Install Windows 10, 8.1/ 8 from a USB Stick

From:

Habib Heydarian's Blog @ Microsoft
Program Manager for Microsoft Robotics, Visual Studio

How to Deploy Windows 8.1/8 from a USB Drive

Habib Heydarian said:
Instructions (using the command line)

At a high level, the steps are:

Mount the Windows 8 [retail] ISO image on your computer

Format a USB flash drive

Copy the Windows 8 files onto the USB flash drive

Make the USB flash drive bootable

Install Windows 8 from the bootable flash drive

Step 1: Mount the Windows 8 [retail] ISO image on your computer

Step 2: Format a USB flash drive

Diskpart Commands

Open the command prompt; type the following commands:
a. diskpart
b. list disk

^^ This will show all connected disks, their disk numbers, connection status and disk size.

Using the sizes, determine which disk is your USB drive and remember its disk number (i.e. Disk 2)

Type the following commands: (where X is the disk number of your USB drive)

a. sel dis X
b. clean
c. cre par pri
d. active
e. format fs=fat32 Quick
f. exit

<...>
Step 3: Make the USB flash drive bootable

We just need to make the USB flash drive bootable before copying the files. To do this, you can use the Boot Sector Registration Tool (bootsect.exe) which is located in the boot folder of the Windows 8 ISO image.

Start a Command Prompt as an Administrator and CHDIR into the boot folder of the Windows 8 ISO image, e.g. I:\boot where I:\ is the drive where the ISO image is mounted

Type bootsect /nt60 k:
/* where k: is the drive assigned to the USB flash drive */

Step 4: Copy the Windows 8 files onto the USB flash drive

From a command line, use XCOPY to copy the Windows 8 files to the USB flash drive . In the example below, I:\ is the drive where the ISO image is mounted. k:\ is the USB flash drive.

Code:

xcopy i:\*.* k:\ /e /f /h

Step 5: Install Windows 8 from the bootable flash drive

How to create a bootable USB flash drive to install Windows 8 Developer Preview - Habib Heydarian's Blog @ Microsoft - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

Commands + Output from the CMD screen - steps 2, 3 and part of 4 (copying of files) - commands are in RED:

Code:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.2.9200]
(c) 2012 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>[COLOR=#ff0000]diskpart
[/COLOR]
Microsoft DiskPart version 6.2.9200

Copyright (C) 1999-2012 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: OWNER

DISKPART> [COLOR=#ff0000]list disk[/COLOR]

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online          465 GB  1024 KB
  Disk 1    Online          298 GB  1024 KB
  Disk 2    Online           14 GB      0 B

DISKPART> [COLOR=#ff0000]sel dis 2
[/COLOR]
Disk 2 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> [COLOR=#ff0000]clean[/COLOR]

DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk.

DISKPART>[COLOR=#ff0000] cre par pri[/COLOR]

DiskPart succeeded in creating the specified partition.

DISKPART> [COLOR=#ff0000]active[/COLOR]

DiskPart marked the current partition as active.

DISKPART> [COLOR=#ff0000]format fs=fat32 Quick
[/COLOR]
  100 percent completed

DiskPart successfully formatted the volume.

DISKPART> [COLOR=#ff0000]exit[/COLOR]

Leaving DiskPart...

C:\Windows\system32>[COLOR=#ff0000]cd /d i:\boot[/COLOR]

i:\boot>[COLOR=#ff0000]bootsect /nt60 k:[/COLOR]
Target volumes will be updated with BOOTMGR compatible bootcode.

K: (\\?\Volume{bb91749f-e659-11e2-bea7-001eec822104})

    Successfully updated FAT32 filesystem bootcode.

Bootcode was successfully updated on all targeted volumes.

i:\boot>[COLOR=#ff0000]xcopy i:\*.* k:\ /e /f /h[/COLOR]

