How to Create A Bootable Windows Vista/7 Installer

Wondering how you going to boot from an USB stick/thumbdrive/pendrive, to install the Windows Vista/7 without using a CD/DVD drive? This method indeed come in handy especially for the popular machine nowadays, Netbook which normally do not come with a CD/DVD drive. It's advisable to prepare a thumbdrive with a storage space 4GB and above.

To prepare the bootable USB thumbdrive, you need to execute following steps under Windows Vista/7 OS.

1. Insert the USB thumbdrive to the system and backup all the data from it, as you are going to FORMAT the USB thumbdrive to make it as bootable.

2. Open elevated Command Prompt. To do this, press START button, type in CMD in Start menu search field and hit Ctrl + Shift + Enter. Alternatively, navigate to Start > All Programs > Accessories > right click on Command Prompt and select Run As Administrator.

3. When the Command Prompt opens, enter the following commands:
i.  DISKPART and hit enter.
ii. LIST DISK and hit enter. 
Once you enter the LIST DISK command, it will show all the connected devices and the disk number of your USB thumbdrive. Make sure the correct USB thumbdrive is identified by looking at the Size of it.

4. In this step, you need to enter all the below commands one by one and hit enter.
i. SELECT DISK 1 (Replace DISK 1 with your USB thumbdrive's disk number)
ii. CLEAN
iii. CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
iv. SELECT PARTITION 1
v. ACTIVE
vi. FORMAT FS=NTFS (Format process may take several minutes)
vii. ASSIGN
viii. EXIT

5. Insert your Windows Vista/7 Installer DVD in the optical drive and note down the drive letter of the optical drive and USB thumbdrive. Here I use "D" as my optical (DVD) drive letter and "G" as my USB thumbdrive's drive letter.

6. Go back to Command Prompt and execute the following commands:
i. D: CD Boot and hit enter, where "D" is your optical drive letter.
ii. Type in the command, bootsect.exe /nt60 G: (Where "G" is your USB thumbdrive's drive letter)

7. Copy all the Windows Vista/7 Installer DVD contents to the USB thumbdrive.

You are done with your bootable USB. You can now use this bootable USB as bootable DVD on any computer that comes with USB boot feature. 

To turn on the USB boot feature, you need to configure this setting inside the BIOS. Press "F2" or "Del" key when the computer is first boot up to enter BIOS configuration. Navigate to "Boot" page inside the BIOS, then enable "Boot to USB".