How to Create a Bootable Windows Vista or Windows 7 Flash Drive - Preparing Flash Drive a

If you have ever had installed windows on your computer system, then you might be aware of all the tiny problems that you might encounter during installation. At times, it happens that the CD/DVD drive stops working or the CD/DVD itself gets corrupted.

Preparing Bootable Flash Drive

Alternatively, there could be too many scratches on the disk leading to a corrupt setup, in which case, you might have to skip many of the files during the windows installation. At least, I have been facing all these problems myself. Recently, I purchase a DELL Notebook, and to my bad luck, the CD/DVD-RW drive stopped working. I got it replaced 4 times, but no luck. Without even using the drive, it stopped working. So, I thought of using a USB or a flash drive, to install the windows and here, I am with this small easy to follow tutorial.

You need to have all the following things:

1. A flash drive
2. Windows Vista or Windows 7 Bootable DVD
3. Windows Vista or Windows 7 operating system
4. diskpart and bootsect utilities

Windows Vista and Windows 7 users already have the 2 utilities present on their operating system. However, if you don’t have these, then you can download them here: diskpart and bootsect

Step 1: I assume that you have the utilities preinstalled on your system. Press Windows + R key to open the Run Prompt. Type cmd and press Enter key to launch command prompt. You must use the command prompt in Administrator mode.

Alternatively, you can browse to the command prompt from Start Menu, Programs and then Accessories. Right click on the command prompt option and click “Run as Administrator” to open the command prompt with Administrator privileges.

Step 2: Plug-in your flash drive. On the command prompt, type the following command ‘diskpart’ and press Enter.

Step 3: Type the following commands line by line without the double quotes.

“List disk” - This will list the drives connected to your computer. My flash drive was listed as Disk 1

“Select disk 1” – This will select your flash drive.

“Clean” – This will clean the flash drive bringing it to a raw state.

“Create partition primary” – This will create a primary partition on the flash drive.

“Select partition 1” – This will select the primary partition.

“Active” - This will make the primary partition active.

“Format fs=NTFS quick” – This will format the flash drive in quick mode. If you want a full format, you can remove the quick option, but it will then take time depending on the size of the flash drive.

“Assign” – This will assign a drive letter to the flash drive.

“Exit” – This will exit the diskpart utility.

Images

Images Credit

Command Prompt screenshots by Microsoft

How to Create a Bootable Windows Vista or Windows 7 Flash Drive

Using a bootable CD or DVD to install Windows is a story. Today, embedded chips are being used everywhere from a flash drive to a digital watch, so why not move along with the technology. In this tutorial, I will guide you on How to Create a Bootable Windows Vista or Windows 7 Flash Drive

How to Recover Data from a Damaged CD or DVD

CDs and DVDs are the most popular devices for data storage among most. Unfortunately, these are not very reliable mediums of backup

Data Recovery

Research concludes that the average life of a factory burnt CD has much higher life as compared to regular burnt CDs that have a life of 2 – 5 years. Other factors that decide and affect the life of a CD are the environment in which they are stored, the temperature, multiple rewrites, usage, and humidity. Moreover, CDs and DVDs can get damaged by dust, scratches, mishandling, labelling with marker, etc.

The reason might vary, but one thing is for sure, that a CD and DVD would not last forever. The best way to keep them safe is to take a backup every now and then. This backup can be taken on an external hard drive.

The first thing to do when a CD that contained important data, text, or photos does not work or becomes inaccessible is clean it with a cotton cloth. If this does not work, use one of these data recovery softwares that are free of cost.

CD Check: The tool detects and recovers data from damaged files. Moreover, it checks if the data existing in CD’s is safe. The tool detects errors on damaged CDs and DVDs and recovers them. The tool is a shareware utility but free for personal home use.

Unstoppable Copier: The tool is available for both Windows and Linux users. The software can copy files from scratched CDs. In most cases when PCs are unable to copy files from damaged disks, it would abort and delete the part of the file that has been copied. The tool however continues to copy the file until the end. All data that is not recovered after a couple of retry is replaced with blanks.

IsoBuster: This tool supports all formats of CDs and DVDs. The software comes with a host of recovery features and is free of cost. The premium version is available at a small cost.

IsoPuzzle: This tool helps recover from scratched CDs and DVDs. The data is taken from these devices and stored as an image file in ISO format. This format can be read by Nero Burning Rom, Daemon Tools, and WinRar. The process of doing so is simple. Specify the Source and Destination and click on the Start button to start the process. The full process would take about an hour.

Many a time’s one software does better than the other does. It is recommended to use more than one product to recover data from a damaged CD or DVD. When trying to recover, just insert the damaged CD or DVD. The software will list out files and folders that it finds on the disc. The user would be prompted to select the files that need to be recovered. The process can be extremely slow and would require the user to be very patient.

CDs and DVDs are fragile devices. Thus, when the first sign of scratches are noticed, immediately take a backup or create a duplicate, as they CD data might be at risk. Perpendicular scratches that go from the centre outwards are less harmful that spiral scratches.

Using Add or Remove Programs Tool in Windows

Add or Remove Programs tool fails if you are removing rogue or unwanted software that was installed by malware or came bundled in another installer. Find out how to deal with removing programs in Windows if the Add or Remove Programs tool does not work well.

The Add or Remove Programs Tool in Windows

The Windows operating system lets you control which programs, updates and features to install, remove or change. The tool is called Add and Remove Programs in Windows XP while Vista and Windows 7 users will find the said tool as Uninstall or change a program tool. The Add or Remove Programs tool is located in the Control Panel of Windows or you can simply type appwiz.cpl in the run command window and then hit enter key on your keyboard to open the tool to modify, add, remove programs.

In some cases, removing or uninstalling a program using Add and Remove programs will not work or does not work well in removing the files or components added by applications. You can read in the sections below why and what you can do to remove properly what you really wanted to remove.

When Add or Remove Programs Failed to Remove Software

If you tried removing a program using Add or Remove Programs tool but the removal fails, the installation of the application is maybe corrupted. This is true only if the installer has bug or you have a program that interferes with the installation of software.

To sort this problem, you need to temporarily disable the real-time monitoring of antivirus, firewall or other programs that can interfere with the install process. Please note that you will only do this if you are quite sure that the installer is safe to install. Your antivirus program should detect something on the executable file during the download process or when you insert the installation disk.

Next, ensure that you have the latest installer of the program that you are trying to remove then start installing it again so the corrupted installation is fixed. When the installation wizard prompts in rebooting the computer, please do so.

Finally, start removing the program again using Add or Remove Programs tool.

When Reinstalling the Software Did Not Help to Remove the Program

I hope you are not trying to remove in add remove programs an adware spyware software. If you are, proceed to reading the page 2 of this article. If you are removing a legitimate program, you should know that a non-corrupted installation of programs may also fail to remove if the application is running in the background. Try to shutdown the application or other applications that may be using any module or components of the program that you are trying to remove. Example: When removing antivirus programs that have installed add-ons for browser and e-mail programs, it is best to close the browser or e-mail client. Manually stop the protection of the antivirus program or disable the self-protection of the antivirus program.

When the program is still not removed, you should try using the removal tool that the software vendor may have published. For example, Norton programs can be removed using the Norton Removal Tool, AVG users might want to use AVG Remover. Also, the website or support page of the software vendor may have published important removal instruction so spend some time to visiting the vendor's website or support forums before using another work-around.