In today's tutorial, I'm going to show you how to create a bootable USB flash drive using Command Prompt for your Windows OS installation. This method can be used to for Windows 7, 8 and 10. We'll be using Windows 7 for this tutorials.
>> How to Disable Command Prompt in Windows 7, 8 and 10
CMD or Command Prompt is a Character User Interface (CLI) tool in Windows which allows the users to interact with the system. Command Prompt is used to execute entered commands. Most of those command prompt commands are used to automate tasks via scripts and batch files, perform advanced administrative functions, and troubleshoot and solve certain kinds of Windows issues.
>> How to Disable Command Prompt in Windows 7, 8 and 10
CMD or Command Prompt is a Character User Interface (CLI) tool in Windows which allows the users to interact with the system. Command Prompt is used to execute entered commands. Most of those command prompt commands are used to automate tasks via scripts and batch files, perform advanced administrative functions, and troubleshoot and solve certain kinds of Windows issues.
Most of the new PCs come in portable without DVD-ROM drives. Therefore the use of CD or DVD for any purpose be it the installation of software or copying of data is impossible. The USB Flash drive (Pen drive) becomes the only option for this.
You have to extract the Windows 7 ISO file into a folder on the PC. If you have the installation DVD, copy the files into a folder on a PC that has DVD-ROM drive installed. Copy the folder and save it on your PC.
The first thing to do is to plug in your flash drive into your computer and make sure to backup the stored data on it. This is very important because the drive will be formatted and all data will be lost.
Steps to Create Bootable USB Flash Drive
Open Command Prompt as Administrator, by pressing Win + X and selecting “Command Prompt (Admin)” from the options.
Type the Utility command DISKPART and Press Enter (DISKPART is one word so don't leave a space between)
C:\Windows\system32> DISKPART
You will be moved into DISKPART, then you type "list disk". You have to list all the drives installed on the PC so you can choose the one you want to make bootable.
DISKPART> list part
The next step is to select the disk to work with from the list generated by typing the command below. Disk 0 is mostly the main hard drive in the machine. All the disks listed have sizes so check and make sure you select the correct one. In my case, the flash drive is listed as Disk 2
DISKPART> select disk 2
List the disks again to check if the disk you selected was successful. If it is successful, you will see an asterisk beside it
DISKPART> list part
The next step is clean the disk. Any data or partition will be cleared.
DISKPART> clean
We have to create a new partition on our drive. The is because the previous step has cleared the existing partition so a new one has to be created.
DISKPART> create partition primary
The seventh step is to select the created partition. Anytime a primary partition is created, it is always called partition 1
DISKPART> select partition 1
Format the disk with the command below. You can you choose Fat32 or NTFS. We are using NTFS because that is the requirement for making our flash drive bootable. Always add the "quick" option to make the formatting faster else it can take several minutes to complete the task.
DISKPART> format fs=ntfs quick
When the formatting is successful, you need to mark the disk as active
DISKPART> active
Now you would have to assign a name or letter to your drive
DISKPART> assign
If you get this message "DiskPart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point.", it means the whole process has been successful so you can now exit DiskPart and Command Prompt respectively
DISKPART> exit
C:\Windows\system32> exit
This is how the complete commands will look like in the Command Prompt window
Open the folder you copied the Windows 7 files into. Copy all the files and paste them into the flash drive we have prepared.
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| Command Prompt Window |
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| Copying files to the USB flash drive |
When copying is successfully done, unplug the flash drive and plug it in again. Navigate to Computer and you'll notice that, the flash drive has the Windows OS icon indicating our flash drive is now bootable.
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| Windows Explorer |
The USB Flash Drive can now be used to install a new Windows 7 Operating System on any PC.
I hope you found this tutorial helpful. Let’s get interactive by dropping your questions and suggestions in the comments box below. Enjoy!!!
Level: Intermediate
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