Put w7 iso img on a clean HDD & make bootable?

cracker2

cracker2

Member
I don't have dvds or a flash.Please don't say just buy dvds.Can I take the hdd out of the pc,put in external case,copy the w7 ISO img to the hdd & make it bootable.And put the hdd back into the pc ready to install?I want to try something new.
I think maybe if I made a 2nd partition just for the iso it might work.Anyone know how to make this work?I really want to give this a shot
 
Nope, sorry, you need to have a DVD or USB drive. You can't just drag the ISO image over, you have to burn it onto something.
 
Wonder if this could ever change.Guess ill get a decent flash sometime,what are some good ones?I'm so sick & tired of discs!
Also,if I installed from a external hdd.Would it need to be wiped?& would the pc to install in have to have a os on it for it to work?
 
Nope, sorry, you need to have a DVD or USB drive. You can't just drag the ISO image over, you have to burn it onto something.
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This hdd enclosure will allow you to do what you want: Zalman zm-ve200

It's a unique enclosure that has the ability to emulate a CD drive and allow you to boot from ISO images stored on the drive. I have one and have been able to put many of my install CD's on it so I don't need to mess around with stacks of CDs anymore. In spite of what Claptonman says, you can simply drag the ISO over to it!

It does require that whatever system you are using it with has the ability to boot from USB.
 
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A flash will work but it's more difficult to set up since you have to do some prep work to make it bootable plus it's really only good for 1 install disk so 32G is kind of a waste, you'd be better off with a 4G flash.
 
strollin said:
A flash will work but it's more difficult to set up since you have to do some prep work to make it bootable plus it's really only good for 1 install disk so 32G is kind of a waste, you'd be better off with a 4G flash.
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Yeah.I was just going to wipe & reformat when I'm done installing with it.I seen quite a few programs that are pretty straight fwd on using a flash.
 
I ended up getting 2 4gb flash drives.Got em for $6 together!Was on sale.just few clicks & the flash was ready :) .No more dvds!Lol.Much easier & quicker then I thought it would be.
I will buy that zalman case when I can,hard to beat the $ & features compared to other cases
 
Good move with the 4G drives. Glad you got it working.

You'll love the Zalman case. If your system supports USB 3.0, you may want to consider the ZM-VE300 which is USB 3.0 although the ZM-VE200 supports both USB and eSata.
 
Next time you can try: extract the iso to a small primary partition. Make the partition active. Use bootsect /nt60 to create a correct boot sector (if xp has formatted the drive). Put the harddrive back and install Windows.
 
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