Make a bootable windows 7 / Windows 8 usb drive

Recently, I landed into my worst fear i.e. my work computer crashed and I had to setup a new machine from scratch. In the entire recovery process; installing the OS the most tedious work.
It was then when I realized the lack of proper documentation regarding how to create a bootable USB drive to install windows 7 or windows 8

With lot of pain I found a tutorial and I would like to share the steps with all of you;

1. Open the windows command prompt in the Administrator modeType following commands in sequence i.e.

• diskpart (Note: This will open a new command window. Please do not close the previous command window as we will need that later)
• list disk
• select disk 1 (Note: here disk 1 is the disk number of the usb drive)
• clean
• create partition primary
• select partition 1
• active
• format fs=ntfs quick
• assign
• exit (Note: This will close the command window and you will land into the original / first command window)

Now, you need the copy of windows 7 or windows 8 that you want to move to usb drive

Execute the following commands in the command window that is open i.e.

• cd d:\windows7_install\boot (Note:  Navigate to directory named boot under the windows installation directory. For me it was in the D: drive in windows7_install directory)
• bootsect.exe/nt60 e: (Note:  Here e: is the drive letter of the USB drive. Make sure that you make no mistake in this step)
• Your bootable USB drive is all set now. Copy the windows 7 or windows 8 install directory in the USB drive and restart the computer with boot from USB disk option selected in the BIOS.
• You computer boots from the USB drive. Now you can execute the setup from the install directory that you copied in previous step

Cheers !! :-)

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZVgInbhTAw&index=93&list=WL

Multi OS Boot - BCD/Bootloader missing and ntldr???

Ever faced problem with BCD/Bootloader missing and ntldr???

-If you install an earlier version of the Windows operating system on a Windows Vista-based or Windows 7-based computer, Windows Vista no longer starts. In this case, only the earlier version of the Windows operating system starts.
-If you install an additional instance of Microsoft Windows XP on a computer where Windows XP and Windows Vista are already installed in a dual-boot configuration, you may receive the following error message:

*Here is the solution:

right-click the command-prompt shortcut, and then click Run as Administrator.

Use Bootsect.exe to restore the Windows Vista MBR and the boot code that transfers control to the Windows Boot Manager program. To do this, type the following command at a command prompt: Drive:\boot\Bootsect.exe /NT60 All

In this command, Drive is the drive where the Windows Vista installation media is located.

Note The boot folder for this step is on the DVD drive.
Use Bcdedit.exe to manually create an entry in the BCD Boot.ini file for the earlier version of the Windows operating system. To do this, type the following commands at a command prompt.

Note In these commands, Drive is the drive where Windows Vista is installed.
Drive:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit /create {ntldr} /d "Description for earlier Windows version"

Note In this command, Description for earlier Windows version can be any text that you want. For example, Description for earlier Windows version can be "Windows XP" or "Windows Server 2003".
Drive:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit /set {ntldr} device partition=x:

Note In this command, x: is the drive letter for the active partition.
Drive:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit /set {ntldr} path \ntldr
Drive:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit /displayorder {ntldr} /addlast
Restart the computer.

NOTE: You would also need these files
Ntldr
Boot.ini
Bootfont.bin
Thanks to my old friend 'Haddi' to dig out this info for all of us.. :-)