Installing from USB drive in Windows- UPDATED

tommyboy180 · Oct 3, 2011, 5:17 AM

Using a guide at ubuntu.com

Windows 7

Download the desired memstick .img file such as pfSense-memstick-2.0-RELEASE-i386.img.gz
Decompress memstick .img.gz file to .img file (7-Zip can achieve this)
Download Disk Imager from https://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer/+download
Insert your flash media
Note the drive letter assigned to your flash media
Start Disk Imager as Administrator
Select the downloaded file and target device, and click "Write"
Remove your flash media when the operation is complete

If you need command line, Linux, or any other platform please visit the link above and don't bother burning another disk ever again.

AllGamer · Nov 3, 2011, 3:09 PM

Thanks!

confirmed working

this is by far the easiest and cleanest method :D

slth · Nov 5, 2011, 3:35 PM

Working like a charm here as well with pfSense-memstick-2.0-RC3-i386-20110621-1650.img

I'd prefer to use this method over the CLI physdiskwrite method anytime, thanks!

jaredadams · Nov 5, 2011, 7:07 PM

It works much quicker too!

jimp · Nov 7, 2011, 9:47 PM

You might want to mention that you should decompress the .img.gz first so it's just an .img file - That's one advantage that physdiskwrite has, it can write from a compressed image. Last I tried it, which has been a while, Win32 Disk Imager didn't support that. (But it's superior in just about every other way)

tommyboy180 · Nov 7, 2011, 10:09 PM

Updated! Thank you.

jimp · Nov 7, 2011, 10:12 PM

7-Zip is small, fast, and Free. No need for WinRAR :-)

http://www.7-zip.org/

jaredadams · Nov 13, 2011, 7:41 PM

Anyone else notice it bricking their flash drives? After I'm finished I cant get Windows to reformat it so that I can use it again.

tommyboy180 · Nov 13, 2011, 8:21 PM

@jaredadams:

Anyone else notice it bricking their flash drives? After I'm finished I cant get Windows to reformat it so that I can use it again.

Your flash drive isn't bricked. It just needs to have the partions removed. Unfortunatly, Windows isn't much help in the GUI. You can command line remove the partitions in windows or use parted/Gparted in a linux Distro.

slth · Nov 13, 2011, 9:09 PM

In case you are wondering how on Windows:

cmd -> diskpart -> list disk -> select disk #yourflashdrive -> clean

jaredadams · Nov 13, 2011, 11:04 PM

Thanks, that works.

geniuspapak · Dec 14, 2011, 11:32 AM

;D

acjohnson · Dec 28, 2011, 2:20 AM

This worked using the 2.1 image from jimp also. You can find it here:
http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,43238.0.html

shaqan · May 25, 2012, 11:27 AM

@slth:

In case you are wondering how on Windows:

cmd -> diskpart -> list disk -> select disk #yourflashdrive -> clean

by GUI
Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Computer Management->Disk Management..
find the USB stick drive listed, usually by the bottom of the list. Click on existing partition, right mouse click and select "delete.." from menu.. then create new partition by right clicking on raw drive volume and selecting "New Simple Volume"..