How to install Windows 7 from a boot disk. About the Windows license and a useful trick

Friends, many letters come with the question of how to properly reinstall or update the Windows 7 operating system and what exactly is the difference between these two concepts.

Letter No. 1. Please bring clarity to a question that is confusing for many, than reinstalling Windows 7 different from the update and which is better to prefer? The operating system 7 I have installed behaves extremely unstable, it takes a long time to load, many programs have stopped installing, sometimes errors like this appear, for example, some system file or dynamic library is missing. Rolling back a significant period of time using a restore point did not help. I don’t want to reinstall again, since I have a lot of programs installed. In your comment you said that you need to restore system files, put things in order in startup, optimize Windows 7, or, as a last resort, update or reinstall Windows 7, but unfortunately I haven’t heard anything about the latter.

I would like to know, firstly:
How to actually carry out this update or reinstallation of the operating system and what will happen to my personal files on the system partition, will they be lost?
Secondly: they say that the update is launched only from a running operating system. Is it so? After all, it was possible to run an update in XP even when the system did not boot at all. Thanks in advance, Pavel.

Reinstalling Windows 7

To make everything clear to you, I will walk you through the process of updating your operating system, and then I will show you how to reinstall Windows 7 in two ways and you will see everything with your own eyes, but first I will still explain to you what an Update is and Reinstalling Windows 7.

What is a Windows 7 update?

This is installing a system on top of the old one, that is, you insert a disk with the Windows 7 distribution and start installing the system directly in the running 7, but in the installation menu you select not a full installation, but an update. What does it give?
First of all, damaged system files will be replaced, working system files will not be replaced, nothing will happen to your personal data: installed applications, documents, music, all your programs will run and your entire household on all disks will remain untouched. Also, user accounts will be transferred without changes; all this will be done by the Windows Easy Transfer tool (very important files, it is still better to transfer them manually). I also want to say that you will have to re-enter the product key, select the language, region, set the time, and so on. Warning. If you have a counterfeit Windows 7, after upgrading you will have a window in the lower right corner of your desktop warning you that your copy of Windows is not genuine.

• They also often ask how the Data Transfer Tool works? When updating Windows 7, temporary folders of your data will be created containing information about user accounts and settings, your email, files in the Favorites folder, personal files and user folders - music, images, videos, as well as parameters of installed programs . Once your system is updated, all data will return to its place, and temporary folders will be deleted. When upgrading, the data transfer tool does not allow the user to select files to transfer, but when reinstalling, you can select what you want to transfer (details below).

Will the update solve all your problems related to Windows 7? In most cases, Yes, but unfortunately no one can guarantee a 100% result here. In my opinion, if possible, it is better to delete and reformat the partition with a poorly functioning operating system, having first transferred all important files to other hard drive volumes or a portable USB drive and reinstall the system with all programs.

• Note: Windows XP has the same update mechanism and it can be launched both in a running operating system, and in cases where you cannot log into Windows XP due to problems, then you can boot from the XP installation disk and select setup menu option, . Please be aware that in Windows 7, unfortunately, there is no such option and the update can only be carried out in a running operating system.

What is reinstalling Windows 7?

Reinstallation is a complete replacement of all operating system files, that is, formatting a partition with an unstable system and installing Windows 7 again. Naturally, all your files and the system itself will be deleted from the drive (C:). In order to transfer all your files from the system drive (C:), you will need to use Windows Easy Transfer, but it will no longer work automatically, as in the case of an update, but we will use it ourselves and we will also choose what we need to transfer from the old system to the new one ourselves.

• Now this begs the question: What is the difference between reinstalling the system and installing it again? Friends are just here. When reinstalling Windows 7, you can use File Transfer Tool if you wish, since you already had the system installed once, but when simply installing the system again, install the system on the partition you created on the new hard drive. In short, here it is, I don’t know how to explain it more clearly!

What can I say, let's first update my Windows 7 together, and at the end of the article we will reinstall the system using the file transfer tool, it has also been working with errors for me lately and you will see with your own eyes, and then select what you need.

Windows 7 update

We insert the installation disk with Windows 7 into the drive; if you do not have autorun, click setup.exe.

Before updating, we can connect to the internet and download the latest updates from the official Microsoft website

Select Update

Compatibility check

Copy Windows files

Collecting files, settings, and programs, Unpacking Windows files, Installing features and updates, Transferring settings and program files

The computer restarts.

At this point you need to boot from the hard drive, and not a bootable USB flash drive or boot disk with Win 7.

Updating Registry Settings

Enter the key

Setting the time

The update process is completed, the accounts are saved

All my files are in place, all programs run.

Reinstalling Windows 7

Now let's find out what Reinstalling Windows 7 is. According to the rules, we will reinstall Windows 7 on the same disk on which the old operating system is installed. If Windows was previously installed, for example, on the (C:) partition, then you need to reinstall it on the (C:) partition and not on any other partition (otherwise this will be the installation of a second operating system). All your files on the partition (C:) will be replaced with files from the newly installed Windows 7 operating system.

