Hi
krazykat;
Sorry to tell you your program won't work with W7!! Using DOS commands such as XCOPY is a sign of both desperation and the fact that your are out of date with computer technology--no Offense!
W7 copy protection is much improved over both Vista and XP (and earlier windows versions). This is why your program is not working. Personally, it took me 2 years to figure out how to get a bootable verison of W7 (32bit and 64bit) on a flash drive!
I know, I'm slower at that than just about anybody else here on the forum.
But, I did manage to figure it out. I usually don't disclose stuff like this, as it gives me a competitive edge, and I don't want my competitors to get a hold of it.
To my knowledge, though, none of those guys are hanging out here on WF (I hope!). In any case, it can be done, you are just going about it the wrong way.
One of the things I discovered along the way to solving this problem, was to not believe anyone's recommendations about the sites which will work to download the correct and legal Microsoft free W7 ISO file! The best place to get it is directly from a Microsoft site like this one:
Windows USB/DVD Download Tool - Microsoft Store
If you get links from any of our Admins here on our forum, most but not all of those have worked for me, including some links to legit 3rd party hosting sites such as Digital River, which is a legit digital media download site for Microsoft.
Note that this tool is the W7 version of the new tool in W10 called the
MCT (Microsoft Creation Tool). I've since used this tool to create multiple W10 bootable flash drives as well.
What I discovered next was that the
Microsoft windows-usb-dvd-download-tool works great with making Bootable DVD discs; but
NOT bootable flash/thumb drives!!
As you're reading this, you're probably thinking what??
Hang in there; I did find a solution. It turns out the ISO file you download from Microsoft site link above is ok, but the Microsoft tool to burn it to a flash drive is not (with a few exceptions)!
It turns out that I tried about 6 of the other tools (not including yours which I've never heard of working with any windows), the only 2 I was able to get to work are
RUFUS and
WinToBootIC. Both of these tools are completely free which was a nice bonus!
Several of the other guys here laughed at me when I relayed this story previously; but it was my process and it eventually worked!
It turns out that
RUFUS had issues when using an older flash/thumb drive--wouldn't work. I had to buy a Brand New flash drive in order to get W7 to work.
It turns out that the best tool I personally found was
WinToBootIC. It's written by a Ukranian guy and looks a little wanky, but boy did it work for me!
Also,
WinToBootIC it worked with
ALL major brands of flash/thumb drives, old and new!
So, that's what you need to do. Also, if you can't get a bootable W7 flash drive using the above, then try it on another computer!
For 6 months, I couldn't get it to work on my Dell desktop PC, and then one day I had an epiphany and decided to try it on my Sony laptop-and voila: it worked!
Turned out I had a bad install or something on my Desktop PC, and after making one on my Sony laptop, I went back and uninstalled the
WinToBootIC on my Desktop and it finally then worked!
But, I didn't know that at that time. If you don't have another computer to try it on like I did, perhaps you can borrow one from a family-member, neighbor, friend, or co-worker.
The Good News for you is that it is possible!
I carry like 2 or 3 W7 bootable flash drives on my key ring (I have like 7 of them) I use for troubleshooting an repair of W7 computers whenever I go to a Customer's house. They really come in handy.
I keep an extra in my truck too. I've also made a few for a select number of good friends.
Lastly, if you get stuck and decide to throw in the towel; you should know that Dell and HP and most of the major computer makers now offer factory Recovery Media in USB stick mode (what you are trying to make yourself) for a mere
$49-$99 US or so. Here's a photo of what they look like:
Best of luck,
<<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>>