download windows 7 disc or image iso How-To Create A Windows 7 System Image. Are you ready to say goodbye to 3rd party back-up applications? Windows 7 makes this possible with its excellent back-up and System Image features built into all versions of Windows 7. For me, I love a clean install of Windows. Not coincidentally, right after a fresh install is the best time to make a system image – because creating a system image is just like taking a snapshot of the entire drive. Creating a System Image will save everything on the drives you select, and then compress them into an image file which is good news since this means less space for backups! At a later time, if you want to return the computer to its original condition (when you bought or built it,) you can just load up the image and presto! No more “reformat the computer” ritual and no more worry about losing your entire system to a computer crash. Sounds great right? How do you do it? Important. Before starting this How-To Tutorial, please confirm the backup drive where you will save the image is formatted using NTFS. For more information on this reminder, please see the bottom of this how-to tutorial where I review How To format your backup drive and configure it with the NTFS . How To Create A System Image In Windows 7. 1. Click the , then at the top of the menu Click Getting Started , then on the side Click Backup your Files . Note: You can also just type BackUp, and Windows 7 Search should find the application. 2. In the window that appears, Click the blue Create a system image link. 3. The Create a system image window should pop-up. Select which hard disk, DVD, or network location where you are going to save your system image. Click Next to continue. 4. On the next page, we’ll keep with the basics; but for now, Check both your System and System Reserved drives. Once you have selected the drives Click Next to continue. Note: You can select as many drives as you want, but the more you choose to include means the larger the image size will be. 5. The next window is just a review, so make sure everything is correct then Click Start backup to start the process. This process can take several minutes, so patience is required. 6. After the backup completes, you are presented with the option to create a system repair disc . This option is a good idea just in case your system has any problems in the future. Click Yes . 7. Choose which Disc Recording drive you’ll be using to burn the disc. Insert a blank CD or DVD to the physical drive and then Click Create disc. Conclusion. Now you’re covered if your computer crashes, or if you want a clean slate and the option to be able to return to the way your computer currently is. When that time comes, be sure to read this Tutorial – How-To Restore from a Windows 7 System Image backup. Important Update – 1/24/2011. Looking through the comments, some readers have been running into issues during the backup/image process. While creating the system image and saving the data to the backup drive/external hard drive, the process aborts and Windows reports the backup drive has run out of disk space even though the drive appears to be almost empty. One of our readers pointed out the common reason for this failure is probably because the drive was formatted using a FAT or FAT-32 file system. A FAT-32 file system is limited in that it will not support files larger than 4 Gigabytes. So, even if the drive is 500 Gigs with several hundred gigs of free space available, you likely will not be able to save a system image to it since your system image file will probably be larger than 4 Gigs. The NTFS file system does not have this limitation, so my recommendation is to format the backup drive before hand and use the NTFS file system before storing any data on the drive or completing the How-To Tutorial above. How to Format a backup drive using the NTFS File System. Note: Formatting your backup drive will remove all data from it. If the drive has any data you need, save it somewhere else before you format it. Open Windows Explorer and Right-Click the External/Backup hard drive where you will store the Windows 7 System Image. From the context menu, Click Format . Click the File System Down Arrow and Select NTFS then Click Start . The drive should now be formatted, and you should be good-to-go. Now granted, it is also possible to convert a FAT-32 drive to NTFS. However, it’s possible you could have a bit of data corruption, so my recommendation is just to keep things clean, and reformat the backup drive as NTFS. 75 Comments. Great post. I haven't used the win 7 imaging utility yet so this was informative. Have you compared it to Ghost or the Acronis product? I'd be interested in learning how it compares. Main question is does the MS imager gracefully recover and restore the entire drive if the drive fails completely and you have to install a new drive (bare metal recovery)? How sad it is to be excited about being able to erase everything and starting over. Windows IS the virus. I'm not a Windows basher. I've used windows since 3.1. I switched to Linux in 2006 and have enjoyed every wonderful virus free, License free upgrade since. Sure I sacrifice a few windows apps that I can't get to run, but…It's