Install Windows 7, Vista or 2008 From USB Drive

[Evrsr]

It is easy to install the more recent versions of Windows by using an USB drive. Simply grad an install DVD and put it on a PC with a DVD drive and boot it:



Then select the right keyboard layout and press next.



Now you should not proceed with the installation but press Repair your computer.
We will now format the thumb drive with the embedded command line.

Format the thumb drive

Open a DOS prompt, like in the below picture:



Then type:

diskpart
list disk
select disk 1 (see the list above for the correct number!)
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=fat32 quick
assign
exit

Copy the Windows 7 / Vista / 2008 DVD files:

xcopy d:\*.* /s/e/f e:\

Once you're done, you will be notified and you can proceed to reboot the computer:



Once it has finished, you're done. Reboot and install from the USB drive. Be aware that the drive will run in USB 1.1 mode and will be a bit slower than when installing from DVD.
You can alternatively run a Windows install ISO from VirtualBox virtual machine to create the bootable USB drive.