Install an OS in Your Pen Drive
How to load Windows 7 onto a bootable USB key
To complete your Windows 7 power-user experience, you may consider dropping the whole darn OS onto a USB drive. Whether you carry it around in your pocket or toss it in a desk drawer, it's a perfect boot disk for emergency installs-including those times when you're working with a netbook or some other computer that lacks an optical drive. Even better, your install times will be significantly reduced, thanks to your key's flash memory-we shaved off minutes from our total install time.
To complete your Windows 7 power-user experience, you may consider dropping the whole darn OS onto a USB drive. Whether you carry it around in your pocket or toss it in a desk drawer, it's a perfect boot disk for emergency installs-including those times when you're working with a netbook or some other computer that lacks an optical drive. Even better, your install times will be significantly reduced, thanks to your key's flash memory-we shaved off minutes from our total install time.
Here's how to create a schmancy-fancy boot key for either Windows 7
or Vista-but not for other OSes, so please don't try! We've run a
truncated version of this article in the magazine before, but because it
was so incredibly popular-and so germane to this feature story-we've
decided to share it again, this time with more detail and screens.
1. Format Your USB Key
Plug in your USB key and back up any existing data stored on it. You'll need to format the key (thus erasing existing data) before you can make it a bootable device. We used an 8GB key, but a 4GB key will also work.
2. Partition that Key in CMD
Open up a command prompt as an Administrator. You can do this by searching for cmd.exe in your Windows/System32 folder, right-clicking the executable, and selecting "Run as administrator." Alternatively, type CMD in the Start Menu search field and activate the command prompt using Ctrl + Shift + Enter.
You should now be under C:\Windows\system32 (assuming your Windows partition is the C drive). Type diskpart in the command line to enter the Disk Partition command-line tool, which lets you format and create partitions on active disks. Now type list disk to reveal a list of all your active disks, each of which is associated with a number. Make a note of which one is your USB key, based on the capacity.
3. Format Away (Command-Prompt Style)
It's now time to enter a load of commands to properly partition the
key, and format for the NTFS (did you know this stands for "New
Technology File System"?). In succession, enter the following-and type
carefully, Jimbo!
Select Disk # (where # is the number of your USB disk. We typed Select Disk 2 for this job)
Clean (this removes any existing partitions from the USB disk, including any hidden sectors)
Create Partition Primary (creates a new primary partition with default parameters)
Select Partition 1 (focuses operation on the newly created partition)
Active (sets the partition to active, informing the disk firmware that this is a valid system partition)
Format FS=NTFS (formats the partition with the NTFS
file system. This may take several minutes to complete, depending on the
size of your USB key)
Assign (this gives the USB drive a Windows volume
and next available drive letter, which you should write down. In our
case, drive "L" was assigned)
Exit (quits the DiskPart tool)
4. Copy Windows DVD to a Desktop Folder
Insert the Windows 7 installation DVD into your drive, and view the files that it contains. Copy all of the files to a folder on your Desktop. We put the disc contents in a folder named Windows 7.
5. Turn Your Key into a Bootable Device
Now, go back to your command prompt, running it as an Administrator. Using the CD command, navigate your way to the folder where you placed the Windows disk ISO files. Your command line path should look something like C:\Users\USERNAMEHERE\Desktop\Windows 7\ if you followed our lead on folder placement. Now type the following commands:
CD Boot (this gets you into the boot directory)
Bootsect.exe /nt60 L: (this assumes L is the drive letter assigned to your USB key from the previous step)
In case you're wondering, Bootsect infuses boot manager–compatible
code into your USB key to make it a bootable device. Also be aware that
if you're currently running 32-bit Windows Vista or 7, Bootsect will
only work if you use the files from the 32-bit Windows 7 install disc.
The Bootsect executable from the 64-bit version will not run in 32-bit
Vista. Don't forget it!
6. Load the USB Key with Your Install Files
Copy all of the extracted ISO files into the USB drive. You don't need to do this from the command prompt. Just drag and drop the files from the Windows 7 folder into the USB drive using Windows Explorer. We also recommend copying your hardware drivers onto the same key so the installation wizard can find them.
Your USB key is now all ready to go! Plug it into your target system
and make sure you enter the BIOS (typically by hitting F2 or F12) to
temporarily change the boot order to allow booting from the USB key
before your primary hard drive or optical drive. Now, when you plug the
key into a machine, your system should automatically begin speedily
downloading setup files off of the USB key and entering Windows 7
installation.
Problem Steps Recorder
You can use Problem Steps Recorder to automatically
capture the steps you take on a computer, including a text description
of where you clicked and a picture of the screen during each click
(called a screen shot). Once you capture these steps, you can save them
to a file that can be used by a support professional or someone else
helping you with a computer problem.
to open simply write Problem Steps Recorder in search box.
Access Hidden Themes in Windows 7
To access the hidden themes, copy and paste the following path into
the search box and hit Enter.
the search box and hit Enter.
C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT
