Installing an OS from a pen drive

Well I have only installed two operating systems ever- Windows 7 and Ubuntu/Kubuntu. Installing a new operating system used to be an ordeal in the primitive times of CLI(Command line interface)…or so I have heard. But there should not be much trouble in installing the ones I had mentioned. Not much trouble provided that the installation medium is in working condition.

It is common knowledge that most of us (students at least) use only a pirated version of Windows, due to the inexorbitant rates of “Genuine Windows Software”. Also the linux distros are usually available free of cost in a .iso format for download from the internet. Hence if one wants to install a new OS (assuming it is one of these two) we would probably download a copy burn it to a CD/DVD and proceed from the optical disk. However what is most frustrating is that the optical disks are prone to getting scratched and hence we might be faced with the disaster of an installation falling flat midway through.

The easiest solution is to use a pen drive that is becoming so common these days. I’ll list out the steps for creating an installation medium in the form of a USB drive for both Windows and Ubuntu.

Note: It is advised that the pen drive used should have atleast 2GB free space in case of a Ubuntu installation and 4Gb for a Windows installation. (Also preferrable if it’s a completely new/formatted pen drive)

Although you can still use the remaining free space in the pen drive for your purpose it is best if you don’t. In case the pen drive is absolutely necessary just install the OS and format the pen drive later.

(1) Installing Windows (Vista and 7 only)

Method 1

1. Plug in your pen drive and format it if it has not been formatted already
2. Open command prompt as Administrator. i.e type cmd in the windows start menu search bar and right click on the first matching program->Run as Administrator->Continue
3. In the command prompt windows type DISKPART
4. Once the prompt changes to DISKPART> type in LIST DISK and try to identify your pen drive from the listed devices.

5. Assuming your disk is say Disk 1 proceed with the following commands

(In case you have not formatted before do the first 6 commands)

SELECT DISK 1

CLEAN

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY

SELECT PARTITION 1

ACTIVE

FORMAT FS=NTFS

6. Once the formatting is complete type these two commands.

ASSIGN

EXIT

Now you’ll be back to your default prompt

7. Now the actual job. Insert the Windows DVD into the DVD drive. Now in case you have only an ISO file don’t panic. Use a virtual drive manager program like POWER ISO or DAEMON Tools and mount the ISO file. (Should be pretty straight forward Open Power ISO –> Virtual Disk Manager->Mount Image-> Browse to your iso file and similarly for Daemon tools)

Note down the drive letter of the DVD/the mounted ISO file. Lets assume its G:\

Note down the drive letter of the pen drive too (Lets assume its H:\)

8. Now two more commands

G: CD BOOT

CD BOOT

(basically you are changing the current working directory to G:\BOOT)

9 . Now to prep your pen drive you need to make sure the BOOTMGR of Windows is hardcoded onto the pen drive so that the BIOS will recognize it as a boot-up disk . For that type

BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 H:

10. Once all the above steps are completed simply copy all the contents from the cd to the pen drive.

(You can use the GUI for this….or simply use the COPY command in the CMD)

11. Done.You can now simply plug in the pen drive to the system where you would like to install the OS and boot it up. Make sure that the boot priority in the BIOS is USB. (Usually the USB drive will be checked before the hard disk so I guess for most motherboards there is no need to change anything)

And lo the installation will begin from where you can simply follow the GUI.

In case there seems to be any problem try repeating the steps all over.

NOTE: Why doesn’t this work on XP, coz in XP CMD the Pen drive doesn’t get detected and any hardcoding on the pendrive is not possible

Method 2

• In this method you can simply use a tool from the Microsoft Store. I have not had much success with this when I tried with a pirated ISO file but the tool sure worked when I tried with the Windows 7 Beta ISO file I got a while ago.

1. Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool and install it.



2. Run the program, browse to your Windows 7 ISO image using the Browse button.



3. In this step, you need to select your media type. As we are here to create a bootable USB, simply click on USB device button.



4. Select your USB flash drive from the drop down box and click on Begin copying button.



5. The Windows 7 USB/DVD tool will take a few minutes to complete the procedure.

And that’s its.

(2) Installing Ubuntu:

The GUI method is so good that I have never even tried any other method. Creating a USB startup disk using this tool is really simple and easy.

Make sure you have a pen drive with atleast 2 GB of space and of course the Ubuntu ISO file.

(In Windows)

• If you are using windows and would want to create a USB startup disk for Ubuntu Download the Universal USB Installer.
• Run the tool and accept any terms and conditions.
• From the drop down list select the version of Ubuntu you have and would like to install.

• Browse the ISO file in your file system

• Choose the drive letter of your pen drive from the drop down list.

• Now you can either choose the pen drive to be persistent or not.

Persistence means that in case you use this pen drive simply as a “live cd” whatever changes you made in a session would be save as an image in your pen drive. So you need not have “fresh live sessions” every time you use this pen drive as a “live cd”

• Click on Create and let the tool do its magic.
• Once done you can use this pen drive to install Ubuntu on any machine.

(In Ubuntu)

• In most of the recent Ubuntu distros there is an inbuilt tool called Startup Disk Creator

• In the main menu, go to System > Administration and open ‘Startup Disk Creator’
• Click ‘Other’ to choose the downloaded ISO file

• Locate the ISO file in your Ubuntu File system
• Select the USB stick in the bottom box and click ‘Make Startup Disk’

• Wait for the process to finish and you have got your bootable pen drive.

OTHER REASONS FOR USING A USB INTALLER:

Besides being a more secure and convenient device there are few more reasons for having a pen drive as an installation device :

• Faster installation : This is because flash devices have greater read speeds than optical disks and so your task will only go ahead that much faster.
• Reuse of medium : This is quite a generic reason. You can use the pen drive in which you have your windows or linux installer to store other stuff you might have. (I however do not recommend it).
• Its just cooler isnt it