Create Vista USB Installation Media
This tutorial is designed to guide you through the process of creating a USB Windows Vista install media.
This process will only work within Windows Vista or Windows 7.
Please replace any instance of 'x' with the drive letter assignment that corresponds with your system.
What you will need;
4GB USB Flash Drive
Windows Vista installation DVD
Step 1. - Format USB drive.
- Open Computer
- Right Click on Removable Disk ('x'
- Select Format
- In the format window;
- Select "NTFS" from the Filesystem pull down menu
- Select "4096 bytes" or "Default Allocation Size" from the Allocation Unit Size pull down menu
- Choose a Volume Label (e.g. Vista, Vista x32, Acer OS, etc.)
- Un-check the Quick Format option
- Press Start
- When the Warning dialogue box opens, select OK
The Format will take a few minutes, once complete move to the next step.
Step 2. - Preparing the USB Drive
*Note - The x64 bootsect.exe file will not work in an x32 environment
Open an elevated command prompt.
To do this; Open the Windows menu and type 'cmd' in the search box. Right click on the 'cmd' icon and select Run as Administrator'
Type the following commands (press enter after each).
This launches the diskpart application and lists the volume information.
From the volume list, note the USB drive's volume #
Code:
select volume '#'
active
exit
This will set the USB volume as an active partition and close diskpart.
Make sure your Vista DVD is in the drive. 'a' is the drive letter of your DVD rom and 'x' is the drive letter of your USB drive.
Code:
'a':
cd boot
bootsect /nt60 'x':
This sets the boot sector in the USB drive allowing it to boot.
This is how it should look in the command prompt. (volume info has been blacked)
Step 3. - Copy Files
Simply copy all files from the DVD to the thumb drive (drag and drop) and you are good to go.