How to install Windows 7 RC from USB

[Head-Hunter]

Netbooks do not have DVD players, we must find another way to inject Windows 7. We will see how to create a USB key, or even an external hard drive, install Windows 7. The installation is much faster as well. It is therefore ideal if you must install the RC on several machines. It must, however, that your PC's BIOS supports booting via USB (which is precisely the case of Netbooks).

You will see how to do to prepare a USB key or external hard drive so that they serve as an alternative to the DVD to install Windows 7 RC on a PC. Doing this requires essentially placing a few orders from the DISKPART tool that we have presented a long long ago (yes, we have the sequence of ideas ...). Here you will find this training DISKPART.

The manipulation is to create a boot partition containing all the DVD files, so Windows 7 RC can be installed from a USB key (or external drive).

Preparation:

You will need:

• A USB Virgin 4GB minimum
• The DVD of Windows 7 RC (download the ISO image and burn it with software like "ISO Recorder").

Note: you can use a program like Daemon Tools Lite (it is available for Windows 7) to mount the ISO image onto a virtual DVD drive to avoid burning phase.

[Head-Hunter]

Handling for a USB key:

1. Run the command prompt (in "Administrator" in Vista and Windows 7)
   
   
2. Type DISKPART and validate by [Enter]
   
   
3. Type LIST DISK and validate by [Enter]
   
   
4. Look through the list the number that corresponds to your USB drive. In the following commands, we'll call X the number. You'll replace the X in our example the number of your key, as the capture attached.
5. Type SELECT DISK X and validate by [Enter]
   
   
6. Type LIST DISK and validate by [Enter]. If you did well handling the line corresponding to your USB key must be preceded by an asterisk "*" indicating it is selected.
   
   
7. Enter CLEAN and validate by [Enter]
   
   
8. Enter CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY and validate by [Enter]
   
   
9. Enter ACTIVE and validate by [Enter]
   
   
10. Enter FORMAT FS = FAT32 QUICK and validate by [Enter]
    
    
11. Enter ASSIGN LETTER = W and validate by [Enter]
    
    
12. This command assigns the key to the drive letter "W" and assumes that this letter is not already taken on your system.
    
    
13. Type EXIT and validate by [Enter]
    
    
14. Type XCOPY D: \ *.* / S / E / FW: \ and validate by [Enter] (This assumes that "D" is the DVD drive containing the DVD of Windows 7).
    
    
15. Restart the PC by selecting the button that allows you to specify the boot device (depending on the BIOS and manufacturers) and choose the boot from the PC to the USB drive.

[Head-Hunter]

Handling for an external USB hard drive:

The procedure is Similar to that described for the USB version, with two differences:

Replace step (10) by the next step:

FORMAT FS = NTFS Enter QUICK and validate by [Enter]

Add three steps between Step 12 and Step 13:

• Type D: and validate by [Enter]
• Enter BOOT CD and validate by [Enter]
• Enter Bootsect / NT60 W: and validate by [Enter]