- How To Install Windows From Usb Drive
- How To Install Windows 7 On Usb Linux
- How To Install Windows 7 On Usb 3.0 Port
As you likely know, while one can install Windows 7 from an external hard drive, one can’t install the same to an external hard drive with default settings. For all those users waiting for a good workaround to install Vista, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 to an external hard drive, here is the complete solution.
- By using Windows USB/DVD Download Tool, you can easily make a media USB flash drive or DVD of Windows 7, 8 or 10 manually. Once created, it will act like a Windows bootable disk that can be used to install any Windows like; XP, Vista, 7, 8.1 or Windows 10. Also, same bootable Windows USB can be used to several installations.
- If you’d like to install Windows but don’t have a DVD drive, it’s easy enough to create a bootable USB flash drive with the right installation media. Here’s how to get it done for Windows 10, 8, or 7.
Jun 19, 2017 If you are addicted to the old operating system (OS) Windows 7, you may wonder is there a way to install Windows 7 on USB removable storage device? With Windows 7 on a USB flash drive or external hard drive, you can take it with you wherever you go and run Windows7 on any PC.
Even though Windows recognizes and displays the USB hard drive in the installation screen, it doesn’t allow you to install Windows on the same. When you attempt to install Windows 7 on an external drive, you get “Windows cannot be installed to this disk” error.
So, if you want to install Windows 7 on an external hard drive, you need to follow the steps given below. The procedure is simple, but you need to install Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) first to get some files. We would like to thank fujianabc @ boot-land forum for this workaround.
Requirements:
# An external hard drive formatted with NTFS
# Windows 7 installation files (if you have Windows 7 ISO use Virtual Clone Drive freeware to mount it)
# Windows Automated Installation Kit (free download from Microsoft)
NOTE: Make sure that you have a minimum 15GB of free space on your external hard drive before starting the procedure. Although we are not going to delete the contents of external hard drive, we recommend backing up your external hard drive contents before trying this guide.
Install Windows 7 on a USB drive with ease
Step 1. Create two folders named Windows Files and WAIK Files on your desktop or any other drive which has a minimum of 5 GB free space.
Step 2: Download the ZIP file from here and extract the contents to the WAIK Files folder. Before starting the actual installation procedure, you need to have three files: Bcdboot.exe, Bootsect.exe, and Imgex.exe. These files can only be obtained by installing Windows Automated Installation Kit for Windows 7 on your Windows PC. After installing WAIK, simply search for these files in the Windows installation drive to get them. Once you have these three files, copy them to WAIK Files folder that you have created in the above step.
Step 3: Copy all the contents of the Windows 7 installation DVD to the Windows Files folder.
Step 4: The next step is to run the Installer.cmd file as Administrator (Right-click on installer.cmd and select run as administrator). In the first screen, you will be asked to press Enter to continue.
Step 5: Press Enter key to browse to the install.wim file present in the Windows Files folder. The Install.wim file can be found under Sources folder (Windows Files/ Sources/ install.wim).
Step 6: Now, you need to select the Windows 7 edition that you want to install on external hard drive. You can select the edition by entering the index number shown on the screen. For example, type “5” (without quote) and hit Enter key to select Ultimate edition.
Step 7: The next step is to enter your External drive’s drive letter. Enter the drive letter (ex: L) and press Enter key.
Step 8: Now, type in the drive letter of your ACTIVE partition and hit Enter key. Generally “C” is the active partition. You can find the active partition by opening the Windows Disk Management tool (type diskmgmt.msc in Start menu search area and hit enter to launch it).
Step 9: Finally, the installer will ask you the drive letter that you have entered to install Windows 7 is a USB hard drive or not. As you are installing Windows 7 to an external hard drive simply type “Y” without quote and press Enter key.
Finally, click Enter key again to start extracting the Install.wim files. This might take a few minutes. Once done, you will be asked to reboot your PC to continue the normal Windows 7 installation procedure.
Step 10: Reboot your PC and follow the usual Windows 7 installation procedure to complete Windows 7 installation on the external hard drive. Your PC will be restarted twice or thrice during installation.
Please note that the installation procedure might be slower as you are installing Windows 7 to an external hard drive.
Step 11: Once done with the installation, you are good to go. You can install all drivers and other software to start using the best Windows version on your PC.
Note: We have tested this method to install the x86 flavor of Windows 7 to Seagate USB external hard drive. But should work fine with x64 as well. Users who would like to carry Windows 7 on a USB flash drive can follow our how to carry Windows 7 on USB flash drive guide.
UPDATE: If you’re having issues with this guide, please go through our how to install Windows 7 on USB with ease guide for easy instructions.
-->Here's how to create a bootable Windows installation USB drive starting with a Windows .iso file or a Windows Setup DVD.
Note
For new Windows 10 installations, we've got a tool that does this for you. See Download Windows 10.
What you need
How To Install Windows From Usb Drive
- Windows 10 install .iso or DVD
- USB flash drive with at least 5GB free space. This drive will be formatted, so make sure it doesn't have any important files on it.
- Technician PC - Windows PC that you'll use to format the USB flash drive
- Destination PC - A PC that you'll install Windows on
Step 1 - Format the drive and set the primary partition as active
Connect the USB flash drive to your technician PC.
Open Disk Management: Right-click on Start and choose Disk Management.
Format the partition: Right-click the USB drive partition and choose Format. Select the FAT32 file system to be able to boot either BIOS-based or UEFI-based PCs.
Set the partition as active: Right-click the USB drive partition and click Mark Partition as Active.
Note
If Mark Partition as Active isn't available, you can instead use diskpart to select the partition and mark it active.
How To Install Windows 7 On Usb Linux
Step 2 - Copy Windows Setup to the USB flash drive
Use File Explorer to copy and paste the entire contents of the Windows product DVD or ISO to the USB flash drive.
Optional: add an unattend file to automate the installation process. For more information, see Automate Windows Setup.
Step 3 - Install Windows to the new PC
Connect the USB flash drive to a new PC.
Turn on the PC and press the key that opens the boot-device selection menu for the computer, such as the Esc/F10/F12 keys. Select the option that boots the PC from the USB flash drive.
Windows Setup starts. Follow the instructions to install Windows.
Remove the USB flash drive.
Troubleshooting: file copy fails
This can happen when the Windows image file is over the FAT32 file size limit of 4GB. When this happens:
Copy everything except the Windows image file (sourcesinstall.wim) to the USB drive (either drag and drop, or use this command, where D: is the mounted ISO and E: is the USB flash drive.)
Split the Windows image file into smaller files, and put the smaller files onto the USB drive:
Note, Windows Setup automatically installs from this file, so long as you name it install.swm.