How to make a Windows installer on a USB stick
Here is a simple tutorial on how to make a windows installer using a USB stick. This is very useful if you dont have access to a CD/DVD drive like in the case of most netbooks in the market.Basically we are going to use an "image" of a windows installer and put it in a USB flash drive that can accommodate the size. usually around 3 to 4 Gigabytes of data.
This will also make the USB stick bootable so you can launch it to make a repair, upgrade or even a fresh windows installation on a system.
Lets begin :
First, if you already have a running windows system and wanted to upgrade or do a fresh install, it is highly recommended that you get the product keys of all your installed applications. These Serial Keys will be used again when you re-install it on your new windows system.
Usually, you have those written on the back side of the CD/DVD installers of the software but in any case that you dont have a copy of it for example it came pre-installed in your system, then you should follow these steps to get hold of those keys especially the windows serial keys.
Please visit this post How to get windows serial keys on your PC.
Now, when everything is ready, we can now proceed with the steps.
1.) Format your USB stick to NTFS File system.
- Insert USB stick in computer
- Select the drive by rightclicking and select "Format"
- In the File System, select NTFS
- Tick the "Quick format" box in the format options
- Click start.
2.) Now your USB drive is ready. Next, download the Windows installation image (ISO) if you dont have it already.
- Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (English 32 bit)
- Windows 7 Professional SP1 (English 32 bit)
- Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (English 32 bit)
- Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (English 64 bit)
- Windows 7 Professional SP1 (English 64 bit)
- Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (English 64 bit)
3.) Now that you have your Windows installation image, you need a tool that can mount that ISO to a USB flash drive. Choose one from these utilities.
- UNetbootin
- WinToFlash
- Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool
4.) When you have both the windows image file and the USB utility app, simply follow the instructions on how to mount the image file on the USB flash drive. The links above includes both download and step by step instructions and its pretty easy.
5.) By this time, you already have a Windows USB flash drive installer. To boot from it, you need to change the boot options in your BIOS.
- Restart your PC/Laptop and hit ESC or F2 or F3 repeatedly depending on your unit to enter BIOS SETUP.
- Go to Boot options or similar menu
- Change the Boot Order and make sure that USB loads first before your Hard drive.
- Save and exit.
6.) After setting up your Boot order, the pc will now boot from the USB flash drive and load the Windows installation menu. Now you can install windows normally like youre using a CD/DVD.
*Note: if for some reason that the system is not booting from the USB, try formatting the USB in FAT32 if NTFS is chosen the first time and vice versa.*