Open CMD

Run the following commands;

powercfg /hibernate off
I installed Win7 or 8 from a 80gb external hard drive (because I had no4gb usb d
rive at hand, only a 2gb one, and win7/8 install didnt fit toit).
What I had to do is to clean the hdd, butcreate a 4 or 8gig primary partition on
it (because 80gb would be toobig to be formatted to fat32).
1. Diskpart
2. List Disk
3. Select Disk 3 (Replace 1 with number reflecting your *external* HDD)
4. clean
5. create partition primary size=4096 align=1024 (here you specify the size of t
he partition - 4gb)
6. active
7. format fs=ntfs label="W8.1PRO-HDD-INSTALL" quick
8. assign letter=x (where x is the drive letter you want to assign to the new pa
rtition)
9. exit
10. xcopy f:\*.* /s/e/f x:\ (copy all installation files from the installation m
edia (in my case f:) to the newly created partition (x:))
Onemore thing what I had to do, is to update the bootsector to BOOTMGR byissuing
the follwoing commands. Without this it didn't work for me (butas DChoung point
ed out, this step may not be needed for USB drive, butapparently it was needed f
or the USB HDD, at least in my case):
11. f: (where f: is the original installation media, not the newly created)
12. cd boot
13. bootsect /nt60 x: (where x: is the newly created partition)
Besure to issue the bootsect command (step 12) as administrator. It isimportant
to issue this command from the installation media, not fromthe newly created par
tition (which also has the boot folder as wecopied it from the installation medi
a), because you'll get an accessdenied error then. If you get an access denied e
rror anyway, make surethat you don't have an open explorer window with the new p
artition orany file operation pending. If this doesnt help, just remove (unplug)
and plug the drive in again, and try again. I had a few tries until itcompleted
the command successfully without the access denied error, buteventually it did.
After this, I could bootfrom the USB HDD, and install Win7 from it to my tabletp
c, just as ifit was a DVD or a USB flash drive.