How to Create a Windows 7 Bootable USB Disk

This blog post is intended to act as a guide to my fellow classmates who own mini-laptops that have no optical drive and are thus faced with the option of installing Windows 7 from a bootable flash drive or an external optical drive or external hard disk. I’ve helped a few since this has always been an issue. I am sharing what I know with them and everyone else. I love using the command prompt and so this procedure is for using the command prompt to create a bootable flash drive. I know there are various software available out there for doing this task in a quick manner but hey, this is the surest way of creating a bootable USB disk without disturbing your computer system’s registry with so many needless entries in the name of installing a program for creating a bootable flash drive. However, apart from my classmates, others who may find this post useful please recommend it. So how do you create a Windows 7 bootable USB disk?

Requirements:

Have a USB flash drive that can accommodate fully the size of the Windows 7 version you want to install. For instance, the .ISO file for Windows 7 Ultimate for 32-bit computers is about 2.32 Gb and that of the 64-bit version is 3.47 Gb. Therefore, in my case, for the 32-bit version and the 64-bit I’ll require at least a flash drive of 4 Gigabytes for each of them.

Procedure

• Plug in the USB flash drive into a high speed USB port on your computer. (Check your Device Manager to determine which port on your computer is the high speed USB port. However, other USB ports may work fine as well but I highly recommend the high speed USB port.)

The Windows 7 Start Menu. Run the command prompt with administrative privileges

• Go to Start Menu > Accessories > Command Prompt (as shown above) and right click on Command prompt choosing Run as Administrator from the resulting drop-down menu.
• In the cmd.exe window type diskpart then hit ENTER (no space in the command “diskpart”)

Type “diskpart”

• Type list disk (there’s a space in the command “list[SPACE]disk”) then press ENTER (subsequently, after every step from here hit the ENTER button). Take a look at the size column and figure out which disk number your USB drive is. In my exhibit here, my disk is disk number one.

• Depending on what your disk number is, type select disk 1 then hit the ENTER button.

Type “select disk 1″ (in this example it is disk one, yours could be 2, 3 or whatever number)

• I hope the flash drive or USB device you have plugged in and intend to use as a bootable drive is empty, else back up all your stuff since this process will completely wipe all the contents of the drive.Type clean then press ENTER.

Type “clean” (this option cleans your flash drive so make sure you had backed up any contents prior to running htis command)

This process now prepares the USB drive for the OS files and makes sure it is bootable.

• Type create partition primary then press ENTER.

Type “create partition primary”. Be careful not to type ‘create primary partition’ as this won’t work.

• Type select partition 1 then press ENTER.

Type “select partition 1″ then after pressing ENTER Type “Active”. This makes your selected partition the active one and ready for formatting.

• Type active then press ENTER.
• Type format fs=fat32 then hit ENTER (note that there is a SPACE in the command “format[SPACE]fs=fat32”)

Wait while your flash drive is formatted

(If you wish to format your USB drive to another file format like NTFS then you’ll later have to run this command: Bootsect.exe/nt60 M: (there is a space in the command i.e. … nt60[SPACE]M: ) to put boot manager compatible files onto your USB flash drive to make it a bootable device. Remember M: represents the drive letter your USB flash drive has been assigned by the computer and you should replace it with the drive letter of your device accordingly. My exhibit device is herein assigned M: . I however don’t recommend this process of formatting to NTFS format) Give your computer time to format the USB flash drive as this could take a while.

• After you have formatted to whatever file system you chose in procedure 10, type assign then hitENTER. (this assigns a new drive letter to the USB drive). An AutoPlay window like the one that pops up when you plug-in any plug n play media will appear (like in the screen shot below).

Your drive has been successfully assigned a drive letter and mount point.

• Note the assigned drive letter, in my exhibit case it is M:\ , close the AutoPlay window then type exit in the cmd.exe window.

You are done creating a bootable USB flash drive using the command prompt!

The next step is to now copy the Windows 7 .ISO or installation files to the bootable disk. This can be done in 3 ways:

• Using a virtual drive mounting program like Power ISO, Ultra ISO, Daemon Tools Lite or Pro etc. to mount the file if you are using a .ISO file.
• Extracting the files from the .ISO file using an extracting program like WinRAR and simply copy them to the USB drive.
• This is the interesting part, the third alternative way is to use what we have been using all along, the command prompt…

- Open the command prompt once again with administrative privilege

- Type xcopy f:*.*/s/e/f hm: (there’s a space(s) “xcopy[SPACE]f:*.*/s/e/f[SPACE]hm:”) and press ENTER (Replace f: with the drive letter for your Windows 7 DVD     (the one you are copying the Windows 7 installation files from or if you just had the .ISO file then the drive letter of the virtual drive where you mounted your .ISO file), and m: with the drive letter for your USB flash drive).

