How To Install Windows 7 On USB Flash/Hard Drive [Easy Way]

Malay: Cara Install Windows dalam USB drive/Flash Drive

As you likely know, unlike its successor, none of the Windows 7 editions allow you install Windows 7 on a USB flash/hard drive and then boot Windows 7 from the USB. For the uniniated, installing Windows from a USB is completely different from installing Windows on a USB. In the first scenario, we use the USB as a bootable media to install Windows, and in the second one, we install Windows on to a USB drive and boot Windows from it.

If you want to install Windows on a USB flash drive or USB hard drive, this is the easiest way to install Windows 7 on USB and boot from it. You don’t need to download complex scripts or execute commands in order to install Windows 7 on to USB.

In this guide, we’re going to show the easiest way to install Windows 7 on a USB flash drive or USB hard drive and boot Windows 7 from it.

Things you need:

# Windows 7 ISO image file (32-bit or 64-bit)

# WinToUSB (check Step 2 for download links)

# 16GB+ USB flash drive or hard drive (8GB drive should do fine but can’t confirm)

Installing Windows 7 on to USB flash drive or hard drive

Step 1: Kick start the procedure by connecting your USB flash drive or hard drive to your Windows 7/8 PC. Please backup all data before continuing further, as the drive will be erased.

Step 2: Next step is to download WinToUSB software by visiting this official page. WinToUSB supports both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7/8. Run the downloaded setup file and then follow the straight-forward on-screen instructions to complete the installation. You can install WinToUSB either on Windows 7 or Windows 8.

Step 3: Launch WinToUSB software. On the home screen, click the button next to ISO file box to browse to Windows 7 ISO image file and click OK button to open it. And then select the edition of Windows 7 that you would like to install on the USB.

Click Next button to proceed to the next step.

Upon selecting the USB drive, you’ll see a warning dialog with “Selected device needs to be formatted. Are you sure you want to continue?” message. Click Yes button to continue.

Step 5: Finally, you’ll be asked to select the system partition as well the boot partition on the USB drive. If you haven’t partitioned your USB drive, you can simply select the same partition (full drive) as system partition as well as boot partition (refer the picture). And if you have two or more partitions, please select a partition to use as boot partition and then another partition with at least 16 GB of space as system partition.

Click Next button to begin installing Windows 7 on to the USB drive. This process might take hours depending on your USB drive’s speed and overall system performance. That’s it!

In order to boot from this bootable Windows 7 USB, you need to enable boot from USB feature in the BIOS/UEFI.

sources: http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-windows-7-on-usb-flashhard-drive-easy-way/

How To Install Windows 7 To USB External Hard Drive [Must Read]

As you likely know, while one can install Windows 7 from an external hard drive, one can’t install the same to an external hard drive with default settings. For all those users waiting for a good workaround to install Vista, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 to an external hard drive, here is the complete solution.

Even though Windows recognizes and displays the USB hard drive in the installation screen, it doesn’t allow you install Windows on the same. When you attempt to install Windows 7 on external drive, you get “Windows cannot be installed to this disk” error.

So, if you want to install Windows 7 on an external hard drive you need to follow the steps given below. The procedure is simple but you need to install Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) first to get some files. We would like to thank fujianabc @ boot-land forum for this workaround.

Requirements:

# An external hard drive formatted with NTFS

# Windows 7 installation files (if you have Windows 7 ISO use Virtual Clone Drive freeware to mount it)

# Windows Automated Installation Kit (free download from Microsoft)

NOTE: Make sure that you have a minimum of 15 GB free space on your external hard drive before starting the procedure. Although we are not going to delete the contents of external hard drive, we recommend backing up your external hard drive contents before trying this guide.

Install Windows 7 on a USB drive with ease

Step 1. Create two folders named Windows Files and WAIK Files on your desktop or any other drive which has a minimum of 5 GB free space.

