I’ve tried researching on how to install Windows XP from a USB flash drive before and when I finally managed to do it, the whole process is so unbearably slow that I thought I would NEVER install it from a USB flash drive. Recently there has been many articles about installing Windows 7 from USB flash drive and I’ve decided to give it another try and see if there is any improvement on the speed.
Installing Windows from USB has its advantage which is you don’t need to worry if the DVD drive cannot read the disc or if there is any scratches on the Windows installation DVD, and it is more convenient to carry around your USB flash drive rather than a DVD disc. Moreover, a lot of new compact small laptops or desktops doesn’t even have a CD/DVD drive. Other than that, you can even save useful software setups such as Firefox, Windows Live Messenger, 7-Zip, Orbit Downloader and etc into the USB drive so you can install them once Windows installation has been completed.
I will show you two ways (manual and automatic) on how to install Windows 7 using your USB drive.
Before we start, make sure you have at least a 4GB USB flash drive. Windows 7 installation files takes up around 3GB of space.
The manual way
1. Insert your USB flash drive.
2. Hit WIN+R, type cmd and click OK.
3. Type diskpart and hit ENTER
4. Type list disk, hit ENTER and identify the disk number for your USB flash drive. You MUST be very sure of this or else you’ll be formatting the wrong drive later on. If you have only one hard drive, then normally your USB flash drive will be disk 1.
5. Type select disk 1 and hit ENTER
6. Type clean and hit ENTER
7. Type create partition primary and hit ENTER
8. Type select partition 1 and hit ENTER
9. Type active and hit ENTER
10. Type format fs=fat32 and hit ENTER
11. Type assign and hit ENTER
12. Type exit and hit ENTER
13. Insert the Windows 7 installation DVD disc and copy everything from the DVD to your USB flash drive.
14. Boot up your computer with USB flash drive. You will need to go into your BIOS and make sure it is set to boot from flash devices. If you got it right, the Windows 7 installation should load from your USB flash drive.
The automatic way
There is a software called WinToFlash that does everything above automatically. All you need to do is run the program, set the location of the Windows 7 installation disc and the destination of your USB flash drive.
1. Download the latest version of WinToFlash
2. Extract and run WinToFlash.exe
3. Click the big check button to start Windows setup transfer wizard.
4. Click Next
5. Specify the locations of Windows files and USB drive then click Next. The Windows files path if the drive letter of your DVD drive and the USB drive is the drive letter of your USB flash drive.
6. Select “I Accepted the terms of the license agreement” and click Continue.
7. Click OK to start formatting your USB flash drive and the files will be automatically transferred from your Windows 7 install disc to your USB flash drive.
8. Click Next when finished copying and boot up the computer with USB flash drive. You will need to go into your BIOS and make sure it is set to boot from flash devices. If you got it right, the Windows 7 installation should load from your USB flash drive.
Your computer hardware specification plays a part on the time taken to install Windows. I managed to complete installing Windows 7 from USB flash drive with only 17 minutes and my desktop’s specification is Intel Pentium D 2.8GHz, 2GB ram, 7200RPM 160GB SATA hard drive and MSI 945P Platinum mainboard. When I time installing Windows 7 using DVD, it took 22 minutes. So on my desktop computer, it is 22% faster installing Windows using USB flash drive compared to DVD.
Related posts:
It can be done easier using FlashBoot
prime-expert.com/flashboot/
@joe – that just means you’re an idiot!
it’s an idiots way to make a usb. you could’ve used the windows computer management or even right mouse botton to format in fat32, then copy files.
as a resault of following you steps have deleted 4 TB of data I have collected over the past 10 year.
I have two questions…
1.Does “the manual way” work if my current platform is XP and i want to maке win7 USB?
2.Does the program work if my current platform is XP and i want to maке win7 USB ?
Thanks for this. It is really helpful. I have installed Windows 7 Ultimate on a Toshiba NB 305 :)
i tried many things and processes completed 100% still my usb does’nt boot….
even i change boot device setting from the bios….
You can use the following utility for the same:
sourceforge.net/projects/setupfromusb/files/
Making the USB drive bootable… does this then mean that the USB drive you set this up on is ONLY good for this job? Meaning that every time I plug in this USB drive it will start to install Win7 and anything else on the USB drive can only be accessed AFTER installing Win7, such as other proggys on the USB drive? Then I DO have to have a dedicated USB drive JUST for installing Win7? Inquiring minds want to know….
i cant find my flashdrive
disk 0 only
its not listed >_<
My Lenovo doesn’t have the boot from USB option for some reason. I wonder if I’m missing a update for my bios or something
hai thanks dude
the best way is install win7 use disk directely
Thanks Raymond..as always you are the best.
I don’t recommend WinToFlash because of my bad experience with it. I tried to install Windows XP from USB onto my friends laptop and it took almost 50 minutes to complete the installation. I didn’t tried with Windows 7, so have you tried it Ray? In the post you tell that you’ve seen that USB installation is 22% faster. So, which method have you used? the first one or the WinToFlash method?
I just ran across an app to build bootable Win7 flash drives, and runs under XP:
BootSage Flash Builder: http:/firesage.com/bootsage
i already insert the usb but it is not listed in disk list.
