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I used unetbootin to install a Windows 7 ISO onto my USB key. I've then plugged it into my EEE PC 1000H and tried to boot up.

I boot up, hit the Esc key to get the boot menu, select USB drive and it continues to load my hard drive install of Arch Linux.

What could be the issue? I've booted my EEE from a USB key before (to install Arch) but now it's failing.

Are there types of USB drives that don't boot? Is Windows 7 no good on a USB drive?

3 Answers 3

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I would check that the ISO is not corrupted, by, for example, booting a virtual machine using it.

If the ISO is fine and you have a Windows machine available, try using the Microsoft USB writing tool instead of unetbootin.

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No, it does not work with Windows. You cannot run Windows from external drives, apart from eSATA ones, but you can boot off a USB drive in order to install Windows.

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  • This is very untrue, as most modern computers support boot from USB. As well as they are not trying to "boot" a windows installation from the flash drive.
    – brandon927
    Oct 23, 2010 at 5:55
  • I now see the wrong in my ways, I misread the question. Can you edit your answer so I can revoke my downvote?
    – brandon927
    Oct 23, 2010 at 6:09
  • You seem to have misunderstood what I'm doing. I've burned the installer ISO to my USB stick so I can boot up and install Windows to the HDD.
    – steve
    Oct 23, 2010 at 10:15
  • @steve: AFAIK, UNetbootin is for making live USB installtions. I use PXE booting to install on machines with or without DVD drives, with Windows Deployment Services. Why don't you try the method that Neal linked to?
    – paradroid
    Oct 23, 2010 at 11:34
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You must first make the partition on the USB drive nt60 bootable.

  1. Make sure the USB drive is formatted as NTFS.
  2. Open an administrator Command Prompt.
  3. Mount the .iso as a CD/DVD.
  4. In the Command Prompt go to the Windows 7 DVD and cd to the boot directory.
  5. Type:

    bootsect.exe /nt60 "usb drive letter"
    

You will receive a message stating that it's been set. Open the CD/DVD folder and copy all files to the USB drive.

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