Q&A for How to Install Windows from a USB Flash Drive

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How do I change my computer's boot order?

Luigi Oppido
Computer & Tech Specialist
Luigi Oppido is the Owner and Operator of Pleasure Point Computers in Santa Cruz, California. Luigi has over 25 years of experience in general computer repair, data recovery, virus removal, and upgrades. He is also the host of the Computer Man Show! broadcasted on KSQD covering central California for over two years.

Luigi Oppido

Computer & Tech Specialist

Expert Answer

You'll have to change this in the system's BIOS. Restart your computer and before it fully boots up, press the BIOS key, which is one of the function keys on your keyboard's top row. On the BIOS screen, you can then go into the settings and change the priority order so that your flash drive loads Windows first.

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I want to install Windows but am being prompted that there is a missing operating system. What now?

Community Answer

Have you put the OS on the drive? If not, install it on there. You can also try to install an *.iso file on the drive.

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What if I'm putting in a brand new hard drive?

Community Answer

If you are installing from scratch, you will still need to create the boot media using one of the above steps on a working computer. Once the boot media is created, you will use it on the computer that has a new hard drive. Just remember that with a new hard drive and installation, you need to get a registration code to activate Windows.

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Is it safe to delete all current partition drives and create a new one?

Community Answer

Only if you don't have any important data in your drive and you want to create a new one, but if you have your important data in your driver you will lose it if you delete it.

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Is it possible to use Rufus to burn my Windows 7 ISO to a USB drive?

Kelvin Kyalo

Community Answer

Yes. You can use Rufus to make your flash disk bootable and install the Windows 7 ISO there.

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Can I use the USB drive as a transferable drive after installing Windows off the drive?

Kelvin Kyalo

Community Answer

Yes, you can. You can transfer files using the USB drive as it is, or if you prefer formatting the USB drive, please feel free.

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What do I do if I get the message "We were unable to copy your files. Please check your USB device and the selected ISO file and try again" and the USB won't work?

Community Answer

Try reformatting your USB. If that fails, buy a new one. Before reformatting, move any data you wish to keep off it. If reformatting fails, before buying a new one, check the size of the ISO. If it is even 1MB larger than your USB, it will fail. Another Idea is to re-download the ISO.

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