Skip to main content

How to create a bootable Windows 8.1 USB drive

How to create a bootable Windows 8.1 USB drive
In keeping up with tradition, Microsoft has launched Windows 8.1 in both digital and physical form. Users can install the new operating system by using either a downloaded ISO file or the provided DVD. But what happens when neither option is right for you? You can use a USB drive.
There are a number of major benefits to using a USB drive for this process. It's compatible with virtually every device that is meant to run Windows, forgoes the need to have a spare DVD and the burner around and is much easier to store and carry with you wherever you may go. A USB drive can also be faster than any DVD, shortening the time needed for the install, and, chances are, you probably already have one lying around. Also, compared to ISO files which can only be leveraged from Windows, USB drives can be used with no software installed on the device.
Requirements

To create a bootable Windows 8.1 USB drive you will need the following.

  1. 4 GB or larger USB drive;

  2. Windows 8.1 DVD, ISO file or product key;

  3. A device that is running Windows.

What If I Have a Windows 8 Product Key?

If you have a Windows 8 product key, you can download the Windows 8.1 ISO file directly from Microsoft's servers, and create a bootable USB drive as well. My colleague Wayne Williams has already written a guide which details all the steps that you have to go through. Please note that you need a Windows PC for this task.
How Does the Windows 8.1 Product Key Help?

Obviously, you cannot install Windows 8.1 using just the product key. But, you can use it to download the ISO file directly from Microsoft's servers. Please note that the default Windows partition (usually "C") has to have at least 5 GB of free storage. You will have to follow these steps next:
  1. Download and open the Install Windows 8.1 setup file from Microsoft;

  2. Type in your Windows 8.1 product key and initiate the download;

  3. After the download completes, select Install by creating media;

  4. Select USB flash drive (it should be the default choice) and insert the USB drive;

  5. Accept any prompts to erase the contents of the USB drive in order to kick off the process.

If you prefer a visual step-by-step guide, you can look at the screenshots posted below.


How Can I Create the USB Drive From a Windows 8.1 DVD or ISO file?
If you already have the Windows 8.1 DVD or ISO file, you will first have to copy the contents of the DVD or ISO into a folder on the internal storage of the device. You can use 7-Zip or WinRAR to extract the contents, if the file cannot be mounted. Please make sure the location you choose has more free space available than the size of the media -- more than 4 GB should suffice. After you have copied or extracted the contents, follow the next steps:
  1. Open the Command Prompt. This can be done by triggering the Run -- Windows Key + R -- feature, and opening "cmd".

  2. Type "diskpart" to open the disk partitioning software. Accept the UAC security prompt, if asked.

  3. Insert the USB drive.

  4. Type "list disk". The program will then show you a list of all the physical drives (HDD, SSD, USB, etc.) that are attached.

  5. Identify the disk number of the USB drive (it can be recognized by looking at the size column; it's usually the last listed disk) and type "select disk X", where "X" is the disk number of your USB drive.

  6. Type "clean". This will erase the contents of the USB drive, so make sure you have the contents backed-up beforehand.

  7. Type "create partition primary". This command will create a primary partition on the USB drive.

  8. Type "select partition 1". This command will select the created partition.

  9. Type "active". This command will make the selected partition active.

  10. Type "format fs=ntfs quick". This command will format the created partition as NTFS.

  11. Type "assign". This command will assign a letter to the USB drive, which will make it show under Windows Explorer.

  12. Copy the contents of the Windows 8.1 DVD or ISO from the created folder on the USB drive.

Below is a visual step-by-step guide featuring all the commands presented above.








What Should I Do Next?

You have now created a bootable Windows 8.1 USB drive. To install the operating system from it you will have to set the device to boot from USB, right after powering it on. Afterwards, carry on with the process as you would normally.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Feel free to leave your message here.

Popular posts from this blog

Bouncy Content Filter for big Website

This space-saving content filter allows the users to switch from one category to the other in a fancy way! Each click fires the rotation of the gallery images, revealing the items belonging to the selected category. Content filters  are particularly useful for big websites, where each pixel counts. Lets say you are showing the “ last products ” of your e-commerce . How about giving the users the option to switch to the “most popular” products without a page refresh? A good solution could be to hide the “most popular” items right behind the “last products”, then use the power of CSS3 3D Transforms to rotate the items when the user switches from one option to the other. The bounce effect is optional, but you get the idea! The rotation won’t work on older browsers like IE9, but the experience won’t be broken – just a display on/off with no transitions. Lets dive into the code! Creating the structure We wrapped the filter into a <nav> element. The filter structur...
Post a Comment
Read more

Side Team Member Biography Resource

Use this team member biography resource to insert extended descriptions of your team members, with no need of dedicated pages or modal windows. Let the user meet your team and trust your company! Sometimes a picture and a role are not enough to completely describe a team member; you need a more detailed description to make your team “real”! But this requires space… and you can gain it using CSS3 transformations . Just give a look at the smart solution found by Aquatilis : the description enters from the side, just like mobile application behaviour, with no need of page reload. Creating the structure We created a #cd-team section containing our team members preview: <section id="cd-team" class="cd-section"> <div class="cd-container"> <h2>Our team</h2> <ul> <li> <a href="#0" data-type="member-1"> <figure><!-- .... --></figure> <div class=...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pricing Table-Cross Reference Table for Website

Pricing Table-Cross Reference Table for Website.Tables are indispensable parts of web designs. They let you visually organise tabular content, distributing it on rows and columns. Although they are quite easy to design and code for large screens, things get more complicated on smaller devices. Whether it’s a subscription plan or a checkout process, you must deal with tables in your projects. And you must deal with responsiveness too. I’ve noticed some websites just cut off some columns to make their tables fits on a phone, but this solution doesn’t work in most cases (at least not if you need 5+ columns). I found this good example of a responsive table which inspired this resource: the list of features gets fixed on a side, allowing the user to horizontally scroll through the columns. Nice! Now why didn’t I use the HTML table structure , and instead went with unordered lists? It was difficult for me to make this resource responsive using proper table semantics (maybe an...
Post a Comment
Read more