It’s always useful to have a bootable USB stick, it helps to get out of complicated situations and solve problems.
To create a bootable USB drive, the following steps must be followed:
- Unzip the ISO image into a directory on your computer (if do not use the USB key for decompression). You can use the free software 7-zip
- Use a USB flash drive (4 GB),
Note: all the contents of your USB flash drive will be erased
- Open command prompt : cmd
- Run the command : DiskPart
Note: the Diskpart command can destroy a file system, it should be used with caution
DiskPart
- A new window opens with the label: DiskPart >
- List the volumes present on your system using the command: list vol
- Select the volume of your USB drive using the command: select vol < number of your volume >
- Check that the correct volume is selected by using the command: list vol
Note: the selected volume will have an Asterix in front of it
- Erase the contents of the volume using the command: clean
- Select the volume of your USB drive using the command: select vol < number of your volume >
- Check that the correct volume is selected by using the command: list vol
Note: the selected volume will have an Asterix in front of
- Create a primary partition on the volume by using the command: create partition primary
- Enable partition by using the command: Active
- Format the partition in NTFS format using the command: format FS=NTFS
- Open a command line window as Administrator: cmd
- Change directory and access the boot directory located in the unzip ISO directory
- Create the Bootmgr on the USB stick using the command: Bootsect /nt60 < letter of the USB disk >:
- Copy all unzipped files from the Windows 7 ISO to the USB stick
Rufus Software
But if you aren’t that comfortable with MSDOS you can use RUFUS software
Rufus is a utility that helps format and create bootable USB flash drives, such as USB keys/pendrives, memory sticks, etc.
It can be especially useful for cases where:
- you need to create USB installation media from bootable ISOs (Windows, Linux, UEFI, etc.)
- you need to work on a system that doesn’t have an OS installed
- you need to flash a BIOS or other firmware from DOS
- you want to run a low-level utility