USB storage devices have several advantages over CD\DVD ROMs. With a USB, you can modify the operating system image directly or add extra drivers to the image if required, something that is not possible to do to the installation image stored on CD\DVD ROM.

The USB device needs to be 4GB or larger. This is because the x64 installation files are about 3.2GB in size and the x86 installation files are about 2.5GB in size. This device should also be formatted to use the FAT32 file system.

To prepare the USB Flash drive as an installation source for Windows 7, perform the following steps:

1. Connect the USB device to a computer running Windows 7 ( This procedure will remove all existing data from the device)

2. Open Command Prompt and type >diskpart

3. At the DISKPART> prompt, type >list disk to identify which disk connected to the computer is the USB storage device

4. At the DISKPART> prompt, type >select disk x where x is the number of the disk identified as the USB device

5. At the DISKPART> prompt, type >clean When the disk is clean, type> create partition primary

6. At the DISKPART> prompt, type >format fs=fat32 quick, when the format is completed type >active and then >exit

7. After completing these steps, copy all files located on the Windows 7 installation DVD to the USB device

8. Configure the BIOS on your computer to to boot from USB. Attach the USB device then reboot the computer to start installation.

9. Done.

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