How to make a 64 bit bootable Windows USB with a 32 bit Windows PC
Im using Win 8 32 bit and want to make a USB with Windows 64 bit
Note: The name of the app talks about Windows 7 but it works with Windows 8 as well 🙂
Need 4 things:
* Windows 7 or 8 32 bit to run this process on of course – Cant help you get this one
* Windows 7 or 8 64 bit ISO image – Cant help you get this one – you should have your own from MS
* “Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool” – Google Windows 7 USB tool (this link works: http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool)
* bootsect.exe – link below
STEPS:
1) Install “Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool” on Windows 32 bit system
2) Extract the given bootsect.exe to the directory where the “Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool” was installed
3) Run the “Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool” utility and Select the ISO for the source and USB drive (at least 4 GB) as the destination
4) Once thats complete your done, you can reboot to that USB and install Windows 64 Bit now.
Note without the bootsect.exe Step (3) would of failed at the very end of the procedure with an error talking about “bootsect”
DOWNLOAD LINK:Â bootsect7600x86.zip
For everyone who runs into the “we were unable to run bootsect.exe to make the USB device bootable” error.
Instead of rerunning the whole copy process just run the bootsect.exe manually! 🙂
Bootsect Command-Line Options are listed here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/en-en/library/cc749177%28v=ws.10%29.aspx
If your USB device is mounted to f: use this command on the cmd line window:
bootsect.exe /nt60 f: /force /mbr
I got the right parameters from the tool itself:
C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Apps\Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool\wudtsource\ISOTool\DriveService\UsbDriveService.cs
// Install the bootloader.
if (file.Exists)
{
ProcessStartInfo procStartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo(file.Name, String.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, “/nt60 {0} /force /mbr”, this.ActiveDrive.Name.Substring(0, 2)))
thanks a lot mate! this helped a lot!
Hi KOSSBOSS.
I followed your instructions but get a message “The selected file is not a valid ISO file”. Got any suggestions?
Thank you
Ken.
REdownload the ISO, it probably got curropted on download or copy (its semi common for files to get curropted on download or copy – its sad but true – with copy rare, but with download KINDA common). That or you need a different ISO, try another version.