How to Run Windows 7 from a USB Flash Drive

[@timothyoh5569]

Just perfect video for trying to fix the computer when you cannot boot up from internal hard drive. You can use flash drive to boot up and backup files from internal hard drive.

[@alphaoptionseller]

yeah.. :-)

[@mattymattsidebyeach]

Thanks 1,000,000 - sifted through plenty of un-detailed tutorials to find yours refreshing.

[@aleksandarandric8603]

Everything works perfectly, with no errors. Professionalism.

[@SuperPertinax]

Cool, I'm glad it worked for you :-)

[@gateopssss]

Old but gold man, thank you so much! I've taken old components from an hp compaq 8200 (motherboard, an i5 2400, 2 gb of ram), but i didnt have a hard disk to get it working. This tutorial helped me a ton! Thank you so much!

[@SuperPertinax]

You are very welcome

[@branislavbaca5882]

Stunning! Amazing tutorial. (easy to follow, beautiful English, download links in About...) Long story short: I needed to run Win7 from external USB disk, because internal disk connector was dead. The rest of notebook was in good condition... Your tutorial just saved one inexperienced user from jump to Linux. THANK YOU !

[@adanramirez8750]

8min 32sec.. with Toshiba Series Q Pro SSD, Win 7 64bit. -Thanks Pertinax for the step-by-step exact tutorial :D!

[@xemmovie12]

Thank you so much for your instructions, I did it on one of my Sata drive 120GB (pulled out of a broken laptop), it works very well. Installing from an ISO file and it showed missing Net Adapter, all you have to to is using a software named Double driver, back up all Net Adapter drivers from you main PC, copy it to your USB, then run soft Double Driver on your USB, retoring it. There you go! You could have internet connection on your Win7 from USB. Thanks again!

[@jacobchege7181]

Thanks. This post was very helpful.My laptops Internal hdd cable got spoilt after it fell and I needed to use usb connection internally to permanently boot from the usb drive. Had to solder an external sata connector cable to hdd and installed software as per your instructions. USB3 took 40 mins max for the whole process.

[@Sharp_Stone]

Tnx worked for the lates versions even with windows 8.1. Installed on external HDD took me about half hour!

[@MrRafamena]

Superb video almost gave up, building a NUC mini PC and refused to purchase the overpriced MSata SSD drive. This provided me with a solution to install a external 500G laptop drive. Many thanks!! Cheers M8.

[@thedave1602]

Excellent tutorial! Thanks a bunch. Needed this for a friend who's HP laptop couldn't get past the "Press ESC to load start menu" screen. I needed to boot to a Windows environment to run some utilities on their hard drive.

[@WisdomTree2024]

Very much professionalism, very helpful. thanks for sharing. initially, i was thinking of installing windows 7, now, I'm going for windows xp instead, which might take less time for installation. cheers.

[@judasknox3354]

Very specified tutorial, compaired to the other one I saw. I took it for granted that you would have made the USB 3 video and ordered a 32gb one, before I read all the comments. Its comming from China so I hope you make a video in the next 3 weeks.

[@HCkev]

Took me about 20 minutes to install Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit on a USB 3.0 drive, but plugged into a USB 2 port(and so, running at USB 2 speeds). I guess it depends on how fast the chips on your flash drive are. So the advice would be to use a good, fast drive. I used a Patriot Supersonic Pulse 64GB drive(splitted into two partitions).

[@SuperPertinax]

Interesting, thanks for the heads up.

[@SuperLittleTyke]

All very interesting, but I wonder how relevant the recommended software is in 2024 and whether the various utilities you downloaded are still available.

[@priyadarsha1]

Great! I value your effort to boot windows from USB.

[@ayah6696]

thank you so much, this really helped me. Unfortunately I still use USB 2.0, so a little bit long process to install it, but overall it was very darting helpful.

[@SuperPertinax]

I am glad it worked for you :-)

[@ayah6696]

ok sir, I should have asked for their input and suggestions from you, what android emulator for PC is the lightest? then I ask if there is a tutorial? I say thank you already want to reply to my message. and one more thing sorry my english is not good.

[@KrishShah]

bluestacks

[@MineCraftFul]

Truly a high quality tutorial. You're really good at making these.

[@SuperPertinax]

Thanks very much :-)

[@geozll8888]

Hi, i just need you to get aware that the nt6 installer and get waik tools arent on the linked sites. ive tried getting getwaiktools off some unsafe mediafire link and windows security blocked me from getting into the software. so can u find like another way to install windows 7 on a usb drive?

