After just being here and reading for awhile, and also being a netbook user, I notice alot of people asking for methods to create bootable USB cards. Many of you have suggested various sites and software downloads, but there is a relatively easy method to do this using command prompt. I am going to outline the steps to format the drive and also how to get the files from your windows disk onto the USB. All of this information is based on personal experience so I will add the tips I have learned where applicable. Just on a side note this method does not work on windows xp. You must be running vista or later to use this guide.
1. Go to the Start menu and type cmd in the search box and hit enter. This should open your command prompt window.
2. Type diskpart and hit enter. This will open up a second command prompt window that is labeled diskpart.
3. Type list disk and press enter. This will bring up a list of drives connected to the computer. Take note of the drive number that corresponds with your USB drive. From here on, I will use the symbol # to refer to the drive number.
4. Type select disk # and press enter to select the drive you are formatting. A notice will come up saying that the drive has been selected.
5. Type clean and press enter. This will wipe any files or formatting that may already be on the drive. Once this is done we can create a new partition on the drive.
6. Type create partition primary and press enter to create a new partition on the drive.
7. Type list partition and press enter to see a list of partition on the drive.
8. Type select patition # and press enter substituting # with the number of the partition you want to use.
9. Type active and press enter to mark the drive as bootable.
10. Type format fs=fat32 and press enter to format the drive. This will format it to the FAT32 filesystem. This process will take quite awhile, depending on the size of the drive being formatted.
11. Type assign and press enter to assign the USB a drive letter.
12. Type exit and press enter to exit the diskpart session.
And there you have it. A cleaned, formatted, and ready to use bootable USB drive to install the OS of your choice from. What's that you say? How do you copy your windows disk so that you have the .iso file to boot from? Read on.
We will be using the xcopy utility. We are going to assume your optical drive is E: and your USB drive is F:. The command to use is xcopy e:\*.*/s/e /f f:\. This will copy all file, directories, and subdirectories needed to the USB. This process will take anywhere from a half hour up depending on the speed of your optical drive. After the copy is done, the USB drive will be completely bootable and read to go.
Now for the personal experience part. I already had the .iso for the OS I wanted to use but could not find a way to use it. Just pasting the entire .iso into the USB did not work. Eventually I found that you have to open the .iso using a program like 7zip and then paste the individual files contained within the .iso to the USB.
As far as I know, this will work for any OS that is installed using the .iso format. I have tested it to install windows xp and also windows 7 ultimate. I make no claims to this methods uses for installing linux ( which is easier to install using unetbootin anyways ) or to install any "hackintosh" setup. Also, be sure to use a USB drive large enough for the .iso file you choose. Most xp .iso files are right in the range of 1 GB while windows 7 ultimate will need 4GB.
Now for the legal. The first step and also the xcopy part was obtained from CPU magazine. I am posting it here to further the use of the method and also to help anyone who wants to know. The last part is merely my own trial and error method to use this method while having no disk to copy the .iso from. I only advocate using the .iso from an OS you have obtained legitimately from either a genuine windows installation disk or from downloading from microsofts site. These are my own results from this procedure and yours may vary. I accept no responsibility from any harm you do to your system from following this guide.
Take care all.
Shadow
1. Go to the Start menu and type cmd in the search box and hit enter. This should open your command prompt window.
2. Type diskpart and hit enter. This will open up a second command prompt window that is labeled diskpart.
3. Type list disk and press enter. This will bring up a list of drives connected to the computer. Take note of the drive number that corresponds with your USB drive. From here on, I will use the symbol # to refer to the drive number.
4. Type select disk # and press enter to select the drive you are formatting. A notice will come up saying that the drive has been selected.
5. Type clean and press enter. This will wipe any files or formatting that may already be on the drive. Once this is done we can create a new partition on the drive.
6. Type create partition primary and press enter to create a new partition on the drive.
7. Type list partition and press enter to see a list of partition on the drive.
8. Type select patition # and press enter substituting # with the number of the partition you want to use.
9. Type active and press enter to mark the drive as bootable.
10. Type format fs=fat32 and press enter to format the drive. This will format it to the FAT32 filesystem. This process will take quite awhile, depending on the size of the drive being formatted.
11. Type assign and press enter to assign the USB a drive letter.
12. Type exit and press enter to exit the diskpart session.
And there you have it. A cleaned, formatted, and ready to use bootable USB drive to install the OS of your choice from. What's that you say? How do you copy your windows disk so that you have the .iso file to boot from? Read on.
We will be using the xcopy utility. We are going to assume your optical drive is E: and your USB drive is F:. The command to use is xcopy e:\*.*/s/e /f f:\. This will copy all file, directories, and subdirectories needed to the USB. This process will take anywhere from a half hour up depending on the speed of your optical drive. After the copy is done, the USB drive will be completely bootable and read to go.
Now for the personal experience part. I already had the .iso for the OS I wanted to use but could not find a way to use it. Just pasting the entire .iso into the USB did not work. Eventually I found that you have to open the .iso using a program like 7zip and then paste the individual files contained within the .iso to the USB.
As far as I know, this will work for any OS that is installed using the .iso format. I have tested it to install windows xp and also windows 7 ultimate. I make no claims to this methods uses for installing linux ( which is easier to install using unetbootin anyways ) or to install any "hackintosh" setup. Also, be sure to use a USB drive large enough for the .iso file you choose. Most xp .iso files are right in the range of 1 GB while windows 7 ultimate will need 4GB.
Now for the legal. The first step and also the xcopy part was obtained from CPU magazine. I am posting it here to further the use of the method and also to help anyone who wants to know. The last part is merely my own trial and error method to use this method while having no disk to copy the .iso from. I only advocate using the .iso from an OS you have obtained legitimately from either a genuine windows installation disk or from downloading from microsofts site. These are my own results from this procedure and yours may vary. I accept no responsibility from any harm you do to your system from following this guide.
Take care all.
Shadow