This tutorial is the best so far…By the way, it is not mention in the tutorial on how to incorporate the different application like Nero, yahoo messenger, etc. in the USB flash drive…
Could somebody post the procedure on how to do it?…
Thanks a lot, hoping for your reply guys…
Ref to installing Windows xp on USB and that its slow as the author said, actually this is not the case EXACTLy , it will be very slow if you pariton you thumb with fat32 but the case will be completely different if you format the thumb with fat16 and you will have 2GBs for you installation. I’m running it this way and installing Windows and the other applications with WPI takes less than 30 minutes (1.5 GBs of applications ) ,,,, so it is really much faster than using a CD drive though
hi ray can u plz compress win7(32bit) coz i hav limited bandwidth
hi raymond, actually Microsoft has an ISO tool to install Windows 7 from USB drive.
store.microsoft.com/Help/ISO-Tool
How would we adapt method one with a customized versions of XP or VISTA or Win7 ? I.E. Already has the programs and drivers installed on the usb.
well this methos is wicked and works for the following systems ( only method 1):
xp
vitsa
windows 7
fedora
linux
and even mac (if converted fat 3)
Is this user raymond a default user or it is the name of the person who is giving this example?
BTW I’m running Windows XP home service pack 3. The only thing I can think of that might be causing it is that I have a lot of services disabled.
I get an error when I enter diskpart in the cmd window:
C:\Documents and Settings\Michael>diskpart
Microsoft DiskPart version 5.1.3565
Copyright (C) 1999-2003 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: PC
The disk management services could not complete the operation.
I got this from event viewer:
DCOM got error “The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it. ” attempting to start the service dmadmin with arguments “/com” in order to run the server:
{4FB6BB00-3347-11D0-B40A-00AA005FF586}
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Excellent info – saved me as most of my systems refuse to boot from the Win7 DVD though they can boot the Vista DVD. Need to boot from the installation DVD since I’d like to wipe the HDs (non-upgrade install) as part of the install. Your manual way with Win7′s DiskPart I’d not seen previously – nice and easily done (fast too). I was working with the older HP USB Formater utility – to make a boot USB but its formating was taking 2x as long. Found your post during its formating, started a second USB drive with your method – its done and the files are copied – HP Formater is still chugging along…… Thanks Again!
I just tried this and it worked 100%. You are a life saver man, I had wasted a lot of DVDs trying to burn windows 7, and I could never get them to work properly. I give this post 5 stars. Good work!!!
Niptech – I think you are going off too far for basic usage. I mean – this article might be handy for personal computer users, you know – standalone machines!
U DA MAN, works like a charm!
I would like to ask a question here….
Are the detection rate of the antivirus*VIPRE Antivirus+ Antispyware* high?…..
I hope that my question will be attended…..
Thanks Ray
usb drive not showing in cmd
Wow nice to see the trick, really awesome…..i will try
Just curious: what letter is assigned to the hd partition when installing from the usb stick?
C or something else?
a good tutorial ….. great share man!!
Hehehe! it would also be nice if there is a FREE windows 7 download link. ;p
thanks man , worked a treat!
no need for any tool
just simple format as fat32
mount a win7 image to a virtual drive, copy all the filrs to the pen drive… and than just install
be sure to have a readyboost pendrive, otherwise is a pain in the as*s
@Raymond: portable is slower then HDD ofc.
If you could make a tutorial on how to reduce the setup size using VLITE and WAIK that would be great, making usb-stick installation would be much significant.
My intention wasn’t in any way to ruin the “fun” only to introduce you another way.
another method faster than this
copy the installation disc to any folder on ur pc
and run the set up from there
Theres always somebody that has to ruin the fun. This tutorial is great!
@Niptech: Err.. because it’s portable?
just what i needed, thanks ray :D
USB ??? why !? when you can install directly from your hard-drive using vista/server setup dvd to start console mode and then setup from extracted W7 folder.
Work for me and it’s sure faster then usb.
This is really good to those who have windows 7 copy, does this works also on all windows vista.
thanq raymond
Great Job Raymond …[:D]
U did great job evety time
Thnks for Such great tips …[:)]
I think using the Ultra ISO Premium is more ‘automatic’
The Steps are:
1) Download the free UltraISO trial-ezbsystems.com/ultraiso/download.htm
2) Start UltraISO as administrator (if Vista)
3) “Burn” the iso image to the USB stick by following these steps
With UltraISO:
- Open the image of Vista/Win7 with UltraISO
- Under BOOTABLE tab choose WRITE DISK IMAGE
- Choose your USB stick under “Disk Drive”
- Choose a method (It’s recommended to use USB-HDD+)
- Press Write
- Make sure to change your BOOT order in BIOS to boot from your USB drive first
THAT IS ALL!!!
i prefer UnetBootin… easier :) just few clicks and u r done flashing the ISO to the flash drive…
This is a good article indeed.
Indeed another spoiler right before Microsoft release this as their official move.
A very good source from CNET once told that Microsoft is planning to sell Windows7 on USB for the benefit of NetBook users.
I used the first method on my netbook and it runs fiarly well (1GB RAM). You might need to format the flash drive with HP Tool if it won’t boot. Also you may need to install the boot loader to it.
the first methos is the best i tried of my 4gb usb installed windows rtm 7600 of it installed so fast!!!! really cool reccomend step 1 which is for expreienced users only
Yet again, one of the best tips and utilities I have come across and lately most seem to be showing up here…..RAY you are the man!!!!…. :o)
thanks ray..it’s actually working for me,so thanks and keep up the good work..
Thanks Ray
i think the manual method will works for all windows~
Thanks Ray that is a good artikel.
could you also install windows xp using these instructions
raymond, can i install it on second or third partition? how?
would it be bootable?
i have slax on first partition so having it in a latter partition would be great…
great guide ray..i think it also can boot winxp and vista too
=)