Windows 7 booting from a USB

[bodyharvester]

I've finally gotten to the point of being able to install Windows 7 from a USB device after formatting my external hard disk and using command prompt to copy all the files.

However when i enter the BIOS and choose my Boot Options to boot from USB it said something like NTFLS not found, or something...press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart. I did that and tried ot boot it from the dvd disk instead but setup was not cofigured to run a boot from a USB device.

Is there some way to change setup (or whatever it is) so that i can continue to install, or are some computers, i.e. laptops/netbooks, incapable of booting an OS throung USB from a optical/hard disk?

I would love to try Windows 7, and i have spent days using my friend optical drive to burn the image onto a disk properly (the first attempt was a failure). I really hope i can get some good news

 

[Radenight]

Hello and Welcome to Windows7forums..

Could you post a Screenshot of the error your getting along with a Screenshot of your BIOS (one that shows your boot options)..

Some computers are incapable of booting from USB but they're rare these days.. It sounds to me like you may not have setup your USB drive correctly.. There are a couple of steps one must take first to allow a USB drive to become a bootable device.. Hopefully the screenshots will shed some light on the situation though..

 

[bodyharvester]

Some computers are incapable of booting from USB but they're rare these days.. It sounds to me like you may not have setup your USB drive correctly.. There are a couple of steps one must take first to allow a USB drive to become a bootable device.. Hopefully the screenshots will shed some light on the situation though..

ill have to get some batts. for the digital camera but i am sure i set it up right, throuhg command prompt i farmatted it to NTFS, did the bootsect bit and copied the files from the CD.

ill post screenshots tonight...

the comp is a Dell Inspiron Mini 910 thing, the uSB is a 466Gb hard disk, Toshiba 3.5" HDD i paid 50 for

 

[bodyharvester]

ive attached two screenshots, one of the BIOS and the other of the error screen during installation of windows 7

i hope these help

 

[rsvr85]

Your BIOS does support booting from USB devices.
You say after trying to install from the USB and setting the BIOS to boot from USB you tried to boot from a DVD but it fails, did you reset the boot option in BIOS back to boot from CD/DVD and is the CD/DVD option above the USB in the boot order??
Are you trying to boot from and install to the same disk? If so, i won't work and probably the next thing you'd see if you got past that screen is a BSOD!!!...actually if that's what your trying to do I'm surprised you haven't already got one!! anyway...
If you have a USB Flash Drive (4GB ideally) try this, there is no need to copy the files through the command prompt.
Open an elevated command prompt and type the following
diskpart
list disk
select disk # ( BE CAREFUL HERE, select the disk number that corresponds to your stick)
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=fat32 quick
assign
exit
exit

Once the drive is all clean and ready, open the W7 .iso with winRAR or similar and copy the contents to the USB stick. Job Done!!

If that doesn't work you've probably got a duff .iso

P.S Remember to set your BIOS options up correctly, ie. boot from USB and make sure that's top of the list!