• First of all, we will launch the Data Transfer Tool, which will copy all our personal data from the Windows 7 partition to portable media or another hard drive partition, then we will boot from the Windows 7 installation disk (how to install it in) and install the system again. Immediately after installing Windows 7, let's launch Data Transfer Tool and copy all our files back, as a result we will get a new operating system and all our data: music, documents, personal folders, and so on.
• Note: You may ask: Is it possible to start installing a new system directly from a running Windows 7 and not go into the BIOS. Answer: This method is given at the end and we will also consider it.

Let's now see what the Data Transfer Tool will transfer from our files, let's launch it.

Start, write in the input field Data Transfer Tool

In this window we see detailed information We will now choose which files we can transfer from the old operating system to the new one.

The data transfer tool suggests us to use:

• Data transfer cable - a cable specially designed for this purpose, which still needs to be purchased, is used to transfer files between two computers; in principle, we do not need this, because we have one computer.
• Network – transferring files over the network is also not our option.
• External drive or USB flash memory device. What we need. If you don't have much data, you can even use an 8GB or 16GB flash drive. By the way, if you don’t have a flash drive or a portable USB drive, you can use another partition of your hard drive for storage, like I did for example.

So you selected an External drive or USB flash memory device, and I selected a partition on the hard drive (D:).

We select This is my source computer, that is, the data needs to be transferred from it.

Data that can be transferred to the new system is analyzed at Usernames and General elements, click Settings, and also if you click Advanced, a full picture of what the Data Transfer Tool will include in the archive will open.

Please note that the archive includes the folders of both operating system users and personal data, this is correct. But we definitely don’t need to transfer data located on all partitions of the hard drive except the system one (C:), since we will be reinstalling Windows 7 located on (C:) and the reinstallation process in our case will only affect the system partition ( WITH:). Uncheck all hard drives.

However, if you decide to transfer data from all partitions, you can leave the checkbox unchecked, just keep in mind that the data transfer file in this case will occupy a very large volume..
What else should not be included in the archive that the data migration tool will create? For example, you may not include the C:\Program Files folder; it would be safer to install all programs again after reinstalling Windows 7.
So click Save, you can assign a password

The file transfer process is in progress. A transfer file with the extension (MIG) is created on disk (D:)

Now it’s time to reinstall Windows 7, insert the installation disk with the seven into the drive and reboot, at the beginning of the installation it’s better to click on the Disk Setup button and select Format partition with the previous Windows 7, and in general the whole process step by step, starting from changing the boot device priority in the BIOS and before installing the operating system itself, described in our article.
I think you’ve done it and installed the system, now let’s use our Data Transfer Tool again.

Select This is my new computer (you need to transfer files and settings to this computer)

Your external hard drive with the data transfer file should already be connected.
I, in turn, indicate the hard drive partition (D:), the transfer file is located there.

We can click Settings and select files to transfer to the new system manually, as we have already done, or simply click Transfer.

To install almost any operating system from the very beginning, you must configure the computer's input/output system (BIOS) to change the boot priority. You will install the operating system from optical storage media, that is, from (CD/DVD) or from a flash drive, you must set the BIOS settings correctly, believe me, it is not difficult. So, for anything to happen in the BIOS, you will have to change the BIOS settings yourself so that when you turn on the computer, it will try to boot from a CD or flash drive, and then from the hard drive. If you don't find something in this article, try searching in others.

1. laptops Acer, Sony, Samsung, MSI, Toshiba, HP, ASUS...
2. and how to use it!
3. differs from booting from a disk drive on a desktop computer.
4. on any computer, laptop, netbook.
5. let's think about why we can't boot from a flash drive.
6. or how to correctly configure two IDE hard drives on one cable.
7. error when loading the computer, how to deal with it.
8. How to reset BIOS settings to default.
9. if you cannot enter the BIOS itself

When you turn on your computer, the first thing you do is test the equipment for functionality, in simple words it kind of tests itself, this is the so-called procedure (POST), then the baton is passed to a special program (MBR), which selects from which partition on the hard drive to boot operating system, so before this choice we must boot from a CD or from a flash drive, as in our article.

How to enter (BIOS)? If by some miracle you still have the instructions for the motherboard, then it will definitely be written about it, if not, then when you turn on the computer, we look at the inscription on the monitor, it may look like this: Press DEL to enter SETUP, that is, in order to enter ( BIOS) you need, while the inscription on the monitor is lit, press the key several times .

The inscriptions may be different, there may not even be any inscriptions, this should not confuse you, in most cases these are the F2 or Delete keys, less often F1, even less often , F11, F12 So, immediately after turning on the computer, press the F2 or Delete key and do not release it until we get to the BIOS. You should succeed and such a window should appear in front of you on the monitor. This is the Ami BIOS window, we will look at setting it up here. If the window is different, then this is - Award BIOS, we will look at its settings below.

Ami BIOS

Award BIOS

BIOS: Boot from Disk

For many who will do this all for the first time, and do something wrong, important information will be given, if you have changed parameters unfamiliar to you, you need to go to the (Exit) tab, it is located from the (Boot) tab to the right after the (Tools) tab ) and is underlined in red in the photo. Next, you need to use the arrows on your keyboard to the item Load Setup Defaults, and press Enter, then go to the menu.

