User Guides Install Windows 7 on a Netbook

Install Windows 7/Vista on a Netbook using USB Pen Drive - Easy as 1-2-3

So, Netbooks are very popular these days. The problem is that Netbooks don’t have Optical Drives (DVD Drives) and so, installation had to be via a USB Pen Drive. I had a 4GB pen drive at hand and also a Windows 7 Installation Disk. So, here’s how I went about it:

Things Required:

1) A USB Pen Drive (4GB or more Capacity)

2) Windows 7/Vista Installation Disk

3) A spare PC with a DVD Drive and USB Port

3) Little knowledge of Command Prompt

So, here is how one goes about it:

1) Connect the USB Pen Drive to an empty USB port on the spare PC. Note the Drive Letter that gets assigned to the USB Pen Drive in My Computer. For me, it is “I”. Also note the Drive letter for the DVD Drive. For me, it is “F”.

2) Go to Start Menu > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt and Right Click on Command Prompt and Select ‘Run As Administrator’.

3) In Command Prompt, type DISKPART and press the <Enter> key. It will look like this:

1+DISKPART.jpg


4) Then type LIST DISK and press <Enter> in the same Command Prompt Window. It will list the Disk Number of your USB Pen Drive. Note this number. For me it was Disk 1. It looks like this:

2+LIST+DISK.jpg


5) Now type and execute the following commands one by one where <Enter> indicates pressing the Enter Key:

SELECT DISK 1 <Enter>

CLEAN <Enter>

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY <Enter>

SELECT PARTITION 1 <Enter>

ACTIVE <Enter>

FORMAT FS=NTFS <Enter> (Wait for format to complete before typing next command)

ASSIGN <Enter>

EXIT <Enter>

It should look like this:

3+EXIT+DISKPART.jpg


Now, Minimise the Command Prompt Window.

6) Now, insert your Windows 7/Vista Installation Disk in the Optical (DVD) Drive. For me, this is Drive “F” as already noted in Step 1.

7) Maximise Command Prompt and type the following:

F: CD BOOT <Enter> (Here, F is my Optical (DVD)Drive Letter)

CD BOOT <Enter>

BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 I <Enter> (Here, I is my USB Pen Drive Letter)

It will look like this:

4+CD+BOOT.jpg


Now, one can close Command Prompt.

8) Go to My Computer and Copy-Paste all the contents of the Windows 7/Vista Installation Disk to the USB Pen Drive.

9) The USB Pen Drive is now ready. One can boot from this drive and install Windows on any Netbook that can boot from a USB Pen Drive.

I still had a problem booting from this Pen Drive but that was due to the fact that my Netbook was not configured to boot from a USB Drive. So, I went into the Netbook BIOS, and set the Boot Priority to USB and then installing Windows 7 was a breeze!

I originally wrote this article for my blog on 6th January, 2011. But I couldn't be regular on my blog... :ashamed:

Link for the Blog Post: iDE@ - It's all in the Brain!: Install Windows 7/Vista on a Netbook using USB Pen Drive - Easy as 1-2-3

Today, a query from neojjjk made me post this here.

Query Link: http://www.techenclave.com/laptops/how-to-install-win7-in-netbook-186057.html
 
Click to expand...
I 've tried all sort of complicated stuff but i kinda stuck to the easiest one using ULTRAISO. This one probably been discussed before but i just wanna add it.

Use UltraISO:

- Open the image of Vista/Win7 with UltraISO

- Under BOOTABLE tab choose WRITE DISK IMAGE

- Choose your USB stick under "Disk Drive"

- Choose a method (It's recommended to use USB-HDD+)

- Press Write

- Make sure to change your BOOT order in BIOS to boot from your USB drive first

and Voila! U got urself a bootable USB drive!
 
Also some more value addition to the OP based on my past experiences (using this method from 6.1.7100 days).

1. NTFS formatting never worked for me (for one reason or the other), so i always use FAT32. Also the formatting can be made quick by adding a parameter to format.

FORMAT FS=FAT32 QUICK<Enter>
Click to expand...
(can use NTFS in place of FAT32 if you want to)

2. Just extract the BOOTSECT.EXE from the iso file using winrar and copy it to location like "c:\ folder name" then change directory in command prompt to c:\ (or other folder you extracted the file) and follow the steps in the command prompt as below

CD "c:\folder name" <Enter> (if you have spaces in folder name, use double quotes in the folder name while typing in cmd window)

BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 I <Enter> (Here, I is your USB Drive Letter)
Click to expand...

3. Extract the contents of iso directly to the USB drive using winrar.

Nowadays I use WinToFlash and it works flawlessly.
 
This thread has become a really comprehensive thread for installing Windows on a Netbook. :D

Thanx to all for their valuable contributions... I think that now anyone wanting to install Windows on a Netbook has multiple choices within this thread!! :clap:
 
nehaladsul said:
This thread has become a really comprehensive thread for installing Windows on a Netbook. :D

Thanx to all for their valuable contributions... I think that now anyone wanting to install Windows on a Netbook has multiple choices within this thread!! :clap:
Click to expand...
Only problem is that he will face difficulty in choosing the one :p
 
Thanks a lot for the information and guide. This will surely help me when this weekend probably i will install windows 7 on my near death laptop HDD, just to see how installation goes.
 
raksrules said:
Thanks a lot for the information and guide. This will surely help me when this weekend probably i will install windows 7 on my near death laptop HDD, just to see how installation goes.
Click to expand...
No Problem... I just replied to your PM. Hope it helps you. If you have any more queries, let me know. Glad to be of help.

:)
 
I had faced issue with the DISK PART thing where in after issuing the command "LIST DRIVE" it only listed my main HDD and one USB HDD but the USB pen drive for some reason. The USB HDD and USB pen drive were both connected together to the system. This DISK PART thing is limited to only showing 2 drives ??
 
raksrules said:
I had faced issue with the DISK PART thing where in after issuing the command "LIST DRIVE" it only listed my main HDD and one USB HDD but the USB pen drive for some reason. The USB HDD and USB pen drive were both connected together to the system. This DISK PART thing is limited to only showing 2 drives ??
Click to expand...
No, it isn't meant to show only 2 drives. You should try plugging your drive to a mobo port if you are trying to use a hub.

Or else, try unplugging the usb hdd and then try.
 
^^ Tried did not help. So as of now i have just formatted my pen drive using normal windows format and then used the COVERT DOS command to convert the file system to NTFS and then executed the commands and it went fine. Yet to try actual windows 7 install. Currently backing up data from the machine where i am going to install the OS.
 
^^Yes i know there are utilities but you see there are few important things which dont get transferred properly (if you know what i mean) using these utilities and hence this manual method is actually very good.
I did all the steps in Neha's tutorial (skipping the DISK PART thing) and still was able to make a bootable pen drive and use that to load windows 7 on my laptop.
 
nehaladsul said:
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For Windows XP, it is easier, simpler and faster to use WinToFlash. It didn't work (for me) for Windows 7 but it works perfectly for Windows XP (I tried for Windows XP SP3).

Download Link: WinToFlash - Install Windows From USB - Download Page
Click to expand...

I am trying to make a bootable USB drive for Windows XP SP3. I tried WinToFlash but I keep getting the "OS Not Found" error while booting from the USB drive. Are there any other such tools/guides for XP?

I also had a look at this,

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/111406-how-to-install-xp-from-usb/

But I am not able to make a bootable USB using HP Format Tool either because it asks me the path for the Bootable files while formatting and I don't know what path to specify there.
 
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