Unable to Make Bootable USB Stick From ISO
It would seem that bootsect was failing because the device was already bootable.
This morning I decided to try using it to boot with the Windows 7 Professional 64-bit installer image loaded on it, despite the failure, just to see what would happen. Surprise-surprise, it worked. -_-
Warning: This will erase all data on this USB stick.
Launch a command prompt with admin rights and run the diskpart tool:
diskpart
list disk
select disk #
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format quick fs=fat32
assign
exit
The “list disk” command will show you the connected drives and with “select disk”, you can choose your USB stick. Be careful to select the right drive or else your day won’t have a happy end. The crucial step here is the “clean” command. It overwrites the MBR and the partition table (thereby, deleting everything on the stick).
The following description is taken from the tool's online help:
When creating a bootable USB device, I am getting an error about bootsect
To make the USB device bootable, you need to run a tool named bootsect.exe. In some cases, this tool needs to be downloaded from your Microsoft Store account. This may happen if you're trying to create a 64-bit bootable USB device from a 32-bit version of Windows. To download bootsect:
Login to your Microsoft Store account to view your purchase history
Look for your Windows 7 purchase.
Next to Windows 7, there is an "Additional download options" drop-down menu.
In the drop-down menu, select "32-bit ISO."
Right-click the link, and then save the bootsect.exe file to the location where you installed the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool (e.g.
%UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Apps\Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool).Once the file has been saved, go back to the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool to create your bootable USB device.
Archive.org link: https://web.archive.org/web/20130130224114/http://www.sevenforums.com/attachments/installation-setup/47060d1263222191-32-bit-bootsect-bootsect7600x86.zip