UEFI compatible Windows 7 64bit USB install flash drive

To create usb flash installation media compatible with the UEFI and Windows 7 64bit it is necessary to keep in mind a few differences against the old BIOS boot/installation process.

If you plan to dual boot Linux with (Windows XP 32bit and 64bit, Vista 32bit, 7 32bit), don't use GPT partitioned hard drive. Only Windows Vista and 7 in 64bit version are capable to boot on UEFI system with GPT partitioned drive.

We will need:

• one, at least 4GB USB flash drive for Windows 7 64-bit installer
• a copy of bootmgfw.efi file. You can obtain this from an install of 64-bit Windows 7. It should be placed in C:\Windows\Boot\EFI. Or find copy somewhere on the Internet. [Mirror]
• a PC platform with native 64-bit UEFI 2.0 firmware. This is pretty much all Sandy Bridge systems (except for Gigabyte motherboards) and some new laptops (Dell Latitude E6420).
• the iso image of the Windows 7 SP1 64bit installation media.

Instructions:

1. create new partition table (not GPT) on the usb flash drive

   cfdisk -z /dev/sdb

2. create one partition over whole drive, set type FAT32 (0x0C) and save changes
3. make filesystem and mount it somewhere

   mkfs.vfat -F 32 /dev/sdb1
   mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usbflash

4. mount iso image of the Win7 64bit media and copy all files and directories to the usb flash

   mount -o loop win7ent-wSP1-x64-en /mnt/loop
   cp -r /mnt/loop/* /mnt/usbflash

5. In the root of the usb flash, now there is the /efi/microsoft/boot directory. Copy boot directory one level up so the files also reside under /efi/boot.
6. Copy the bootmgfw.efi file to /efi/boot, and rename it to bootx64.efi.
7. Reboot system. It should automatically boot with the UEFI method, but you may have do some changes in the UEFI Setup.