Installing Windows 7 from a USB pen drive can take considerable less time than installing it from a DVD drive. Here are the steps to prepare the USB pen drive.
You will need the Windows command line tool diskpart for this, either the Vista or Windows 7 version. The XP version will not work.
The easiest way is a running Vista / Windows 7 on some other computer. Open a command prompt as administrator and type "diskpart".
If you don't have access to a running Vista / Windows 7, boot a Vista or Windows 7 install DVD, choose "Repair your computer", then "Use recovery tools that.." and finally select "Command Prompt". Type "diskpart".
Either way, once you have diskpart running, these are the next steps:
- list disk
- select disk X (X is the number of your USB pen drive you want to prepare for the Windows 7 install files - make sure there is no data on it you still need and make sure you select the right disk - size is a good indicator)
- clean (double check you have selected the right disk!)
- create partition primary
- active
- format fs=fat32 quick
Copy all files from the Windows 7 install DVD or from the .iso image to this prepared USB pen drive.
Make sure your computer will boot from this drive (check BIOS startup settings).
You can now install Windows 7 from this USB pen drive much faster than from the DVD.
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