Load Setup Defaults will apply the default settings (BIOS), and they will be the same as they were before your experiments, select OK and the settings will be reset to default, remember this.

After all these necessary digressions, let's return to the main topic and the first photo. We need the Boot item, use the arrows on the keyboard to select it, press Enter and then go to the Boot Device Priority item.

Currently, the Windows operating system is installed on almost 90% of computers around the world. Microsoft's operating system is used everywhere: computers, tablets, servers, payment terminals, ATMs, medical equipment. The company has made a huge step forward by releasing the new Windows 10, but a certain part of users, even after the release of the eighth version, use Windows 7 in their daily work. Undoubtedly, in the process of interacting with the system certain questions arise, among which, perhaps, the most popular is: how to install Windows 7 from disk?

Most computer owners assume that installing Windows is something extraordinary, and only specialists can figure it out. But they are wrong, since there is nothing complicated about installing Windows. It is enough to follow the special instructions and strictly follow its points. Let's look at the OS installation process from the very beginning so that you get a complete answer to the question of how to install Windows 7 from a boot disk.

The entire Windows installation process can be divided into three stages:

1. Downloading a Windows OS image and burning it to disk.
2. Preparing the system for reinstallation.
3. Installing Windows 7.

Before searching for an image, find out if your computer's processor supports 64-bit Windows. If you don’t have 4 GB of RAM, then feel free to download the 32-bit version (x86). It is also worth considering that for normal operation of Windows 7, at least 1 gigabyte of RAM is required. Does your computer have less RAM? Forget about installing Windows 7 on your PC, as it will constantly slow down and freeze.

Stage No. 1. Downloading the Windows image and burning it to disk

Undoubtedly, you can skip this step if you already have a disk with Windows 7. It is quite possible that you purchased a licensed or pirated disk with Windows at a computer store, copied it from a friend, or borrowed it from friends for a while. But what to do when it is not possible to buy a disk with an operating system, and among your friends there are no computer scientists or advanced users?

The only way for you to solve this problem is to download a system image from the Internet and burn it to disk for later installation. In this case you will need:

• a computer with a working optical drive that supports DVD recording;
• high-speed unlimited Internet access for downloading a disk image with a capacity of 2-4.37 GB;
• a convenient browser for working on the Internet, for example Google Chrome;
• blank DVD-R disc.

Let's start searching for a Windows image on the Internet. As a rule, operating system installation files can be downloaded on torrents. You won't find them on regular download sites because the owners of these sites are afraid to store pirated copies of Windows on their servers. But to download Windows 7 from a torrent, you will first need to download and install a torrent client on your computer. The most popular BitTorrent network client is uTorrent. Open your browser, type http://utorrent.com in the address bar and press Enter. On the official uTorrent program page, click the “Get uTorrent” button and select “free download” in the next window.

After downloading the installer, install it on your computer. The uTorrent client does not require configuration to work with bittorrent networks. You just need to specify the folder to save the downloaded files in the settings. Open the installed client and press two buttons on the keyboard at the same time: “Ctrl” and the Latin “P”. In the settings window that opens, on the left, select the “Folders” tab. Check the box next to “Place downloaded files in...” and specify the path to save the files. You can specify your desktop, any folder on drive D, or create a special folder for downloaded files. Save your changes to uTorrent settings and exit the program.

Open your browser and enter the address http://rutracker.org. Rutreker.org is one of the most popular trackers on the RuNet. The only disadvantage of the tracker is that to download a torrent file you will need to register on the site. Spend a couple of minutes registering a new account, but do not use Russian letters and spaces in your login, because in the future you will not be able to log in.

After successful authorization on the site, go to the “Desktop OS from Microsoft (starting with Windows XP)” section or open the link http://rutracker.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=2153.

Save the file with the .torrent extension to your desktop and close the browser.

Open uTorrent, click the “File” button in the top softbar and select “Add torrent”.

Specify the file with the .torrent extension saved on your desktop and click “Open”.

A new window on the right displays files that you can download to your computer. If you only need one image, then uncheck the other files and click the “Ok” button. For example, the picture below shows the download of the Windows 7 Professional X64 image. File names usually indicate the Windows version and bit depth. Don't forget to also download additional files in Word formats. They usually store Windows activation information.

After you finish downloading the Windows 7 ISO image file, close uTorrent.

Now you need to burn this downloaded image to a DVD. But you cannot do this with the standard “disc burning wizard”, since it does not support creating bootable disks. You can burn a disk image only using special utilities: Ultra ISO, Daemon Tools, CDBurnerXP, Ashampoo Burning Studio. Manuals on how each program works can be found on the Internet. If you do not have any of these programs installed, we recommend downloading the free Ashampoo Burning Studio program, which, in addition to burning images, can write any type of disc, copy music and movies. Open the website http://www.ashampoo.com in your browser and download the utility to your computer.