Step 2: Download the ZIP file from here and extract the contents to WAIK Files folder. Before starting the actual installation procedure, you need to have three files: Bcdboot.exe, Bootsect.exe and Imgex.exe. These files can only be obtained by installing Windows Automated Installation Kit for Windows 7 on your Windows PC. After installing WAIK, simply search for these files in the Windows installation drive to get them. Once you have these three files, copy them to WAIK Files folder that you have created in the above step.

Step 3: Copy all the contents of Windows 7 installation DVD to the Windows Files folder.

Step 4: The next step is to run Installer.cmd file as Administrator (Right-click on installer.cmd and select run as administrator). In the first screen, you will be asked to press Enter to continue.

Step 5: Press Enter key to browse to the install.wim file present in the Windows Files folder. The Install.wim file can be found under Sources folder (Windows Files/ Sources/ install.wim).

Step 6: Now, you need to select the Windows 7 edition that you want to install on external hard drive. You can select the edition by entering the index number shown in the screen. For example, type “5” (without quote) and hit Enter key to select Ultimate edition.

Step 7: The next step is to enter your External drive’s drive letter. Enter the drive letter (ex: L) and pressEnter key.

Step 8: Now, type in the drive letter of your ACTIVE partition and hit Enter key. Generally “C” is the active partition. You can find the active partition by opening Windows Disk Management tool (type diskmgmt.mscin Start menu search area and hit enter to launch it).

Step 9: Finally, the installer will ask you the drive letter that you have entered to install Windows 7 is a USB hard drive or not. As you are installing Windows 7 to an external hard drive simply type “Y” without quote and press Enter key.

Finally click Enter key again to start extracting the Install.wim files. This might take a few minutes. Once done, you will be asked to reboot your PC to continue the normal Windows 7 installation procedure.

Step 10: Reboot your PC and follow the usual Windows 7 installation procedure to complete Windows 7 installation on external hard drive. Your PC will be restarted twice or thrice during installation.

Please note that the installation procedure might be slower as you are installing Windows 7 to an external hard drive.

Step 11: Once done with the installation, you are good to go. You can install all drivers and other software to start using the best Windows version on your PC.

Note: We have tested this method to install x86 flavor of Windows 7 to Seagate USB external hard drive. But should work fine with x64 as well. Users who would like to carry Windows 7 on a USB flash drive can follow our how to carry Windows 7 on USB flash drive guide.

sources: http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-windows-7-to-usb-external-hard-drive-must-read/

Advantages of Using 64-Bit Editions of Windows 7

Although earlier versions of Windows operating systems, such as the Windows® XP® Professional operating system, were available in 64-bit editions, these versions provided limited application compatibility when compared with the 32-bit editions. Additionally, the relative scarcity of 64-bit drivers for existing hardware made selecting the 64-bit edition a significant compromise.

The 64-bit editions of Windows 7 overcome the application incompatibility issues that affected the 64-bit edition of earlier versions of Windows. The 64-bit drivers are now readily available for most commonly used devices in the 64-bit edition of Windows 7.



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Deferences between Master Boot Record (MBR) and Globally Unique Identifier(GUID) Partition Table (GPT) Disk?

When you install a disk in a computer that is running Windows 7, you can choose to select one of two partitioning schemes 1. Master Boot Record (MBR)-based partitioning scheme 2. Globally unique identifier (GUID) partition table (GPT)-based partitioning scheme.

The following are common reasons to partition a disk:

1. Separate operating system files from data and user files
2. Place applications and data files in the same location
3. Put cache, log, and paging files in a location separate from other files
4. Create multiboot setup environments

You can use Disk Management to perform disk-related tasks such as creating and formatting partitions and volumes, and assigning drive letters. In addition, you can use the diskpart command, along with other command-line utilities, to perform disk management tasks such as partitioning disks or converting disks from one partition scheme to the other.

What is an MBR Disk ?

