How to install Windows 7 or Vista from a USB drive
This is even easier than installing Windows XP from a USB drive, and will also reduce the time taken to install Windows 7, it took me about 15 minutes!The advice in the guide is also applicable to installing Vista.
You need basically:
- a USB flash drive at least 4GB in size
- a genuine Windows 7 (or Vista) DVD disc
To sum up:
- Format your USB drive, with the NTFS filesystem
- Open Command Prompt as an administrator, and run the Bootsect.exe program off the Windows Vista/7 CD to make the USB drive bootable
- Copy the contents of the Windows Vista/7 DVD to the USB drive
- Restart your PC, press F11 (or whichever key it is) to access the Boot menu, and select your USB drive to boot from
Full guide here:
http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-windows-7vista-from-usb-drive-detailed-100-working-guide/
Alternatively, if you have a downloaded Windows 7 ISO disk image file, you can use Microsoft's own USB DVD Download tool to make a bootable USB drive:
http://emea.microsoftstore.com/UK/en-GB/Service-Centre/Windows-7-USB-DVD-Download-Tool