Windows – How does one install Windows 7 using USB 3

installationusbusb-3windows 7

I want to install Windows 7 onto an SSD from a USB 3 drive, however it won't let me boot using USB 3, however it does work using USB 2. I guess that's because Windows PE doesn't have the needed USB 3 drivers so my question is how can I fix that?

Edit: Sorry for being slightly unclear. The installer boots but after choosing disk drive it tells me that it need drivers for the installation disk (USB3).

Edit2: I can get it to work by adding the drivers to another USB memory but I can't get it to work by adding them to the install drive, does anyone know how I should add them to the main media?

Best Answer

As the comments said, USB 3 drivers are not something that Windows supports natively.

Your main question came about the speed - there will be no difference unless your USB memory stick is USB 3 compatible.

This gets quite advanced, I am assuming you have a working knowledge of the command prompt. I would recommend you add the various Microsoft directories to your path, or run the Windows PE Tools Command Prompt instead of the standard one. If I loose you at any point, please write in comments and I will be happy to help.

What I recommend you do is download the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, and download your USB drivers.

Once downloaded, load the Deployment Workbench and load the WAIK / Windows Automated Installation Kit.

Once this is downloaded, you can use the "copype" command to copy the required Windows PE files to a staging folder. Assuming you wanted c:\win_pe_32 you would use:

copype.cmd x86 c:\win_pe_32

For 64 bit use:

copype.cmd x64 c:\win_pe_64

(I won't give two versions from now on, simply use common sense and replace 64 with 32!)

This will basically copy the required Windows PE files to the folder above.

Next, we need to mount the boot.wim file (The part that actually loads Windows PE). Do this with the ImageX command:

imagex /mountrw c:\win_pe_32\winpe.wim 1 c:\win_pe_32\mount

This will mount the Wim file to the \mount directory.

To load the driver, have the path to the .inf file and run:

peimg /inf=<path> c:\win_pe_32\mount\Windows

If you explore this folder, you can add additional files if you wish. Personally, I include ImageX so it is available from Windows PE.

Now commit the changes by typing:

imagex /unmount c:\win_pe_32\mount /commit

Now you simply overwrite the default boot.wim file with the winpe.wim you just changed.

copy c:\win_pe_32 c:\win_pe_32\iso\sources\boot.wim

Lastly, we use the Microsoft Mastering tool with the following command:

oscdimg -n -bc:\win_pe_32\etfsboot.com c:\win_pe_32\iso c:\win_pe_32\winpe_32.iso

and congratulations! You now have a new bootable Windows PE iso file with the drivers included.

You can burn this to disk, and hopefully, everything should work - as long as the driver is compatible with Windows PE!

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