Create Bootable USB or DVD with Windows 8 ISO

How to Create a Bootable USB or DVD with a Windows 8 or 8.1 ISO


This tutorial will show you how to create either a Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 bootable USB flash drive or DVD to use to install the Windows 8 or 8.1 with.

Windows 8 and 8.1 System Requirements
Windows 8 works great on the same hardware that powers Windows 7.

Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster

RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)

Hard disk space: 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)

Graphics card: MicrosoftDirectX 9 graphics device or higher

Additional requirements to use certain features:

  • To use touch, you need a tablet or a monitor that supports multitouch.
  • To access the Windows Store and to download and run apps, you need an active Internet connection and a screen resolution of at least 1024 x 768.
  • To snap apps, you need a screen resolution of at least 1366 x 768.
This will not work to install Windows 8 or 8.1 for UEFI. For that, see this tutorial below instead.

UEFI Bootable USB Flash Drive - Create in Windows





OPTION ONE

Create Bootable DVD using "Burn Disc Image" Context Menu Item



1. For how, see:

How to Burn a "ISO" or "IMG" Disc Image file to a CD/DVD in Windows 7 and Windows 8


Right_Click.jpg

Burn-1.jpg






OPTION TWO

Create Bootable DVD/USB with "Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool



1. If you have not already, you will need to download a 32-bit or 64-bit Windows 8 or 8.1 ISO file, and save it to your desktop.

2. If you have not already, download and install the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool.

(At sites)
link_at_site.png

USB-DVD_Download_Tool_Site-2.jpg


3. Run the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool, and click/tap on the Browse button. (see screenshot below)

Step2.jpg


4. Select the downloaded ISO file (step 1), and click/tap on Open. (see screenshot below)

Step3.jpg


5. Click/tap on Next, and do either step 6 or step 7 below. (see screenshot below)

Step4.jpg


6. Create Bootable Windows 8 or 8.1 Installation USB Flash Drive


A) Connect a USB thumb drive, and click/tap on the USB device button. (see screenshot below)

Step5.jpg


B) Select the drive letter of the USB thumb, and click/tap on the Begin copying button. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: If the drive letter is not listed in the drop down menu, then click on the refresh button and try again.

Step6.jpg


C) If prompted, click/tap on Erase USB Device. (see screenshot below)

Step4B.jpg


D) If prompted, click/tap on Yes. (see screenshot below)

Step4C.jpg


E) When finished, close the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool, and go to step 8 below. (see screenshots below)

Step7A.jpg

Step7B.jpg



7. To Create Bootable Windows 8 or 8.1 Installation DVD
NOTE: If you are in Windows 7, then you could ause the built in Burn disc image feature to burn the ISO to a DVD instead if you like.

A) Insert a blank unformatted DVD into your DVD drive. Once it's recognized, click/tap on the DVD button. (see screenshot below)

Step5.jpg


B) Click/tap on the Begin burning button. (see screenshot below)

DVD-1.jpg


C) When finished, close the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool, and go to step 8 below. (see screenshots below)

DVD2A.jpg

DVD2B.jpg



8. You are finished, and can now install Windows 8/8.1 with your bootable USB or DVD.






OPTION THREE

To Create a Bootable Windows 8 or 8.1 Installation USB with "Rufus"



1. Download the latest version of Rufus at the link below, and save it's .exe file to your desktop.

Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way


Note   Note
This is a standalone exe file that doesn't install anything to your PC.
For Rufus FAQs, see: FAQ · pbatard/rufus Wiki · GitHub





2. Connect your USB flash drive if you have not already.

3. Run the rufus_v###.exe file, and click/tap on Yes if prompted by UAC.
NOTE: ### = latest version number.

4. Set Rufus with the settings below: (see screenshot below step 5)

  • Under Device, select the USB flash drive you want to format and use.
  • Under Format Options, check Create a bootable disk using, click/tap on the browse icon icon.jpg to navigate to and select your Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 ISO file.
  • Under Partition scheme and target system type, select MBR partition scheme for BIOS or UEFI computers.
  • Under File system, select NTFS.
  • Under Cluster size, select the (Default) (ex: 16 kilobytes or 4096 bytes) it has listed.
  • Under Format Options, check Quick format.
  • Under Format Options, check Create extended label and icon files.
  • Under New volume label, you can enter any name you like for the USB flash drive, or leave the default name.

