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)

1. Clear the MBR (maybe not needed anymore):
   dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/SDB bs=446 count=1
2. 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
3. Create the NTFS filesystem in the partition:
   mkfs.ntfs /dev/SDB1 --fast --no-indexing

4. Mount the new partition:

   sudo mkdir /mnt/myusbkey
   sudo mount /dev/SDB1 /mnt/myusbkey

5. Mount your Windows7 ISO file:

   sudo mkdrir /mnt/win7iso
   sudo mount windows7.iso /mnt/win7iso -o loop,ro

6. Copy the ISO contents to the USB:
   sudo cp -rv /mnt/win7iso/* /mnt/myusbkey
7. UnMount all the used devices:

   sudo umount /mnt/win7iso
   sudo umount /mnt/myusbkey

8. 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! 😎