After installing the program, launch Ashampoo Burning Studio. Depending on the version of the program, the interface will vary slightly. Below is the process of burning an ISO image in the sixth version of Ashampoo Burning Studio Free.

Select the “Create/Burn Disc Image” tab and follow the “Burn CD|DVD disc from image” link.

In the new window, specify the path to the downloaded file in .iso format by clicking the “Browse” button. Then click the “Next” button to move to the next step.

Insert a blank DVD into the drive and wait until the program says “The inserted DVD+R disc is good.” Then click the “Burn” button and wait for the process of burning the image to disk to complete.

Close Ashampoo Burning Studio Free and play the burned disc in the drive. If you see the following picture in the start window, it means the disc was burned normally:

This completes the first stage of preparation for installing Windows 7 from disk.

Stage No. 2. Preparing the system for reinstallation

Before you begin installing the system, save all important data to drive D. Everything that is on the desktop must also be moved to another local drive, since installing Windows will erase all information from drive C. If you only have one drive C , then save your documents and photos to a flash drive or external hard drive.

In addition, take care of the drivers for your system, since it is likely that after installing Windows, your Internet will not work and you will not be able to download drivers. If Windows is installed on a laptop, then there should be a driver disk in the box with the laptop. No disk? No problem, open the official website of your mobile PC manufacturer and download drivers for all your equipment.

Now you need to set automatic loading from disk. Typically, when Windows starts up, it first accesses the hard drive and then the drive. In the BIOS settings, you need to set the boot priority so that the optical drive is first in line. At the first sign of the computer booting, just press a special button, usually F2 or Del, to get into the BIOS settings.

Depending on the BIOS version, the location of the “First Boot Device” item may vary. Navigation through the BIOS is carried out using the navigation keys, confirmation or rejection of saving settings is done using the “Y” or “N” buttons, and selection is made using the Enter key.

Find the item “First Boot Device / Boot Device Priority”, specify “CD-Rom” as the first device and save the settings with the F10 button.

However, you can do without digging into the BIOS sections. When booting the computer, just press the special hotkey (F8-F12 depending on the BIOS version). A list of bootable devices will open: use the navigation keys on your keyboard to select “CD-Rom” and press Enter.

So, if you have set boot priority from CD/DVD, insert the disc into your computer and restart it. The drive will automatically pick up the disc and the Windows installation process will begin. If you have problems changing the boot priority, watch the following video:

Stage No. 3. Installing Windows 7

How to install Windows 7 from a boot disk? It's time to start resolving this issue.

After booting the computer with the disk, the message “Press any key to boot from cd or dvd” will appear on the monitor screen. Press any key on your keyboard to continue the installation. If you do not click any button within the first 30 seconds, the system already installed on your computer will automatically load.

After the “Windows is loading files” process is completed, the familiar window will open, in which you need to select the Russian language and click “Next”.

In the new window, click the “Install” button.

If you downloaded an image that contains several versions of Windows, then in the next window, indicate the Windows 7 that you want to install on your computer. In this case, be sure to take into account the system capacity.

If the downloaded image contained only one version of Windows, then you will not have this window when installing the OS. At the next stage, we agree to the terms of the Microsoft license, check the box “I accept the agreement” and click the “Next” button.

In the “Windows Installation” window, select “Full installation” of the system. It is not recommended to update the system, since in the case of a full installation, the entire disk is formatted and all the problems that you had with the previous Windows disappear along with the formatting.

Is your hard drive divided into 2 partitions? Select the disk on which the system was previously installed and click the “Disk Configuration” button.

Experienced users create two disks: one local disk with a capacity of 50 GB for installing the system, and the remaining space on the hard drive for another local disk, which usually stores multimedia files. You can partition disks when installing Windows, but keep in mind that when formatting partitions you will lose all data.

After formatting the partition, copying and installing Windows 7 files will begin. This procedure, depending on the power of the computer’s hardware, lasts from 15 to 50 minutes.

After installation is complete, you will need to configure Windows 7. At the first stage, enter the name of your account (User, Admin, Vasya, Petya, etc.).

In the next step, you can enter a password for your account. If you don't need a password, just click the "Next" button.

If you bought a licensed version of Windows, then specify the special key from the disc box. Otherwise, uncheck the box “Automatically activate when connected to the Internet” and then use the “tablet” that came with this image.

Next, you will need to specify the protection settings: select “Use recommended settings.” In the last steps of setup, specify your time zone and current time. If the PC is connected to the Internet, then in the settings of the current location of the computer, click “Public Network”.

Once the setup is complete, you will see a clean desktop with only a “trash” icon.

Self-installation of Windows 7 is easy

Sooner or later, everyone faces the need to install an operating system on a PC or laptop. Someone, without making any attempt to figure it out, calls a specialist for this, while someone else decides to do everything themselves and ultimately wins - saves money and gains useful experience. Why do some users lack the determination to install Windows? Most likely, out of fear of breaking something, losing valuable data, or... because there were no clear instructions at hand at the right time.

