How to Create a Windows 7 Installation Flash Drive

Windows 7 is the latest offering from the geniuses at Microsoft. This operating system provides computer users with several new features, including a homegroup feature that makes sharing music and other media among computers in a home network a snap.

The added capabilities and security features make this operating system a good choice for upgrading older computers that meet the system requirements, but some of these computers due to design or faulty parts may not have an available optical drive with which to perform the install.

USB flash media can now enable users to install Windows 7 on computers that do not have an available optical drive. With a valid Windows 7 install disk and a 4 GB flash drive users can now create a Windows 7 installation flash drive, enabling installs on netbooks and computers that would otherwise be virtually impossible without the purchase of an external optical drive.

Things You'll Need:
4 GB USB Flash Drive
Windows 7 Install Disk
Computer with functional DVD drive and available USB port

Step One:
Insert the Windows 7 installation DVD into the DVD drive of the computer. Plug the flash drive into an available USB port on the same system.

Step Two:
Press Win+R (The Windows key plus the letter "r") to access the run dialog.

NOTE: Do not include the quotes when typing the commands that follow in this article.

Step Three:
Type "cmd.exe" (without the quotes) into the Run box and click the "OK" button. A window with a black background and some writing will appear. This box is called the command prompt window.

Step Four:
Type "diskpart" in the command prompt window without the quotes and press ENTER.

Step Five:
Type "list disk" and press ENTER in the command prompt window to determine which drive is your USB drive. This will be disk X where X is the number of the flash drive.

Step Six:
Type "select disk 3" and press ENTER in the command prompt window, substituting the number of your flash disk for the 3 in this tutorial.

Step Seven:
Type "clean" and press ENTER into the command prompt window and allow Windows to finish before proceeding.

Step Eight:
Type "create partition primary" and press ENTER into the command prompt window. Windows will create the necessary partition on the flash drive. Allow it to finish.

Step Nine:
Type "select partition 1" and press ENTER into the command prompt window.

Step Ten:
Type "active" and press ENTER to instruct Windows to make this partition active on the flash media.

Step Eleven:
Type "format fs=fat32" and press ENTER to instruct Windows to format the disk in Fat32. Windows will take several minutes to complete this task.

Step Twelve:
Type "assign" and press ENTER into the command prompt window.

Step Thirteen:
Type "exit" and press ENTER to close the application. We are now finished with creating a primary Fat32 partition on the flash drive and making it active.

Step Fourteen:
Press Win+R again to reopen the command prompt window. We had to close the other window out to properly exit the diskpart application.

Step Fifteen:
Type "xcopy d:*.* /s/e/f g:" where d: is the letter of your DVD drive and g: is the letter of the flash drive. Your drive letters may vary depending upon your system configuration. Press ENTER to carry out the command. Windows will now copy all of the files from your Windows 7 installation disk onto the flash drive. Allow to finish completely before proceeding.

Step Sixteen:
Instruct Windows to eject the flash drive. Congratulations, you have created a flash drive capable of installing Windows 7!