Installing Windows 8 Developer Preview via USB key is pretty easy. You’re going to need a USB Drive with at least 4GB of capacity and a DiskPart a small command-line utility that’s more than likely already on your system. If you don’t have DiskPart you can find it here.
I’ve tested this out on my own system, but please let me know if you have any issues in the comments below.
- Open the Command Prompt (Start -> Programs -> Accessories) .
- Type in diskpart to bring up the Disk Partitioning Utility.
- Then run the list disk command to see which drive is your USB drive.
- Now run select disk 1 where the “1″ is actually the corresponding number of your USB drive.
- Run clean.
- Once the thumb drive is clean, you can run create partition primary.
- Now make the partition active by entering active
- Then you need to set up the file system as Fat32 by running format fs=fat32 (this will take a minute or two depending on the size of your drive).
- Entering the assign command gives the USB drive a drive letter, making it easy to access from Windows Explorer.
- Mount the Windows 8 Developer Preview ISO (I use Daemon-Tools Lite) or the insert the Windows 8 DVD you’ve burnt.
- In the command prompt change to the drive letter of your DVD or mounted image for example F: if your DVD is in the F drive.
- Change to the the boot directory CD BOOT.
- Then type in the following BootSect.exe /NT60 G: where G is at replace with the drive letter of your USB drive.
- Now you can copy all of the files and folders from the Windows 8 Developer Preview to the root of the USB drive (a simple drag and drop will do).
That’s it! Congratulations you now have a boot-able Windows 8 Developer Preview USB drive. Remember if this isn’t working in your computer to check that the boot priority has USB drive first in your BIOS. Also to note that the Windows Developer Preview will not update your current install! You must preform a clean install!
Please let me know how you get on in the comments!
Sep 15th by Ad|Man Continue Reading