Creating a bootable USB key under Vista

Every Man + Dog has blogged about this, and since I used the technique to install the Windows 7 Beta on my diskless TC1100 tablet, I’d might as well post it as well:

For those that don’t know how to make a bootable USB key, here is the recipe:

Creating a bootable USB device (via Will Craddock’s Technology Adventure in Ireland TechNet Blog):

Start\run\diskpart.exe

DISKPART> list disk

Select the USB device from the list and substitute the disk number below

     when necessary

DISKPART> select disk 1

DISKPART> clean

DISKPART> create partition primary

DISKPART> select partition 1

DISKPART> active

DISKPART> format fs=fat32

DISKPART> assign

DISKPART> exit

xcopy X:\*.* /s/e/f Y:\

where X:\ is your mounted image or physical DVD and Y:\ is your USB device

Now all you need to do is plug the device into your target box’s USB slot and boot it. This may require hitting F12 to load the one-time boot menu and selecting the USB Key.