a small price to pay. As far as eye candy…Google ubuntu compiz-fusion and watch the fun. I work in an environment with Windows all around me and I am fine. I'm not a “Blogger”, I write very few comments anywhere on the net. I couldn't help but express my feeling after ready the post. That version of Ubuntu looks awesome! I’ve seen it before, but never played around with it. Maybe i’ll do that one of these days!! I've not used the Acronis product but I've been using GHOST for 10 years now. Ghost is great and I actually still use it for imaging systems over the network etc.. but for home users I don't think you can beat the simplicity of the new Windows 7 backup tools. A few nice things is yes, you can restore bare metal systems (article almost done) but you can also image live systems since they are using to copy the files into the image. Pretty slick stuff and once I get time over the next few days I'll be posting a few more articles on the subject. BTW – Welcome to the site! The Windows 7 “Backup” process was a bit confusing so I opted to follow this guide and did the system image. Everything but an excel file I had open was backed up without issues. The “image” size was 44gigs however my drive is only 50gigs so the compression they use (if any) is not very good. I'm going to guess they don't use compression because the ending file is a .vhd file. This is good and bad. Good because I can probably mount it and pull what I want at a later time. Bad bacause the compression is probably lame. For now, I'm going to keep my good ole GHOST handy for my monthly images. :) And yeah, if your system dies, you can use the Windows 7 system image to fully restore fram bare metal. Hey – I am awaiting the arrival of a new Win 7 box tonight. Should I install all my Apps (Office etc.) first, then do the image? Many thanks in advance, Cindy. @Cindy – Probably not a bad idea. I would also fully patch the box as well with updates and get everything else current. Thankyou MrGroove – just unboxed a new HP Envy 15, so shall do as you suggest. I assume it would be better to do the image to a spare HDD rather than our NAS? Cin. Yup, it’s best to create backups on a different HDD incase the one you are operating on goes haywire. Hi Cindy, Great to hear you have a new computer on the way! With “when” to createa system image, it comes down to personal preference. If there are certain programs on your computer that you know you will ALWAYS use, then it can be handy to not worry about reinstalling them if you ever want to revert back to a clean slate. You’ll have to consider how often you’ll want to restore the image. You can also create multiple images, but this can quickly take up a lot of space. For me, the first thing I do after installing Windows 7 is , followed by installing Microsoft Security Essentials. Then immediately after those two I create the system image. Why? I would opt to install Office and other programs, except that newer versions of those software are about to be released (Office 2010). I like to start with a clean slate everytime I revert back to the image without worrying about uninstalling the old software (which could possibly leave stray files and registry keys floating around). Some aren’t bothered by this but if I’m running an EXPENSIVE PC then it’s a comfort to know it’s clean and running at 100% efficiency. I’ll usually only restore system images about 3 times a year as a sort of “housekeeping” procedure. You’ll also need to take into consideration that if you purchased a Dell, HP.. etc. The PC is going to come packaged with a ton of software that you most likely won’t want. Many of the software suites will be trial too, which can be frustrating however creating a system image and reverting back can be a way to extend some trial programs. such as ones that don’t rely on date expiration. I would recommend uninstalling all unwanted software then creating the system image before installing any new software. There are other times to create a 2nd system image, such as: -Right before installing a new unfamiliar software application -If you have some good software installed but lost the CD or Product Key -On a regular basis incase your system crashes. Hope this helps! Dexter – my thoughts exactly. It’s the new HP Envy 15, and yes I am clearing the crap off it, and installing office, firefox, AVG etc., then I’ll do the image. I won’t be upgrading from Office 2003 Pro anytime soon, mainly because of compatability issues with other people. Nice to see someone has the same approach as me! I agree – we always buy the best we can afford, and are very PC savvy, so we like our boxes to run at 100% all the time, so hopefully this new imaging software win Win7 will allow us to do it more easily than the old Ghost (even V10 wouldn’t run correctly on our other Vista box), Macrium Reflect etc. Just confirming – seperate HDD or NAS for the target of the backup do you think? The HDD connects via a USB, NAS is on our home network. Thanks awfully for your suggestions! Cin. NAS Vs. External USB Drive… The NAS drive is nice because it’s your “storage in a cloud” so to speak. Depending on the size of your NAS, that might be the way to go since anytime you can cut a new image or push a backup to