Wait for the files to be copied. install.wim should take long to be copied to your USB flash drive since it is simply the largest of the Windows 7 installation files.

Installing Any Edition of Windows 7

If you have followed the steps accurately so far, then fear not, this is the last part of “how to create a Windows 7 bootable USB disk”.

There are those Windows 7 installation DVDs that come with an option to select the version of Windows 7 you would like to install on your computer e.g. choosing between Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Professional or Windows 7 Professional 32-bit and Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. This simple procedure is to make sure that should you have copied your Windows 7 installation files from either of such disks, the bootable USB drive you have created should be able to give you the same option of choosing which operating system to install on your computer and not automatically install the first option by default. If you copied from a DVD that had only one version of Windows then skip this part and disregard the procedures listed below.

• In the command prompt type del m:\sources\ei.cfg then press ENTER (where m: here, as I stated earlier, is your bootable USB flash drive). — NB: THIS PROCEDURE IS NOT NECESSARY SINCE BY COPYING WINDOWS 7 FILES FROM A MULTIPLE INSTALLATION DVD OR VIRTUAL DISK SHOULD MAKE YOUR USB FLASH DRIVE ABLE TO GIVE YOU AN OPTION TO CHOOSE WHICH WINDOWS 7 VERSION TO INSTALL.

How To Make Bootable USB

Having a bootable USB is very essential, especially if you are a Netbook user. Using bootable USB to install an operating system (OS) not only makes the installation faster, but also saves a DVD.

Creating or using an USB drive to install Windows operating systems is very easy if you follow the below mentioned steps.

If you are planning to use bootable USB to install Windows 7 or Vista please refer our guides:

Install Windows 7/Vista using bootable USB guide

And also, you can refer install Windows 7 on Acer Aspire One guide

Coming back to bootable USB guide, here we assume that you are using either Vista or Windows 7 to create a bootable USB.

1. Insert your USB (4GB+ preferable) stick to the system and backup all the data from the USB as we are going to format the USB to make it as bootable.

2. Open elevated Command Prompt. To do this, type in CMD in Start menu search field and hit Ctrl + Shift + Enter. Alternatively, navigate to Start > All programs >Accessories > right click on Command Prompt and select run as administrator.

3. When the Command Prompt opens, enter the following command:

DISKPART and hit enter.

LIST DISK and hit enter.

Once you enter the LIST DISK command, it will show the disk number of your USB drive. In the below image my USB drive disk no is Disk 1.

4. In this step you need to enter all the below commands one by one and hit enter. As these commands are self explanatory, you can easily guess what these commands do.

SELECT DISK 1 (Replace DISK 1 with your disk number)

CLEAN

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY

SELECT PARTITION 1

ACTIVE

FORMAT FS=NTFS

(Format process may take few seconds)

ASSIGN

EXIT

Don’t close the command prompt as we need to execute one more command at the next step. Just minimize it.

5. Insert your Windows DVD in the optical drive and note down the drive letter of the optical drive and USB media. Here I use “D” as my optical (DVD) drive letter and “H” as my USB drive letter.

6. Go back to command prompt and execute the following commands:

D:CD BOOT and hit enter. Where “D” is your DVD drive letter.

CD BOOT and hit enter to see the below message.

BOOTSECT.EXE/NT60 H:

(Where “H” is your USB drive letter)

7. Copy Windows DVD contents to USB.

You are done with your bootable USB. You can now use this bootable USB as bootable DVD on any computer that comes with USB boot feature (most of the current motherboards support this feature).

Note that this bootable USB guide will not work if you are trying to make a bootable USB on XP computer.

How Can I Block YouTube From My Computer?

Step 1

Click "Start," type "notepad" (without quotes) in the search box, right-click on the Notepad program that appears and click "Run as administrator."

Step 2

Click "File," then "Open," then browse to and open the "C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\Etc\hosts" file.

Step 3

Add the following two lines to the end of the file: 127.0.0.1 youtube.com 127.0.0.1 www.youtube.com

Step 4

Save the file to update your hosts file and block YouTube from your computer.

How to block Facebook

For Business

Windows 7, Vista, 2003, XP

For Home

Windows 7, Vista, 2003, XP

There are many reasons to block Facebook. Facebook as other social networks can be a source of many problems. For employers, Facebook is decreasing of employees' productivity and extensive company losses. For parents, it is anxiety about children's safety. For schools and universities, Facebook is another headache. Let us show you how to block Facebook and avoid problems connected with it.
The hosts file method and blocking Facebook in Internet Explorer are free but have grave disadvantages. Another way of blocking Facebook is to use special software such as HT Employee Monitor (for Business) or HT Parental Controls (for Home), that allow you to block Facebook more effective and has many advantages.

