Install Windows 7 from Hard Disk

[MaXiMiUS]

I do not have access to a DVD burner, nor a sufficiently large USB drive/stick.

I have a hard drive with a 7GB partition (FAT32) with the BOOT and LBA flags set. The remainder of the space is unallocated.

I extracted a Windows 7 .iso to that FAT32 partition via Daemon Tools Lite, on another computer.

When I try to boot from this FAT32 partition, I get the following error:

"Remove disks or other media.
Press any key to restart."

There is NO other media connected at ALL. No other hard drives, CD or DVD drives, not even a floppy drive.

So what am I supposed to do? o_o...

I should note, the only other hard drive I have access to has Windows XP on it.

 

[Ian]

This tutorial might be able to help you - it was designed for Vista, but it should be similar:

http://11011.net/archives/000673.html

1. Format the target disk as NTFS.
2. Copy the boot and sources directory and the bootmgr file from the Vista DVD or Image to the root of the newly formatted disk.
3. Start a command prompt and issue the following commands - where x is the drive letter of the newly formmated disk.
   
   x:
   cd /boot
   bootsect x:
   
   Boot from the disk - Windows setup should load
4. Choose the Repair option - skip through the prompts until you can start a command prompt.
5. Issue the following commands
   
   c:
   cd /boot
   del bcd
   bcdedit /createstore
   cd ../sources
   setup
   
   
6. Continue as you would with a normal installation.

 

[stanley12]

I extracted the .iso to a 4GB USB flash drive and just clicked setup.exe to install Win7 on an external drive. No need to boot from it, just click the setup.exe file.

 

[zorglub]

I extracted the .iso to a 4GB USB flash drive and just clicked setup.exe to install Win7 on an external drive. No need to boot from it, just click the setup.exe file.

But if you want to make a clean install, and that is what ms recommends, then you cannot really click an exe file, as you will be booting on a media (usb/dvd/?)

It would probably be the smartest to burn an dvd, and borrow a dvdrom drive to get install done.

 

[agni]

You can try this

http://agnipulse.com/2009/06/instal...hard-disk-without-using-any-secondary-medium/

 

[davehc]

Ian's instructions should work,except that I am apprehensive about stage 2.
After formatting to ntfs, I would partiiton your new partition, again, with a small partition with enough space to accomodate the whole of the ISO.. In this new smaller partition, create a folder called setup and dump the whole of your ISO into that folder. Now run setup from there. I have used this method several times, with success.

 

[TrainableMan]

Well the post was from January 2009 so if they haven't fixed it in 18 mos then they likely gave up never to return here..

 

[davehc]

Woops! I followed on from new posts - sorry

 

[jemm]

Have you ever tried some software, this one may help to some degree!http://www.partition-tool.com/resource/resize-boot-partition-2.htm

Thank you for your contribution, but If you read the last two posts above, you will see my boob. You are making the same mistake. This is a ver old thread.
If you wish to contibute this post anyway, please start a new thread.