[@SuperPertinax]

This is a 9 year old tutorial

[@geozll8888]

@@SuperPertinax got it working, sent a like

[@iamvulgar8188]

@@geozll8888 could you tell me how?

[@DihelsonMendonca]

Excelent video. You really know how to make difficult things turns easy, a natural talent !

[@SuperPertinax]

Thanks Dude :-)

[@rogera3124]

Helped a lot!!! So glad I found some one who gets to the point on stupid youtube!

[@SuperPertinax]

Roger A your very welcome ☺️

[@chudaryAdnan]

Thanks very much for your video. I manage to put windows 7 in my external hdd.😀😀😀

[@wangpeng6980]

So if i am running windows 7 right now, and follow the directions in your video to install windows 7 on a flashdrive as you explained thoroughly in the video, will i be able to run windows 7 off the flashdrive on a macbook air? I want to make sure that the os runs completely off the flashdrive and does not install anything on the computer's harddisk... like windows to go. Great video.

[@SuperPertinax]

never tried this on a mac but i guess it would work without affecting the mac yes.

[@andrekorea]

nice vid! win 7 running from usb flashdrive is better than SATA? Theres any performance advantage ?

[@notthere83]

This is really fantastic. Wish I would've found it first before trying crap like WintoUSB (which is really slow and didn't work). Also, thank god for USB3.0 - I've done this process on a very slow MicroPC but from an SSD to a fast USB3.0 drive and it only took 38 minutes for installing an image with integrated updates (which is ~5GB).

[@TheBlackstarrt]

I was looking at this because I need to have windows server 2008 at home but I only have one computer. If I do this will I be able to go back and forth between OS's? Or should I just got try and find a cheap 100 laptop somewhere?

[@4TheLoveOfHockey]

You had mentioned here that there is a chance that you could "burn it out" if running from the USB drive. I just wanted clarification for that. Would the danger be to the USB flash drive itself, or is there a chance that it could harm the computers USB port itself? THanks~

[@TeezyMac]

I've tried to download nt6 fast installer, and the waki tools, but I am unable to download them from the site you're suggesting & when I google these tools it sends me to different sites where adware and other malicious software will compromise my computer. Where can I now find these tools you are referring to in this video?

[@jbogator1957]

After prepping the usb disk, will it leave trace or temp files once i plug the usb on a pc/laptop's internal hard drive? Btw, great tutorial! Exactly what i was looking for!

[@portralo]

Win 7 Proffesional works fine on Kingston DataTraveler micro 3.1 64Gb and Lenovo T-450. Thnx!

[@donnymontreano2045]

hi sir Super, on 11:11, what is the meaning of 4 hour ? is it time consume for booting or install only ? how about the time consume of booting w/ windows logo ? (befor using windows) thx alot sir.

[@SuperPertinax]

same steps as this video

[@cronjob358]

Was a great tutorial. I tried with WinToUsb, Winbuilder, WinPE and what not. This was a perfect tutorial that helped me make a Live Windows7 CD. 1 Divine Question though, Can i Run it on any PC , Laptop that supports USB Boot or it will CRASH once i setup on one Hardware. Thanks Buddy

[@V3racious3]

@SuperPErtinax Did you ever make the video of this on USB 3.0 which is really the logical way to this. I have saw some tools and tutorials on this but I haven't tried it msyelf it..

[@kittykleekai1737]

This way of installing Windows requires getting device drivers if moved to a different computer. If Windows is installed as a virtual with Vmware Player, can the thumb be moved to any computer without searching for device drivers? I am thinking that Vmware Player needs to be installed on a bootable thumb so it can run the virtual. But doing it this way have any ties to the initial computer?

[@omerzaidan7114]

hello Jason : i did tried what u said in this video and really appreciate the way you explained it ... i did it on windows 8 .. it didnt work that the green screen after 7 hours said it completed with errors .. if you have any sugesstions i'll be happy to hear .. besides if you have a dirsct link for install.wim for win 7. 64x that would be helpful thanks Omer

[@chrisp7563]

Thank you for the video but I have fallen off track somewhere. I am using Windows 7 Professional x64. In the section on "Waik Tools", I downloaded Waik Tools for Windows 7. There is no bootsect.exe in these files for me to move to the NT6 directory. Where have I gone wrong? I also tried using the Waik Tools for Windows 8 (tho I am using 7) and there is a bootsect.exe file. When I run NT6, I get to the screen that says "Press a key and then SELECT THE INSTALL.WIM FILE.... When I press a key, I get the error message "Windows cannot find 'wincmd'. Make sure you typed the name correctly...

