Do you have your Windows 7 on DVD and cannot install it because you don’t have a DVD Drive? Fortunately you can, its super easy to create windows 7 bootable usb thumb drive.

How to create windows 7 bootable usb thumb drive

It’s very easy to create windows 7 bootable usb thumb drive.  These days most Laptops are not shipped with DVD drives any more, and when you need to install a clean copy of windows on your computer, you are unable to do so.  

Even if you did have a DVD Drive, did you know you can install Windows much faster via USB than DVD?

Today I’d like to share some tips on how to create windows 7 bootable usb thumb drive.

What You will Need for This Tutorial:

• Your Original Copy of Windows on DVD
• A Computer with DVD Drive **
• USB Media greater than 4GB is ideal 
• Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool
• PowerISO

Top Tip

** If you do not have a computer with a DVD drive there are two options, try to borrow your friends computer, or if that is not the case you can try http://www.w7forums.com/threads/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-image-downloads.12325/  for more information.

Preparing your Windows DVD

When it comes to create windows 7 usb thumb drive, first we need to create an ISO file/Image from your Windows DVD Media. 

An ISO file in a nutshell is the entire content of your DVD Disc or any disc in a single file.

1. We need to grab a copy of PowerISO  which will allow you to create an ISO file of your windows media. Unfortunately you will have to pay a small fee, but it is a great utility to use for your DVD Burning needs.  Google it or click on the PowerISO link under “what you need for this tutorial” Section.

2. Once you have downloaded it to your computer, follow the step by step wizard to install PowerISO 

3. However, be careful not to install unwanted software. 

4.  Once you have installed PowerISO,  insert your Windows Installation media, and then start PowerISO, we are going to create an ISO image from the installation media.

5. On the main screen, Go to tools and then click make a Image file as shown

.

6. Select the source drive, and then choose .ISO for destination file, choose the location to save the image and click save

Now you should have successfully have created an ISO image of your windows DISC.   We will need that ISO image for the next step

Installing Windows 7 USB/DVD Tool

The Windows USB/DVD Tool, is a wizard which installs your windows setup files onto your USB Drive.  It is relevantly an easy Process, just follow the step, by step wizard. 

Once you have downloaded and installed the tool, start it up. Then we need to tell the software where the source of the ISO image is that we saved earlier.  Click on the browse button, then locate your ISO image, double click it and then it should be shown as below.  Click next to continue. 

Ok sometimes you may get an error as shown below.  Today I will show you how to fix this.

We will now need to use PowerISO to fix this problem. 

1. Start power ISO again and open your ISO image that you have saved earlier. Go to file and then click Image Properties.

2. Under The image properties dialog box, we need to unselect UDF, which stands for  Universal disk Format.  you need to uncheck this box and recheck it again.

3. Click ok and then go to file and save.

Open up The USB/DVD Tool again

Now the tool should recognize the Image again

1. In the next screen the tool will ask you to choose the media type.  Click on USB Device to continue

2. Plug your USB device into your machine, ensure that there is no data on it, and click Begin Copy

3. The tool will then ask you to erase all information before continuing, click Erase USB Device. 

4. Click yes to continue

The Software will now start to copy your files.  If you do find that when you use Windows USB/DVD Tool, you can try an alternative method called Rufus to install ISO to USB when it comes to create windows 7 usb thumb drive.  

When you  are ready to install windows, please ensure that you change your boot order in your BIOS.  The BIOS is your built in operating system.  You need to set USB as your boot order, otherwise your computer will not boot from your USB Drive.  

Final Thoughts

I hope you liked my article on how to create windows 7 bootable usb thumb drive.

Windows DVD/USB Tool is a great tool to use your USB Media as a means of installing windows on your computer. 

It is not always an easy process and you may run into some errors, but try Rufus if you run into some errors Thanks for reading this tutorial on create windows 7 bootable usb thumb drive. 

Please Leave your comments below if you have any Problems and I’ll try to get back to you within 24hrs.  if you have found this article to be useful, please like and share a like.