Booting win 7 from USB flash drive?

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EDIT: The title should say: Installing win 7 from a USB flash drive.

I am having trouble getting my Intel iMac to boot from the usb drive I've copied my windows 7 files onto...
When the EFI started to boot up I hold down the option key, but all the "boot options" I get is just the OS X partition and the partition I made for windows.

Then I tried installing rEFIt to see if that would see my USB drive, but It didn't...


So how do you get a mac's openfirmware ("bios" if you will) to boot from a USB with windows files on it? It's can't be that freakin' hard.
 
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windows is made to NOT boot from external drives.

It is possible(ish) by using a small partition to write files to which would THEN boot windows from the extrernal, but for more info on that, you can google, or wait to see if anybody posts more info here :)
 
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windows is made to NOT boot from external drives.

It is possible(ish) by using a small partition to write files to which would THEN boot windows from the extrernal, but for more info on that, you can google, or wait to see if anybody posts more info here :)

You getting me all wrong. I am trying to install windows from a USB flash drive (not a hdd). And yes that is possible, and I've done it several times, just not on a Mac with EFI e rEFIt. - That is my problem. Getting the mac openfirmware to recognize a USB with windows installation files on it.
 
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you should use the disks.
If you don't have them, it's illegal, in which case don't ask here :) ?
 
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you should use the disks.
If you don't have them, it's illegal, in which case don't ask here :) ?

Okay, I'll try not to get upset here... :Sleeping:
I've mentioned several times that I am trying to install windows 7.
Did you even hear about all the free copies of beta and rc versions that were given to THE ENTIRE INTERNET.

I've made my point clear enough, and if you can't help with my problem then please don't post anymore. Thank you.
 

bobtomay

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you should use the disks.
If you don't have them, it's illegal, in which case don't ask here :) ?

There are no commercial disks for Win 7 yet as it has not been released. All versions of Win 7 at this time have been downloaded as a beta from Microsoft.


Don't know about trying to install from a flash drive, never done it. I have installed it once a few months ago just using the iso sitting in my downloads folder without burning it to disk.
 
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Okay, I'll try not to get upset here... :Sleeping:
I've mentioned several times that I am trying to install windows 7.
Did you even hear about all the free copies of beta and rc versions that were given to THE ENTIRE INTERNET.

I've made my point clear enough, and if you can't help with my problem then please don't post anymore. Thank you.
:I hah .. yeah :p I'll pay more attention next time .. hopefully. sorry!
 
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The Solution !!!!!!!!

Hey Bassi , Don't get frustrated.... I know the stuffs of win 7 and how it can get annoying to install it without the external drives. Hey i tried most of the forums to get answers and used google for a week to find the answer. ANd I found it... I have installed Win7 through this way about 2 months ago and i am mostly gaming. Well, experiences aside and back to solutions..
You got 2 options:
Install Windows from USB Flash - Mac Forums
One boot from USB(flashdrive) and install windows!!

Bootcamp install of Windows without using the super drive - Mac Forums
Other install windows without using Superdrive, cds or external drives.

I actually used the 2nd option as i didn't have 4Gb or larger USB drive. Well its your choice. I actually got this idea while sleeping to boot without external drive... i searched then found some but not quite useful then asked at the forum and the guys helped me....
I would suggest u to use 2nd option as 1st option is working for some and not working for some people. IF ANy problem let me know;D

Note: In the 2nd option, see the Collin Ec's post for understandable steps as he has correct some stuffs. And you can use trial of Vmware for this(u don't need to buy it for this)

Note: I used refit to boot after installing win7 and i didn't had to go through winclone stuff...cuz refit found my win7 bootable...If refit's not working, try enabling it through a enable.sh which in the refit directory somewhere.. ;D
 

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