Program that converts Windows 7 install files into an ISO image

Question

I recently got to build a custom image of Windows 7, and I can successfully install it on other computers. The problem I have is right now I have to do the installs from a bootable hard drive. I would much rather do this from a disk or ISO image. I know there is a program that will take the Windows 7 system files and convert it to an ISO image, but I can't think of it.

Otherwise, could I just simply burn the files to a DVD? Would that work?

Solution 1

If you can, a better solution is to use a USB drive for installation purposes.

See this article on how to prepare a USB flash drive for Windows 7 installs, once the drive is prepared properly, simply copy and paste your installation files to it.

The only thing I would change from that article is the format command.

Use

format fs=fat32 quick

Otherwise it will take forever to do a long format.

If the wim file is larger than 4 GB, you cannot use FAT32, you will have to use NTFS and one more step to make the flash drive bootable under NTFS as outlined in the article.

format fs=ntfs quick

Any time you wish to change to installation files to another custom build, just delete all the files from the flash drive and copy the new ones onto it.

Solution 2

Magiciso will do that for you. Easy enough to use.

Comments

[Ramhound]

Just burn the iso...the iso itself is already bootable, the iso you can download from Microsoft is bootable by default.

[Stephen R]

I don't have the iso. I copied the files from the Windows instillation disk to replace the install.wim file. I want to take the files that I copied from the Windows disk into a iso format for deployment on virtual machines or easy to burn disks

[hjpotter92]

MagicISO as James suggested

[dnbrv]

@StephenR: It's much faster to install off flash drive than optical media.

[Stephen R]

Its actually an extra hard disk drive I just converted to USB to test it out. I do need to get a Flash drive to do the job faster and deploy it more easy

[Moab]

Its up to you, a thumbdrive is much easier to carry, one note, if the wim image is larger than 4gb, you will have to use the NTFS format on the flash drive, and one extra step to make it bootable.