How to Create Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 USB Installer

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Creating Windows USB Installer is a must when installing Windows OS on a  system with no optical drive like netbooks. If you don't have USB DVD-ROM for example you can settle with a USB Thumb Drive as a replacement.

Follow this simple instruction and everything is point and click. No more DOS command like other tutorials out there.

Tools needed in creating a Windows USB Installer:

• Download WinToFlash (extract the zip file)
• Windows Installer "XP, Vista or Seven" (DVD, CD or ISO)
• USB Flash Drive (Minimum recommended is 4Gig)

WinToFlash is a free utility that will create Windows USB Installer. It supports XP,  Vista and Seven. Although there are other utilities with same functionality but the WinToFlash is by far the simplest and user friendly. You don't need to be a technie to make one USB installer if you use this app. In my example I use Windows 7 and I also tested in XP both OS works and installed flawlessly.

How to Create Windows XP or Windows 7 USB Bootable Installer:

1. Insert your DVD Windows Installer to your optical drive. (I assume this is your spare laptop or desktop).
2. Execute the WinToFlash.exe
3. Use the Wizard Mode
4. Locate your Windows Installation Path
5. Click Next and will copy everything, including the boot files needed for USB to become Bootable.
6. Wait for few minutes as it's copying.

• If you are using DVD Installer locate your DVD ROM.
• If you are using ISO, mount your ISO (I use PowerISO or Daemon Tools)
• If you have extracted Windows Installer, locate your Folder

Bonus:

How to Set USB as the first Device to Boot:
1. Reboot your Machine
2. Go to BIOS Settings (press F2 or Delete Key) during POST (Power On Self Test)
3. Go to BOOT Configuration Menu
4. Set your USB Removable Device as the First Device to load during Boot.
5. Save your Configuration and Exit (reboot).

Note:If you set the device properly, the system will locate the boot info in your USB Flash Drive and it will load the OS.

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How to Make Windows 7 USB Installer

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This tutorial will guide you on how to make USB bootable windows installer. This is useful for installing Windows 7 on systems with no optical drive e.g DVD-ROM.

Requirements:
Copy of Windows 7 Installer
USB Flash drive (4GIG) Minimum
Computer with DVD-ROM

Step 1: Format the Drive
Plug in your USB Flash Drive
Open a command prompt as administrator (Right click on Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt and select \"Run as administrator\")

We need the drive number of your USB Drive, on Command Prompt window type the following:

diskpart
list disk

The number of your USB drive will be now listed.In this tutorial I will assume that your USB drive no. is "1"

Format the drive by typing the next instructions into the same window. Replace the number \"1\" with the number of your disk below.

select disk 1
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=NTFS
assign
exit

The USB drive is now formatted and ready for bootable process..

Step 2: How to make the Drive Bootable

Insert your Windows Vista / 7 DVD into your drive.

Change directory to the DVD’s boot directory where bootsect lives:

d:
cd d:\\boot

bootsect will make your USB bootable and ready for Vista or Windows 7 image. The "g" is the drive letter of your USB just change it to your current USB drive letter.

   bootsect /nt60 g:

We're done!

Step 3: Copy the installation DVD to the USB drive
Step 4: Set your BIOS to boot from USB

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How to: Sync Twitter with Facebook

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I've been using apps that will sync my tweets to my facebook status but facebook is constantly changing their codes so that this apps will become ineffective. I even tried the first official twitter app but since then I get log in error. Few third party application like SELECTIVE TWEETS which you can selectively choose your tweet to facebook stat by adding #fb to your tweets.

Just today, when I was looking for some twitter widget for WP and blogger I was able to click "GOODIES", that can be found in the footer of twitter...funny thing is I haven't seen it if not through some googling...:)

So here is the simple walk through on how to set it up...

1. First go to twitter.com
2. Go to GOODIES at the footer of the site.
3. Click Widgets,Facebook

4. Click the Facebook Application link and Install the Application.


Now you can tweet from inside facebook by going to the application you just installed. apps.facebook.com/twitter or from twitter.com

I hope this tutorial will help you synchronize your tweets to your facebook status.

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Cable Management "sleeves" D.I.Y

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How to do cable management "sleeves" to your Generic Power Supply unit? This simple guide will help you clean your system case.

The problem with Generic PSU is that it has no sleeves unlike high-end PSU.

Another weakness of Generic PSU is that it is not modular. What is a modular PSU?It has a detachable rails where you can detach the unused rails thus helping you with unused wiring...

Now let's start do some sleeve to our generic PSU. There are stores that really caters to materials used in modifying, I myself is new to case modding but I am trying hard to perfect every job I do. The only problem right now for me is the lack of supplies so sometimes I have to get them online or not just some resourcefulness and improvise.

Materials for this project:
Electrical Tape - any color of choice
Cutter - to cut those tape.

Here's the unsleeve Generic PSU of mine, stock from Astone Casing...


Separating the rails from 24-PIN ATX:


Cover the 24-Pin ATX Wire with Electrical Tape make sure you tape it tightly. If loosely tight it will not last long and it will look not nice right.