[@callumgrane000]

got it now, now im at the part where i have taken the usb hdd out of my pc, so do i now plug it into the computer of choice and change the bios settings to boot from usb? and install windows from there? SuperPertinax

[@yolandabos2576]

where can I download the NT6_Fast_Installer.zip? I don't see it.

[@nicoa5811]

can you please please please make a video on how to run winXP on an externasl drive.. ive been trying for weeks to install any OS (i.e. fedoraREDHAT, winXP SP2, ubuntu server[commandline only], and several otherlkinux os) .. my harddrive on my old dell latitude d600 crashed so im trying to use my external with it but it wont aloow me to run the entire os on the drive please help!!!!

[@billvarajg8390]

My PC OS is corrupted. So can I access the files in the PC through the windows which is installed in USB flash drive so as to transfer the data to an external hard disk?? Do reply.

[@galactic904]

Hi there. My Laptop 2 years ago got broken ( Hard Drive connector pins broke off from mother board, ouch, while removing it). Ubuntu works fine, i can use Linux program with it. Could i use Windows 7 from the USB Flash Drive?

[@IloveuProductions13]

I this compatible in my *Dell Inspiron Mini 910*? I got 1TB External Hard Drive. because some tutorials didn't work for me... I always got blue screen In other videos

[@jdemio1204]

I see you say it will work with windows 8.1 also but I don't have the iso just the usb with the installation windows 8.1 will it work the same way

[@kathydaewoo8736]

You're an excellent teacher. Everythings works in first time. Booting my new window from flash is okay, but ,when i remove the flash drive,my internal windows drive installation is not starting anymore. It keep showing "restore factory.." menu in place of a normal windows booting. I noticed that,the computer hard drive order start with my "System reserve partition",not the old C partition. I domt understand why the windows flash influence the internal hard drive. Could someone explain,if undetstand

[@duartebraga4780]

worked on usb pen drive 8Gb but i cant do updates and have some errors like sound dont know if it is my windows prof iso file (tryed 2 diferent) or if it is because i install adk tools for win 8 cos there was no WAIT tools for win 8 or if it is because of this process thks

[@charlesbrown2782]

Great vid and thanks for the time you put into this, much appreciated. Would like to what files I have to grab for Win 7 64bit installation? Thanks in advance for quick response. Cheers!

[@alanchristie650]

I want to run a program that will only run on win 7 32bit, I have a laptop with win 8.1, can I put win 7 os on my portable usb drive and then install the program also on this drive and then boot to the usb on startup to run the program?

[@vellemontinola6026]

Hello, thanks for sharing this. Just what I need now. I run and download windows 7 from getwaiktools. Unfortunately, bootsect.exe is missing and NT6 is looking for it. Any suggestion?

[@jkvakayil]

can we use the pendrive for normal use after formatting it later ??? plz help.

[@bakonfreek]

I decided to grab the files for Windows 7 (since I already have an ISO of that) and I don't have the same files in my Waik folder. Which should I select instead? "bootsect.exe" is not there.

[@jimmywhite7098]

did you get a reply as to which other file. just got the same issue.

[@bakonfreek]

Still haven't gotten anything.

[@thanabhophbhumibhark2150]

Thank you so much.. Professional ..

[@SuperPertinax]

you are very welcome

[@peopleoftherepublicofcheez9627]

where do i get the nt. installer, the link is to the RMPrepUSB???

[@LilSwervoJr]

Wait Can You Do It On The Same System That You Install Windows 7 On? (REPLAY)

[@JoshGPhilo]

+Justin Rojas (Love ROBLOX) yea he needs to do this on windows 7 64bit computers

[@LilSwervoJr]

Thanks

[@ProjectHowe]

Another thing to know... It is 10x slower if you don't use a usb 3.0 -- it took me 6 hours but runs great on my other pc which does not have a hard drive. Thank you.

[@courtneynewton6720]

Ok so downloading the waik tools only show waik 7 which does not contain the bootsect in which is needed. So what now or is there a direct link to one that actually allows the download of waik 8

[@konstantinos2818]

So, if I get it correctly, when you boot from this usb after the first time with the long waiting like you said, the pc will run on windows 7 from the usb like it was an hdd, right?? This is not an installation to the computer's hdd. You can run windows 7 from this usb only to this particular pc and be able to save os settings, files, install software etc., is that right (if yes then where are they saved?)? Thanks for the tutorial, you are really good at this! Other tutorials are about creating a bootable usb for reinstalling windows 7 on a pc and that is not what I need, so this is why I'm asking, to be sure...

[@SuperPertinax]

Yes, the OS will run from the USB drive as if it was the hard disk.