Is it difficult to install Windows on your computer yourself? Is it possible to damage the hardware during installation or permanently lose information on the hard drive? We answer:

• installing the system is absolutely easy - the installation process for the latest Windows releases (7 and 8) is as automated as possible and practically does not depend on the user (with the exception of individual user settings);
• the only way that data can be damaged is by incorrectly formatting the wrong partition where the OS will be installed (we will focus on this point);
• physical breakdown of hardware devices due to OS installation failures is excluded. Even if the electricity is turned off at this time, the only problem will be the need to install Windows again.

Failures during the installation of Windows 7 are rare: in 90% of cases everything goes smoothly from start to finish. Unlike other types of operating systems, even a novice user – one who has never done this before – can install “Seven” on a computer. And the instructions that we have prepared will help you figure everything out.

Preparing to install the “seven”

DVDs and flash drives are most often used as OS distribution media. A ready-made disk with Windows 7 can be purchased in stores, but many users prefer to create it themselves.

To burn an installation disc you don't need much:

• blank DVD;
• optical drive on the computer (built-in or external);
• program for burning discs (UltraISO, Nero, Daemon Tools, etc.);
• distribution in *iso format.

You don’t need to do anything with the iso file first - it is transferred to the disk as is.

To prepare the installation flash drive you will need:

• the drive itself, with a capacity of 2 Gb or more, depends on the volume of the distribution;
• Windows 7 distribution in the form of an iso image or on DVD, as in the previous case;
• a program for creating installation flash drives, for example, WinSetupFromUSB, Rufus, UltraISO, Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool from Microsoft, etc.

Let's look at the procedure for creating an installation USB flash drive using a tool from Microsoft. It takes place in 4 stages.

• Launch the pre-installed Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool. Specify the location of the “seven” distribution kit (iso file).

• Select the type of drive (in our case it is a USB device).

• From the list of available drives, select a flash drive suitable for capacity and click “Begin copying”.

• Wait until the files are copied.

After this, the flash drive will be ready to install Windows.

Installing Windows 7

BIOS setup

Before installing the system, you need to slightly change the computer's BIOS settings - set a DVD or USB flash drive as the first boot device.

To do this, immediately after turning on the computer, you need to hold down the key assigned to enter BIOS Setup. For different manufacturers, this may be F2, F4, F10, F12, Delete or something else - more precisely, you can find out from the instructions for the motherboard or the inscription under the logo of its manufacturer, which is the first to appear on the screen after the PC starts.

In the console interface of older BIOS versions, as well as on laptops, the keys that are used to move and select the desired menu items are indicated at the bottom of the screen.

In the UEFI graphical menu, all operations can be performed using the mouse.

Main part of the installation

Having reconfigured the order of boot devices, we proceed to installing Windows. If you are going to install Windows from a DVD, mark it in the drive, if from a flash drive, connect it to a free port and reboot the computer.

After restarting, the following picture will open to you.

Everything here is intuitive - from the lists on this screen you need to select the language in which your Windows 7 will “speak”. The further course of the installation and all dialogues will be conducted in the selected language.

Accept the license agreement.

The next window will prompt you to select the installation type - update or complete. The update is available only when the PC already has a copy of Windows 7 or Vista and the installation disk is running from it. In all other cases, you need to select a full (clean) installation.

Next, you need to select the hard drive partition where Windows will be installed. If it is divided into several partitions and some of them contain important data, be extremely careful in further actions: formatting, deleting and breaking partitions into parts will destroy all the information on them.

When installing the system on a disk with an MBR structure (in most cases, such disks are used for Windows 7), the system partition must be of the “Primary” type.

Click the “Disk Setup” button.

Here, using the menu at the bottom of the window, you can manage the size of partitions (shrink and expand), as well as delete them, create new ones and format them.

If you want to completely free the partition where you will install Windows, click “Format” and agree to the destruction of all data.

If the information in the system partition needs to be saved, continue the installation without formatting. The old copy of the Windows directory will be renamed Windows.0, and all partition files will remain in place.

After selecting the location to install Windows, click the “Next” button.

Now, we can assume that the main work is behind us. Next in line is copying files and installing Windows itself. During this “action”, the PC will be rebooted several times without your participation, and after 25-30 minutes the system will notify you that the installation is complete with an invitation to make the initial settings.

Completing installation and initial setup

After installation, a little more of your input will be needed to make the initial settings. In the first window you need to specify the user account name as well as the computer name.

Next you will be asked to enter your product key. If you don’t have it, you can skip this point.

Set security settings.

Select time zone, set time and date.

When you connect to a network, you can immediately set up a network location. If you install Windows on your home computer, choose your home network. If you use a public connection, choose public.

After this, it will take a little more time to apply the settings. From the moment the desktop opens, your “seven” is completely ready for work. As you can see, installing Windows on the computer turned out to be quite easy.

The next mandatory step should be installing drivers - without them it will not be possible to make “Windows and hardware” work fully. Next, you need to download and install the Service Pack 1 update package, install an anti-virus program and you can fill the “seven” with software.

Not every user has a DVD drive; moreover, recently rare PCs have been equipped with them. But you still need to install the system, and for this it is most convenient to use a bootable USB flash drive. Let's figure out how to install Windows 7 from a flash drive - after all, you won't buy a DVD for this purpose.

