How to install Windows without USB or DVD

[da na]

This is a method to install Windows that does not require a bootable DVD or USB drive. 

It is useful for laptops that do not have optical drives and/or cannot boot from USB, and works on XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10, and 11.

 

What you will need:

-USB to SATA adapter. (SATA connectors in your PC won't work for this)

-The hard drive you are installing to

-a Windows ISO

-Rufus application

-Another computer

 

Connect your hard drive to the SATA-USB adapter. Do not partition it yet! Instead, go in Rufus then select:

 

Once your drive is recognized, select it from the list.

 

From that point on, select your ISO image, tick "Add fixes for old BIOSes" and make sure the partition scheme is in Master Boot Record mode.

 

Then you're done with Rufus after flashing the Windows ISO image to the disk.

Once Rufus has given the "Finished" message, you can pull the drive right out and stick it straight in the computer.

However, I recommend doing this next step to clean up your Windows install.

If you don't do this, you'll be wasting around 4-5gb of space on the drive as well as being prompted to launch Setup again at every boot.

 

Open Disk Management and shrink the volume to the absolute minimum size.

 

Your drive now looks like this.

All you'll need to do now is boot from the hard drive in the computer you install it in. The Windows installer will launch automatically. 

From the Windows installer, install the OS to the unallocated free space on the drive.

Once Windows is installed, you can go in and delete the installer partition from the HDD (and extend your Windows partition into the now-empty space) through Disk Management on the computer you've just put the HDD in.

 

That's it! I've used this numerous times to circumvent boot restrictions and it's worked every time. If it doesn't work for you, let me know - I'd love to work out any kinks in this method.