How to create a Windows 7 installation usb media from linux ? (to install Windows 7) - Help need to know better method
- by Abel Coto
I have been reading some web pages and posts here and in other forums about how to create a Windows 7 installation Usb media (to install windows 7 using a usb) from linux.
I asked in technet about this , and they give me general ideas about how to do it
I personally am not very familiar with
linux, but basicaly all that you need
to do... in whatever way you do it is
the following:
Format a usb flash drive, either fat32
or ntfs create a partition that is
large enough to host the windows
installation (give or take 3GB for
64bit, aroudn 2.5gb for 32bit) and
mark that partition as
active/bootable. Since this can be
done with windows, but just as well
with a tool like gparted, you should
be able to do the same in debian.
Once you have created that partition,
mount the iso that you download, and
copy all files starting from the root,
into the root of the usb flash drive.
That's all there's to it.
There is a method that i found in various places,that is almost the same that the man of technet has said.
But,there is a step,that in that method is done,that i don't know if it is really necessary,or not.
Not allways dd works.Basically, the missing step was to write a proper boot sector to the usb stick, which can be done from linux with ms-sys. This works with the Win7 retail version.
Here is the complete rundown again:
Install ms-sys
Check what device your usb media is asigned - here we will assume it is /dev/sdb. Delete all partitions, create a new one taking up all the space, set type to NTFS, and set it bootable:
*# cfdisk /dev/sdb*
Create NTFS filesystem:
*# mkfs.ntfs -f /dev/sdb1*
Mount iso and usb media:
*# mount -o loop win7.iso /mnt/iso
# mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb*
Copy over all files:
*# cp -r /mnt/iso/* /mnt/usb/*
Write Windows 7 MBR on usb stick:
*# ms-sys -7 /dev/sdb*
...and you're done.
Shouldn't the usb work without doing the last step "# ms-sys -7 /dev/sdb" or to make the usb bootable , is a must , not only to mark the partition as bootable ?
Would be better use rsync instead of cp -r ?
All this steps should be done as root, i suppose , or if not , chmod to 664 and chown the directories where are mounted the usb and the iso, no ?
But i suppose that the easier thing is to copy the data as root , and that this will not affect to the data.
Has anyone tried this method or some similar like copying the iso with dd ?