How to block Facebook in Internet Explorer

1. Open Internet Explorer and click Tools
2. Click Internet Options and then click on the Content tab
3. Click the Enable button
4. Click on the Approved Sites tab
5. Enter facebook.com in the box
6. Click Never and then OK
7. In the appeared window enter and confirm your new password
8. Click on the General tab and make sure to select Users can see websites that have no ratings
9. Click OK

How to block Facebook using the Hosts file

The location of the hosts file depends on your operation system.
Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Note! Make a backup of the hosts file and put it somewhere safe, in case you mess up.

1. Open the hosts file using Notepad or other plain text editor.
2. Copy the following:
   # block facebook
   127.0.0.1 login.facebook.com
   127.0.0.1 www.facebook.com
   127.0.0.1 blog.facebook.com
   127.0.0.1 apps.facebook.com
3. Paste it into the Hosts file after 127.0.0.1 localhost
4. Save and close the Hosts file.
5. Reboot your computer to apply the changes.
6. Try to open Facebook in a browser.
Note! Pay attention that Google Chrome may ignore the Hosts file.

See also how to block Facebook for a few hours.

Disadvantages of free methods

It's sad but the methods described above have many disadvantages.

1. They can be easily bypassed.
Web-based proxy servers or anonymizers allow getting Facebook despite the ban. The hosts file method can be remote in the same way it was set.

2. They block only one page of a website.
One more shortcoming of these methods is that they block only one specified page of website. So for facebook.com it will be just the main page and all others will be available.

3. They may not work properly on your computer.
Many users complain that while the implementation of the method problems occur. For example, Google Chrome ignores the Hosts file. Many users complain that even after the ban has been properly set, nothing happens. The unwanted websites can be opened as they have not been banned. In come cases it's real lottery.

How to block Facebook using HT Employee Monitor

There is only one way to block Facebook with no chance to be bypassed for all users on computer regardless of their administrator rights, used browser or level of computer skills. It's using specialized software.
Let us introduce how to block Facebook using HT Employee Monitor, the professional blocking software:

1. Download and install HT Employee Monitor
2. Visit the Facebook website to make sure that you have successfully blocked it.

Except blocking Facebook HT Employee Monitor has many other features. It combines effective internet filter withmonitoring and blocking features. It can restrict and record any users' activities. It allows you to:

• Block Facebook and any other social networks in all major browsers (Google Chrome, Internet Explorer,Firefox,  Opera, Safari, etc)
• Block specific websites by URL
• Block specific websites by keywords
• Block websites by categories (Adult Content, Porn, Gambling, Violence, Drugs, etc.)
• Restrict access to any application (instant messengers, browsers, games, and so on)
• Monitor remotely all your employees' computer activities (typed keystrokes, visited websites, system activity, launched applications, screenshots and more).

We recommend two different products to block Facebook. For business, HT Employee Monitor which allows you to improve the productivity of your employees. For home, it is HT Parental Controls, which helps you make the Internet safety for your children.

Windows 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000

12 ways how to reset the Windows administrator password – Windows 7, Vista, Windows XP

1. Use your password reset disk to recover the Windows password

Vista and Windows 7 allow you to create a password reset disk, which enables you to reset your password without much hassle. The problem with this option is that you have to create the reset disk before the password is lost. Thus if you don’t have a password reset disk, this option is not for you. You can find a description of how to create a password reset disk here.

2. Restore Windows 7 or Windows Vista to a previous state

If you configured a new password recently and can still remember the password you used before, then you can restore Windows to a point in time before you changed the password. The Restore function of Windows 7 and Windows Vista will make sure that you don’t lose personal data. However, programs that have been installed since the corresponding restore point have to be installed again. All you need for this procedure is a Windows 7 or Windows Vista setup DVD. A detailed description of this method can be found here. If you are uncertain what System Restore is doing with your computer, read this first. This approach doesn’t work with Windows XP.

3. Boot up Windows XP in Safe Mode and log on with the built-in administrator account

When you installed Windows XP, you had to set a password for the Administrator account. If you still know this password, you can boot up in Safe Mode (by pressing F8 when your computer starts) and log on with the Administrator account. Read this Microsoft Knowledge Base article for more information about Safe Mode. Note that whenever you reset the password for a user using another account, this user will no longer be able to access files that have been encrypted with EFS (Encrypted File System). Stored credentials in the Windows Vault and Internet Explorer will also no longer be available. This method doesn’t work in Vista and Windows 7 because the administrator account is disabled by default in Safe Mode with these Windows versions. Below you will learn how to enable the built-in admin account in Windows 7 and Vista.

4. Use the Sticky Keys trick to reset the Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP password

The Sticky Keys trick to restore a forgotten administrator password is reliable, easy to carry out, and does not require third-party software. All you have to do is boot up from a Windows 7 or Windows Vista setup DVD, launch the Windows Recovery Environment (RE), and then replace the sethc.exe file with cmd.exe. You can also use this method for Windows XP, but you have to use a Vista or Windows 7 DVD.

