Installing Windows 7 Using USB Flash-drive
Mar 28, 2012
I recently built myself a new system from scratch, and plan to install Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit onto it using an OEM copy I purchased from retail. I had planned to save money on my new machine by not installing an optical drive, since I have no need for one. My original intent was to take the optical drive out of my old machine and use it just to install Windows, but in short-sightedness didn't realize my old optical drive is not compatible with my new motherboard. After a bit of research, I have found a number of websites detailing methods of installing Windows 7 using a USB Flashdrive. I have an 8GB Flashdrive so I had hoped to work-around my problem through this method, but ran into a new problem. All of the guides require that the data be copied from the disk to the flashdrive using Windows 7/Vista, and on my old machine I am using Windows XP (which from my limited understanding, doesn't play friendly with USB drives). I found a couple of other articles detailing a more complicated method that works with XP, BUT doesn't work for me, because my copy of XP is 32-bit and the copy of Windows 7 I want to use is 64-bit.
I don't know anyone with a copy of Vista/7 64-bit already to use or with a compatible optical drive to borrow, and I really hope to avoid buying an optical drive just to install Windows.
Does anyone know of a method that I can get the information I need to install Windows 7 64-bit onto a USB Flashdrive using Windows XP 32-bit? Or any other way to get my DVD of Windows 7 installed onto my DVD drive-less computer?
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Apr 28, 2011
i know i know... there's tons of threads about making flash drive bootable, put windows 7 onto flash drive and even has a post said ... installing windows 7 onto drive ... but no answer...i have bootable windows cd a laptop with bootable usb port capability... i am NOT trying to make a bootable windows 7 flash drive...i am trying to install windows 7 onto this removeable drive so if my hdd really dies, i can just use this flash drive as a hdd to continue do what i am doing light weight computer tasks
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Apr 20, 2012
Would it be possible to install Windows 7 x64 Ultimate onto my 32GB USB Flash Drive as a portable OS on the go? I'm not talking about creating a Windows 7 Installation USB Flash Drive as an alternative to a DVD Installation, I'm talking about being able to have Windows 7 x64 Ultimate OS on a USB drive.
I'm asking because I need to be able to have another Windows OS on a separate drive in order for me to be able to Secure Erase my OCZ RevoDrive PCI-E SSD using OCZ Toolbox.
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Jun 17, 2011
Is it possible to install Windows(XP/Vista/7/embedded) onto a USB flash drive, such that it is bootable from any PC (assuming it supports USB boot and meets the minimum OS requirements)?The installation should ideally provide basic services necessary to perform mundane activities such as web surfing and word processing. I've seen guides for installing Windows onto USB flash drives and HDDs, but not one that claims to be portable. Is this at all possible?
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Jun 24, 2010
I'm building a new pc and I'm trying to save as much money as I can. So I'm wondering can I skip buying an optical drive to install my Windows 7 and just use a USB Flash Drive to install windows 7 on a NEW COMPUTER with nothing on it(no OS).
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Sep 22, 2009
I want to have a Windows 7 installation that can be booted from a hard disk in a USB caddy or a USB flash drive / SHDC card. So I am installing to a USB connected drive.
I have created a bootable USB flash drive with the Windows 7 install DVD contents on it, so I am in a position to install to the Netbook hosting the USB hard disk. I have also (for reference) created a VHD on a different Windows 7 machine and set it up to boot from that, on the internal HDD.
The Windows 7 installer will not install directly to a partition on my external HDD, because it is connected by USB or Firewire (err message "Windows cannot be installed to this disk"). I can't "just ignore" the warning, as suggested by some, as the Next button is inoperative.
If I create a virtual hard disk (VHD) on a partition on the external HDD I am again warned by the Installer that it can't be installed to the VHD as the "computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk". If I ignore the warning and press Next (only works for the VHD option) I am told "Setup was unable to create a new system partition....See the setup log files for more information"
I can at that stage use the Installer tools to Format the VHD etc.