Before proceeding with the installation, carefully study this article: various difficulties may arise during the process, which can be solved using one of the methods described below.

The installation process itself can be divided into the following stages:

• downloading the installation image;
• computer preparation;
• creating a bootable flash drive;
• setting up PC BIOS;
• Windows 7 installation.

Let's look at each stage in more detail.

Before you burn the image to a flash drive and install the system from it, you need to download it. Today there are a huge number of ready-made operating system builds, which are equipped with many applications and functions.

Very often in such distributions the default theme or sound scheme is changed. But not all users like such innovations. You only need to download original images created by Microsoft. A huge headquarters of the world's leading programmers does their job better than some artisanal modifier.

A little lower you will find a button where you can download a torrent file to download the Russian version of Windows 7 with 32 or 64-bit architecture. The file was taken from the official Microsoft website and is completely original. Proceed with the download, and when the download is complete, move on to the next step.

After the file is downloaded, open it using a torrent client. If you don't know how to work with such programs, follow our step-by-step instructions.

1. First, download the torrent client itself. This will be the qBittoorent application.
2. Install the program and use it to open the previously downloaded torrent file.

1. Select the version of Windows 7 (in our case it is professional 64 bit) and click “OK”.

1. After this, the operating system will begin loading at the maximum available speed.

Getting ready to install Windows 7

First of all, we need to copy to a safe place all the information that is important to us, located on drive C. Each user stores data in their own way, so each user has their own choice of folders for backup. Most often these are folders: “Downloads”, “Desktop”, etc.

You can save files to another logical drive (the one on which the system will not be installed) or to an external drive. You can also use cloud storage if there is not too much data. For example, the Mail.ru cloud provides 100 GB of free space.

With an eye to the future, remember: while using your PC, you need to store your data on a disk other than the one on which the system is installed. Divide the physical disk into partitions and store your files on any of them except the system one. To install Windows 7, a comfortable volume of 70–100 GB will be (depending on the type and amount of software used).

Another important point that should be taken into account before the installation begins is the drivers for our network card. If, after installing Windows 7, it turns out that there is no driver for the network card, additional difficulties will arise that will have to be solved using a second computer by transferring files from it via a flash drive.

If you just bought a computer, there is not and cannot be any valuable information on it, feel free to move on to the next section, without copying the data.

Create a bootable USB flash drive

In order to create bootable media and begin the operating system installation procedure, we will need:

• USB flash drive with a capacity of 8 GB or more. Instead of a USB flash drive, you can use a simple memory card with a card reader;
• "Seven" installation distribution with .iso extension;
• a utility with which we will write an image to a flash drive;

Attention! Before you start creating installation media, remember that all data on it will be irretrievably destroyed.

Making installation media using Ultra ISO

A well-known disk imaging program can create bootable media. Let's look at the algorithm for recording Windows 7 to a USB device.

1. Download and install the Ultra ISO program from the link.
2. Run the resulting file and check the “I accept the license agreement” checkbox. Proceed to the next step by clicking “Next”.

1. Using the “Browse” button, select the installation path, then click “Next”.

1. We don’t change anything here and just move on.

1. The program is being installed, we are waiting for it to finish.

The Ultra ISO installation is complete, you can run it and go straight to creating a flash drive for installing Windows 7.

1. The Ultra ISO program can be launched in trial mode, so its functionality will not suffer at all. Click on the button marked in the picture.

1. Go to the “File” menu and click on the “Open” item.

1. Select the Windows 7 image we downloaded, and then “Open”.

1. Go to the “Startup” section and click on the item that we marked in the screenshot.

1. We make sure that the media we need is displayed in the devices at the top of the window and click on the “Format” button.

Attention! This will destroy all your data beyond recovery. If you have the files you need on your USB drive, save them first.

1. In the next window, simply click “Start”.

1. Ultra ISO will once again warn us that all information from the flash drive will be erased. Click "OK".

1. After formatting is completed, click on “Burn”.

1. The process of recording “Seven” onto a flash drive has begun. It will take about 5-10 minutes depending on the speed of the drive and the selected OS version.

The recording is complete, our media can be used.

Let's look at a few more options for creating bootable media with Windows 7.

Rufus

This is another program that can create a bootable USB flash drive with “Seven”. First, let's download it.

The application, unlike Ultra ISO, does not require installation, so you can run the downloaded file and immediately proceed to the process of burning the OS to a USB device. To do this we do the following:

1. Select the recording device. This will be our flash drive, in in this case– 16 GB. Then click on the disk icon.

1. Select the distribution we downloaded in the PC folder.

1. We begin the recording process with the “Start” button.

1. Rufus will notify us that all files will be deleted from the flash drive. If you have already created a backup copy or there was no important information on the media, click “OK”.

As a result, Windows 7 will begin recording onto the USB flash drive, after which you will have a full-fledged installation media at your disposal.

Attention! Before you begin the process of writing the system to a flash drive, be sure to save all the data on it - otherwise they will be irretrievably lost.