5. Offline enable the built-in administrator account in Windows 7 and Vista

This method is useful if no other user account on this machine has administrator privileges. You also need a Windows setup DVD (Vista or Windows 7). With this DVD you can boot up Windows RE and edit the Registry to offline enable the built-in administrator account. Also read my article about the offline Registry editor if you don’t know how to edit the Registry in offline mode. After you enable the built-in Administrator, you can log on with this account without requiring a password and then reset the Windows password of any user account.

6. Get Petter Nordhal-Hagen’s free ntpasswd tool to reset the Windows password

The downside of this option is that you have to create a password reset CD first. Then you can boot up with this CD and manipulate the Security Accounts Manager (SAM) database. Please note that resetting the password with third-party tools can also cause data loss as described in option 4. Also note that this tool comes without any warranty. However, I’ve been using it quite a few times and never had any problem with it. The latest version also supports Windows Vista and Windows 7. The advantage of this method is that it is quick if you already have the password CD in your tool box. Thus it is useful for admins who have to perform this procedure often. In all other cases I recommend option 4. You can download the tool here.

7. Use the free Trinity Rescue Kit (TRK) to recover the admin password

The Trinity Rescue Kit (TRK) is a troubleshooting solution that belongs in every admin’s tool box. Please read my review of the Trinity Rescue Kit for more information. This great tool allows you to reset the password of Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7. It works similar to ntpasswd. After you have booted up with the TRK CD, you have to enter the command winpass -u user_name and then follow the instructions. Sometimes setting a new password doesn’t work; in this case, just set an empty password.

8. Use the free Kon-Boot tool to remove Windows passwords

I reviewed the free Kon-Boot tool a few days ago, and I can’t really recommend it because it crashed two Windows 7 installations during my test. I mention this free password reset tool here for the sake of completeness and because it is quite famous. Its main advantage is that it is very quick. You only have to boot up from the Kon-Boot CD and the tool will do the rest for you. It changes the contents of the Windows kernel on the fly while booting allowing you to log on without password. Thus the tool doesn’t change the SAM database. If you reboot again without using Kon-Boot you need the old passwords.

9. Use the free NTPWEdit tool to reset the Windows password

Especially if your computer doesn’t have a CD or DVD drive, you have to create a bootable Windows USB flash drive and then you can use the free Windows password reset tool NTPWEdit. Don’t forget to add NTPWEdit to the USB stick before you boot up.

10. Use Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset to reset the administrator password

MSDaRT is a toolset from Microsoft that allows you to repair a Windows installation. This tool is only available for Microsoft volume customers, TechNet Plus subscribers, and MSDN subscribers. You can easily recover an admin password with its Locksmith tool. Please check out my review about MSDaRT for more information.

11. Get a commercial password reset tool

Many commercial tools are available that allow you to reset the Windows administrator password. Technically, they do the same as the free tools. Some of them might be easier to use or come with better instructions than the free tools. But before you spend money, I recommend trying the other options I described in this article. I don’t want to recommend a particular tool here. However, I would prefer a tool where the vendor offers support in case you run into problems. Be careful—there are many black sheep exploiting desperate people by selling overpriced tools.

12. Reinstall Windows

This might sound like a joke, but in some cases this is the best method. For instance, if you don’t want to lose your EFS-encrypted files or stored credentials by resetting your password, but you desperately need the computer, you can just install Windows a second time. You will have access to all the files of the previous installation. Just make sure that you don’t overwrite the original Windows installation during the Windows setup. This allows you to boot up the original Windows installation at a later time. I am sure you will remember your forgotten Windows password sooner or later. As to my own experience, the old password will pop up in your mind right after you finish the installation and go to configure your new administrator password.

Please let me know in a comment below if you’ve heard of another option for resetting the Windows password.

Reset or Remove Forgotten Windows 7 Administrator Password

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mRp9_WhLos

How to Remove an Administrator Password in Windows XP Read more: How to Remove an Administrator Password in Windows XP |

Instructions

1. • 1
     Insert your Windows XP CD into your CD drive and boot your computer. If you receive the message "press any key to boot from CD," press any key.
   • 2
     Press "Enter" to set up Windows. After you accept the license agreement, you will be asked if you want start a repair process.
   • 
     
   • 3
     Press "R" to begin the repair process. Setup will now check your disks and start copying files, which can take several minutes. After this, reboot. Let the computer boot normally (do not press a key to boot from CD).
   • 4
     Keep your eye on the lower left portion of the screen. When you see the Installing Devices progress bar, press "Shift" and "F10" at the same time. This will open a command line console.
   • 5
     Type "NUSRMGR.CPL" (without quotes) at the prompt, then press "Enter." This will give you access to User Accounts. Remove or change your password. Write it down. After the repair is finished, you will be able to log on with your new password.