One of the most popular posts on this site is the "Installing Debian from a USB Stick" post from October 2008. Seems like it's about time I posted something similar but for Windows installations.
Enter Novicorp WinToFlash. This little piece of software, still in beta, makes the task of transferring your existing Windows install CD or .ISO to a bootable USB device a breeze.
You can transfer Windows XP/Vista/7, Windows Server 2003/2008 and even Win PE installation files directly to a USB device, both spen drives and HDDs, and then use that device to install your computers.
Easy step by step instructions are available, but frankly the software doesn't need much intervention. All I did was to mount a random (in this case Windows 7 RC1) .iso file from my HDD as a virtual drive, plug in my Corsair Flash Voyager 16 GB pen drive and start the WinToFlash software.
I ran through the wizard, specifying the location of the Windows files and the USB drive and off it went:
The installation of Windows 7 from the generated USB pen drive went flawlessly and very quickly. It sure is nice to lug around a USB pen drive rather than DVDs, provided your computer lets you allow from a USB boot device that is...
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Microsoft's Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool Revoked? - h0bbel.p0ggel.org, on November 10, 2009 at 12:29pm, said:
.../home/en/">Novicorp WinToFlash again. For more details on WinToFlash, check out my post called "Installing Windows from a USB Stick".How did this ever slip through Microsofts QA? November 10, 2009 at 12:15pm | ...
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