So I'm stuck - where do I find the installer log files and how can I move forward to get a bootable installation on a USB connected drive ?
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Oct 26, 2009
im having problems installing from my flash drive, everything seems to work fine up untill the point where windows gathers the information. It tells me "A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing. If you have a driver floppy disk, CD, DVD or USB flash drive, please insert now."
and i have no idea how to get past this.
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Sep 22, 2009
I have properly configured a USB flash drive to make it bootable, put the files from the Windows 7 install image on it and can boot from it and install Windows 7 on my computer.
All good so far. But I have an extra 5 GB of space on this flash drive and I would like to put some other useful programs on it, if possible, without messing up my ability to install/repair windows with this flash drive.
So can I just add in some more folders to the flash drive, containing other programs like, for example, the Acronis TIH bootable rescue image containing TIH and Acronis Disk Director Suite, and have it so I could choose to boot into them or the Windows install/repair disk? And, if so, how would I set this up?
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Jun 28, 2011
I am having trouble installing Windows 7 on a new build that does not have a DVD/CD drive installed. I am using a USB flash drive for the installation. Everything goes well until Windows installation asks me for a DVD/CD driver. I don't have a DVD/CD. Do I need an optical drive in order to install Windows 7?
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Jul 23, 2012
I'll be installing both Firefox and Chrome in Windows 7 64bit (I use both). Do I have to install BOTH 32 and 64bit versions of Java and Flash to support FF (32 bit browser) and Chrome (64bit), or will installing the 64 bit versions suffice?
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Sep 9, 2012
I recently downloaded the win 7 x64 iso and added it to a usb flash drive using the "usb flash drive tool" from microsoft. When I boot from the flashdrive the windows install wizard loads, I select the language and click next, then I get asked to find the CD/DVD-rom driver...
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May 31, 2011
How can I install Adobe Flash Player in Windows 7 safely if I have to disable the anti-virus programmes?
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May 31, 2011
How can I install Adobe Flash Player in Windows 7 safely if I have to disable the anti-virus programmes?
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Nov 23, 2011
symptoms: random fps loss here and there during video playback in Internet, as well as flash based games (about 1 or 2 seconds and then goes back to being smooth in what seems to be 20 or 30 second intervals). i'm not sure if this is 100% accurate, but i noticed that fps (frames per second) took a hit after installing sp1 (service pack 1) on windows 7 ultmate 64 bit. i don't know the cause, and i've tried uninstalling and re installing it but no difference. hardware is not an issue, as i just built a new computer with some of the latest hardware.
system specs are as follows:
os: windows 7 ultimate
audio driver: realtek version: 6.0.1.6482 (latest) audio codec: alc892
16 gigs of ddr3 1600 corsair vengeance ram
saphire radeon 6850 hd
western digital caviar black 7200 rpm 1tb
700 watt psu
fx 8150 am3+ 8 cores
asrock 990fx extreme4 am3+ amd 990fx sata 6gb/s usb 3.0 atx amd motherboard
i don't have this issue when i was in windows xp 32/64 bit, and again, symptoms only seemed to start after installing sp1 for windows 7 ultimate 64 bit. broswers tried: ie9, chrome, firefox, safari (safari seems to handle it slightly better, but symptom still present non the less).
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Jan 17, 2013
How can you copy one flash drive to another flash drive,on the same computer?
Tech Support Guy System Info Utility version 1.0.0.2
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Service Pack 1, 64 bit
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 630 Processor, AMD64 Family 16 Model 5 Stepping 2
Processor Count: 4
RAM: 3839 Mb
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD 4200, 256 Mb
Hard Drives: C: Total - 702932 MB, Free - 657555 MB; D: Total - 12368 MB, Free - 1523 MB;
Motherboard: FOXCONN, 2AB1
Antivirus: Norton 360, Updated and Enabled
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Nov 21, 2009
Ive tried to install the new version from here. But it stops and crashes before it even installs. Any ideas?
