How to Install Windows 7 to USB

What you need:

1) At least 4 GB USB flash drive

2) Windows 7 Installation CD

1. Plug in your USB drive

2. Go to Start -> Run, type cmd hit enter. That should bring in the command prompt. (I hope you are running as an adminstrator)

3. Type

diskpart
list disk

The number of your USB drive will listed. You’ll need this for the next step. I’ll assume that the USB flash drive is disk 3.

4. Now type and execute these steps one by one

select disk 3
clean
create partition primary
select partition 3
active
format fs=NTFS
assign
exit

That will just to make your disk formatted and ready with partitions.

5. Insert your Windows Vista / 7 DVD into your drive.

6. Change directory to the DVD’s boot directory where bootsect lives:

d:
cd d:\boot

7. Use bootsect to set the USB as a bootable NTFS drive prepared for a Vista/7 image. I’m assuming that your USB flash drive has been labeled disk G:\ by the computer. So,

bootsect /nt60 g:

You can now close the command prompt window.

8. Now you need to copy the installation DVD to your USB drive. The best way to do it is to use Windows Explorer and that will copy all the files to your USB drive.

9. Now set up your BIOS to boot from USB. and you are done.

Enjoy.