Has your PC ever been attacked by a virus? I have an old laptop that refused to boot one sunny day with the following error Missing boot manager or NTLDR missing? In both cases, your best option may be to reinstall Windows on your computer. When you first use your computer, you’ll be prompted to create a DVD backup of your Windows installation, but saving the DVD safely without losing it can be cumbersome. It’s helpful to be able to reinstall Windows using a USB you have nearby, and the first thing you need to do to do this is create a bootable Windows USB drive. This is also helpful if you buy a compact laptop – many smaller new devices don’t have DVD drives.
(See also: How to make a bootable USB disk for Windows 10)
Remember, you need a working installation of Windows (any version) to do this – if your computer won’t boot, use a friend’s computer to perform the following steps.
Here’s everything you need to know about the process.
How to create a bootable Windows 7 USB drive
The first thing you need is a Windows ISO or image file. This is a virtual copy of the Windows installation DVD that you can legally obtain from Microsoft without a product key. Below are links to various versions of Windows 7.
Windows 7 Ultimate (32-bit)
Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit)
Windows 7 Professional (32-bit)
Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)
Windows 7 Home Premium (32-bit)
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
When reinstalling Windows, you will still need a valid product key, so be sure to keep it safe.
After downloading the Windows 7 ISO file, follow the steps below to burn it to a pen drive.
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Download the Windows USB/DVD Tool from here and run it.
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Click Browse And select the downloaded Windows 7 ISO file.
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Click Next.
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The next page asks if you want to save this file to a USB or DVD. Click USB device.
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Connect a pen drive with at least 4GB of space to your computer. Make sure to back up all data on the pen drive to your computer as the data will be deleted during the process.
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Select your pen drive from the drop-down menu and click Start copying.
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Once this process is complete, you will have a bootable Windows 7 USB ready.
How to create a bootable Windows 8 USB drive
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Download the Windows Installation Media Creation Tool from here and run it.
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choose language from the first drop-down menu.
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then select version The number of Windows you want to install. Your choices include: Windows 8.1, Windows 8.1 N, Windows 8.1 Pro, Windows 8.1 Pro N, and Windows 8.1 Single Language.
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In the third drop-down menu next to architecture Select whether you want a 32-bit or 64-bit version of your operating system. If you need to see which version is currently running, right click on my computer and select characteristic. There you will see the required information under Windows version and system type respectively. Alternatively, check the Microsoft website for detailed instructions.
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Click Next.
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Insert the USB drive into your computer. Make sure it has at least 4GB of space. If you have any important data on the drive, create a backup as this process will completely erase the pen drive.
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Now, you will be asked to choose a location to save the ISO file. choose USB flash drive.
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Click Next.
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You will see a list of USB drives connected to your computer. Select your pen drive from the list and click Next.
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Now, the media creation tool will start downloading the ISO directly to your pen drive. Once the download is complete, click Finish.
How to Create a Bootable Windows XP USB Drive
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Go to the Windows XP SP3 ISO download page.
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Select your language from the drop-down menu and click on the big red download button.
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Download a free program like ISOtoUSB to burn the image to a pen drive. There are many apps that allow you to do this, you can use any of them. We found ISOtoUSB easy to use and lightweight, so we chose it.
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Install ISOtoUSB on your computer and open it.
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Click Browse And select the downloaded Windows XP ISO file.
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Insert a pen drive with at least 1GB of free space into your computer. All data on the pen drive will be deleted, so make sure you have a backup.
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In ISOtoUSB, select the pen drive from the drop-down menu.
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Click the checkbox next to bootable
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Click burn.
Once the process is complete, your bootable Windows XP USB drive will be ready.
Boot and install Windows from a USB drive
Now that you have your bootable pen drive ready, you can boot from this drive and install Windows. Installing Windows is very simple, but the installation steps may vary slightly depending on your computer manufacturer. We’ve added brief instructions on how to do this below.
When you start your computer, on the first screen you will see text like “Press Del to enter BIOS”. When the computer starts, press any of the keys listed (usually the Delete key or one of F1, F2, F8, or F12) to enter the BIOS. There you need to find a menu like “Advanced BIOS Settings” and select USB as the primary boot device. Now you need to save and exit the BIOS – the key to do this will be listed on the screen, but it’s usually F10. Plug in the USB and after rebooting, you will start installing Windows on your computer. Follow the on-screen instructions to install Windows 8, Windows 7, or Windows XP.
Did you successfully create a bootable Windows pen drive? Let us know in the comments. For more tutorials, head to our how-to section.
