Note to self:
To do this, you'll need a USB memory stick (or hard drive, if you prefer) with a capacity of at least 4 GB that you are willing to wipe clean, and a Windows install disc, or at least a source for the install files: a mounted ISO image works just as well. I use Virtual CloneDrive for mounting ISOs.
The process is remarkably simple: partition and format the memory stick, and then just copy the files onto it. Oh, and if you're not using Windows 7 to format the memory stick, you'll need to run a special command to make it bootable. Step by step:
1.Plug in the memory stick and make sure Windows recognizes it.
2.Insert your Windows 7 DVD or mount its ISO image. Dismiss any dialog boxes/setup windows that may appear when you do this. Make sure you know the drive letter used by your DVD drive.
3.Start up a command prompt as an Administrator. If you're using Windows Vista or Windows 7 with UAC enabled (and you should be), you'll need to make sure the command prompt is elevated; right click the Command Prompt icon in the Start menu and choose "Run as administrator" to do this, clicking through the UAC prompt as necessary.
4.At the command prompt, type diskpart to start the Windows disk partitioner.
5.Type list disk to list all the disks in the system. Each disk is given a number. One of them should be your USB memory stick; most likely, you'll be able to recognize it by its size. You want to make absolutely sure you have the right disk number, or else you are going to lose some data.
6.Type select disk x, where x is the number of your memory stick.
7.Type the following commands in order. These commands create a partition on the disk, and mark that partition as being one that the system can boot from.
◦clean
◦create partition primary
◦select partition 1
◦active
◦format fs=ntfs
◦assign
◦exit
8.After you typed assign, an autorun window probably appeared; take a note of the drive letter newly assigned to your memory stick, and dismiss it. If autorun is disabled, take a look in Explorer to see which letter was assigned.
9.If you're not using Windows 7: type y:, where y is the drive letter of the drive containing your Windows 7 DVD.
10.If you're not using Windows 7: type cd boot
11.If you're not using Windows 7: type bootsect /nt60 z:, where z is the drive letter assigned to the memory stick.
12.Close the command prompt window.
13.In Explorer, copy everything from the Windows DVD to the memory stick.
To do this, you'll need a USB memory stick (or hard drive, if you prefer) with a capacity of at least 4 GB that you are willing to wipe clean, and a Windows install disc, or at least a source for the install files: a mounted ISO image works just as well. I use Virtual CloneDrive for mounting ISOs.
The process is remarkably simple: partition and format the memory stick, and then just copy the files onto it. Oh, and if you're not using Windows 7 to format the memory stick, you'll need to run a special command to make it bootable. Step by step:
1.Plug in the memory stick and make sure Windows recognizes it.
2.Insert your Windows 7 DVD or mount its ISO image. Dismiss any dialog boxes/setup windows that may appear when you do this. Make sure you know the drive letter used by your DVD drive.
3.Start up a command prompt as an Administrator. If you're using Windows Vista or Windows 7 with UAC enabled (and you should be), you'll need to make sure the command prompt is elevated; right click the Command Prompt icon in the Start menu and choose "Run as administrator" to do this, clicking through the UAC prompt as necessary.
4.At the command prompt, type diskpart to start the Windows disk partitioner.
5.Type list disk to list all the disks in the system. Each disk is given a number. One of them should be your USB memory stick; most likely, you'll be able to recognize it by its size. You want to make absolutely sure you have the right disk number, or else you are going to lose some data.
6.Type select disk x, where x is the number of your memory stick.
7.Type the following commands in order. These commands create a partition on the disk, and mark that partition as being one that the system can boot from.
◦clean
◦create partition primary
◦select partition 1
◦active
◦format fs=ntfs
◦assign
◦exit
8.After you typed assign, an autorun window probably appeared; take a note of the drive letter newly assigned to your memory stick, and dismiss it. If autorun is disabled, take a look in Explorer to see which letter was assigned.
9.If you're not using Windows 7: type y:, where y is the drive letter of the drive containing your Windows 7 DVD.
10.If you're not using Windows 7: type cd boot
11.If you're not using Windows 7: type bootsect /nt60 z:, where z is the drive letter assigned to the memory stick.
12.Close the command prompt window.
13.In Explorer, copy everything from the Windows DVD to the memory stick.
