I recently downloaded Windows7 Professional using the Academy software distribution service (it’s a collaboration between Microsoft and my university). I worked under Linux and I couldn’t make a boot-able DVD or USB-Key using the Windows 7 USB/DVD ISO tool (which I recently used and find out that it’s not working with usb-keys!!)
Even if reading some posts I couldn’t manage to get a working DVD/USB installation media; i followed the steps found here:
- Boot and Install Windows from a USB thumb drive
- How to make a windows 7 usb flash install media, from linux?
I finally get a USB media with Windows7 booting, without any “Missing operating system” or “missing NTLDR” error message. Here my steps under Ubuntu 10.04 (nb: my USB key is /dev/SDB device)
- Clear the MBR (maybe not needed anymore):
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/SDB bs=446 count=1
- Create a single bootable NTFS partition on your USB key:
fdisk /dev/SDB
– partition ID for NTFS is “7”
– “bootable flag” is set using fdisk “a” command - Create the NTFS filesystem in the partition:
mkfs.ntfs /dev/SDB1 --fast --no-indexing
- Mount the new partition:
sudo mkdir /mnt/myusbkey sudo mount /dev/SDB1 /mnt/myusbkey
- Mount your Windows7 ISO file:
sudo mkdrir /mnt/win7iso sudo mount windows7.iso /mnt/win7iso -o loop,ro
- Copy the ISO contents to the USB:
sudo cp -rv /mnt/win7iso/* /mnt/myusbkey
- UnMount all the used devices:
sudo umount /mnt/win7iso sudo umount /mnt/myusbkey
- Put a NTFS bootloader into the new partition:
ms-sys --mbr7 /dev/SDB
Note: you must use ms-sys version 2.1.4 or greater which includes the Windows7 MBR support. Under Ubuntu 10.10 I needed to compile ms-sys tool from source (instructions for compiling are on the same website):
- download and extract ms-sys sources from ms-sys website
- install build-essentials and gettext packages (“sudo apt-get install build-essentials gettext”)
- compile and install ms-sys entering source directory and running the following commands: “make” and “sudo make install”
That’s it…
comments are welcome! 😎
Thepanz netsons.. Not so bad 🙂
Great!
Awesome ! Thx so much !
I did the second part and it saved me from breaking my head somewhere 🙂 I did the first part (to make the partition on the usb key) thanks to GParted.
Cheers
On Ubuntu you can install ms-sys from here : http://wiki.ubuntu-it.org/AmministrazioneSistema/RipristinoMbrWindows?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=ms-sys_2.1.0-1_amd64.deb
Thank you Fra, but you’re linking to an 2.1.0 version and the tuto ask 2.1.4. Anyway, there’s a PPA for ms-sys with a newer version time i’m writing
Thanks for the tuto anyway…
You are the best!!!!!!
For a more GUI like tutorial try http://cloud101.eu/blog/2012/03/24/create-a-windows-7-live-disk-from-ubuntu-linux/