[@konstantinos2818]

SuperPertinax Thanks!!

[@peopleoftherepublicofcheez9627]

in the NT6 installer link, what do I download? just a bunch of 'download this' buttons everywhere!

[@fredrix1884]

This tutorial is good, very easy to understand, Thanks alot! Made a youtube account to comment, that good was it!

[@MrSadgamer]

Hi,thanks a lot for this tuto,am getting problem when loading the my virtual machine(windows 7 64 bit) on another machine,it keeps on loading windows files

[@shashitejgururaja4148]

Thank you for the interesting video. My hdd crashed and I was thinking of using the option. I am trying to do this on a class 10 microsd card to see how it works. My laptop does not have a usb3.0 port

[@MrDrProfWEEGIE]

Wonderful tutorial. You really couldn't have made it any better in my opinion.

[@gercho1991]

My bios doesn't have Lagacy boot option! How can i create usb drive that boots on uefi only system :)

[@MichaelPlastow]

Heya buddy great video but Im running 8 and wish to use XP occasionally, it seams I have to take slightly a different route with XP could you roughly give me a couple of steps on how to do it XP styley. Thanks in advance. Mike

[@ScoringStageEu]

I wonder what happens when you switch the PCs and one has AHCI and the other not. Is Windows recognizing it?

[@Carbon12_666]

Can this be made whit win 8/8.1 All V can u make a vid of that

[@shrujansanil8996]

Sir My pc is windows 8 64bit i need windows7 32 bit to, if i install this will it get any effect to windows 8

[@matthewpowers1887]

Could you use the bootable usb and boot it from a different computer and use your settings and user profile on their computer

[@SuperPertinax]

The first computer you boot with the usb stick will be the only computer that you can use it with thereafter im afraid.

[@AnantChopraanantchopra2007]

Firstly I'am really thankful to you for sharing the video "How to Run Windows 7 from a USB Flash Drive"i was looking for that for really long time . But there is one problem coming up in the last step of the process. i,e. when i plug my USB to another Computer, as soon as i try to start it from USB , it shows the error "BOOTMGR not found". Then asks me to Restart & when i restart then same problem comes up! Please Help Asap!

[@rocketero2007]

you can use "EasyBCD v2.2" to make it bootable again if you lost your bootmgr.

[@FeelingShred]

This long boot time will happen every time it boots or only in the first time? What is the average boot time using USB 2.0? (I plan on using Tiny7, so boot times for that might be smaller)

[@SuperPertinax]

FeelingShred only the first time

[@bergerongui]

Why do I have to choose Windows8 in the WAIK tool if i'm installing win7 ?

[@karanaroraiitr]

Hi I don't have install.wim file, but have install.esd file(may be encrypted version), pls guide me how I can use esd file instead of wim file. Thanks in advance !

[@itzombieguy6642]

Nice video thanks for putting this all together. So it's kind of like 'Windows 8 to go' but for 7? This is pretty nice either way. I really like my Windows 8.1 to go disk is really slick and easy to create. The only reason I might prefer that is because it's very easy and you don't need a separate license (I don't think). But this could come in handy too.

[@the1noodles]

windows 7 ultimate 64bit onto a 16gb usb 3 drive (corsair voyager mini) via usb 3 port took 50mins with an install size of 7.58Gb so were talking 25mb/s average

[@5.43v]

How did you get the smoothest voice?

[@SuperPertinax]

Hmmm I am not really familiar with .esd files but i did find this article. pcsupport.about.com/od/fileextensions/f/esdfile.htm it may be a long shot, but have you tried renaming install.esd to install.wim?

[@procksomaterman]

+SuperPertinax can you do this with XP?

[@SuperPertinax]

+Critter as far as I am aware, yes.

[@procksomaterman]

SuperPertinax i tried windows longhorn, and it did not show any thing when it got to choose home, professional or ultimate

[@SuperPertinax]

+Critter Longhorn was the codename for Vista, it never really got released, it was across between xp and vista, why install it? it only had IE6

[@procksomaterman]

SuperPertinax It is really XP with a different look to it, I just want to have on a USB, virtual box is not really the best as its impossible to find drivers for the virtual machine, and you cant copy the system files to the usb as virtual box does not download the OS in a way you could copy the all the system files

[@0xth_ds]

Good, worked for me, but after WIndows 7 first boot, i installed all my laotpp drivers, from wifi, graphics... to USB 3 drivers. And now, its not booting anymore. I get a BSOD like if i just expanded using Imagex, and nothing more. Running the "set_7_usb_boot C:\Windows" from a Windows PE doesnt helps. Can somebody help me ?