The Master Boot Record (MBR) contains the partition table for the disk and a small amount of executable code called the master boot code. A bootable hard disk that contains an MBR is an MBR disk. The MBR is created when the disk is partitioned, is on the first sector of the hard disk, and contains a four-partition entry table describing the size and location of a partition on a disk using 32-bit Logical Block Address (LBA) fields. The size of the partition cannot exceed 2 TB. Most Windows 7 platforms, such as 32-bit and 64-bit SKUs running on motherboards with Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) firmware, require an MBR partitioned system disk and are not bootable with a larger capacity disk.

How MBR-based disks work ?
The MBR is stored at a consistent location on a physical disk, enabling the computer BIOS to reference it. During the startup process, the computer examines the MBR to determine which partition on the installed disks is marked as active. The active partition contains the operating system startup files.

Note: You can install the rest of the operating system on another partition or disk. In Windows 7, the active partition must contain the boot sector, boot manager, and related files.

Features of MBR-based disks

The MBR partition scheme has been around for a long time and supports both current and early desktop operating systems, such as the MS-DOS and the Microsoft® Windows NT® Server 4.0 operating system. Consequently, the MBR partition scheme is widely supported. However, the MBR partition scheme imposes certain restrictions. These include:

1. Four partitions on each disk: MBR-based disks are limited to four partitions. All of these can be primary partitions, or one can be an extended partition with logical volumes inside. You can configure the extended partition to contain multiple volumes.

2. A 2 Terabyte (TB) maximum partition size: A partition cannot be larger than 2 TB.

3. No redundancy provided: The MBR is a single point of failure, and if corrupted or damaged, it can render the operating system non-bootable.

Question: What are three restrictions of an MBR partitioned disk? Have you encountered these limitations in your organization, and if so, what did you do to work around them?

Answer : The restrictions are that MBR partitioned disks are limited to four partitions, a 2 TB maximum partition size, and there is no data redundancy provided.



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What is an Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) address ?

To troubleshoot network connectivity problems for your users, you must me familiar with Internet Protocol /IP address and how they work. Assign a unique Internet protocol version 4 /IPv4 address to each network computer, the IPv4 address the computer to other computers on the network.



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What is a SUBNET MASK ?

A subnet mask defines the part of an IP address that is the network ID and the part of an IP address that is the host ID. A subnet mask is composed of four octets, similar to an IP address.

In simple IP networks, the subnet mask defines full octets as part of the network ID and host ID. A 255 represents an octet that is the part of the network ID, and 0 represents an octet that is part of the host ID. In complex IP networks, octets can be subdivided.

Why a subnet mask is required ?

When a computer delivers an IP packet, it uses the subnet mask to validate whether the destination is on the same network or on a remote network. If the destination is on the same network, the packet can be delivered by the computer. If the destination is on the different network, the computer must send the packet to a router for delivery.

To make you understand about subnet mask, I give you a simple example


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How to share a Printer over a network using Windows XP?

To share a printer over a network using windows XP is helpful for a large business organization. To share a printer over a network using windows xp follow this

To share a Printer

1. First login to your windows XP with administrative right.
2. Click Start and  Go to Control Panel
3. Click Printers and other hardware, and then click Printers and Faxes. (From category view)
4. In the Printers and Faxes folder, right click on the installed printer and choose Sharing. See below picture



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What Are Public and Private IPv4 Addresses?

Devices and hosts that connect directly to the Internet require a public IPv4 address. Hosts and devices that do not connect directly to the Internet do not require a public IPv4 address.

Public IPv4 addresses
Public IPv4 addresses must be unique. IANA assigns public IPv4 addresses. Usually, your ISP allocates you one or more public addresses from its address pool. The number of addresses that your ISP allocates to you depends upon how many devices and hosts that you have to connect to the Internet.

Private IPv4 addresses
The pool of IPv4 addresses is becoming smaller, so IANA is reluctant to allocate superfluous IPv4 addresses. Technologies such as Network Address Translation (NAT) enable administrators to use a relatively small number of public IPv4 addresses, and at the same time, enable local hosts to connect to remote hosts and services on the Internet.



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