Stone Studio

Format the USB Stick

1. Format the USB Stick as  NTFS: Open Windows Explorer and Right-Click the Drive > Choose the Format Option

2. In the File System Combo box, Choose NTFS and Click the Start Button to begin.

Make the USB stick as an Active Partition

3. Afterwards, Open the Command Prompt as Administrator: In Start Search type, cmd > Press CTRL + Shift + Enter

or you will get… "Access is denied" Message after launching diskpart command.

4. Setting the USB Partition Active (Diskpart.exe)

a. In the Command prompt, type: Diskpart and press Enter

b. Please wait for a while and type: list volume and press Enter

- The command will let you see all the drives and partitions

c. Find which volume for your Removable USB Drive, in my case 6, Therefore Type: select volume 6 and press Enter again

d. type: active and press enter

DiskPart marked the current partition as active.

To learn more about the commands, press ? and Enter Key.

Now you already finished setting the volume active so, type the command Exit and press Enter Again

Create a Boot Sector

5. Create a Boot Sector (bootsect.exe)

What is Bootsect? In the Command Prompt, enter the following command to learn about the tool: bootsect /?

SYNTAX:

bootsect {/help|/nt60|/nt52} {SYS|ALL|<DriveLetter>:} [/force]

Boot sector restoration tool

Bootsect.exe updates the master boot code for hard disk partitions in order to switch between BOOTMGR and NTLDR.  You can use this tool to restore the boot sector on your computer.

Run "bootsect /help" for detailed usage instructions.

It is located at your Windows Vista installer directory called \boot

1. Let’s go back to the guide…First, Find where’s your DVD Drive is located (Windows Vista Installer) and go to the boot directory, which in my case Drive F:

Next, type: bootsect(space)/nt60(space)Flash Drive Letter

C:\Windows\System32>f:

F:\>cd boot

F:\BOOT>bootsect /nt60 g:
Target volumes will be updated with BOOTMGR compatible bootcode.

G: (?\Volume{e5e56f28-84e3-11dd-bd4b-00188bdb682d})

    Successfully updated NTFS filesystem bootcode.

Bootcode was successfully updated on all targeted volumes.

F:\BOOT>

Copy Essential Files to the USB Stick

6. You have now successfully created a Boot Sector for the Vista Installer… Finally, Open Windows Explorer > Go to the the Windows Vista Installer DVD Drive and Copy these Files and folders onto the USB Stick:

1. Boot Directory

2. Sources Directory

3. Files in the root directory (drive)

That’s it!

Now you have a USB Stick Bootable Vista Installer… which BTW Rocks! (As Mr David says… Anyway, Me too!!!)

It’s very useful in troubleshooting and fixing Windows Vista problems e.g. Unbootable, infected by a virus, very slow and many more.

[via unlockforus.blogspot.com]