[@joniwanski9168]

sick intro man

[@baassbooster]

I get this error: Windows could not collect information for(OSimage)since the specified image file (install.wim) does not exist

[@judasknox3354]

I almost forgot; where and what is"sysprep" and how do you use it?

[@adhamg7344]

+SuperPertinax Very Nice tutorial , but i m stuck like 2 days in a step i dunno what to do i ve done step by step as tutorial , i got 1 error message telling that BCDSERV is missing , others were successfully done i was trying to install win 7 64bit on 32G Kingstone usb , After removing safely the usb , and going to boot menu and choosing Kingstone USB , i get the error " Operating system not found .... Press CTRL ALT DEL To reboot also i dowbloaded Easy BCDeasy to recover BCD and MBR .. sill same error I m using win 8.1 64bit .. what else can i do :) Kindest regards

[@sunilsuwal4812]

How to download NT6_Fast Installer.zip ??

[@davideli9054]

Would this work on a c710 chrome book ( the 4gb ran with a 16gb ssd)?

[@SuperPertinax]

Good question David. I have no idea, but i guess if i had a spare usb drive and a C710 i would try it.

[@KHALMOOO]

Thx for the tuto . Liked it . Good explanation !

[@kkumar116]

Sir can U give reason this way is not capable of installing Vista or WIndows 10.There is a software called "Win To USB" which is capable of installing Windows 10-but Vista any way impossible in USB-if U know any alternative please inform me to install Vista.

[@kartikpanicker9275]

hey i have win8 OS on my laptop...nd dat getwaik.exe doent work...wat to do?i evn downloaded windows adk...

[@ndm19yt]

I was trying this one, but i arrived to the point where the installation inside the green screen got stuck at 91% 30.25 mins remaining... i left it for 5h or more... why is thaT?

[@quentin7765]

Hello, it's not working for me at the last step : impossible to boot on the usb drive, I've change priorities of boot (Usb drive) first, but the system launch all time on the standard drive... Someone have a solution ? On 2 computers it's exactly the same for me.

[@Haz-lt3yr]

after installing on a external hdd , i get a disk read error when starting laptop any help on what to do?

[@letyweir]

hello, when i boot up from the external drive i get an error , operatin system not found, please remove anny hard drive that doesnt contain an operating system.

[@johnnyfranchise1]

Excellent tutorial! That being said..I'm only getting boot.wim and not install.wim!

[@holybrooklyn]

wooow it has been sooo helpful thx ...do the USB 3 too....

[@SuperPertinax]

jose gonzalez vazquez esto funcionará sólo en el PC se ejecuta en primer

[@callumgrane000]

i have got the part where im using GetWaikTools and i have loaded up the files i downloaded for windows 7 64 bit, but i dont have the three files you are talking about i only have bcdboot and imagex i do not have bootsect any ideas? cheers

[@rahven1979]

Try running from a non secured network. Your wifi or LAN has to be a non secured. If you are running from your office network or a secured network, you won't get the files you want.

[@kamehax]

please would be very useful to see it running on a 3.0 usb and how do you think it would go if you run it on a eeebox 100X version.

[@SuperPertinax]

As soon as i upgrade to usb 3 i will try this.

[@kamehax]

SuperPertinax running Win 7 would run slow, but also it could "burn intel" fry or damage the computer?

[@SuperPertinax]

dont think it will damage chip, but it may give your usb device a short life.

[@fit3xbx861]

link to download NT6_ Fast installer bro???

[@supersaiyan3062]

uh one question how do you return it into its original form? is it easy to format and put on files or you need a special programs just to use it again

[@SuperPertinax]

Just format it from a windows machine like you would normally, you could even use the RMPrepUSB tool

[@supersaiyan3062]

oh okay then

[@ivanedu7567]

Excelente tutorial Thanks

[@xerxesd7653]

Salut@SuperPertinax. This is really awesome !!! ... but would be much better if you'd show us how to run windows 10 from USB. As we may know, soon people may have to leave Windows-7 behind as hardware makers start ending their support of mainboard driver for Windows-7 nowadays. Many thanks, and cheers :)

[@wildonemeister]

Windows 10 didn't exist in 2013.

[@janjan2023]

Great video, but i got a bit of a problem im running win 8.1 and the thing is that this os won't run GetWaikTools.exe... I tried running in win 7 compatibility mode but won't work... Help?

[@janjan2023]

Nevermind works well now... Thanks for a great video!

[@ProjectHowe]

Best Video Yet!!!!! On how to do this. :D

[@Saieeeeeeeeeed]

Nicely done, Perfect job.