 GB flash drive
  • Windows 7 .iso
  • BootSect
  • USB_prep8
  • PeToUSB
  • WinRAR

Instructions (Format)

  1. Before you do anything you should backup all the files that are on your flash drive because your going to need to format the flash drive.
  2. You’ll need to download BootSect, USB_prep8, and PeToUSB. Here is the link.
  3. After that extract the files to your desktop. (Make sure that you extract the files to your desktop)6-10-2009-3-24-11-pm
  4. After that open up the usb_prep8 folder and cilick on the usb_prep8.cmd file.Click any key to continue when promted. After that will PeToUSB should open (this will format your flash drive).
  5. In PeToUSB make sure you have your flash drive selected and make sure that the following are selected, “Enable Disk Foramt“, “Quick Format“, and “Enable LBA (FAT16X)“. After that just click start.

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Make Your Flash Drive Bootable

  1. So the next thing we need to do is make the flash drive bootable so that the BIOS can see it. To do this you’ll need to open up the command prompt.
  2. Before typing anything in make sure that the “bootsect” folder is on your desktop this will make things a lot easier
  3. So in command prompt type in the following:
  • “cd Desktop”
  • “cd bootsect”
  • “BootSect.exe”
  • “BootSect.exe /nt60 G:“(Make sure you replace G with the drive letter of your flash drive)

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Installing Windows 7

  1. The next step is to put all the Windows 7 files on to the flash drive. To do this all you have to do is extract the .iso file to your flash drive using WinRAR.
  2. So now your ready to reboot your computer, so when your computer starts it should say hit F12 for BIOS. So after that just select your flash drive as the first boot device. Some BIOS software have different steps in selecting a boot device. So you might have to do some googleing or just leave a comment and we’ll help.

Original Article: How to Install Windows 7 from a Flash Drive
My Blog: The Tech Lunch