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Create a bootable Windows 7 USB key
In this day of age, it's very practical to have a Windows 7 installation on your USB key, for many netbooks and devices don't come with CD/DVD drives anymore.
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1.
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For the this lesson you need a USB Key or drive with a minimum capacity of 4 GB (Gigabytes) and Windows 7 installation files.
For the alternative lesson with an ISO file and Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool click here.
Put the USB key/drive into your computer's USB slot.
Don't forget to backup the files you have on your USB key/drive!
Also recommended:
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2.
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Click Start and put cmd.exe into Search programs and files.
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3.
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Under Programs search results right click cmd.exe and click Run as administrator.
Click Yes if the User Account Control windows pops-up or put your administrator user credentials in.
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4.
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A black Command Prompt window opens.
Type diskpart and press Enter.
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5.
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Type list disk and press Enter.
Find your USB drives among all the disk drives listed.
My USB drive is Disk 2, because I know it's capacity is 8 GB which is a bit more the 8000 MB and this is the closest to 7640 MB in my list.
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6.
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Type select disk <number of your disk> and press Enter.
I typed select disk 2, because 2 is the number of my USB drive as I found out in the previous step.
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7.
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Type clean and press Enter.
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8.
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Type create partition primary and press Enter.
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9.
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Type select partition 1 and press Enter.
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10.
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Type active and press Enter.
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11.
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Now we need to format the USB drive.
Type format fs=ntfs and press Enter.
Format will now start. It may take a few minutes to finish, it all depends of the size of your drive. The bigger the capacity the longer will it need to finish.
If you're in a hurry use the command format fs=ntfs quick instead to speed things up.
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12.
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After the successful format, type assign and press Enter.
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13.
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An AutoPlay window of your newly assigned USB drive may appear, you can close it or click Open folder to view files. It should be empty now.
Here you can also see which letter was assigned to your USB drive. In my case it was G:
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14.
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Now insert your Windows 7 installation DVD and type e: cd boot where e: is your CD/DVD drive letter and press Enter.
If your CD/DVD drive letter is f: then you should type f: cd boot.
You can check the letter in the Windows Explorer under Computer.
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15.
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Now insert your Windows 7 installation DVD and type e: cd boot where e: is your CD/DVD drive letter and press Enter.
If your CD/DVD drive letter is f: then you should type f:cd boot.
You can check the letter in the Windows Explorer under Computer.
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16.
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Type cd boot and press Enter.
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17.
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Now type bootsect /nt60 g: where g: is your USB drive letter.
If your USB drive letter is E: then you should type bootsect /nt60 e:
Just check the Computer section in your Windows Explorer window for your USB drive letter if you're not sure.
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18.
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Now you need to copy all the files and folder from your Windows 7 installation DVD to your USB drive.
Click on your CD/DVD drive select all the files and folders (Ctrl+A), right click the selection and then click Copy.
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19.
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Right click your USB drive and the click Paste.
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Create bootable Windows 8 USB key