Topic: Testing Bootable USB Drives OS Install
started by: tridy
Posted by tridy on Feb. 10 2012,18:37
I have created my first bootable USB stick 
and I really wanted to test the Windows 7 installation process to make sure that it really works the whole way when I will send it to my parent who have a computer without an optical drive. To test and see if some tools of utilities work properly, one can boot on any computer. However to test OS installation you need another computer or at least drive. So I hoped to find a virtual environment that would help me with that.I knew that the ISO that I created with EasyBoot worked the whole way and I managed to install Windows 7 from it as mapped ISO in Oracle VB. So, it was the time to test the same procedure but from USB stick. I mapped USB stick to Oracle VB and started the installation. Everything went alright until the end of the installation, where the message came: "Windows could not update the computer's boot configuration. Installation cannot proceed." I took another USB drive and used Microsoft DVD/USB download tool to crate a bootable flash drive from the original Windows 7 ISO. Surprisingly, I got the same error.
Now I knew it was not the fault of USB stick (hardware). I don't have a spare computer to test it in real life, so I tried to see if any other virtual machines would be able to boot from USB. VMware with the help of plpbt.iso made it possible, and I started the installation from the USB stick that I created with EasyBoot. Setup process went much faster, compared to Oracle VB, and I finally was able to say that my USB stick will properly install windows 7 when needed.
So, if you want to test your USB stick and see if operating systems installs properly, I would recommend to use VMware. You will need to attach < Plop Boot Manager > ISO to DVD drive of WMware. Then attach the USB to the VMware. When PBM will boot, you will see USB option there which will start your USB stick.
you can get an idea from this video on youtube:
< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRICc8ap5UE >
regards
Posted by balder on Feb. 11 2012,02:29
@tridyFirst of all, thank you for detailed information how to test setup of Windows without the need to do a 'real setup' - instead using 'virtual setup'
-------------------------------
Quote: "I took another USB drive and used Microsoft DVD/USB download tool to crate a bootable flash drive from the original Windows 7 ISO."
To be sure your USB stick is working correctly, you are recommended to use my script 'USB-NT6-SETUP.script'
This script is not connected to EasyBoot it is used 'out of the box'
If setup of Vista OR Win7 OR Win8 OR server-2008 fail - then it is something wrong either with your USB stick or with files in your NT6-system
(Vista\Win7\Win8\server-2008 is typically NT6-systems if you wonder)Note: you can with script above obviously only have one setup of NT6-system - you cannot have both Win7 and Win8 on same stick with this method
regards balder