To create a bootable USB storage device

Windows Vista and Windows 7/windows 8 can be installed via a bootable USB drive as well. And the installation would be much easier and faster than installation via DVD. Initially Windows Vista/7/8DVD or installation source (setup backup files stored on local hard disk) & a 4GB USB 2.0 Storage device would be required. You can follow the steps to install Windows Vista/7 from USB Drive. 

1. Plug your USB storage device and run CMD and execute the following commands one after another. 

• Diskpart  Run Disk partition utility 
• List disk  To get disk index that is used to perform disk partitioning.  
• Select disk 1  Selects disk to perform disk partitioning.  
• Clean  Flush your existing all USB drive’s partitions.  
• Create partition primary  Creates a partition as primary partition.  
• Format recommended  Format your USB drive with recommended parameters. (No need to worry about file system format)  
• Active  Set the partition as active to hold bootmgr.  
• Exit  To quit Diskpart utility  

2. After executing the above commands simply copy all Windows Vista/7 files from DVD/Backup storage to USB storage device.  

3. Change boot settings from BIOS and set it to boot with your USB drive, you can install Windows Vista/7 via bootable USB storage device. That is it. 

Note: For boot problems try Fixing your USB Storage drive with the command  I:\Boot\Bootsect.exe /NT60 I: where I: is the drive letter of USB storage device