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Mar 31, 2012
while i trying to install the flash player11 it often shows the message timeout.help me to install flash
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Oct 8, 2012
Before I even go further: yes, the "hide empty drives" has been unchecked)I had to reinstall my machine and I was able to to see the drive letters for the internal flash card reader. However I think something might have gone wrong when I give my external HDD a drive letter that was held by one of the flash card reader).I wrote "I think" because I am not really sure since I never wanted to use the internal card reader till today so I never noticed there was an issue. Anyway, the internal card reader does not show up even when I insert a card in the reader. Basically nothing happens. I have uninstalled the "USB Mass storage device" and it gets installed without any issue but the problem is still there: I can't see the reader. the INTERNAL flash card reader has a USB slot and when I insert a EXTERNAL flash drive, the EXTERNAL flash drive shows up.
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Sep 26, 2012
I know, should have a backup, I was actually about to create a backup when the flash drive failed on me unfortunately. My newest backup is from about 5 days ago, so I'd prefer to be able to restore the current files.
I moved the drive over to another computer and tried to save a file but when I checked again the file was gone, like it never saved at all. Subsequently, after removing and plugging it back in the computer did not detect the drive (or see it in disc management). It does show up as a generic USB drive in the device manager, but there are no properties for it.
When I add it to a computer, it still adds drivers for it, but then nothing happens after that. It may also be a hardware problem, since the drive fell on the ground pretty hard a while back, but seemed to be working fine. There isn't an easy way to open it up and check.
I also tried using a few data recovery programs, but they couldn't detect the drive either.
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Feb 9, 2010
I have an HP laptop which I recently upgraded from Windows XP Pro to Windows 7.
The flash drive (Lexar Firelfy 2GB) I was using on the XP OS can no longer be read under the Windows 7 OS. Information are stored in it (I am able to access it with computers other than mine), but my computer does not see them.
I have also tried different flash drives with the same results. Under disk management, my computer detects the flash drive but is unable to read it.
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Dec 21, 2010
I have Windows 7 Ult-64 installed on my desktop. I made a USB flash drive with the installation files, so I know I can boot using a flash drive. I would like to be able to boot into Windows 7 using only a flash drive (no hard drives connected). Is this possible?
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Jun 13, 2012
In order to be able to Boot from a flash drive , I understand this ability must be enabled in ones system .I have a desktop and a new laptop in neither of which do I see this choice .I presume this is a choice originally installed on the m/b and it would not , therefore , be possible to use software to enable it ?
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Dec 7, 2011
I got my first computer build done. I am a student so I decided to buy Windows 7 from Microsoft for the student price. I had to download it so I didn't have a disk to load it from. So I followed this guide on how to use a flash drive to install Windows 7. HOW TO: Install Windows 7 from a USB stick. So far I have all of it done. I download Windows 7 as an ISO file. used MagicISO to convert extract it to my flash drive. I went through all the steps to turn my flash drive into a boot device. I put all the files onto the boot device flash drive. I start up my new build and go into the BIOS. I set the boot priority to boot first from my flash drive. When I save and restart it gives me the message that the boot device has no boot software on it.
-Have the flash drive formatted as boot device.
-Have all the Windows 7 files extracted onto flash drive.
-Changed BIOS to boot from flash drive.
-Still not working.
Also I can't redownload Windows 7 or redo this because the files are already extracted onto my flash drive.
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Mar 17, 2012
I'd like to make a usb flash drive appear as a DVD drive so that I can use it to create Win 7 recovery 'disk'.
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Aug 14, 2012
I have f* up my MBR partition(FAT32, is invalid now) and now W7 won't start. I haveen't made a rescue CD, as my lappy has no CD/DVD drive. Is there a tool to start W7 via USB port?
