Create a Windows 7 USB install key
Windows 7 is now out of support and the USB creation utility by Microsoft no longer is available.
Instead, you can try using Rufus which supports converting Linux (and Windows!) ISOs into a bootable USB key. If you're using a supported Dell computer, can also try using the Dell OS Recovery Tool and select Windows 7 after entering your service tag (though this option will bundle in some Dell utilities but will also include any necessary drivers for Windows installer to work).
Alternatively, you can create the bootable USB key manually by create a single FAT32 partition and then copying the contents of the Windows 7 installation DVD onto the new partition.
Using diskpart
Run the following commands to create the single FAT32 partition with diskpart. An example output is given below.
- Run
diskpart
. You will be asked to run as an administrator. - Run
list disk
- Run
select disk N
, where N corresponds to your USB drive/disk - Run
clean
to wipe all existing partitions - Run
create partition primary
- Run
active
to activate the partition - Run
format fs=fat32 quick
to format as FAT32 - Run
assign
to assign a drive letter
Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.19041.964
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: DESKTOP-3DO6UEH
DISKPART> list disk
Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 1863 GB 1024 KB *
Disk 1 Online 476 GB 0 B
Disk 2 Online 931 GB 0 B
Disk 3 Online 14 GB 0 B
DISKPART> select disk 3
Disk 3 is now the selected disk.
DISKPART> clean
DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk.
DISKPART> list disk
Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 1863 GB 1024 KB *
Disk 1 Online 476 GB 0 B
Disk 2 Online 931 GB 0 B
* Disk 3 Online 14 GB 14 GB
DISKPART> create partition primary
DiskPart succeeded in creating the specified partition.
DISKPART> active
DiskPart marked the current partition as active.
DISKPART> format fs=fat32 quick
100 percent completed
DiskPart successfully formatted the volume.
DISKPART> assign
DiskPart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point.
DISKPART>