Apparently, if not all, then very many users of Windows-systems found themselves in a situation where they needed to reinstall their existing OS or restore it when identifying critical failures and malfunctions that could not be fixed by the system itself. It is not possible to install from scratch in an environment of an existing functional or failed system. Therefore, you have to use all kinds of removable media on which either installation distributions or recovery environments can be recorded. But how to make a Windows 7 installation disc? The answer to this question has several facets, because for different media, and for the software part that should be recorded on them, user actions can differ quite a lot.
Why do I need a Windows 7 installation or boot disk: what's the difference?
As already understood, the created media may be required both for reinstalling and for recovering a failed OS. Often, however, some users put a little misnomer into the understanding of both of these terms. The most important difference is that regular boot disks are designed exclusively for starting the recovery environment, and what system you have installed is absolutely not important.
Such media do not contain OS installation files , so they cannot be used to install Windows. A vivid example of this is LiveCD. But distributions written to removable media contain both system installation files and recovery tools located in a special section, but presented exclusively in the form of Windows tools, and not software products from third-party developers.
Basic media requirements
If we consider the creation of the Windows 7 installation disc, we must pay special attention to the requirements for the media on which it is supposed to record the necessary components for each case. It is generally recommended that you use either R / RW standard DVD optical discs or USB drives in the form of the most common flash drives. But in both cases, they should have about 4 GB of free space.
With optical discs, the situation is much simpler, since the steps to record images are minimized. But with flash drives, things are not so simple, because you still need to take into account, say, the bit depth of the installed OS, the type of primary system (BIOS / UEFI) and the corresponding file system on the drive itself. In addition, the usual copying of the image or files of the Windows 7 installation disk that it contains to the Flash drive will not produce any result, and it will not be possible to boot from it simply because there is no special bootloader on the media and the corresponding boot partition. So what to do in such a situation and which technique to prefer?
How to create a Windows 7 installation disc using system tools?
Before proceeding directly to practice, let us make one more small digression. The saddest thing is that to create not only the bootable media with the operating system distribution or the corresponding image that could be written to the desired drive, you will need ... either the original installation disk, or a similar image! That is, to "blind" the image itself, using disparate components for this, will be very problematic. But to add additional programs or drivers to the original content can be quite simple. We will dwell on this a bit later.
To begin with, we will proceed from the fact that you have already downloaded the desired image from a reliable source on the Internet. In this case, it does not matter if it is official. Create an installation disk for Windows 7 in this case is not difficult.
In a running OS, if you want to use a DVD disc as a medium, simply insert a blank disc into the drive, and then either immediately select the recording with the downloaded image, or select the image file in the “Explorer” and then use the PCM menu item "Burn image to disk", indicating the drive used.
Manual image creation
Now let's see how to create a Windows 7 installation disc in a situation where you have original media with a distribution kit from which you can install the system. We assume that you just need to make an image file (just in case) and save it on your hard drive. The easiest way, of course, is to use special programs for working with images like UltraISO, DAEMON Tools, Alcohol 120% and the like (they all work on almost the same principles).
First, you need to add to the file list everything that is contained on the original medium, and then simply save the project as an image via the file menu, specifying the required format (the ISO is most often used) and the location of the saved file on the hard drive.
Burning an image to optical media
By and large, by creating the Windows 7 installation disc “Maximum” or any other modification, you can also write the image to optical media using the system tools. However, programs for burning discs like the Nero package look much better and more practical.
They are recommended to be used at least for the reason that such utilities allow you to adjust the burn speed (it is better to set it to the minimum supported by both the blank and the drive), and can also verify (verify) the data after the burn.
Note: in order not to engage in unnecessary actions, almost all such applications have a copy (clone) function of the disk, so you can immediately create a copy of the original media without having to save the image on the hard drive. You can also record an image directly to optical media in the programs for working with images themselves by selecting the desired item from the corresponding menu.
How to create an installation flash drive: UltraISO program
If it comes to how to create a Windows 7 installation disc as a flash drive, the steps are slightly different.
So, for example, in the same UltraISO program, you need to select an image with a system or recovery environment, go to the startup menu, and then use the recording item of the hard disk image. In the settings of the recording method, it is desirable to set the type of USB-HDD +, and then activate the start of the recording process.
Creating a bootable flash drive in Rufus
As it turns out, sometimes you need to pay special attention to what file system the installation USB flash drive should contain, which will be used as the boot disk of Windows 7. The problem is that UEFI does not accept NTFS when installing 64-bit OS (you need to have FAT32), and the BIOS may not detect the EFI bootloader because it can only work with MBR. In order not to deal with the choice of the correct method of formatting the media and the preferred file structure, it is best to use automated software products like the portable Rufus application, which is focused specifically on working with flash drives.
In it, you just need to select the desired file of the previously created or downloaded image, and the program itself will set the necessary options for formatting the medium and recording.
How to add drivers to a distribution kit?
Finally, let's see what methods can be used to make the Windows 7 installation disc with drivers. You probably will immediately have doubts about the appropriateness of such actions, because, in theory, the database of the installed system itself already has all the necessary drivers that will be installed automatically during the installation of the system. Yes, indeed it is. But what to do if non-standard or unsupported system equipment is installed on a stationary computer or laptop, for which there are no drivers? In this case, you will have to add them yourself. And there are several methods. Firstly, you can use utilities like DriverMAX, which are able to create copies of all the drivers available in the working system.
And secondly, more advanced users can independently add any kits like DriverPack Solution to the prepared distribution package using the PortableApps.com Platform software package. When using it, you can add both applets available in the program and your own utilities downloaded from other sources.
How to create bootable media with a fully functional system?
How to create an installation disk with Windows 7, figured out. Now, as a kind of digression, we will consider what means can make a medium with a fully functional OS, which can be used in the same way as a stationary one, but when starting not from the hard drive of a computer or laptop, but directly from a USB flash drive. For this, the WinNTSetup utility is considered the most suitable, in which you just need to select the appropriate image and specify the desired drive.
If for some reason errors appear (as evidenced by a change in the color of special indicators), it is best to fix them using the additional portable Bootice application, in which you just need to press the correction button corresponding to the error detected in the main program. When all three indicators switch to green, you can activate the process of installing the operating system on the selected medium.
Starting from bootable media to install or restore the system
Finally, bootable media is created. The matter remains small. To use it (boot options), first in the primary BIOS / UEFI system you need to set the disk or USB flash drive as the priority boot device (usually such parameters are in the Boot, Boot Sequence, Boot Device Priority sections) and save the changes, after which the restart will be performed automatically . However, note that if you have the installation distribution for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions on the same flash drive among the devices, the same flash drive can be displayed in two versions, and the name of one device can start with "EFI". This device is selected for installing x64 versions, otherwise (for installing x86 or 32 bit OS) a device with the original name is selected.