USB Bootable Vista Installation Flash Thumb Drive

How to Create a Vista Installation USB Key​

   Information

This will show you how to create a USB flash key drive that you can boot from to install Vista with.

   Tip

If the USB flash drive is of sufficient capacity, say 8GB, then after copying the Vista installation DVD onto it, you can create a new folder (ex: Device Drivers) in the USB key and place all of your latest driver installation files in it. This way you will have them handy to manually install the drivers after installing Vista from the USB key.

   Warning

• You can only create a 32-bit Vista USB key from within a 32-bit OS (ex: Vista or XP).
• You can only create a 64-bit Vista USB key from within a 64-bit OS (ex: Vista or XP).
• The USB key needs to be at least 4 GB in size.
• You must have a Retail Vista installation DVD, not a OEM Vista recovery CD.
• This will delete everything on the USB key. Be sure to save anything that you do not want to lose on it somewhere else.
• Before installing Vista from the USB key, you will need to:
  • Enable Legacy USB storage detect in the BIOS
  • Temporarily set the USB FDD (USB Flash Disk Drive) to be listed right before the hard drive (or partition) that you will be installing Vista on in the hard drive Boot Priority order list in the BIOS.
  • After you are finished installing Vista from the USB key, make the Vista hard drive (or partition) listed first in the hard drive Boot Priority order list in the BIOS.

METHOD ONE

Create Vista Installation USB Key using Vista ISO

   Note

You will need to have a Vista ISO file to do this option.

If you like, you can use the Create image file from disc feature of the free program ImgBurn with a retail Vista installation DVD to create a Vista ISO file.

If you do not have a retail Vista installation DVD, then you can download and create an official Vista ISO file using the tutorial here: Installation & Upgrade - Vista ISO - Download and Create Installation DVD or USB

1. Download and install the trial version of UltraIso.​

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2. Plug in your USB key.​

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3. Right click on the UltraIso shortcut, and click on Run as administrator.​

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4. Click on File (menu bar) and Open. (See screenshot below)​

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5. Navigate to your Vista ISO file and select it and click on the Open button. (See screenshot below)​

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6. In the bottom Local pane, select your USB flash key drive. (See screenshot below)​

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7. Click on Bootable (menu bar) and Write Disk Image. (See screenshot above)​

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8. Make sure the locations are correct, and check the Verify box and click on the Write button. (See screenshot below)​

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9. Click on Yes to confirm writing to the USB drive.​

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10. When it's done, click on the Close button. (See screenshot below)​

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11. You now have a Vista installation USB flash key drive. ​

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METHOD TWO

Manually Create Vista Installation USB Key

1. Plug the USB key in.​

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2. If AutoPlay opens a pop-up for the USB key, then just close it.​

NOTE: Make note of what the drive size is for the USB key for step 6 below. You can also open Computer (step 21) to see what the drive size is to. For example, mine is 3920 MB.​

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3. Open an elevated command prompt.​

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4. In the elevated command prompt, type diskpart and press Enter. (See screenshot below)​

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5. In the elevated command prompt, type list disk and press Enter. (See screenshot below)​

NOTE: Make note of what disk # your USB key is listed as for step 6 below. You can also look for the drive size (step 2) for the USB key to help ID the disk number. For example, mine is listed as Disk 1 here for the 3920 MB disk.​

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6. In the elevated command prompt, type select disk # (your USB disk #) and press Enter. (See screenshot below)​

NOTE: You can also look for the drive size (step 2) for the USB key to help ID the disk number. For example, my USB key is listed as Disk 1, so I would type select disk 1 and press Enter.​

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7. In the elevated command prompt, type clean and press Enter. (See screenshot below)​

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8. In the elevated command prompt, type create partition primary and press Enter. (See screenshot below)​

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9. In the elevated command prompt, type select partition 1 and press Enter. (See screenshot below)​

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10. In the elevated command prompt, type active and press Enter. (See screenshot below)​

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11. In the elevated command prompt, type format fs=ntfs and press Enter. (See screenshot below)​

NOTE: This may take a few moments to finish formatting the USB key.​

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12. If AutoPlay opens a pop-up for the USB key, then just close it. ​

