how to make an usb device bootable

[Roland Schweiger]

In the Windows Vista days,
i frequently made USB devices or external HDDs bootable,
by using the original Windows Vista CD and using the commands
DISKPART and
MAKEBOOT
These would eventually write the apropriate version of
NTDETECT and NTLOADER onto the device.

As i understand, this architecture has changed completely.

Is there a simple way (by command line) to still make a device
bootable (with Windows7)? Generally i really just need this for
repair purposes on 'crashed' machines...

greetings

Roland Schweiger

 

[SC Tom]

In the Windows Vista days,
i frequently made USB devices or external HDDs bootable,
by using the original Windows Vista CD and using the commands
DISKPART and
MAKEBOOT
These would eventually write the apropriate version of NTDETECT and
NTLOADER onto the device.

As i understand, this architecture has changed completely.

Is there a simple way (by command line) to still make a device
bootable (with Windows7)? Generally i really just need this for
repair purposes on 'crashed' machines...

greetings

Roland Schweiger

Is this what you're looking for?
http://maketecheasier.com/updated-boot-and-install-windows-7-from-usb-flash-drive/2009/09/12

 

[Roland Schweiger]

"SC Tom" schrieb im Newsbeitrag

As i understand, this architecture has changed completely.

Is there a simple way (by command line) to still make a device
bootable (with Windows7)? Generally i really just need this for
repair purposes on 'crashed' machines...

Is this what you're looking for?
http://maketecheasier.com/updated-boot-and-install-windows-7-from-usb-flash-drive/2009/09/12

Thanks for the link.
It does describe a method but unfortunately you have to download something,
this method will not work with on-board means like DISKPART

greetings

Roland Schweiger

 

[William]

In the Windows Vista days,
i frequently made USB devices or external HDDs bootable,
by using the original Windows Vista CD and using the commands
DISKPART and
MAKEBOOT
These would eventually write the apropriate version of NTDETECT and NTLOADER
onto the device.

As i understand, this architecture has changed completely.

Is there a simple way (by command line) to still make a device
bootable (with Windows7)? Generally i really just need this for
repair purposes on 'crashed' machines...

greetings

Roland Schweiger

http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-windows-7vista-from-usb-drive-detailed-100-working-guide/

 

[relic]

In the Windows Vista days,
i frequently made USB devices or external HDDs bootable,
by using the original Windows Vista CD and using the commands
DISKPART and
MAKEBOOT
These would eventually write the apropriate version of NTDETECT and
NTLOADER onto the device.

As i understand, this architecture has changed completely.

Is there a simple way (by command line) to still make a device
bootable (with Windows7)? Generally i really just need this for
repair purposes on 'crashed' machines...

Does your motherboard/BIOS support it?

 

[Peter Foldes]

Roland

NO unless your BIOS supports it which is very rare

--
Peter

Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
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[Peter Foldes]

Frank

The OP asked if Win 7 can be BOOTED from a USB device. He did not ask if Win 7 can
be installed from a USB drive . It can be installed from a USB drive with no
problems but booting from a USB drive a Win 7 OS that has been already installed is
a big NO unless the BIOS supports it.

--
Peter

Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged.
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

 

[Roland Schweiger]

Does your motherboard/BIOS support it?


Yes it does.
And is far as i understand now, i can still use the commands
DISKPART
to set an usb drive active
and
BOOTSECT
to make it bootable and the /nt60 switch will still write the
ntdetect / ntldr although this is no longer really used by Win7,
this confused me but it works.

greetings

Roland Schweiger

 

[Roland Schweiger]

NO unless your BIOS supports it which is very rare


Most nowadays BIOS support booting from USB.
And meanwhile i understand that i can still use
diskpart and bootsect.exe to make a drive bootable
and the /nt60 switch will still write ntdetect onto the drive
but this confused me at first because the boot system of Win7
has changed, but for booting from usb, the "old" system obviously
remains.
greetings
Roland Schweiger

 

[Roland Schweiger]

Booting an OS from a USB will have nothing to do with repairing an
existing OS on the computer booting from the USB.
So I felt the OP was just a little confused by his statement because he
can boot and run install from the USB to repair an existing install of
7, which is faster than using the DVD of 7.

Also I'm pretty sure you can not boot Vista OS from a USB.

But I may be wrong.



Well .... it's a mixture of all
In earlier days there was the BartPE construction (for WinXP).

Since Win Vista, i no longer used BartPE
but instead made a usb drive bootable by
setting it active with
DISKPART
and then
BOOTSECT /ntxx to write the apropriate boot sector.

If the entire contents of the WinVista CD is then copied onto the usb stick,
you can not only install the OS from the USB drive but you can also

boot into the command line / repair console

and there are purposis where this is very very helpful.

Evidently it is difficult to boot the GUI from usb but this is not what i
wanted to do.

greetings

Roland Schweiger

 

[Sunny Bard]

NO unless your BIOS supports it which is very rare

Rare? On a machine new enough to run Win7, I'd say it'd be rare to find
a BIOS that didn't support booting from USB ...