Create Bootable Windows Server 2008 USB Stick
I recently had the need to install Windows Server 2008 from a USB stick. This was because I didn’t have a working DVD drive to hand. I found a couple of tutorials online explaining how to create the disk. They generally explained this technique:
C:\> diskpart
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
However it appears diskpart is unable to see USB sticks under Windows XP. I have later tried on Vista and this limitation appears removed. But for those using Windows XP I have found an alternative method.
Firstly find the bootsect.exe tool on the Windows Server disc (in the boot directory). Then run this command where U is the drive letter of the USB stick.
D:\boot> bootsect.exe /nt60 U:
Now copy all the files from the Windows Server disc onto the USB stick. This can be done by dragging in the GUI or using the xcopy method shown previously.
I have yet to repeat this procedure and I might have previous partitioned or formatted my USB stick in a unique way. So if this method doesn’t work drop me a mail and I’ll see what I can do.
- Posted in: Blog ♦ Install ♦ USB ♦ Windows Server
Thanks for the help, this worked great for me, although I used fs=NTFS.
Of note, I was building three different 8GB drives (server 2008 – Hyper-V, Server 2008, Vista), and found that I had to reboot Vista between each usage of the diskpart utility, otherwise it was telling me there wasn’t enough free space, no matter how many cleans and clean alls I tried.
Aside from that, all three drives went well!
Saved our butt! Showed up to reformat a server with only a cd-rom, had one USB key on us. Thanks heaps!
This doesn’t seem to work for me, I have a Corsair Flash Voyager 16GB usb drive. I ran the bootsect command which worked, and then tried both xcopy and GUI to copy the Windows 2008 files over but my server won’t recognize the drive as bootable. I’ve tried formatting first with SwissKnife as well but that didn’t help. Any recommendations? I only have access to windows server 2003 and XP, so diskpart doesn’t work for me.
John E, the only suggestion I have is you try with a different USB drive. As I understand it there are two types of drives, and some BIOSes have problems booting from one of them.
Hi.
This worked for me.
I got a HP ML150 and it wouldn’t boot off my original W2008 DVD. Other DvDs and CDs booted OK. Even when using the same DvD-RW disc it would boot Win7, but not Win Server 2008.
Very strange.
So I followed the steps to boot off of my USB stick Corsair Flash Voyager GT 16Gb and it worked like a charm.
Thanks alot for this (although you’re not the author, this exact same solution is available on 100 sites all over).
Thx anyway!
Worked a charm and got me out of a sticky patch or a rack full
@SithSon – who cares if he isnt the author – it worked didnt it?
nice one Andrew
Glad it worked for both SithSon and Mac. I may not be the author of the original idea, but I have credited my sources and combined different people’s knowledge to make this work, and if you notice I posted this over two years ago when I couldn’t find the full solution elsewhere.
Thanks for the post.
Helped me out!
Thanks very much, it works
I had the opposite experience on XP where
D:\boot> bootsect.exe /nt60 U:
Command won’t run since it is not win32 application.
While the diskpart had no issues seeing drive(scan disk 4GB) and old xcopy of DVD content worked.
Thanks!
Buildings are not cheap and not everyone can buy it. Nevertheless, personal loans are invented to support different people in such kind of situations.
thanks so much for a job well done saves me a lot of headache. doing it i GUI is a lot easier
Thanks,
It works pwerfect.
Thanks for the detailed instructions. Everything worked. It took a lot longer to copy the files from the disk to the thumb drive than I thought it would, but in the end it’s working and is a lot more convenient than using a USB DVD drive.
Thanks, it helped very much!
Thanks, it worked great!
For XP users, the two files here are invaluable:
http://www.jcmiras.net/surge/p96.htm
Hello there!
all those method work perfectly but the point is that I want to install from USB to USB. From the beginning, up to the step where I have to choose the destination device, I can only see "C" and "D" but my USB drive is not listed bellow.
Any help from anybody?
Thanks
Thanks heaps for this guide.
I didn’t get it working straight away though. Booting was fine, but I found the old 0×80070241 error when copying files.
I then re-copied the files with added switches /v/j which fixed the problem.
I tried this 3x with no success. For some reason my win 2008 DVD would not properly make a bootable USB. I instead used the bootsect command from a win7 install DVD to create the bootable USB, and afterward copied the files from the win 2k8 iso onto the USB drive. This worked.
Thank you. This has been driving me crackers!