Generally we make use of CDs for installing an operating system. In case one’s CD drive gets corrupted, he/she might face a lot of problems. USB pen drives can also be used for installing OS.
For installing operating systems using USB drive, we need to make the USB drive bootable. For this you need to follow some simple steps as described below:
PREPARING YOUR USB DRIVE
Insert a pen drive in any of the USB ports present in your system. Don’t forget to backup your data from the pen drive as it would get formatted in the process.
Start the DISKPART command-line utility. This can be done by pressing the WINKEY+R to open the Run Window. Type diskpart and hit Enter. For more details on the diskpart command-line utility you can refer Microsoft support on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300415 .
Now Run the list disk command.
Then Run select disk n command where “n” is the disk number of your USB drive.
Then Run clean command.
Then Run create partition primary.
Now in the next step Run active to make the partition active.
Then Run format fs=fat32 quick to format the USB drive as FAT32.
Now Run assign to give a letter.
Now all we need is to put the installation files from a bootable windows CD onto the drive. For this, explore the Windows 7 CD or the selected operating system CD and select all the file (Ctrl+A). After this copy these files (Ctrl+C) and paste them (Ctrl+V) in the USB drive.
In case you happen to have an ISO image of the setup. Extract the contents of the ISO file to the USB drive. For the extracting files from an ISO file, you can make use of Magic ISO Maker or 7-Zip (free).
Finally you are here.