it. That being said, the drawback is NAS is probably more expensive than you simple USB external drive and might be better used storing your images, files etc… rather than storing your PC image and regular Windows backups etc.. so that’s +1 for the External Drive on USB. Another Plus for the external drive is you can keep your System Image and Backup’s on it and keep it locked in a Fire safe ($200.00 from Costco etc..) or take it to work and lock it in your desk in case your house burns down. Either way, might be worth cutting an image and storing it in both place :) I have a 1TB NAS drive here at home, excellent piece of kit, however, depending on the vers. of windows you get your hands on, dictates weather or not you can save your backup to a network drive or not. This is not great for my partners Win7 starter or my sons Win 7 Home Premium. Anything less than Win 7 Pro and you have not got a hope in hell of saving to a NAS drive. This additional extra I have on my laptop is agod send, it seems silly to me that it cannot be added to all forms of the OS. OK – yes I had not thought of burning two images – one to the spare HDD, one to the NAS (which is co-located), then store the HDD in our safe deposit box. I am assuming that the boot DVD (“restore boot DVD” I guess as a description) can only be made once? Seems to be both an HP and a Compaq “issue”. Following on, have you ever tried using a standard DVD copy of a restore DVD and made it work? I am wondering if I should go to the effort? As a supplemental question – on the Compaq, should I go for an Upgrade to Win 7 Home premium (no need for domains etc.) and install “over the top” or do a re-install from the Vista recovery partition, then upgrade? Thanks heaps for your help – it’s really appreciated. Here’s three virtual beers for you. Ahh – now hang on – NAS won’t work – it needs a directly connected (USB or other port) – It will NOT image to a NAS on a NETWORK drive. Hope this helps! Download Windows 7 Disc Images (ISO Files) I cannot verify my Windows 7 Ultimate that I bought off the Microsoft site some time ago. I need to have a disc or ISO so that I can repair my system, and it will not accept the verified windows activation that my system is. Who can I contact for a disc to be sent to me. A Windows repair disc is not doing what I want it to do. The system works fine, but I need to get it back to the basics. Subscribe Subscribe to RSS feed. Report abuse. Replies (1) Download the correct ISO file and make your own disk and use the Product Key that is on the COA Sticker. Download: Windows ISO Downloader.exe Version: 6.00 Release Date: 11 April 2018 Requirements: Windows 7 or newer, .NET Framework 4.x, 8 or newer. Important: As of Version 6.00, we're adding back an experimental feature to generate links for Windows 7 and Office 2010. Generation of new links for these products is throttled, and not every download is always available in every language. New links are generated on a first come first served basis, with users who enable the idle resource donation getting preferential treatment. If you have further questions, please use the WinCert Forum to get in touch, so that other users can also benefit from the discussion. And here are instructions on how to burn ISO images to disk: Then do a clean install: Using the downloaded ISO file Method may require phone Activation. If it does require phone Activation, do not follow the Auto Prompts , but hold on for a real person to explain to as to what has been done for re- installation purposes. " How to Activate Windows 7 by Phone" The above method also will require you to go to your Computer Manufacturer's website > Support and Downloads Section > locate your Model Number and > then download and install the latest Drivers for it. Using the USB method in conjunction with the above Windows 7 download: " How to Get and Use the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool" Or you can also borrow the exact same Retail Windows 7 Edition DVD and use your Product Key to reinstall. How to Copy Windows 7 to USB Drive and Make It Bootable? Sometimes, you might want to copy Windows 7 to USB, here we introduce how to copy Windows OS to USB drive using Command Prompt and a versatile partition manager. So you can easily clone Windows to USB and make the USB drive bootable. By Emily / Last Updated March 19, 2021. 2 S ituations where you need to copy Windows 7 to USB. Copying Windows 7 operating system onto USB flash drive can be useful in many cases, and below are two most common situations. 1. Install Windows conveniently. With each new release of Windows, the installation time gets shorter and shorter. However, Windows is still released in DVD or ISO form, and installing Windows OS from optical media is also still too slow. So, many users choose to install OS from USB drive, which is much faster and more convenient. To make a bootable USB as a , you have to know how to copy Windows 7 to USB from ISO or DVD. 2. Create a portable Windows drive. Secondly, lots of computer users want to clone or copy Windows 7/8/10 to USB drive to make a portable Windows USB so that they can keep their customized OS environment in their pocket, carry around and boot familiar OS on other computers, even the brand-new one. Besides, when the computer crashes suddenly, they can also rescue it with the portable Windows USB drive. Tutorial: copy Windows 7 to USB in different cases. Since we have listed the two most common situations where you might want to clone Windows operating system onto a USB flash drive, now we will introduce how to do it in detail respectively. Case 1. Copy Windows 7 to USB using CMD for installing OS. First of all, we would like to tell how to clone Windows 7 onto a USB flash drive using CMD (Command Line) with the purpose of installing OS conveniently.

