How to Create a Bootable Windows 7 or Vista USB Drive

 Did you ever wish to install Windows with a Flash drive but don't know how ? Here are a few quick and easy tweaks that might help you to Create a Bootable USB Drive for installing Windows 7 or Vista . You can also use this to install Windows on a friends computer with no CD/DVD drive .
 1.Plug-in your Flash Drive . First plug-in your USB stick to your USB port and copy all the content to a safe location in your hard drive .
 Run Command Prompt as an administrator . For opening Command prompt
Go to start menu and type cmd in the search box . Right click on it and select run as Administrator to use it with admin-rights .
2.Run Command Prompt as an administrator . For opening Command prompt
Go to start menu and type cmd in the search box . Right click on it and select run as Administrator to use it with admin-rights .
3.Using the Diskpart utility find the drive number of your Flash Drive . To do so, type in the following commands in the Command Prompt :

1. • DISKPART
     
     

     • Running DISKPART will display the version of DISKPART you are running, name of your PC . Run the following command .

     list disk
     
     

     • Your Disk Number will be listed and note it down as you'll need this in the next step .
     • Let us assume that the USB Drive is Disk 1 but if it was listed as Disk 2 use Disk 2 instead .
   • 4.Format the drive by executing the following commands one by one . Make sure you replace Disk 1 with proper Disk number .
     select disk 1
     clean
     create partition primary
     select partition 1
     active
     format fs=NTFS QUICK
     assign
     exit
     
     • When its done and if everything goes well , you should have a formatted USB drive .
     • 5.Make the Flash Drive bootable by using the bootsect utility that is shipped with Windows 7/Vista .For doing so
   • • First insert the Windows 7/Vista DVD and note down the drive letter of the DVD drive . Let us assume it as D: and that of the USB as G .
     • Navigate to the directory where bootsect is found .

     D:
     cd d:\boot
     
     

     • Use the bootsect to make the USB Drive Bootable (ie Updating the drive with BOOTMGR compatible code) and for preparing it to boot Windows 7/Vista . Here, replace G: with the name of your USB Drive .

     BOOTSECT.EXE/NT60 G:
     
     

     • Close the Command Prompt windows .
   • 6.Copy all files from the Windows 7/DVD DVD to the formatted USB stick . The safest and the fastest way would be to use the Windows Explorer.
      7.Change the boot priority at the BIOS to USB.
      

     Warnings

   
   
   • Make sure you motherboard is capable of booting USB drive ,if not your computer won't be able to make use of this bootable device .
   • There is no bootsect

   in XP and therefore this might not work in XP .
   You can, from within 64-bit Windows, create a bootable USB drive of 
   your 32-bit or 64-bit Windows disc. In Windows 32-bit you can only 
   create bootable USB drive of 32-bit Windows disc.