I want to install Windows 8 on my tablet but do not want to dig around to find my DVD player, so I decided to grab an old 4gig USB key and creating a bootable install for Windows 8. There are two ways to do this.
The easy way is to simply download the Windows 8 Consumer Preview tool. This tool will check that you have at least 4 gigs free on your machine, check to see what apps will or will not run under Windows 8 and finally allow you to create a partition, DVD or USB installable disk.
Now, if for whatever reason you cannot or do not want to take the easy route, you can download your own copy of Windows 8 and the manually create a bootable USB drive yourself.
First, get a copy of the Windows 8 iso file you want.
Next,
- First, you need a USB Flash drive (at least 4GB – any less and you can stop reading right here).
- You also need the Windows 8 Consumer Preview .ISO file – 64-bit download | 32-bit download
- You also need to download and install the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool available from Microsoft.
- OK, now you’re ready to rock. Pop the USB flash drive into a spare USB port and fire up the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool and browse to the .ISO file you want to use, and then click Next.
- Click on USB device as the media type.
- From the next screen choose the correct USB flash drive from the drop-down box and then click Begin copying.
- The tool will now format the drive and then copy the Windows 8 installation files onto it. This will take some time, so be patient!
- Once the tool is done copying the data across, you’re ready to use the USB flash drive to install the Windows 8 Consumer Preview onto your hardware. When you’re ready to install Windows 8, insert the USB flash drive into a free USB port, and then run Setup.exe from the root folder on the drive.
That should do it.