As you can see, this method turned out to be much simpler than the previous one, but we will not dwell on this and will consider several more options for recording Windows 7 to a USB drive.

Making a bootable USB flash drive using WinSetupFromUSB

Another application focused solely on writing operating system files to an external drive. Let's take a look at the utility and look at the process of working with it.

1. Select the path where the program will be unpacked (click on the button with the image of three dots) and click “Extract”.

1. We are waiting for all the necessary files to be unzipped.

1. We open the directory into which the unpacking was carried out and launch the program depending on the architecture on which your operating system is built. For us it is 64 bit, so we click on the marked file.

1. We insert our flash drive into the USB port and make sure that it appears in WinSetupFromUSB. Next, check the box marked “2” in the screenshot. When the bird is placed, click on the icon with the image of three dots, marked with the number “3”.

1. Select the image of our operating system and click on “Open”.

1. All that remains is to press the “GO” key and Windows 7 recording will begin.

Windows 7 is being written to an external drive. Once the process is completed, the flash drive can be used to install the system.

We will not stop at WinSetupFromUSB and will tell you how to burn the OS to media via Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool from Microsoft.

Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

This is an official application from Microsoft, so it should, in theory, do the best job of writing Windows 7 to a flash drive. Let's get started with the program.

1. First, download the utility from the link from the official website. Then we launch it and click on the “Next” button.

1. We are waiting for the program to install.

1. We complete the installation process by clicking on the “Finish” button.

1. Let's move on to working with the program. Initially, we need to specify the file that we will record. To do this, click the “Browse” button.

1. After the path to the image file is registered, you can proceed to the next step - click “Next”.

1. Here we should select the type of media on which we will install the “Seven”. Since this is a flash drive, we click on “USB device”.

1. We make sure that our drive is displayed in the field marked with the number “1” and click on the “Begin copying” button.

1. After this, we will be warned that all information from the media will be erased and, after confirmation, the process of transferring Windows 7 to a USB drive will begin.

Upon completion, we will receive a bootable USB flash drive, with which it is easy to install the OS on your computer.

The program requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 library. If you do not have it, then download the program from the official Microsoft website.

We use the UNetBootin program

The UNetBootin utility is completely free. you can download it without registering or sending SMS. The program does not need to be installed - it works immediately after downloading. An application was created not only for recording to a Windows flash drive, but also for other operating systems, such as Linux or Mac OS.

Let's move on to the instructions for using the application.

1. First of all, check the “Disk Image” box and click on the button with the ellipsis. In the window that opens, we need a Windows distribution.

1. In the drop-down list indicated by the number “1”, select a USB device, indicate our flash drive and click “OK”.

1. The application will warn us that all data that is already on the flash drive will be irretrievably lost. If we don’t need them, click “Yes to All”.

The distribution package is being written to a USB device. Once it is completed, the flash drive can be used to install the OS.

Command line

You can create bootable media with “Seven” without using any programs using the system itself. For this we will use the command line.

The entire process is described in the form of detailed step-by-step instructions, each stage of which is accompanied by a screenshot for clarity.

1. Initially, launch the command line. This must be done exclusively as an administrator. We will create bootable media using Windows 10 as an example, but you can get the same result on Windows 7 - 8. Press the Win + R button combination and press the “Browse” key in the window that appears.

1. We follow the path indicated in the screenshot with the number “1” and find the cmd application. We right-click on it with our manipulator and select “Run as administrator”.

1. Write the command diskpart on the command line and press Enter.

1. To start recording to a disk, you must initially select it, and take this choice responsibly, because all data from it will be deleted. You can view a list of disks using the operators: “list disk”, “list volume” or “list partition”. The first two show a list of disks, the third displays the number of partitions and their names. Insert the flash drive into the USB port and enter the “list disk” command in DISKPART. Next press Enter. You will see a list of all drives currently installed in the PC.

1. Select the disk that we need. To do this, enter select disk disk_number. The disk number can be viewed in the previous step; for us it is “1” since its size is 14 GB, which corresponds to our flash drive.

1. We remove the disk with the clean command. Once again, make sure that you have made the right choice - all data on the media will be completely deleted.

1. Now we need to create the main partition for the flash drive, from which we will boot in the future. Enter the command create partition primary and press Enter.

1. We set the drive letter using the assign letter=drive_letter operator. Let's do that. We know that our PC has drives C, D and E - therefore, we specify F. The final command will look like this: assign letter=F.

1. You can also specify the partition size. If you skip this step, it will take up all the free space. You can set the size of a logical disk using the create partition primary size=disk_size command. The size must be specified in megabytes.

1. Select our disk using the select partition 1 command (indicate your disk number) and press Enter.

1. Now we need to make our section active. To do this, use the active operator.

1. All that remains is to format the flash drive - write a command like this: format fs=fat32 quick.

1. Exit DISKPART using the exit command. Now you need to prepare the files for recording. We unpack our Windows 7 image using any archiver (we will use the usual WinRAR) and extract all the files to our flash drive.

The installation media is ready and you can use it.

