How to create a Windows 7 USB boot drive tutorial
A few years ago every PC and laptop in the world had an optical drive. Right now you see a lot of computers without one. This is cool for size and weight, but uncool when you have to (re)install Windows, which let’s face it, is something you have to do at least once a year to maintain system performance.
The purpose of this article is to guide and teach you how to create a Windows 7 USB boot drive. It might come in handy when reinstalling with PCs that don’t have an optical drive or is just a smaller storage device you can use for other purposes too, as you all know the files on a USB stick can be changed & deleted, unlike the read only optical drives.
Requirements
There are 4 things you need in order to make a bootable USB drive with Windows 7:
- USB Creator for Windows 7 or Vista Setup tool – it’s a free tool from Microsoft [link]
- Windows 7 ISO image – you won’t believe this, but you can actually download Windows 7 images for free from Microsoft. This is not a scheme of any kind, as you still need a valid serial number to activate Windows. [details]
- USB flash disk of 8GB or bigger – 4GB might work, but better be safe than sorry. Make sure you don’t have any sensitive data on the USB disk as it will be formatted and all info erased
- (optional) Genuine Windows 7 CD Key to activate your Windows copy – without one you won’t be able to use the operating system after 30 days [buy Windows 7 link]
USBCreator boot disk drive selection menu
Step by step guide
The actual process for creating a USB boot drive with Windows 7 is very easy. Here are the steps:
- Insert the USB drive in your Computer and wait for it to be recognized
- Run the USB Creator tool executable program
- Browse to the exact location of the Windows 7 ISO image previously downloaded
- Select it and click next and then specify the destination drive where files are to be copied. Attention: make sure you select the USB stick or else you could format the wrong data drive
- Accept the disk format reminder and everything else to proceed
- Wait for the finish confirmation message
The file copy process takes a few minutes depending on your USB drive speed
Ionut is Chief Editor. He has a degree in Computer Science BA and worked in IT since 2002. Ionut is now managing several tech sites, including GadgetRoad. Find me on Twitter
