Install Windows 7 from USB

Even though I am a Linux user, I often have to install Windows on some computer.

My university gives me access to Microsoft software through MSDN. From there I can download a Windows .iso, which was made to be burned to a CD.

The problem is that burning CDs is a tedious, slow process, and ultraportable computers like my laptop do not have a CD drive. The solution is to use a flash drive or an external hard drive to install new operating systems.

Instructions

The following step-by-step was written for Linux and is quite simple:

1. Install the dependencies for working with NTFS

   julio@julio-acer ~> sudo pacman -S ntfsprogs ntfs-3g
   

2. Check the device name assigned to your flash drive/external hard drive (/dev/sdb here)

   julio@julio-acer ~> sudo fdisk -l
   

3. Delete every partition, format the first one as NTFS, and mark it bootable

   julio@julio-acer ~> sudo cfdisk /dev/sdb
   

4. Create an NTFS filesystem:

   julio@julio-acer ~> sudo mkfs.ntfs -f /dev/sdb1
   

5. Mount the .iso image and the flash drive:

   julio@julio-acer ~> sudo mount -o loop win7.iso /media/iso
   julio@julio-acer ~> sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /media/usb
   

6. Copy every file from the .iso to the USB disk:

   julio@julio-acer ~> sudo cp -r /media/iso/* /media/usb/
   

7. Write the Windows 7 MBR to the USB disk:

   julio@julio-acer ~> sudo ms-sys -7 /dev/sdb
   

8. In the BIOS, set your computer to boot from USB.