Install Win 7 via USB in 4 easy steps

After searching and trying about 20 different methods (some very complicated) found online over the past few weeks, I *finally* got my SanDisk Cruzer Micro (8GB) to boot into the Windows 7 Installer. And it was a simple process too! So I’m sharing it here in case anyone else is having similar issues:

1 – Using the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool (v2.0.6) (Updated link: http://www.bootdisk.com/plan040109/hpflash1.zip), I formatted the flash drive using FAT32 leaving all the boxes unchecked.

2 – I mounted the Windows 7 Beta ISO using Virtual CloneDrive (free, www.slysoft.com).

3 – Then I copied the contents of the ISO (all of the Windows 7 files and folders) over to the SanDisk. That took about 7 minutes.

4 – Lastly, I renamed the file on the flash drive from “BOOTMGR” to “NTLDR”.

That’s it! I was able to finally boot off the SanDisk using my Dell Mini 9 and install Windows 7! It took about an hour, but it runs great. Then I followed the steps outlined here to install the necessary drivers (which wasn’t many since Win7 detects just about everything, nice!).

Next up, going to try these SSD speed tweaks!

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