How to create a bootable Windows USB drive.




A common use of a bootable USB flash drive is to use it for booting into Windows. This can allow you to perform diagnostics on a computer that has hardware issues or can't boot into Windows. You can also use the flash drive to install Windows, instead of using the Windows installation CD. This guide will outline making a bootable USB flash drive with Windows XP, Vista, and 7. Before we begin, it's important to note that the computer you want to use your bootable USB drive in will need to have the capability of booting to a USB drive. Most recent computers built since Windows Vista was released are capable of booting to a USB device. Prior to the Windows Vista timeframe, it's hit or miss with motherboards.

To determine if a computer is capable of booting to a USB device, access the computer's BIOSand check the bootable device list. If a USB device is listed, set the USB drive to be the first boot device. If you do not see a USB device in the list of bootable devices, your BIOS is not capable of booting to a USB device. (NOTE: You may need to have your USB flash drive plugged in when you access the BIOS).

• Windows Vista and Windows 7 users 
• Windows XP users

Windows Vista and Windows 7 users 
To make the bootable USB drive for Windows Vista or Windows 7, you need to have Windows Vista or 7 installed on your computer. It is recommended that you have a flash drive of at least 4 GB in size, in order to store all the necessary files.
Note: Before you start, plug in the USB drive and backup any files you have stored on the USB drive. The drive will be formatted during this process and all files on it will be deleted. Tip: You will need a Windows Vista or Windows 7 disc for these instructions to be successful.

1. Open an elevated Windows command line window by clicking Start, typing in cmd in the search text field, then pressing CTRL + Shift + Enter on your keyboard (at the same time). You can also access this by navigating to Start, All Programs, Accessories, right-click with your mouse on the Command Prompt menu item and select Run as Administrator.

2. At the command prompt, type cd c:\windows\system32 to change the directory to the Windows system32 directory. Ensure your USB drive is plugged in and type DISKPART and press Enter. Then type LIST DISK and press Enter.  See our diskpart command page for additional information on this command.

3. You will see a listing of the disk drives connected to your computer. Find the disk number of your USB drive and type SELECT DISK [USB disk #], where "[USB disk #]" is the disk # for your USB drive. It should now state that your USB drive is the selected disk. If you're not sure what disk is the USB disk, eject the USB drive, perform step number 2 again, connect the USB drive again, and compare the results. Usually the USB drive will be the last drive.

4. Type in the following commands, one by one, pressing Enter after each command.

Keep the command prompt window open, but you can minimize it for a little bit. 

5. You will now need your Windows Vista or 7 Installation DVD. Put the DVD in your computer's DVD drive. Open up My Computer and note which drive letter is assigned to your DVD Drive and your USB flash drive. 

6. Go back to the command prompt window and type in D: CD BOOT (substitute your DVD drive letter for "D:" if necessary) and press Enter. Type CD BOOT again and press Enter. Lastly, typeBOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 H: (substitute your USB flash drive letter for "H:" if necessary) and press Enter. 

7. The last step is to copy the entire contents of the Windows DVD to your USB flash drive. Your USB flash drive is now set up to be a bootable USB drive for Windows Vista or 7. 

Windows XP users 

To make the bootable USB drive for Windows XP, it is recommended that you have a flash drive of at least 4 GB in

size, in order to store all the necessary files. You will also need to downloadWindows Server 2003 SP1 and a program called PE Builder (also known as Bart PE).  Windows Server 2003 SP1  Bart PE Before you start, plug in the USB drive and backup any files you have stored on the USB drive, to ensure you do not lose any of them. 

1. Install PE Builder on your computer. For the sake of ease, install the program to aC:\PEBuilder folder. After you've installed PE Builder, create a folder titled SRSP1 in the PEBuilder folder. 

2. Now you need to extract two files from Windows Server 2003 SP1. The filename is quite long, so it is recommended that you rename the file to something shorter, like WS-SP1.exe. Open a command prompt (Start > Run, type cmd and press Enter) and use the cd command to change to the folder where you downloaded the Windows Server 2003 SP1 file to (i.e. cd c:\downloads to change to the c:\downloads folder). Then, type WS-SP1.exe -x to extract the files. A window will open, asking where to extract the files. You can enter the same folder where the file was downloaded. 

3. A new folder titled i386 will be created by the extraction process. Type cd i386 to change to that folder. You now need to copy the setupldr.bin file to the SRSP1 folder you created in the PE Builder folder. Type copy setupldr.bin c:\PEBuilder\SRSP1 to copy the file. 