Notes : ①Prepare a flash drive with at least 8 GB of space for and 8.1, or at least 4 GB of space for Windows 7. ②The process described below will delete everything currently on your flash drive. Make sure to back up your flash drive to another storage location before proceeding. 1 . Connect your USB drive to the computer and make sure it is recognized. 2 . Open a command prompt as Administrator: press “Win+R” combination to open Run dialogue, input “cmd” in the box and press on “Enter”. 3 . Run the following commands to partition and format the USB drive. ● diskpart ● list disk ● select disk 1 : modify disk number as needed ● clean ● create partition primary ● select partition 1 ● active ● format fs= ● assign ● exit : exit DISKPART, but leave the command prompt window open. 4. Mount the Windows installation media: put the Windows installation disc in the optical drive, mount the ISO, or extract its contents to a folder. The ISO file will now be extracted to a sub-folder with the same name as the ISO file. This can take a few minutes to complete. 5 . Use BOOTSECT command to make the USB drive bootable. After the media mounted to extracted, run the commands below to update the filesystem on the flash drive to make it bootable. ● E: ● cd boot ● bootsect.exe /nt60 F:” Be aware : Replace E with your install media drive letter, and F with your USB flash drive letter. 6. Use ROBOCOPY command “ robocopy E:F: /s /v /mt: 16 ”to copy the contents of the Windows installation media to the USB drive. When it completes, type “Exit” to leave the command prompt. Then you can boot your computer from the bootable USB drive and install Windows. Besides copying Windows 7 onto USB drive from DVD/CD using Command Prompt, you can also use Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool, a free utility that will automatically make a bootable USB flash drive using a Windows 7/8/10 ISO image file. Simply download the tool, choose the ISO file and USB drive, then the Wizard will do everything for you. Case 2. Copy Windows 7 to USB for portable Windows 7 device. This section is about how to copy Windows 7 to USB flash drive to make a portable Windows operating system. For this task, Windows released a new feature named “Windows To Go” for /8.1 Enterprise and Windows 10 Education/Enterprise/Pro. With that, users can burn Windows ISO files to USB, boot and run Windows from USB devices. But it cannot work on Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 Home/ Pro/Education as well as Windows 10 Home. Thus, you can use AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional instead. It developed a more powerful and versatile “Windows To Go Creator”. Compared with Microsoft “Windows To Go”, it is a better choice for the below advantages:

❤ It is more compatible and allows you to copy all versions of Windows 10, 8.1/8 or 7 onto a removable USB flash drive to boot it from any computer as you need. ❤ It only requires a 13GB USB and a non-certified USB drive is also OK , while the "Windows To Go” needs a USB drive of 32GB at least and the USB must be certified by Microsoft at the same time, otherwise you cannot convert ISO to USB successfully. ❤ It permits you to create Windows to go USB with either Windows disc/ISO or current system . ❤ It allows you to make a bootable USB for mac and run Windows from USB on Mac. Now, you can download the demo version and learn how to clone Windows 7 to USB drive step by step. 1 . Install and run AOMEI Partition Assistant Pro on your Windows 7 computer. Connect the USB drive to the computer and make sure it is detected successfully. 2 . Click “All Tools” > “Windows To Go Creator” on the left side. 3 . Choose "Create Windows ToGo for personal computer" and click "Next". 4. Select the first method "Create Windows To Go with system disc/ISO" and choose the prepared ISO file. Click "Next". PS. : If the Windows 7 ISO files are not available or you don’t want to download or extract the ISO file, you can choose "Create Windows To Go with current system". 