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13. In the elevated command prompt, type assign and press Enter. (See screenshot below)​

NOTE: This will assign a new drive letter to the USB key. Make note of the new USB drive letter for step 19 below. For example, mine is now H.​

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14. If AutoPlay opens a pop-up for the USB key, then just close it.​

NOTE: Make note of the new USB drive letter for step 18 below. For example, mine is now H.​

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15. In the elevated command prompt, type exit and press Enter. (See screenshot below)​

NOTE: This will exit you from DiskPart from step 4.​

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16. Insert your retail Vista installation DVD into the DVD drive.​

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17. If AutoPlay opens a pop-up for the retail Vista installation DVD, then just close it.​

NOTE: Make note of what the drive letter is for the DVD drive that has the retail Vista installation DVD in for step 19 below. You can also open Computer (step 21) to see what the drive letter is to. (See right screenshot below)​

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18. In the elevated command prompt, type cd\ and press Enter. (See screenshot below)​

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19. In the elevated command prompt, type the command below, and press Enter. (See screenshot below)​

WARNING: Subtitute the letter F with your actual DVD drive letter (step 17), and substitute H with your actual USB key drive letter (step 13).​

F:\boot\bootsect.exe /nt60 H:​

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20. When it finishes, close the elevated command prompt.​

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21. Open the Start Menu, and right click on the Computer button and click on Open.​

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22. Right click on the DVD drive (ex: F: ) that has the retail Vista installation DVD, and click on Open. (See screenshot below)​

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23. Highlight all of the contents, right click on the highlighted contents, and click on Copy. (See screenshot below)​

NOTE: You will need to copy all of the files and folders on the retail Vista installation DVD to the USB key.​

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24. Go back to Computer, right click on the USB key drive (ex: H ), and click on Paste. (See screenshot below)​

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25. The contents of the retail Vista installation DVD will now start copying over to the USB key.​

NOTE: This may take a few moments to complete.​

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26. When finished, you can close the Computer window and unplug the USB key.​

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27. You now have a Vista installation USB flash drive.​

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   Warning

Before installing Vista from the USB key, you will need to:

   Warning

• Enable Legacy USB storage detect in the BIOS
• Temporarily set the USB FDD (USB Flash Disk Drive) to be listed right before the hard drive (or partition) that you will be installing Vista on in the hard drive Boot Priority order list in the BIOS.
• After you are finished installing Vista from the USB key, make the Vista hard drive (or partition) listed first in the hard drive Boot Priority order list in the BIOS.

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That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Download a Vista ISO and Create an Installation DVD or USB
• How to Create a Vista SP1 Slipstream Installation DVD
• How to Create a Vista Recovery Disc
• How to Do a Clean Install of Vista with a Upgrade Version
• How to Do a Clean Install with a Full Version of Vista
• How to Do a Dual Boot Installation with Windows Vista and XP
• How to Do a Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and Vista
• How to Do a Custom Installation of Vista
• How to Create a YUMI MultiBoot USB Flash Drive for Windows

 

[leif2]

Will my oem vista dvd work to create usb flash image from my xp machine?

It was a simple question and I find it hard to believe no one knows the answer.
A.Will OEM disc work or just retail?
B. Can this usb install/boot be created from an xp machine, or just vista?

 

[Brink]

Hi Leif2,

A OEM Recovery disc will not work, but a normal Retail or Retail OEM Vista installation disk will.

I have not tried it in XP, but I do not see why you could not create one from XP as long as the commands worked in XP and you are using a retail Vista installation DVD.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[MrThunderbird]

@Brink

Diskpart will not see a removable device as a "disk", therefore you are not able to format it on XP. this is different in Vista... Just to inform

Anyways, I'm going to borrow a USB DVD drive to install an OS, however it would still be good to fix the USB problem..

 

[Brink]

Thank you MrT for confirming that it will not work with XP.

Shawn

 

[MrThunderbird]

Np

Weird, used the same files as before to burn a new DVD... (Just to test files for corruption), it worked all without errors... Must be something with the USB stick then..

