Creating Bootable Vista / Windows 7 USB Flash Drive

EDIT 2009/12/11: Microsoft Provides a tool to do this for you – Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool. See the Microsoft Store Help on the ISO-Tool (http://store.microsoft.com/Help/ISO-Tool).

It surprised me to find that there are very few dead-simple guides to creating a bootable USB thumb/pen/flash drive for a Vista and/or Windows 7 installation.  I cobbled together the following from VistaPCGuy and another source I don’t remember right now.

This will walk through the steps to create a bootable USB flash drive for the purpose of installing a Vista or Windows 7 OS.  These instructions assume that you have a computer with Windows Vista installed on it.

Required:

  • USB Flash Drive (4GB+)
  • Microsoft OS Disk (Vista / Windows 7)
  • A computer running Vista / Windows 7

Step 1: Format the Drive
The steps here are to use the command line to format the disk properly using the diskpart utility. [Be warned: this will erase everything on your drive. Be careful.]

  1. Plug in your USB Flash Drive
  2. Open a command prompt as administrator (Right click on Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt and select “Run as administrator”
  3. Find the drive number of your USB Drive by typing the following into the Command Prompt window:
    diskpart
    list disk
    The number of your USB drive will listed. You’ll need this for the next step.  I’ll assume that the USB flash drive is disk 1.
  4. Format the drive by typing the next instructions into the same window. Replace the number “1” with the number of your disk below.
    select disk 1
    clean
    create partition primary
    select partition 1
    active
    format fs=NTFS
    assign
    exit
    When that is done you’ll have a formatted USB flash drive ready to be made bootable.

Step 2: Make the Drive Bootable
Next we’ll use the bootsect utility that comes on the Vista or Windows 7 disk to make the flash drive bootable.  In the same command window that you were using in Step 1:

  1. Insert your Windows Vista / 7 DVD into your drive.
  2. Change directory to the DVD’s boot directory where bootsect lives:
    d:
    cd d:\boot
  3. Use bootsect to set the USB as a bootable NTFS drive prepared for a Vista/7 image. I’m assuming that your USB flash drive has been labeled disk G:\ by the computer:
    bootsect /nt60 g:
  4. You can now close the command prompt window, we’re done here.

Step 3: Copy the installation DVD to the USB drive
The easiest way is to use Windows explorer to copy all of the files on your DVD on to the formatted flash drive.  After you’ve copied all of the files the disk you are ready to go.

Step 4: Set your BIOS to boot from USB
This is where you’re on your own since every computer is different. Most BIOS’s allow you to hit a key at boot and select a boot option.

I used these instructions to get my new Dell Mini 9 laptop loaded with Windows 7 (the PDC bits).  HTH.

655 thoughts on “Creating Bootable Vista / Windows 7 USB Flash Drive”

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  5. Well… I was nearly going mad looking for this guide in the net! … These days it is really hard to find good solutions for any problem!!…

    If you ever are in the area of Stuttgart, Germany give me a call and I'll invite you to a good beer!! — +4917RENEGADE

    THX

    1. If I ever make my way to Stuttgart, you can be sure I'll take you up on that offer!

  6. I did all the steps and i could not get it to boot until I copy the name of disc over to the USB drive and then it booted.

    Thanks

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  8. my flash drive isnt a disk its a volume so i cant clean it how do you make it a disk?

  9. I did this the other day and it worked fine to format NTFS. Today I am trying to do it again, and it won't let me format NTFS. It seems this process if for installing Vista/Windows 7 FROM a USB drive, and I want to install Vista/Windows 7 ON a USB drive. There has got to be a way to do this!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  10. Hi Kevin,
    Thank you for a easy to follow guide for this bootdisk – i did this from an WIN XP installation and got a great result, no different from Vista, but I dont know as i dont have a Vista Box, :)

    Best regards

    Jesper Werge

  11. I tried using this method but it gave me a problem. I keep getting "select driver to install" error message. its asking me to select some DVD drivers. what the hell is that ?

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  15. Thank you very much!

    Tell me when you have the chance to drop by Manila. I'll buy you beer!

  16. i have a dell mini 9 also i've installed win vista on it and it was working fine , bu after installing LAN card driver i booted but it didn't boot with the message " operating system not found " when i tried to install it again the vista setup couldn't find my HDD ( it's a SCC 8gb HDD) , so i installed xp sp3 which came with the laptop .

    now i want to know if your windows 7 works properly i go for it also , thanks .

