In some cases, this tool needs to be downloaded from your Microsoft Store account. To make the USB device bootable, you need to run a tool named bootsect.exe. I scrolled to the bottom of the page and saw “When creating a bootable USB device, I am getting an error about bootsect. I had the error when creating the VAIL installation on Monday night. See the Vail Beta Release Notes for more details on what these options do. Make sure to change the servername, password, and hint to match your preferences. Create a text file named “cfg.ini” on the root of your USB flash key, and paste the following entries into that file (remove the line numbers, or use the Copy To Clipboard feature of the code block below).Wait a little while as the tool creates copy the image.Select your USB flash key as the destination.iso image of the install DVD as the source Launch the Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool.Download the Vail install DVD from here.Download the Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool from here and install it on your PC.

Note that this flash key will be erased during this process, so remove any important files Make sure you have a 4GB or larger USB flash key connected to your PC.I’ve also provided the unattended installation file so that you won’t even have to perform any manual configuration steps.

Here are the steps you’ll need to follow in order to create a bootable USB flash drive with the Vail installer. Having the install image on a USB flash drive means I can install Vail anywhere, plus it is faster to install than from optical media and reduces the waste of a DVD that you will throw away in a couple of months. Most notably my HP MediaSmart Server EX475 does not recognize the only external DVD drive I own, which is an Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive, even though the drive works fine with every other model of MediaSmart Server as well as all the other PCs I use. No matter what type of server you are installing, I’ve found that having the Windows Home Server Vail Install DVD image on a USB flash key to be the easiest way to perform the installation.

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