How to Install Windows 7 From a USB Drive

Installing Windows from a USB flash drive has several advantages – First of all, the overall speed of the installation process will increase significantly, carrying a USB stick is much more convenient than a DVD, and finally it becomes possible to install the OS even on those systems that do not have a DVD drive, such as a netbook.

In this post, I will show you how to load the Windows installation on to your USB flash drive and make it bootable just like the DVD.

Now, just follow the steps below:

Plug-in your USB flash drive and backup all the existing data in it.

Open the command prompt. If you are using Windows 7/Vista then open it with administrator rights.

ie: Go to Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Right-click on “Command Prompt” and select “Run as Administrator”.

In the command prompt, type in the following command:

This will start the Microsoft DiskPart utility as shown below:

This will show you a list of  available disks on your system. Disk 0 is usually the hard disk. In my case, Disk 5 is the USB drive (this can be a different one in your case). Now issue the command as shown below:

Now issue the following list of commands one by one as shown below:

Minimize the command prompt and proceed to the next step.

Insert the Windows 7/Vista installation disc and note down the “drive letter” of your DVD drive. In my case, it is “H:”. Now type the following list of commands as shown below:

Copy the contents of your Windows 7/Vista installation disk into the USB flash drive.

That’s it! Your USB stick is now ready to boot and install the Windows 7 for you. Don’t forget to enable the “USB Boot” option and change the “boot priority to USB device from hard disk” in your BIOS settings.