5 . Then choose the USB drive and click "Proceed" to start cloning Windows 7 to USB drive. After cloning Windows OS to USB via the above methods, you can plug the USB drive into any computer at any place, enter BIOS, and change the boot order to USB first and save. Then you can successfully boot computer into your familiar Windows 10/8/7 environment. Sum Up. Now, I am sure you have a clear idea of how to copy Windows 7 to a USB drive from DVD using CMD or clone Windows operating system to USB drive for a portable Windows. By the way, AOMEI Partition Assistant Pro also has many other fantastic features, such as migrating only OS drive to SSD/HDD, quick partitioning a large hard disk within two clicks, recovering lost partition, and more. To move Windows to USB drive, you can try AOMEI Partition Assistant Server. How do I create a bootable usb drive with an iso image of Windows 7? You need to convert those three files into a bootable .ISO file, the following article will show you how: After you have converted it to a .ISO file, you need to burn it to a blank DVD disc as a disc image, then proceed to install: ImgBurn - In addtion to supporting the creation of CD's from .ISO files, it supports a wide range of other image file formats, and it's free. (BIN, CUE, DI, DVD, GI, IMG, MDS, NRG, PDI and ISO) Download and install Gear ISO burn (Free): Note: Always use the slowest burn speed (4x or 2x) if offered a choice. You should have the option to download the .ISO file from the and simply burn it to a blank DVD as a disc image. Much easier to work with than the box files. If you downloaded your copy of Windows 7 from the Microsoft Store, try redownloading it again: 1. Login to your Microsoft Store account ( http://store.microsoft.com ) to view your purchase history. 2. Look for your Windows 7 purchase. 3. Next to Windows 7, there is an "Additional download options" drop-down menu. 4. In the drop-down menu, select "32 or 64-bit ISO." Download the ISO Image of Windows 7 Windows 7 Professional x64 (64-bit) Windows 7 Professional x86 (32-bit) Windows 7 Home Premium x64 (64-bit) ImgBurn - In addtion to supporting the creation of CD's from .ISO files, it supports a wide range of other image file formats, and it's free. (BIN, CUE, DI, DVD, GI, IMG, MDS, NRG, PDI and ISO) http://www.imgburn.com/ Note: Always use the slowest burn speed (4x or 2x) if offered a choice. How to make a bootable USB thumb drive: you will have to use a tool such as the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool (http://store.microsoft.com/Help/ISO-Tool) This simple tool will help you convert the same image file into to a USB thumb drive. For installation purposes, you should get a thumb drive that’s at least 4 GBs in size to store the installation files. Browse to where the Windows 7 Image is stored, open it. Select the USB device where you want to have the backup stored to for installation. Once the USB device has been identified, click the Begin copying button. And that’s it, the next step now is to boot your computer, from the thumb drive, make sure the thumb drive you will be installing Windows 7 from is plugged into the USB port. This might vary by manufacturer, but the usual one to try is F12, start your computer and press F12 repeatedly until a screen is displayed giving you the option to boot from a USB Memory device, select that and press Enter on your keyboard. How to create a Universal Windows 7 installation DVD or USB Flash Drive. This comes in handy if you have multiple computers and no longer have the recovery media or your recovery partition is damaged. Note: Windows 7 Starter edition is only available in 32Bit, so if you need a ‘Starter edition’ installation DVD or USB Flash drive, you need to download the Windows 7 Ultimate 32Bit .ISO file. Notice: As of February 6th, 2015 the links to the various versions of Windows 7 listed in step #1 below are no longer functioning, as an alternative (as long as you have your product key) you can use the link to Microsoft's Software Recovery web page: Please be aware that this link often fails to provide the correct language download for your product key. ( Only 2 of 3 keys I entered returned the proper "English" language option). If you experience this issue then try the following alternative: As an alternative read this Wiki article on how to create your own ISO file. After you create your own ISO file you can skip steps #1 and #2 and begin at step #3. Step by Step guide: 1) Download the Windows 7 Ultimate 32 or 64Bit .ISO file. Note: The default download location to your computer is: C:\Users\User account name\Downloads. a) If you want to create a 32Bit universal installation DVD download this file: SHA1 Hash value: 65fce0f445d9bf7e78e43f17e441e08c63722657. b) If you want to create a 64Bit universal installation DVD download this file: SHA1 Hash value: 36ae90defbad9d9539e649b193ae573b77a71c83. 2) Verify the .ISO file downloaded is not corrupt by validating the SHA1 hash value is correct. A utility named ‘HashCalc’ which checks the file and returns a SHA1 value that should match the value listed in step 1a or 1b if the download is not corrupt. b) Launch HashCalc and navigate to the location of the .iso file you downloaded. c) Remove all check marks from the list of HashCalc options except for SHA1. d) Click the ‘Calculate’ button and wait for the SHA1 string of numbers and letters to be displayed. e) Compare the string of numbers and letters displayed in HashCalc with the SHA1 value listed in step #1 above. The entire string must match from beginning to end, if it does not match then the .ISO file you downloaded is corrupt and you must try the download link again. 