Now a days, DVD / CD are getting out of fashion as installation media. Netbooks don't even have these cd/ dvd drives. Every one prefers to use USB Drives. So, do I. But in my case, I have to use USB Drive because DVD Drive of my laptop is not working any more and I don't want to spend money on my laptop.
So I learned how to prepare boot-able USB drive to install Windows 7 and Windows 8. Same thing I will try to share with you in easy manner.
First of all, I will suggest you to get one 8 GB pen drive. I saw many tutorials on the internet which generally says you can use 4 GB pen drive. But whenever I tried using 4 GB drive, every time few files are left for copying. So, I got 8GB pen drive.
Start with inserting pen drive into your system and follow the procedure mentioned below:
1. Format your pen drive with NTFS partition.
2. Start CMD in your system as administrator.
3. Type DISKPART and press ENTER.
4. This command will show you all the drives attached to your system including pen drives.
5. Select disk of your pen drive. In my case, pen drive is disk 1. and generally it will disk 1. so you have to type SELECT DISK 1 and press ENTER.
6. Then type CLEAN and press ENTER.
7. Then type CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY and press ENTER.
8. To view the list of partitions, you can type LIST PARTITION and press ENTER.
9. Now type SELECT PARTITION 1 and press ENTER.
10. Type ACTIVE and press ENTER.
11. Now we have to format the pen drive with NTFS file system again. So, type FORMAT FS=NTFS and press ENTER.
FORMATTING may take some time. In my case, to format 8 gb pen drive, it took 4-5 minutes.
12. Once formatted successfully, now type ASSIGN and press ENTER.
13. Now type EXIT and press ENTER.
ALL ABOVE MENTIONED PROCEDURE IS AVAILABLE IN THE FOLLOWING SCREENSHOT
NOW you will out of the DISKPART utility of the windows 7.
Now don't close the CMD window. We still need it.
Now minimize the CMD window and insert your windows 7 or windows 8 disk. If you are ISO image then just extract it some where on the hard drive.
1. Now open your CMD window again.
and navigate to windows 7 or windows 8 folder on your hard drive if you have extracted the image on your system or just navigate to cd/dvd drive.
2. Then get into BOOT folder. Type CD BOOT and press ENTER.
3. Now type BOOTSECT.EXE /nt60 k: and press ENTER.
HERE K: IS THE DRIVE LETTER FOR MY PEN DRIVE. IN YOUR CASE, IT MAY BE DIFFERENT. SO WHICHEVER IT IS, USE THAT ONE.
4. Now copy all the contents of the dvd or windows folder ( which you recently extracted) to pen drive as it is. Make sure there shouldn't be any thing left which is not copied to the folder.
ALL THESE STEPS ARE MENTIONED IN THE SCREENSHOT BELOW.
NOW YOUR PEN DRIVE CAN BE USED AS INSTALLATION MEDIA FOR WINDOWS 7 OR WINDOWS 8 WHICHEVER YOU HAVE COPIED TO YOUR PEN DRIVE.
Next thing which is important is that you have to select an option from BIOS to boot from pen drive.
Only then you can boot from any usb media. otherwise you can not. If your BIOS doesn't support booting from USB, then try to google for firmware update of your bios.
So I learned how to prepare boot-able USB drive to install Windows 7 and Windows 8. Same thing I will try to share with you in easy manner.
First of all, I will suggest you to get one 8 GB pen drive. I saw many tutorials on the internet which generally says you can use 4 GB pen drive. But whenever I tried using 4 GB drive, every time few files are left for copying. So, I got 8GB pen drive.
Start with inserting pen drive into your system and follow the procedure mentioned below:
1. Format your pen drive with NTFS partition.
2. Start CMD in your system as administrator.
3. Type DISKPART and press ENTER.
4. This command will show you all the drives attached to your system including pen drives.
5. Select disk of your pen drive. In my case, pen drive is disk 1. and generally it will disk 1. so you have to type SELECT DISK 1 and press ENTER.
6. Then type CLEAN and press ENTER.
7. Then type CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY and press ENTER.
8. To view the list of partitions, you can type LIST PARTITION and press ENTER.
9. Now type SELECT PARTITION 1 and press ENTER.
10. Type ACTIVE and press ENTER.
11. Now we have to format the pen drive with NTFS file system again. So, type FORMAT FS=NTFS and press ENTER.
FORMATTING may take some time. In my case, to format 8 gb pen drive, it took 4-5 minutes.
12. Once formatted successfully, now type ASSIGN and press ENTER.
13. Now type EXIT and press ENTER.
ALL ABOVE MENTIONED PROCEDURE IS AVAILABLE IN THE FOLLOWING SCREENSHOT
NOW you will out of the DISKPART utility of the windows 7.
Now don't close the CMD window. We still need it.
1. Now open your CMD window again.
and navigate to windows 7 or windows 8 folder on your hard drive if you have extracted the image on your system or just navigate to cd/dvd drive.
2. Then get into BOOT folder. Type CD BOOT and press ENTER.
3. Now type BOOTSECT.EXE /nt60 k: and press ENTER.
HERE K: IS THE DRIVE LETTER FOR MY PEN DRIVE. IN YOUR CASE, IT MAY BE DIFFERENT. SO WHICHEVER IT IS, USE THAT ONE.
4. Now copy all the contents of the dvd or windows folder ( which you recently extracted) to pen drive as it is. Make sure there shouldn't be any thing left which is not copied to the folder.
ALL THESE STEPS ARE MENTIONED IN THE SCREENSHOT BELOW.
NOW YOUR PEN DRIVE CAN BE USED AS INSTALLATION MEDIA FOR WINDOWS 7 OR WINDOWS 8 WHICHEVER YOU HAVE COPIED TO YOUR PEN DRIVE.
Next thing which is important is that you have to select an option from BIOS to boot from pen drive.
Only then you can boot from any usb media. otherwise you can not. If your BIOS doesn't support booting from USB, then try to google for firmware update of your bios.