I:\autorun.inf -> K:\autorun.inf
I:\bootmgr -> K:\bootmgr
I:\bootmgr.efi -> K:\bootmgr.efi
I:\setup.exe -> K:\setup.exe
I:\boot\bcd -> K:\boot\bcd
I:\boot\boot.sdi -> K:\boot\boot.sdi
I:\boot\bootfix.bin -> K:\boot\bootfix.bin
I:\boot\bootsect.exe -> K:\boot\bootsect.exe
I:\boot\etfsboot.com -> K:\boot\etfsboot.com
I:\boot\memtest.exe -> K:\boot\memtest.exe
I:\boot\en-us\bootsect.exe.mui -> K:\boot\en-us\bootsect.exe.mui
I:\boot\fonts\chs_boot.ttf -> K:\boot\fonts\chs_boot.ttf
I:\boot\fonts\cht_boot.ttf -> K:\boot\fonts\cht_boot.ttf
I:\boot\fonts\jpn_boot.ttf -> K:\boot\fonts\jpn_boot.ttf
I:\boot\fonts\kor_boot.ttf -> K:\boot\fonts\kor_boot.ttf
I:\boot\fonts\malgun_boot.ttf -> K:\boot\fonts\malgun_boot.ttf
I:\boot\fonts\malgunn_boot.ttf -> K:\boot\fonts\malgunn_boot.ttf
I:\boot\fonts\meiryo_boot.ttf -> K:\boot\fonts\meiryo_boot.ttf
I:\boot\fonts\meiryon_boot.ttf -> K:\boot\fonts\meiryon_boot.ttf
I:\boot\fonts\msjh_boot.ttf -> K:\boot\fonts\msjh_boot.ttf
I:\boot\fonts\msjhn_boot.ttf -> K:\boot\fonts\msjhn_boot.ttf
I:\boot\fonts\msyh_boot.ttf -> K:\boot\fonts\msyh_boot.ttf
I:\boot\fonts\msyhn_boot.ttf -> K:\boot\fonts\msyhn_boot.ttf
I:\boot\fonts\segmono_boot.ttf -> K:\boot\fonts\segmono_boot.ttf
I:\boot\fonts\segoe_slboot.ttf -> K:\boot\fonts\segoe_slboot.ttf
I:\boot\fonts\segoen_slboot.ttf -> K:\boot\fonts\segoen_slboot.ttf
I:\boot\fonts\wgl4_boot.ttf -> K:\boot\fonts\wgl4_boot.ttf
I:\boot\resources\bootres.dll -> K:\boot\resources\bootres.dll
I:\efi\boot\bootx64.efi -> K:\efi\boot\bootx64.efi
I:\efi\microsoft\boot\bcd -> K:\efi\microsoft\boot\bcd
I:\efi\microsoft\boot\cdboot.efi -> K:\efi\microsoft\boot\cdboot.efi
I:\efi\microsoft\boot\cdboot_noprompt.efi -> K:\efi\microsoft\boot\cdboot_noprom
pt.efi
I:\efi\microsoft\boot\efisys.bin -> K:\efi\microsoft\boot\efisys.bin
I:\efi\microsoft\boot\efisys_noprompt.bin -> K:\efi\microsoft\boot\efisys_noprom
pt.bin
I:\efi\microsoft\boot\memtest.efi -> K:\efi\microsoft\boot\memtest.efi
I:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\chs_boot.ttf -> K:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\chs_boot
.ttf
I:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\cht_boot.ttf -> K:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\cht_boot
.ttf
I:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\jpn_boot.ttf -> K:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\jpn_boot
.ttf
I:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\kor_boot.ttf -> K:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\kor_boot
.ttf
I:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\malgun_boot.ttf -> K:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\malgu
n_boot.ttf
I:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\malgunn_boot.ttf -> K:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\malg
unn_boot.ttf
I:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\meiryo_boot.ttf -> K:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\meiry
o_boot.ttf
I:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\meiryon_boot.ttf -> K:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\meir
yon_boot.ttf
I:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\msjh_boot.ttf -> K:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\msjh_bo
ot.ttf
I:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\msjhn_boot.ttf -> K:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\msjhn_
boot.ttf
I:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\msyh_boot.ttf -> K:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\msyh_bo
ot.ttf
I:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\msyhn_boot.ttf -> K:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\msyhn_
boot.ttf
I:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\segmono_boot.ttf -> K:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\segm
ono_boot.ttf
I:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\segoe_slboot.ttf -> K:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\sego
e_slboot.ttf
I:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\segoen_slboot.ttf -> K:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\seg
oen_slboot.ttf
I:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\wgl4_boot.ttf -> K:\efi\microsoft\boot\fonts\wgl4_bo
ot.ttf
I:\efi\microsoft\boot\resources\bootres.dll -> K:\efi\microsoft\boot\resources\b
ootres.dll
I:\sources\acres.dll -> K:\sources\acres.dll
I:\sources\actionqueue.dll -> K:\sources\actionqueue.dll
I:\sources\adfscomp.dll -> K:\sources\adfscomp.dll
I:\sources\admtv3check.dll -> K:\sources\admtv3check.dll
I:\sources\aeinv.dll -> K:\sources\aeinv.dll

<...> S N I P <...> 


I:\support\logging\en-us\auditetw.dll.mui -> K:\support\logging\en-us\auditetw.d
ll.mui
I:\support\logging\en-us\cmisetupetw.dll.mui -> K:\support\logging\en-us\cmisetu
petw.dll.mui
I:\support\logging\en-us\oobeldretw.dll.mui -> K:\support\logging\en-us\oobeldre
tw.dll.mui
I:\support\logging\en-us\setupcletw.dll.mui -> K:\support\logging\en-us\setupcle
tw.dll.mui
I:\support\logging\en-us\setupetw.dll.mui -> K:\support\logging\en-us\setupetw.d
ll.mui
I:\support\logging\en-us\setupugcetw.dll.mui -> K:\support\logging\en-us\setupug
cetw.dll.mui
I:\support\logging\en-us\sysprepetw.dll.mui -> K:\support\logging\en-us\sysprepe
tw.dll.mui
I:\support\logging\en-us\windeployetw.dll.mui -> K:\support\logging\en-us\windep
loyetw.dll.mui
I:\support\logging\en-us\winsetupetw.dll.mui -> K:\support\logging\en-us\winsetu
petw.dll.mui

2059 File(s) copied

i:\boot>

I used UltraISO to mount the Windows 8 ISO - http://www.ezbsystems.com/ultraiso/download.htm

Last edited: Sep 3, 2017

Click to expand...

Install Windows 10, 8.1/ 8 from a USB Stick

jcgriff2

Co-Founder / Admin
BSOD Instructor/Expert
Microsoft MVP (Ret.)

Install Windows 10, 8.1/ 8 from a USB Stick

jcgriff2

Co-Founder / AdminBSOD Instructor/ExpertMicrosoft MVP (Ret.)

Co-Founder / Admin
BSOD Instructor/Expert
Microsoft MVP (Ret.)