Use a USB to Install Windows 7— Even on a Netbook

[Resurrection]

Use a USB Key to Install Windows 7


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Putting the Windows 7 installation on a USB thumb drive has a few advantages—a small USB key is much more convenient for carrying around than a DVD, the OS will actually install much faster, and you can use a USB key to install Windows 7 on systems that do not have a DVD drive, such as a netbook.

In fact, you can even install Windows 7 on netbooks that have fairly modest hardware. Dennis Chung, an IT Pro Evangelist at Microsoft recently posted a video demonstrating how easy it is to prepare your thumb drive and use it to install Windows 7.


Here’s a quick look at the process:

• First, you’ll need the DiskPart utility on the system you will use to prep the thumb drive. This is a free disk partitioning utility that is likely already installed on your Windows system. If not, you can download DiskPart here.
  
• Launch the DiskPart utility by typing diskpart at the Start Menu.
  
• Then run the list disk command to check the status of your drive.
  
• Now run select disk 1 where the "1" is actually the corresponding number of your USB drive.
• Run clean.
• Once the thumb drive is clean, you can run create partition primary.
• Now make the partition active by entering active
• Then you need to set up the file system as Fat32 by running format fs=fat32 quick (quick, of course, specifies that you want to perform a quick format to speed up the process).
• Entering the assign command gives the USB drive a drive letter, making it easy to access from Windows Explorer
• Then you can copy everything from the Windows 7 installation DVD onto the USB key (a simple drag and drop will do).
• Now you can insert the thumb drive into the system you want to install Windows 7 onto and boot the system. The installation will now proceed as usual—but faster.

A video tutorial to help you along...




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Be warned though that this only works for Windows 7.

There are methods to install XP on your netbook but this is not one of those...

[elelaa]

you are fantastic. i try it many times but everytimne i fail

[DriftKing]

Good one, any successful method of install winxp from usb ? because I tried lots of software but I didn't success on it.

[anon]

Installing Microsoft Windows XP from usb device (usb-stick, usb-hdd, SD card) simpler method [EeeUser Eee PC Wiki]

Just one of many results I found. The site's for EEE netbooks but it should probably work on others as well. Bear in mind the BIOS must support booting from USB drives, though (my desktop PC's doesn't).

[peepin]

I will install winpe 3 to usb drive and load the image(iso) of win7 or winxp with virtual drive .
it's much convenient with GUI system than command line .