This is a step-by-step for installing Windows 7 via a USB Flash drive for a few people that wrote in and Twittered. For my Netbook and mini laptop that don’t have optical drives I made a bootable USB drive with the 32-bit version of Wndows 7 RC by following the instructions over at TechNet and made it a bit easier for those that had difficulty doing it themselves or weren’t clear on the steps.

What you will Need:

• USB Flash Drive (Minimum 4GB- I use an 8GB/16GB and have the installs of my most used programs ready to go in a separate install directory for me its-Windows Live Essentials, MS Office, Snagit, Camtasia Studio, Mozilla, Adobe Air, Tweetdeck, SlingPlayer,SOTI, Zune, Visual Studio,Paint.NET, etc.
• Windows 7 or Vista installation files in either .ISO file or DVD format

What You Will Need to Do:

1. First plug-in your USB flash drive and move/backup all the contents from USB drive to another drive on your computer, storage card, etc. This way you can copy it all back later if there is room on your USB flash drive.

2. Next open Command Prompt with elevated admin rights.

DiskPart commands

3. To setup the USB drive type the DISKPART command in the command prompt window.

Next type the LIST DISK command and make sure note which Disk number (ie: Disk 1) is your USB flash drive you will need this in the next step.

4. Next type all the below commands one by one. I am using “Disk 1”.If you have Disk 2 as your USB flash drive then use Disk 2.Refer the above step to confirm your USB flash drive, mine is 16GB so I can see it is Disk 1.

Next type and execute each command below one by one:

SELECT DISK 1

CLEAN

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY

SELECT PARTITION 1

ACTIVE

FORMAT FS=NTFS

The format process may take a while depending on the size of your thumb drive. Once DiskPart has successfully formatted the volume enter the next command:

ASSIGN

EXIT

Now keep the command prompt window open because we will need it for the next steps.

5. Next insert your Windows7/Vista DVD into your optical drive and check the drive letter of your DVD drive in Computer. I will be using  “D” as my Optical DVD drive and and the USB drive letter is “E”.

6. Next type the following command now:

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

7. Next in order to update the USB drive so it will work with BOOTMGR. You will need to enter the following at the command line:

BOOTSECT.EXE/NT60 E:

Where “E” is your target USB drive letter. If yours is different make the appropriate drive letter changes.

8. Next you are going to copy the contents of your Windows 7/Vista DVD to the USB flash drive.

9. Now your USB drive is ready to boot and install Windows 7/Vista. In order to boot from the USB drive may have to enter your BIOS to set it to boot from the USB flash drive, set drive priority, and/or on start up, you may have to choose what device to boot from. This all depends on what BIOS you are running.