 

[Brink]

Strange, but I'm happy to hear that you got it to work for you.

 

[k00lrav]

hey everyone i have went through this steps a few times from different sites, but it still is not working for me whenever i come to step 21. In the command prompt, type E:\boot\bootsect.exe /nt60 F: and press Enter. (See screenshot below)
WARNING: Subtitute the letter E for your CD/DVD drive letter, and substite F for your USB flash drive letter. it keeps telling windows can not load file like its trying to open the file, i am running windows vista 32 bit and i am trying to run 64bit, but everytime i try doing step 21 its basically telling me "this is windows vista 32 bit can not run 64 bit software" and then i get stuck nothing else i can do, ieven tried copying the bootsect.exe file from the dvd onto the flash drive and it would copy but when i go to boot it will not boot i just error messages like error loading os please restart or please remove drive and then restart, do you think its because i i cant go through with step 21.

 

[Brink]

Hello K00lrav, and welcome to Vista Forums.

See if you can use your 32 bit Vista installation DVD to do step 21 with instead. When you get to step 23, replace it with the 64 bit Vista installation DVD to copy to the USB flash drive.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[k00lrav]

hey brink thanks for the welcome, and i sure will give that a try, i did not even think of that, will update and let you know what happens.

 

[k00lrav]

well i got good news i got it too work, it didnt go through as fast i thought it would but it went through, now i have one issue my computer saying it used up 46.3 gigs and i have a total of 232 gigs and i got 186 free, i removed all old windows installtion form the properties menu but that didnt help i also went into the c drive checked all the folded there and they added up to about 13 gigs used, where is the other 33gig going anyone have an idea?

 

[Brink]

K00lrav,

That is good news. I'm happy to hear that it is working for you now.

The 33 Gigs could be from hidden system files and possibly the System Restore disk space being used. You might also run Disk Cleanup to see what it can clean up for you as well.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[k00lrav]

is this for vista restore, b/c when i did the installation i did i completely new installation i did the disk clean i tried, i dont know what else i can do but ill looking to it more see what other files are hidden, think you can suggest a program to clean harddrive out.. also when installing vista right x64, doesnt it format the whole drive if i selecet new installation? well in 64bit cant upgrade can only do new installation, so it should have formated?

 

[Brink]

Yes, when going from a 32 bit Vista to 64 bit Vista, or the other way around, you do need to boot from the Vista installation DVD or USB flash drive, format the hard drive, then install Vista.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/68767-clean-install-upgrade-vista.html

or

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/117366-clean-install-full-version-vista.html

 

[k00lrav]

well last night i did boot from the usb, and as usual i selected new installation, and when ever i do i alsy format, but last night when i did the select the new installation i choosed my c drive to install windows but i dont know if it formated it clean, only reason am asking is becaused of the used 33gigs i am loosing or used up, but how can i do a format like format it from dos prompt b3fore installing vista can vista do that.

 

[Brink]

Koolrav,

Since you had a Windows.old folder, I would guess that you did not format the C: drive during installation first. If you scroll though the links above, you will see the option to format the drive from the Advanced Drive Options link.

 

[snadge]

right when i try to follow step 21 it says

Updated FAT32 filesystem bootcode. The update may be unreliable since the
volume could not be locked during the update:
Access is denied.

and nothing is in the 8gb USB stick

is this OK?

 

[snadge]

ive managed to sort it by using the clean command THEN start again

however - my laptop wont autodetect the USB key even though its set to boot from it 1st - and when i press F12 to get to boot menu and physically choose USB key it just says OPERATING SYSTEM NOT FOUND....

why is this?

 

[Brink]

Hello Snadge, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Do you also have Legacy USB support enabled in the BIOS?

Shawn

 

[snadge]

theres no mention of it? it just has USB-KEY and USB-HDD in the list and I have em all before HDD and when i press F12 it has the name of the USB in list (FREECOM Databar USB2.0) and when I choose it it says NO OPERATING SYSTEM

 

[Brink]

Snadge,

It sounds like the BOOTMGR may not have installed correctly on the USB flash drive then. You may need to try to create it again.