4. You also need to expand the ramdisk.sys file to the SRSP1 folder. Type expand -r ramdisk.sy_ c:\PEBuilder\SRSP1 

5. Open My Computer and navigate to the c:\PEBuilder\SRSP1 folder and verify the two files are there.

6. Next, you need to create a compressed version of Windows XP using PE Builder. Make sure you Windows XP Professional CD is in your computer's CD drive, then launch the PE Builder program. In the Source field, type in the drive letter assigned to your CD Drive (you can check in My Computer if you are not sure) (e.g. "d:"). In the Output field, type BartPE. Make sure theNone option is selected in the Media output section. Then click the Build button.

A progress report will be displayed, showing the progress of the bootable image build. When the build process is complete, click the Close button. 

7. Now, you can create the bootable USB flash drive. Open a command prompt again and type cd c:\PEBuilder to change to the PEBuilder folder. Make sure your USB drive is plugged in to your computer and type pe2usb -f e: (change "e:" to the drive letter assigned to your USB flash drive, if necessary) to create the bootable drive. You will be prompted to type YES to begin the process. When the process is complete, press any key to exit the program. 

Your USB flash drive is now set up to be a bootable USB drive for Windows XP using the Bart PE interface.

Hi Guys, Installation Screen Shots for BES 10.

This tutorial will explain how to install AD on server 2008. This will valid for windows 2008 R2 as well..

Requirement:

Minimum: Single processor with 1.4 GHz (x64 processor) or 1.3GHz (Dual Core)

Minimum: 512 MB RAM

Minimum: 32 GB or greater

• The first step is to assign a ip to the server that you going to deploy the AD. Its nessary to install it as DNS server too. So its better to have fixed ip it doesn't mean you cannot install AD without fixed ip address but it will solve lot of issues if you used fixed ip. • The first step is to assign a ip to the server that you going to deploy the AD. Its nessary to install it as DNS server too. So its better to have fixed ip it doesn't mean you cannot install AD without fixed ip address but it will solve lot of issues if you used fixed ip.

In here the server ip is 10.0.0.14. Since we going to make it as DNS server too you should use the same ip as the preferred DNS server.
• Next step is to install the Active directory roles. Unlikely the older version of windows servers Microsoft highly recommend to use server manager option to install roles before you run dcpromo.
• Click on start menu and select the Server Manager

• Select the roles from the right hand panel and click on add roles option.

• From the roles list select the "Active Directory Domain Services" role and Click "Next"

• Review the confirmation and click on "Next"

• Review the installation confirmation and click on "Next"

• It will take few minutes to complete and when its done you will get this confirmation. And then click on "Close"

After that you will need to do a reboot. • After reboot please open up the "server Manager" again. And then click on "Roles" there you will see the "Active Directory Domain Services" is successfully installed in there. click on it then you will get a window like below.

In their please pay attention to the message

So please click on that link and it will start the DCPROMO wizard. • So next step to go through the DC promo wizard. • To start the installation click on "Next"

• Click on "Next"

• Since we going to install New domain Controller in new forest please select the option "Create a new domain in new forest" option and click on "Next"

• Now we have to provide the name for our domain controller. It must be FQDN. In our case I used rebeladmin.com as the domain. Please click "Next" after it.

• In this window it will ask to select forest function level. If you going to add server 2003 domain controller to your forest later don't select the function level as server 2008. If you going to use full features of 2008 Ad you must select forest function level as server 2008. In my case I used server 2008. Click on "Next" after the select.

• In next window since it's the first DC we should make it as DNS server too. Leave the default selection and click on "Next"

• If the wizard cannot create a delegation for the DNS server, it displays a message to indicate that you can create the delegation manually. To continue, click "Yes"

• In next window it will show up the database location. It its going to be bigger AD its good if you can keep NTDS database in different partition. Click on "Next" after changes.

• In next window its asking to define a restore mode password. Its more important if you had to do a restore from backup in a server crash. Click on "Next" after filling it.

• Next window is giving you a brief of the installation. Click on "Next"

• Then it will start the installation of the AD. It will take some time to complete. After complete of the installation perform a server reboot.

• After the reboot now you can login to the domain. Please use the login as following example

User name : your domain\administrator

Password : XXXXXXXX

• Now its done and you can view the active directory options on administrative tools menu

Hope this tutorial is clear for you guys. If any question please ask me