3) Download, install and run the ‘ei.cfg’ utility. I choose the default location for the download. a) Extract the contents of the eicfg_removal_utility.zip file to a destination of your choice. Start by double clicking on the .zip file and then double click on the eicfg_remover.exe file. Click the ‘Extract all’ button and browse to a location where you want the zip file extracted to. Then click on the ‘Extract’ button. A standard folder with the name: eicfg_removal_utility will be created. b) Open the ‘eicfg_removal_utility’ folder and click on the ‘eicfg_remover.exe’ file and click the ‘Run’ button. c) Navigate to the folder where the Windows 7 .ISO file is located and click on the .iso file to select it. d) Click the ‘Open’ button to disable ei.cfg located inside the .iso file. Finally click the ‘OK’ button to exit the eicfg utility. What does eicfg do: From the eicfg ‘Readme.txt’ file: “This works by toggling the deletion bit in the UDF file table, which instructs the operating system to ignore the file and to treat it as if it does not exist. By not physically removing the file, this eliminates the need to rebuild the ISO, and makes this sort of fast, un-intrusive patching possible. This also makes it possible to reverse the patch and to restore the image to its original state, if so desired.” In short you do not need to manually edit the contents of the Windows 7 .ISO file you downloaded. Now that you have modified the .ISO file using the eicfg utility, the next step is to use the modified .ISO to create a universal Windows 7 installation DVD. 4) Create the universal Windows 7 installation DVD or USB Flash drive: To create a Windows 7 installation flash drive read the following: Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool. How to create a bootable Windows 7 USB flash drive. To create a Windows 7 installation DVD perform steps a through g: a) Download http://download.cnet.com/ImgBurn/3001-2646_4-10847481.html?hlndr=1 and install ImgBurn (current version 2.5.8.0) to create a bootable Windows 7 installation DVD. Notes: a) If you created your own .ISO file using the instructions in the Wiki article titled "Create your own ISO file from a Windows 7 installation DVD" then ImgBurn is already installed and need not be re-installed. b) Windows 7 does have built in software that allows you to create an installation DVD but it does not offer any control over the burn speed: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/burn-a-cd-or-dvd-from-an-iso-file. Choose the “Custom Installation (advanced)” option and remove the check mark to eliminate unwanted options. b) Next start ImgBurn, 2 windows will open. The lower window (ImgBurn Log) displays the status of your DVD creation. The top window is where you select what action you want to perform. Choose the “Write Image file to disc” option. c) Next navigate to the ‘Source’ (.ISO file) location. d) Set the ‘Write Speed’ to either 2 or 4X (or the lowest speed your DVD supports, which may be 8X) to insure a good burn and then insert high quality DVD+R media into your DVD drive. The ‘Verify’ box should be checked by default. Wait for the status located in the lower left corner to display ‘Ready’. e) Click on the Blue ImgBurn arrow to start the creation of your DVD. At a 4X write speed the creation of the DVD should take about 10 minutes. f) Check the ImgBurn log in the lower Window for the ‘Finalizing’ disk task to compete, the DVD tray will open and close quickly and the ‘Verification’ process begins. Time to complete verification is about 5 minutes. g) Upon successfully completion remove the DVD and insert it into a labeled paper or plastic sleeve. Then close out / exit the ImgBurn utility. There is a guide published by NeoSmart which also shows the steps you need to perform and some trouble shooting tips: https://neosmart.net/wiki/burning-iso-images-with-imgburn/ 5) Install Windows using your newly created installation DVD. a) Verify that the boot order in your BIOS is set to boot from the DVD first and then 2nd in the list should be your disk drive. b) Power up your computer and quickly insert Windows 7 installation DVD you created into your DVD drive. Press any key when prompted to do so, and in a few seconds Windows 7 will start loading files. c) Now select the ‘Language to install’, ‘Time and currency format’ and the ‘Keyboard or input method’ options. Then click the ‘Next’ button to continue. d) Choose / click on the ‘Install Now’ option to install Windows 7. e) Select the operating system you want to install: You will see the list of versions you have to choose from. Move the mouse cursor or use the Up /Down arrow key to select the Windows 7 version that you want to install then click next. ( Note: Windows 7 Starter is only available when installing a 32Bit edition of Windows) As a reminder, if your product key is for Windows 7 Home Premium then you cannot select a higher (Professional) or lesser (Home Basic) version of Windows as your product key will only activate Home Premium. The version you install must be for the product key you have! f) Click ‘Next’ to proceed with the installation. Read and accept the license terms. g) Click ‘Next’ to continue with and complete the installation of Windows 7. Subscribe Subscribe to RSS feed. Was this article helpful? Sorry this didn't help. Great! Thanks for your feedback. How satisfied are you with this article? Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site. How satisfied are you with this article? Thanks for your feedback. Comments (10) Report abuse. 15 people found this comment helpful. Was this comment helpful? Sorry this didn't help. Great! Thanks for your feedback. How satisfied are you with this comment? Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site. How satisfied are you with this comment? Thanks for your feedback. Solution found. After creating the bootable USB using Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool, delete the following file: X:\sources\ei.cfg (where X:\ is your USB flash drive). Then during install it will let you pick which version of Windows 7 you want to install. Report abuse. 12 people found this comment helpful. Was this comment helpful? Sorry this didn't help. Great! Thanks for your feedback. How satisfied are you with this comment? Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site. How satisfied are you with this comment? Thanks for your feedback. Step 1a; the download link is broken. The Page or File You Requested Could Not Be Provided. Report abuse. Was this comment helpful? Sorry this didn't help. Great! Thanks for your feedback. How satisfied are you with this comment? Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site. How satisfied are you with this comment? Thanks for your feedback. There is a notice I included in the Wiki on Feb. 6th about this problem, It reads as follows: Notice: As of February 6th, 2015 the links to the various versions of Windows 7 listed in step #1 below are no longer functioning, this may or may not be a temporary condition, as an alternative (as long as you have your product key) you can use the link to Microsoft's Software Recovery web page: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-recovery. Note: You may receive a notice to contact the PC manufacture if you have an OEM key that came with your computer, but it can't hurt to try. After you verify your product key below, you will download a disc image (ISO file) and use it to create a bootable USB or DVD. After the ISO file has been downloaded start at step #2 below. Report abuse. 2 people found this comment helpful. Was this comment helpful? Sorry this didn't help. Great! Thanks for your feedback. How satisfied are you with this comment? Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site. How satisfied are you with this comment? Thanks for your feedback. Report abuse. 3 people found this comment helpful. Was this comment helpful? Sorry this didn't help. Great! Thanks for your feedback. How satisfied are you with this comment? Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site. How satisfied are you with this comment? Thanks for your feedback. One benefit of using a USB flash drive to install from, is that it is write-enabled at all times. So once you have written the ISO file to a USB flash drive, and you are at the initial setup screen, press Shift+F10 to drop to the command prompt. Then, you can use diskpart and issue the list volume command to figure out what drive letter your USB flash drive has been assigned. Look for "removable drive". Exit out of diskpart, and switch over to that drive letter. Then cd down to the sources folder and issue del ei.cfg to remove the file. Exit out of command prompt and click the big Install button to proceed with the installation as you normally would. You will be prompted now to select your Windows edition. Note: This will not work if you are using a DVD disc to install from. In that case you have to remove the file beforehand, using the "deletion bit" trick as described in this article, or extract the ISO file and remove the file, then build a modified ISO file and write that to the DVD disc. You will need dedicated software for extracting and building ISO files. Report abuse. 6 people found this comment helpful. Was this comment helpful? Sorry this didn't help. Great! Thanks for your feedback. How satisfied are you with this comment? Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site. How satisfied are you with this comment? Thanks for your feedback. You said you "created bootable USB using Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool". This is why it did not work for you. If you read the readme.txt file for the utility, or if you just refer to it in the quote above, you can see that it says "works by toggling the deletion bit in the UDF file table" . Well. a bootable USB flash drive uses NTFS file system, not UDF . is commonly used for DVD discs. Bootable Windows USB flash drives commonly use NTFS, and bootable Linux drives commonly use FAT32. So go ahead and write that ISO file to a DVD-R or a DVD- RW and you will see that it works. I just tested and verified this. The utility modified 4 bytes in my original ISO file (so it's really a 32 bit change, not 1 bit, or 4 bit at very least). The SHA-1 value of the original file should not match the SHA-1 value of the modified ISO file. If they match, then you're not doing it right. But the SHA-1 value of the modified file should match to that of a second copy, or third copy, or forth copy. of course. it doesn't matter how many times you do it, the result should be the same. But of course, only UDF and DVD discs count. Not USB flash drives and NTFS.