Install Vista / Windows 7 / Server 2008 from USB
- September 3rd, 2010
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I know there are many guides around, The only difference here is that I want to do the quicker (alot infact) format, instead of the normal slow one.
To do this, you need an existing Vista/7 Machine and a USB Stick.
- Insert USB stick
- Open Command (cmd.exe) as administrator
- type (followed by enter)
- diskpart
- list disk
- You should note the disk that is your USB drive (disk 1 or 2 etc, not usually disk 0)
- Select disk 1
- If disk 1 is the correct one for your USB drive
- Clean
- This will WIPE the disk drive completly
- Create partition primary
- this will create a new partition that will use 100% of the space on the USB drive
- Select partition 1
- selecting the newly created partition
- Active
- activates the partition
- Format fs=fat32 quick
- this will format the partition in fat32 quickly
- assign
- assign drive letter
- exit
- Now you can just copy all the files on the CD/DVD/ISO to the newly created partition on the USB Drive.
Some notes: FAT32 has a file size limit of 4GB, meaning you cannot copy any single file that is larger than this. Many DVD ISO are larger than 4GB and you might forget the filesystem type in the months to come
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table#FAT32
notes taken from
http://www.techmixer.com/install-windows-vista-from-bootable-usb-flash-memory-drive/
