Installing Windows from a USB Flash Drive

Discussion in 'Windows 7' started by vze2mp9g, Mar 9, 2013.

  1. vze2mp9g

    vze2mp9g MDL Addicted

    Oct 13, 2012
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    Hi,
    I've seen similar post on MDL, but it didn't answer my question. Can anyone tell me if it is possible to create a Bootable USB flash stick using Diskpart and a Win 7 SP1 DVD? What I want to do, if it is possible, is create a bootable USB flash stick using only Diskpart and copying the files from the Win 7 SP1 DVD to the bootable USB flash disk. If so, should I format it NTFS or Fat32?

    All I want to do is create an installable USB flash stick for Win 7 SP1 without a third part program. I would appreciate any and all help and/or comments.
    Thank You. :confused:
     
  2. pisthai

    pisthai Imperfect Human

    Jul 29, 2009
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    You could use diskpart for it but I would recommend to use the Windows7USBTool MS has. Create from your DVD an ISO and use that for to create the bootable USB Stick.

    If you use diskpart, keep in mind that in case you format to Fat32 the max. file size is 2 GB so you may will need NTFS format!
     
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  3. pisthai

    pisthai Imperfect Human

    Jul 29, 2009
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    The command for diskpart are as follow:

    open a Command Prompt as Administrator

    run the following command all end with press Enter:

    diskpart
    list disk
    selectdisk ## (## No. of the USB Stick)
    clean
    create partition primary
    select partition 1
    active
    assign
    format FS=NTFS quick (or format FS=FAT32 quick for FAT32)
    exit
    xcopy [source DVD/DIR]:\*.* /s /e /f [dest-drive USB-Stick]
    exit

    That should do the job.

    Note: I wouldn't use the parameter quick in format command, I would do a full format for to be sure the drive is clean!
     
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  4. asundrus

    asundrus MDL Member

    Apr 24, 2012
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    Isn't it ~ 4GB Max for Fat32?
     
  5. Carlos Detweiller

    Carlos Detweiller Emperor of Ice-Cream

    Dec 21, 2012
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    FAT16: <2GiB (<4GiB with 64K clusters in NT IIRC)
    FAT32: <4GiB
    exFAT and NTFS have no practical limit.
     
  6. pisthai

    pisthai Imperfect Human

    Jul 29, 2009
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    You're right, sorry for my mistake. I should have written FAT instead of FAT32 because many (most older) sticks coming just FAT formatted and their limit of file size is 2.1GB
     
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  7. Carlos Detweiller

    Carlos Detweiller Emperor of Ice-Cream

    Dec 21, 2012
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    exFAT would be best but it came much too late. Many devices don't support it and never will.