How to install Windows 8 from a USB drive
Read this article to know more about how to install Windows 8 operating system from USB drive. Microsoft revealed Windows 8 developer preview in the build conference which held in California.
As Microsoft released the developer preview version of Windows 8 operating system, many people around the world started downloading and using it. Many people follow the traditional method of installing the Windows 8 operating system. As a fact, Windows 8 can be installed through a USB drive also. Below are the step by step procedure to install Windows 8 operating system from an USB drive. To install Windows 8 from an USB drive, first you should have a Flash drive of 4GB capacity.
If you are looking for installing Windows on a virtual machine, read ste by step instructions to install Windows 8 on VMWare Workstation
Steps on how to install Windows 8 from an USB drive
1) Download the Windows 8 operating system from the official Microsoft site.
2) The iso file which downloaded will be in the range of two to three Gb.
3) You have to extract the contents of iso image into a folder. Name the folder as Windows 8. (for this users can use third party applications which converts .iso file into folder)
4) To start the procedure, first click on Start button in your Windows 7 system.
5) In the search box, type "cmd" and right click on that.
6) Now, select "Run as Administrator" option.
7) Command prompt will opens, type "List Disk" and press enter.
8) When you press enter, all the internal and external connected disks will be shown in the list. Check the USB drive number
9) From the options, select the USB Flash Drive number. For example "Disk 1".
10) Now, type "CLEAN" to clean the drive.
11) We have to create a partition for which we have to type "CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY"
12) Now, we have to select the partition. This can be done by typing "SELECT PARTITION 1".
13) Type "ACTIVE" to make the new partition in active mode.
14) Now, type "FORMAT FS= FAT32 QUICK" to format the USB drive with FAT32 file system.
15) Now, we have to assign a letter for the drive. For this type "ASSIGN" with any letter you want.
16) Type exit two times and exit the command prompt.
17) Now, you have to copy the contents of Windows 8 folder into the USB drive.
Now, Windows 8 bootable USB drive is ready. If you want to try it in a live machine, go to BIOS settings and change the boot option to "boot from USB device". Save and exit. Since, it is not a public version, it is recommended to try in a Virtual machine.
