Easy way to install Win7 from a USB Flash drive

If any of you have a netbook and have needed to reload Win7, it isn't all that easy 'cuz there's no CD/DVD drive on most netbooks. You either need a USB CD/DVD drive, or you'd have to go through a bunch of troublesome and confusing steps to create a bootable flash drive with your Windows 7 DVD on it, or you'd take the netbook to a shop. Well, it turns out that our good friends at Microsoft have a free little tool released under the GPL that will create the USB drive for you! All you need is your Windows 7 install disc (or an ISO of it), a 4gb or larger USB flash drive, and (of course) The Windows 7 USB/DVD Tool. Here's what you do: if you don't have an ISO file of your Windows 7 install disc, you can create one easily using any number of apps, I like using ImgBurn. It's free and easy to use. Just install ImgBurn and use the "Create image file from disc" (see screenshot below). Obviously, your Windows7 disc must be in your DVD drive, and you should probably create a new empty folder called "win7-iso" or something to put your new Windows7 .ISO image file into. Then insert your flash drive in to a free USB port and format it by opening "Computer", right click the drive and select format. Easy. Note that everything on the flash drive will be permanently erased. Then install and run the Windows7 USB/DVD Tool. The first step requires you to point to your ISO file (see screen shot below). From there, it's self explanatory and VERY easy to use and understand. When you're done, you'll have a bootable USB flash drive from which you can install Windows!

I'm pretty sure this will work with Vista also. If not, you can use Koala instead of the Microsoft tool. Koala works with both Windows7 and Vista.

 

Well, yesterday I had the opportunity to format and reload a netbook running WinXP, and I figured it would be a perfect time to try out one or both of these little apps. I first tried using the Microsoft tool. I downloaded it on to a tower running XP and tried to install it, and it immediately errored out with something about needing a "master API" or something. So I went to Koala. It's a stand-alone app so installation was a non-issue, but it seems that you cannot enter a location for your ISO image file, nor can you tell the app to look to the CD for your install files. It has a scan button and it searches the CD drive only. It appears that it is looking for Vista or W7 files only because it found nothing with a WinXP Home SP3 disc in the drive (I tried using 3 different discs; one was a 'home-built' XP Home SP3, one was a Dell factory XP Home SP3, and one was a Microsoft factory XP Home SP2). So- it would seem that neither of these apps work 'out of the box' with Windows XP. The Microsoft tool might have worked if I had spent the time to locate and install a "master API", while Koala is a bit too rigid in that you cannot 'point' it to a custom file location, and that it seems to only recognize Vista or W7 install files and not ISO image files (at least not ISO image files of XP).
:cry

 

I used an open source program called Unetbootin. Just google it. It automatically found my iso.

 

I just checked out UNetBootin, and it seems that it will run on Windows PCs, but it is NOT for creating bootable USB drives of Windows, it is only for Linux installs. At least that's what I got from looking at their web site and screen shots.... but I could be wrong....