5. When ready, click/tap on Start. (see screenshot below)

Rufus-1.png


6. Click/tap on OK to confirm. (see screenshot below)

Rufus-2.png


7. Rufus will now start creating the bootable USB flash drive. (see screenshot below)

Rufus-3.png


8. When Rufus is "DONE", you can close Rufus. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: It could take a little while to finish.

Rufus-4.png


9. You are finished, and can now install Windows 8/8.1 with your bootable USB.



That's it,
Shawn


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Last edited by a moderator:
Click to expand...
Thank You Brink you really do have telepathy as I was just about to burn the developer preview iso to DVD.
 
Hello Oblomow, and welcome to Eight Forums.

I haven't given it a try yet to be able to confirm yes or no, but you might give it a go and see if you like. :)
 
Hi, do we really need the USB/DVD tool for burning the *.iso to a DVD? Can't we just use the "Burn to disc" option of Windows 7?
 
Shawn,

One thing to consider, according to the information available from MS ....

The full developer preview is to large for a standard DVD and requires a dual layer Disk, the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool does not support Dual Layer disks, so some work around will be needed.

I am downloading the Full package and the standard package - I will install from the standard and then extract what I need from the full package ISO
 
pezzonovante said:
Hi, do we really need the USB/DVD tool for burning the *.iso to a DVD? Can't we just use the "Burn to disc" option of Windows 7?
Click to expand...

I just used that tool for both to make it easier to do the tutorial with, but yes you can use any image burning program you like including the "Burn to disc" feature in Windows 7. :)
 
Barman58 said:
Shawn,

One thing to consider, according to the information available from MS ....

The full developer preview is to large for a standard DVD and requires a dual layer Disk, the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool does not support Dual Layer disks, so some work around will be needed.

I am downloading the Full package and the standard package - I will install from the standard and then extract what I need from the full package ISO
Click to expand...

Good point Nigel. I added a note to warn and help.
 
You already know this Shawn, but one can just create a bootable flash drive in diskpart the win7 way, then extract the preview iso contents to the flash, boot from the flash and install.

Regarding Oblomow58's question, I first tried to extract the iso to my data drive and run setup.exe from there. It gave me the option to retain user files and settings or retain nothing. After that it started the install which kinda spooked me because I think it was installing to my data drive so I cancelled. then I tried to run setup.exe from the C: drive at which point it told me I needed at least 16 gigs free space (which I didn't have). So, if you have at least 16 gigs free space on the drive you want to install this thing on you can try running setup.exe from the extracted iso.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hello Bill,

Oh yes, that would work as well. Since it was a ISO file, I just used this method since it seemed to be easier and faster to do. That's all. :)
 
I am trying to boot windows 8 dp iso with EasyBCD at the moment I will report back what happens after this. :)

Update: I added the boot entry with just 2 clicks,

I am booting and configuring os installation parameters as we speak O_O;

Update 2: I am getting No Device drivers were found . Make sure that the installation media contains the correct drivers then click. I think this is a similar error to windows 7 =/

retrying again now.
 
Mercurial,

Thank you for the confirmation. I figured that it had to be the same as Windows 7. :party:
 
Oblomow58 said:
Is it possible to boot directly to the iso?

See the article "Boot from ISO without Burning to Disk"
(How to Make Windows Boot Manager Boot an ISO from your Hard Drive) in sevenforums tutorial section.
Boot from ISO without Burning to Disk - Windows 7 Forums

Thanks in Advance

Sincerely yours Oblomow
Click to expand...

It works as described - You can install Windows 8 x64 directly from the iso via EasyBCD.

In the meantime I installed it in an VMware virtual machine - Works fine with VMware 8!

Best Regards

Sincerely yours Oblomow
 
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