  17. i have a dell mini 9 also i've installed win vista on it and it was working fine , bu after installing LAN card driver i booted but it didn't boot with the message " operating system not found " when i tried to install it again the vista setup couldn't find my HDD ( it's a SCC 8gb HDD) , so i installed xp sp3 which came with the laptop .

  18. Thank you very much for this guide :) I have used this a few times and it always works with vista and win 7 :)

    So again thanks :D

  19. 1. Insert your Windows Vista / 7 DVD into your drive.
    2. Change directory to the DVD’s boot directory where bootsect lives:
    d:
    cd d:boot

    Ok so with these steps it sounds like your cd drive has to be working but mine is not, hence why I want to boot from the usb. Am I wrong in assuming this? Can I do these steps on another computer and then use the usb on the one that has the broken cd drive on it? Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

    1. Yep, you need to do this on a computer with a working cd drive. The USB key created will work on other machines just fine.

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  22. Can I do this and then clone my SATA C:/ drive to the flash drive and essentially have a working plugin backup of my hard drive or are additional steps necessary?

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  24. I'm currently running Vista 32 bit and have downloaded a copy of Win 7. The following instructions work really well for me until I get to bootsect /nt60 l: I get the following error – "This version of j:bootbootsect.exe is not compatiable with the version of Windows you're running. Check your computer's system information to see whether you need a x86 or x64 bit version of the program and then contact the software publisher."

    Any suggestions? And thanks for the awesome guide!

    1. You likely are running a 32-bit Vista and trying to run the 64-bit version of bootsect. You need to have the 32-bit version of bootsect.
      Kevin

      1. I figured that was probably my problem. For the life of me I can't find a bootsect for windows 32 Vista. Do you know where a 32 bit version is avaliable?

        Adam

          1. What if I wanted to make a Windows Vista 64bit bootable flash drive on XP 32bit? Is that not possible?

  25. I get "BOOTMGR is missing" when it tries to boot off my 4gb sony usb drive? Any ideas?

    Cheers

  26. After following your instructions was able to make a 4gb bootable. However after doing that my 400gb flash drive does not display under the "computer" section and the shortcut on the desktop says drive not available. In control panel under hardware it is listed as a "drive" and the info panel says it is operating properly. Is there anything I might of done to mess this drive up? Any help would be appreciated.

  28. You are the man! Had done this some months back but when I went to do it for another usb I searched forever, trying any number of approaches which didn't work, until I found yours.

    Great work.

    oldBear

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  31. Thanks…
    now i can install my old laptop without any problem from my dvd rom.

    thanks

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  33. these instructions kinda suck. first of all, just right click the usb flash drive and format the drive using windows. this command line diskpart crap is pointless, and just made me start a FULL format of a 16gb usb flash drive. not cool man. secondly, most people have windows 7 iso images, not dvds. extract the boot folder from the iso using winrar, and use the command in the instructions. then extract the entire iso onto the usb flash drive.

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  37. Thanks, I always forget how to do this. I need to memorize this process, I install my OS about once every couple months :)

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  41. I keep getting error messages about a corrupted file and to make sure i have all the sources. I give up!! any ideas?? anyone??

  42. great tutorial but i got messed up when trying to move to the D drive. I looked it up and CD is change directory. to move to another drive u just type the letter.

  45. Thanks a million! By far the clearest and simpliest instruction I have come across and it works!!

  46. I have XP pro running on my pc and did not get past the line 'list disk'. Only my hard drive is showinga and no other disks… cant figure out what im doing wrong.
    I have entered the command prompt as an administrator and followed the instructions but only see one disk which is my hard drive and no other usb or cd-dvd drives.
    Any thourghts…

  47. Just to let you know that this works with a 2GB flash drive as well. I used vlite to reduce the size of a Windows 7 installation to around 1.5GB. vlite isn't totally compatible with Win7 yet, but if you take it easy on what you remove from the default installation, then it works fine.

  48. THANK YOU LORD!
    I've been looking for this on/off over the last weeks and couldn't believe there was no simple guide anywhere to do this – after all, I could possibly not be the only one wanting to do this.
    Easy steps – well written, thorough guide. Thank you!

    Now I'll go ahead installing Windows 7 on my Asus Eee 1000.

  49. I want to boot my laptop from an external source other than my onboard hard drive. I disabled my onboard drive and selected to system to boot from my external source. Everything goes well until after the Windows startup screen. It appears when it gets to loading a certain driver the system crashes and reboots. I've tried it in all modes ex. SAFE MODE. Please help! I know that this can be done.

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