We continue with our rail. Separate each rail, using cutter you can cut the plastic or zip-wire use so that you can separately tape each later on.



This is almost done, what I did was I added more tape on it. But this is okay already.


My Final Output

Now that the cable has been sleeved time now to do cable management from the inside of your system case. Basically all you need to do is to reroute all the wirings to places that it will not be cranky too look at. Try to tuck the wires "unused rails, SATA cable, IDE cable, FDD cable,etc" to the back of your mobo plate.

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USB Tracking

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Well, it is been awhile since I updated this blog of mine. I was thinking if I will continue writing and will stick to blogspot. And, also there are too many tech bloggers out there with much time to write. I hope I will have the now the time to write.

With the advent of USB thumb drive and removable media, because of the small capacity of floppy drive this devices took over, this is very useful in transferring files such as music, movies, office documents. But behind every technology there is a dark side. In corporate world, top secret projects are well guarded but how you will guard your data to thieves? Even in your office, home,etc...If they can plug a nail size memory stick to your computer and get everything they want?

Here is a guide in USB Tracking, you can get the log of any USB device attached to your system. Each USB thumb drive has a unique serial number and windows will store it in the registry. I only tested this on my XP box. Surely it'll work on Vista, Windows 7 and Win98.

Q.Where this USB tracking use to? This is a little example of a computer forensics.

A-1.If you want to get the serial number of your thumb drive and record it. Personally, I created a small program that tells who's the owner of the thumb drive, my name, mobile number, serial number of the device as a proof that I am the rightful owner I put it my a secret partition with password protect and in my unsecured partition. If ever I lost it, and someone finds it, if ever he/she has a good heart, they can contact me because of that information and i can prove it because I have the serial number of the device.

A-2.If you are in doubt if someone is stealing the contents of your computer, though he/she needs to physically plug the device to your unit. In this you will able to check if there is an unknown flash drive was plugged into.

A-3. After you get all the information above such as serial number, you can also get the last read/write of the USB thumb drive which I think is the most important part of the whole investigation. If you are a Network Administrator, and have a logging system, you will know who logged in that specific time, thus knowing who's stealing infomation.

Lets start:
We don't need special tool on this, everyone's favorite, the REGEDIT, fire up Start > Run > Regedit

Navigate to this:
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Controlset001\Enum\USBTOR

In this you will able to see the attached devices, navigating to one of the device you will get the serial number which is unique to each device.



Just copy the serial number, now it's time to get the read/write entry of the selected device.

Go to:

\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Controlset001\Controls\deviceclass

- in this entry you will now get the read and write log.

I will use my thumb drive's serial number - "0019B931D970C8C155DB05A5&0"

After finding the entry, export it as a clear text;


Here what I got:
Key Name: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceClasses\{53f56307-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}\##?#USBSTOR#Disk&Ven_Kingston&Prod_DataTraveler_2.0&Rev_1.00#0019B931D970C8C155DB05A5&0#{53f56307-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}
Class Name:
Last Write Time: 3/26/2009 - 12:52 PM
Value 0
Name: DeviceInstance
Type: REG_SZ
Data: USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_Kingston&Prod_DataTraveler_2.0&Rev_1.00\0019B931D970C8C155DB05A5&0


Key Name: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceClasses\{53f56307-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}\##?#USBSTOR#Disk&Ven_Kingston&Prod_DataTraveler_2.0&Rev_1.00#0019B931D970C8C155DB05A5&0#{53f56307-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}\#
Class Name:
Last Write Time: 3/26/2009 - 12:52 PM
Value 0
Name: SymbolicLink
Type: REG_SZ
Data: \\?\USBSTOR#Disk&Ven_Kingston&Prod_DataTraveler_2.0&Rev_1.00#0019B931D970C8C155DB05A5&0#{53f56307-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}


Key Name: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceClasses\{53f56307-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}\##?#USBSTOR#Disk&Ven_Kingston&Prod_DataTraveler_2.0&Rev_1.00#0019B931D970C8C155DB05A5&0#{53f56307-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}\#\Control
Class Name:
Last Write Time: 3/26/2009 - 5:04 PM
Value 0
Name: Linked
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x0


Key Name: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceClasses\{53f56307-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}\##?#USBSTOR#Disk&Ven_Kingston&Prod_DataTraveler_2.0&Rev_1.00#0019B931D970C8C155DB05A5&0#{53f56307-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}\Control
Class Name:
Last Write Time: 3/26/2009 - 5:04 PM
Value 0
Name: ReferenceCount
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x0


Now I am able to get the last write to the device.

Mounted Devices: Contains all the drive letter being used by the mounted devices such as thumb drive, external hard drive,
Registry Entry: \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices

Conclusion: In this tutorial you will able to get the serial number of your USB device, use the serial number to retrieve the information about the last write.

Forgive me if I have some typo or anything, just feel free to comment

And lastly I would like to give credit to Harlen , I forgot his last name for the great book, Windows Forensics...

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