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Aug 20, 2012
Is it possible to install and run Windows 7 on a USB flash drive as a 'live' and 'portable' operating system? I do not mean create a USB Windows 7 installer. I do not mean create a recovery tool like BartPE. I mean install Windows 7 on a flash drive as if it is a hard drive, install drivers, any software, use the net, save files, etc etc. like a normal Windows 7 environment that can be booted into. Also, compared to running Windows on VirtualBox, how does running it on a USB flash drive compare in terms of performance.
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Sep 14, 2012
I'm trying to install a Windows 7 Profession 64 bit version over a Windows 7 Home Edition 32 bit version.
I know this isn't possible without a clean install, but my problem is, the installation won't boot whatsoever.
Two days ago I installed a fresh copy of W7 32 bit over a vista 32 bit with a flash drive on a laptop with no problem, so I know how you make a bootable USB.
This time however, using the Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool didn't cut it for me as, even though it was prioritzed in BIOS, nothing would happen and W7 32 bit would just boot like normal.
So I tried to manually set up the bootable flash drive, which also didn't work.
After a lot of searching on google, I learned the problem might have something to do with the bootsector not able to be run on a 32 bit OS. [URL] I used the W7 32 bit version I used on the laptop 2 days ago, and put the bootsector of that version on the flash drive.
Again, this didn't work as the computer would just boot windows 7 32 bit like usual (and again, I adjusted the priority in BIOS) Now I got enough of trying the flash drive to work, I tried burning the ISO file on a DVD using Imgburn.
Burning the DVD went smoothly and I quickly had a DVD with the W7 64 bit installation files. This however, didn't solve anything as (again, prioritzing the DVD) W7 would boot up as usual.
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Service Pack 1, 32 bit
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 870 @ 2.93GHz, x64 Family 6 Model 30 Stepping 5
Processor Count: 8
RAM: 3063 Mb
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560, 1023 Mb
Hard Drives: C: Total - 476837 MB, Free - 132797 MB; E: Total - 234627 MB, Free - 205990 MB; F: Total - 234316 MB, Free - 233246 MB;
Motherboard: ASUSTeK Computer INC., P7P55D PRO
Antivirus: AVG Anti-Virus Free, Updated and Enabled
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Sep 14, 2012
I'm trying to install a Windows 7 Profession 64 bit version over a Windows 7 Home Edition 32 bit version.I know this isn't possible without a clean install, but my problem is, the installation won't boot whatsoever. Two days ago I installed a fresh copy of W7 32 bit over a vista 32 bit with a flash drive on a laptop with no problem, so I know how you make a bootable USB. This time however, using the Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool didn't cut it for me as, even though it was prioritzed in BIOS, nothing would happen and W7 32 bit would just boot like normal.So I tried to manually set up the bootable flash drive, which also didn't work. After a lot of searching on google, I learned the problem might have something to do with the bootsector not able to be run on a 32 bit OS. I used the W7 32 bit version I used on the laptop 2 days ago, and put the bootsector of that version on the flash drive. Again, this didn't work as the computer would just boot windows 7 32 bit like usual (and again, I adjusted the priority in BIOS)Now I got enough of trying the flash drive to work, I tried burning the ISO file on a DVD using Imgburn. Burning the DVD went smoothly and I quickly had a DVD with the W7 64 bit installation files. This however, didn't solve anything as (again, prioritzing the DVD) W7 would boot up as usual.
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Jan 25, 2012
For security reasons, I would like to create a windows 7 X64 boot USB flash Drive , not an install drive. A drive where when I remove it, the system will not boot. What files do I need to put on the drive, or is there a progrm I can use to create it?
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Jan 10, 2011
Is it possible to load Windows 7 onto a 32GB flash drive and have it boot off there instead of an internal hard drive?
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May 17, 2011
i was just wondering how i extract the files from an installation disc onto a flash drive, so i can use the flash drive to perform a clean install.Extract Files from Windows 7 Installation DVD.i already looked at this but it wasn't specific to my uses.
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