Prepare for the Installation
You must migrate the Windows 7 setup files onto a flash drive (or any USB-based storage) and then boot from that flash drive to get the Windows 7 installation process started. However, simply copying the files from your Windows 7 DVD to a flash drive won’t work. You have to specially prepare the USB device and then properly copy the Windows 7 install files to it before it’ll work as you expect. You’re in a similar, but slightly easier to solve, situation if you’ve purchased a Windows 7 ISO file directly from Microsoft and need that on a flash drive. No matter what situation you’re in, just follow the instructions below to install Windows 7 from a USB device.
How to Install Windows 7 From USB
Correctly preparing a USB drive for use as an installation source for Windows 7 will take around 15 to 30 minutes depending on your computer speed and what edition of Windows 7 you have on DVD or in ISO format
Tips & More Information
When the Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool formats the flash drive during the process above, it does so using NTFS, a file system that some UEFI systems won’t boot from if present on a USB stick. If you’ve never created an ISO file from a disc before, check out the tutorial linked above. It’ll walk you through installing some free software and then show how to use it to make the ISO. An ISO image is a single file that perfectly represents a disc—in this case, your Windows 7 installation DVD. Next, we’re going to work on properly getting that Windows 7 ISO you just created onto the flash drive. This free program from Microsoft, which works in Windows 10 through Windows XP, will correctly format the USB drive and then copy the contents of your Windows 7 ISO file to the drive. You’ll see a Status of Formatting for several seconds, followed by Copying files. This part might take as long as 30 minutes, maybe even longer, depending on which edition of Windows 7 the ISO file you have is from, as well as on how fast your computer, USB drive, and USB connection is. You can now close the Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool program. The USB drive can now be used to install Windows 7. To get the USB drive to boot on these computers, you should copy the data from the flash drive onto a folder on your computer, then reformat the flash drive using the older FAT32 file system, and then copy that same data back onto the drive. An alternative method for loading a Windows 7 ISO image onto a USB drive is to burn the ISO file to a USB drive.
