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Current Issue Topics Issues Columns Digital Magazine Downloads Videos Tips TechNet Magazine > Home > Tips > Windows 7 beta 1 > Use a USB Key to Install Windows 7Even on a Ne...

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Use a USB Key to Install Windows 7Even on a Netbook
Putting the Windows 7 installation on a USB thumb drive has a few advantagesa small USB key is much more convenient for carrying around than a DVD, the OS will actually install much faster, and you can use a USB key to install Windows 7 on systems that do not have a DVD drive, such as a netbook. In fact, you can even install Windows 7 on netbooks that have fairly modest hardware. Dennis Chung, an IT Pro Evangelist at Microsoft recently posted a video demonstrating how easy it is to prepare your thumb drive and use it to install Windows 7. Heres a quick look at the process:

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First, youll need the DiskPart utility on the system you will use to prep the thumb drive. This is a free disk partitioning utility that is likely already installed on your Windows system. If not, you can download DiskPart here. Launch the DiskPart utility by typing diskpart at the Start Menu. Then run the list disk command to check the status of your drive. Now run select disk 1 where Video the "1" is actually the Dennis Chung, an IT Pro Evangelist at Microsoft, corresponding number of your demonstrates how easy it is to prepare a USB USB drive. thumb drive and use it to install Windows 7. Run clean. Once the thumb drive is clean, you can run create partition primary . Now make the partition active by entering active Then you need to set up the file system as Fat32 by running format fs=fat32 quick (quick, of course, specifies that you want to perform a quick format to speed up the process). Entering the assign command gives the USB drive a drive letter, making it easy to access from Windows Explorer Then you can copy everything from the Windows 7 installation DVD onto the USB key (a simple drag and drop will do). Now you can insert the thumb drive into the system you want to install Windows 7 onto and boot the system. The installation will now proceed as usualbut faster.

29,2010) Building BI into Your Organization (Nov 15, 2010) Accelerating Windows 7 Deployments (Nov 1, 2010) SQL Server 2008 R2 Migration (Oct 18, 2010) Desktop Security Primer (Oct 4, 2010) For a demonstration of this, check out the video by Dennis Chung. Virtualization Best Practices (Sept 20, 2010) Silverlight @ Work (Sep 6, 2010) Home Events Media Topics Tags General IT; Skills Curriculum (Aug 23, 2010) Tip by Matthew Graven, a Senior Editor of TechNet Magazine. Email in the Cloud (Aug 9, 2010) TechNet Edge > Media > Videos > Installing Win7 using a USB Stick SharePoint Workflows and Productivity (July 26, 2010) Green IT (July 6, 2010) Installing Win7 using a USB Stick Looking for More Tips? Office & SharePoint 2010 Deployment Guide (June 28, 2010) Cloud Security (June 14, 2010)

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