We use the WinToFlash program

Let us describe the process of working with another program for recording Windows 7 and other operating systems on a USB drive. To get started, download the utility from the link from the official website.

1. Install the program and run it. In the window that opens, select the item marked with a red frame.

1. At the very top, select “Windows”, then indicate Windows 7 and press the button indicated in the screenshot with the number “3”.

1. We indicate the path to the Windows 7 image that we downloaded. To do this, click the “Select” button.

1. Click on “Add”.

1. We make sure that the flash drive we need is indicated as the target, and click “Run”.

After this, the process of creating bootable media with Windows 7 will begin, after which the device will be ready for use.

Burn a bootable USB flash drive using WinToBootic

This application is one of the simplest tools for recording operating systems to external media. To work with the utility, you do not need to install it, nor do you need administrator rights. You can work with both Windows files and its images. The interface here is simple, and the speed of the program is pleasing.

To burn Windows 7 to a USB flash drive via WinToBootic, do the following:

1. First, download the program from the link and launch it. Check the box next to “Quick Format” and click “Do It!”

1. We answer the request for formatting in the affirmative.

1. We are again notified that all data on the flash drive will be deleted. Don’t forget to save important information from the media, if it is there, and click “OK.”

1. The preparation of the flash drive is completed, click “Thanks!”

1. Next, select the files that will be written to our flash drive. To do this, click the icon indicated in the screenshot and select the image we need.

1. Click the button to start the process again.

Windows 7 will begin recording to the USB flash drive. When it is finished, the device can be used to install the system.

How to boot from a flash drive

To successfully install Windows 7 from a flash drive, it is not enough for us to simply write the operating system onto the media; we also need to force the PC to boot not from the hard drive, but from a USB drive. This can be done in two ways: either by modifying the BIOS, or through a special boot menu.

Regarding the Boot Menu, we can say that it is launched using different keys, depending on the model of the computer or laptop. You can see which button is responsible for this on your device in the instructions for it. We provide a list of combinations for the main brands of computers and laptops:

Launching Boot Menu on PC:

Launching Boot Menu on a laptop:

Below is a list of keys that launch the BIOS on different computers and laptops:

For clarity, we will show the process of installing a flash drive as the first boot device using the example of our PC with an Asus motherboard:

1. We turn off or restart the computer and after it starts, press the button to go to the BIOS (for us it’s Del).

1. This is what the BIOS itself looks like.

1. Go to the Boot tab.

1. We install our USB drive as the first device.

The process is similar on different computers, although the names of the tabs and items may differ. In order to understand how to enter the BIOS of your PC, read the instructions for it.

Installing Windows 7 from a USB flash drive

After the BIOS has been configured, you can proceed directly to installing Windows 7 from a flash drive. Let's get started.

1. Immediately after the system starts, you will see the following window (data for installing Windows 7 is being preloaded).

1. Set regional parameters. Select your system language, region of residence, and keyboard layout. If desired, all this data can be specified after Windows starts. When the setup is complete, click on “Next”.

1. At the next stage, simply click “Install”.

1. All you have to do is accept the license agreement and the installation will begin. Check the box as shown in the screenshot and click “Next”.

1. We select the full installation mode - this is the so-called clean option, when all old data on the system partition is deleted.

1. We are in the section settings menu. Click on the entry outlined in red.

1. If your disk is not partitioned, you can do this here (for Windows 7, it would be best to use about 100 GB of free space, the rest will become drive D). Don't forget to format your system partition before installing Windows on it. When the operation is completed, click on the “Next” button.

1. Finally the Windows installation began. We are waiting for the process to be completed.

1. Next, the system will reboot and we will be greeted with the Windows startup screen

1. Initial optimization is underway. The system prepares all the necessary files.

1. System services begin to start.

1. After which we proceed to complete the Windows installation

1. We are again informed that we need to restart the computer.

1. The system will check how productive our video card is.

1. Now we need to provide our details. We write an arbitrary name and computer name. Then click “Next”.

1. If necessary, you can set a password that the system will request upon startup. We skip this step since the computer will be at home.

1. If you have a Windows 7 key, you can enter it here, however, you can do this even after the system starts. We skip this step.

1. We choose the system protection option depending on our personal preferences. We will be installing another antivirus, so the regular one will not be needed.

1. Enter the time and time zone. Then click “Next”.

1. We decide on the type of network. This is a rather important step, since if we specify a home network, but are connected to a public one, our security will suffer greatly.

1. The settings are applied and the network is automatically configured.

1. Last minute of optimization before our Windows 7 launches.

As a result, we installed Windows 7 from a flash drive, the creation of which was described above.

Instead of an afterword

We looked at a lot of different programs and Windows tools in order to answer the question: how to install Windows 7 from a flash drive. However, these are not all options. There are a lot of such programs on the Internet. They differ in their convenience and functionality. Some utilities are better suited for ordinary users, while others are better suited for professionals.

Which method to choose and how to write Windows 7 to a flash drive should be determined based on purely personal preferences. Use the option that you like, and if you have any questions, ask us in the comments. We undertake to give a comprehensive answer as soon as possible.