03/04/2016
Make a Bootable External
Hard Drive and Install
Windows 7/8
Step 1: Format the Drive
Just place the flash drive in the USB
port of your computer. Open
command prompt ( cmd). You can do
that by pressing WINKEY+R, right
click on the listed file and click on
“ Run as administrator“.
Enter the following commands in the
same order as I did here:
diskpart
list disk
select disk z (where z is the number
corresponding for your USB disk. You
have to replace it with the
corresponding letter from your own
system).
clean
create partition primary
active
format fs=fat32 quick
assign
exit
Please be careful using the select
command (so you don’t select and
format your hard disk instead)
If everything goes well, this is how
your cmd screen will look like
Step 2: Mount The Windows 8
ISO Image Into A Virtual Drive
If you don’t have a physical optical
drive you should mount the image into
a virtual drive. You can install and use
PowerISO
Step 3: Make The External Hard
Disk Bootable
I’m assuming that F is your drive letter
with Windows 8 ISO image and G: is
the location of your external hard
disk (or flash drive) . Open the
command prompt screen (as
administrator) and type the
commands:
F:
cd boot
bootsect.exe /nt60 g:
Also, don’t forget to triple check the
target location so you don’t
accidentally delete the boot sector of
your hard disk
Step 4: Copy The Installer Files
After the above step, don’t close the
command prompt (at least not yet). At
this moment your new external hard
disk or flash drive is bootable but you
need to execute one more command in
order to transfer the files to your new
drive. You have to type the following
command line:
xcopy f:\*.* g: /e /f /h
Again replace the drive letters with the
ones that apply to you. Alternatively
you can copy all the files in the virtual
drive to the flash drive or external
hard drive by using Windows
Explorer, but using XCOPY ensures
that system and hidden files are also
copied.
Step 5: Boot Off The External
Hard Drive or USB Flash Drive
To use and boot from your newly
created drive on your netbook or
computer, first you have to set your
computer you must set it to boot
through the USB flash drive. In order
to do this shut down your computer,
go in the CMOS setup by pressing the
“DEL” or “F2″ key when the computer
power on, without unplug the newly
created external hard drive or USB
Flash Drive from the machine. Set the
device as the primary boot option,
save the changes BIOS and restart. On
newer computers you can boot from
the device without entering into BIOS
by pressing either “ESC”, “F9″ or “F11″
(different key on different
manufacturers).
Now you can install Windows as usual.
Please be aware that if you’ve changed
the boot sequence in the BIOS,
remember to change it back as it was
after copying the files (usually after
first automatic reboot).
