If you are like me you have a few devices in your house now that don’t have a DVD drive.  Take a Netbook for example.  So how do you install Windows on a computer that doesn’t have a DVD drive?  Well let me show you a couple of methods.

Method #1:

• Insert your USB stick into the system (You will need a 4GB+ to hold the whole Windows 7 DVD.  Also be sure to back up anything on the drive because we are about to erase everything on the drive)
• Next go to Start > All programs >Accessories > Right Click on the Command Prompt and select ‘Run as Administrator’.

• In the Command Prompt window, type the following commands one by one and hit enter between each one:
  • DISKPART
  • LIST DISK

• It will now show the disk number of your USB drive. The below image shows that my USB drive disk is Disk 1.

• Type the following commands one by one and hit enter between each one:
  • SELECT DISK 1 (Replace DISK 1 with your disk number if different)
  • CLEAN
  • CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
  • SELECT PARTITION 1
  • ACTIVE
  • FORMAT FS=NTFS – Format might take a few minutes depending on the size of USB drive
  • ASSIGN
  • EXIT – Don’t close the command prompt just yet because we need to execute one more command after the next step.

• Place the Windows DVD in the DVD drive.  Take note of the drive letter of the DVD drive and USB drive.  I used ‘D’ for my DVD drive letter and ‘F’ for my USB drive.
• Back in the command prompt, type the following commands one by one and hit enter between each one:
  • D: – Where ‘D’ is your DVD drive letter.
  • CD BOOT
  • BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 F: – Where ‘F’ is your USB drive letter.

• Close the command prompt window.
• Open the contents of your DVD drive.
• Copy the entire contents of the Windows DVD to the USB drive.

That’s it!  You are done.  You now have a bootable USB drive with Windows 7.  Set your motherboard to boot off of a USB drive and you are on your way.  Note that this will only work with Vista and 7.  It will not work with Windows XP.