How to Install Windows 8 on USB Pen drive

Tips and Tricks | | August 21, 2012 at 7:38 pm

Dear Friend,this post will demonstrate how to install and run Windows 8 on a USB Pen drive without interrupting existing operating system environment on your Desktop PC/Laptop. Microsoft Windows 8,the latest Microsoft’s addition to their OS lineup is hitting markets with high expectations.

Windows 8 Logo How to Install Windows 8 on USB Pen drive

Windows 8 Logo

If you are eagerly waiting to test the new Windows 8 on your PCs we are presenting a solution for you:

This method involves the installation of Windows 8 on any USB storage device and then running the      operating system directly from your USB drive, itself. First  you have to make sure that you have the    following necessities : (1)a 16GB or higher USB storage drive (2)the Windows 8 ISO file (3)WinRAR archiver.

Please do the following steps:

 Step 1:

Open the Windows 8 ISO file using WinRar and extract the file ‘install.wim’ located in the ‘Sources’ folder which is  around 2GB in size. Now download a small utility of size less than 1 MB called ‘GimageX’ (Please download the utility by clicking here) and extract the file to a folder. The extracted folder will have both the 32-bit and 64-bit utility. Among both of them select the appropriate one based on the operating system type running on your PC.

GImageX Utility How to Install Windows 8 on USB Pen drive

GImageX Utility

install.vim in sources folder How to Install Windows 8 on USB Pen drive

install.vim in ‘sources’ folder

Before proceeding make sure that the USB drive for installing Windows 8 is ready. Make sure to take back up  of your pen drive because during this procedure we would delete all the existing files out the drive completely.

Step 2;

Connect the USB drive and go to start the Windows command prompt by typing “cmd’ in RUN prompt of windows. In command prompt  type the following commands one after the other in the below order:

  • Diskpart (Built-in windows utility for  repartition and to format the USB drives)
  • List disk (Command to list all the drives present on your PC.Please note down the drive letter of your USB drive for Windows 8)
  • Select disk # (Replace the # with the drive letter that represents your USB drive in the drive list)
  • Clean (Command to wipe the entire partition table of the USB drive)
  • Create partition primary (Command to create a primary partition on the USB drive)
  • Select partition 1 (Command to select the primary partition for the rest of the process)
  • Format fs=ntfs quick (Command to quick format the primary partition in NTFS file format)
  • Assign (Command to assign a drive letter to the new partition created. Use any free drive letter)
  • Active (Command to make the partition active to enable booting)
  • Exit (Command to closes the DISKPART utility)
Steps to do in Command Prompt How to Install Windows 8 on USB Pen drive

Steps to do in Command Prompt

Now that the formatted drive is ready for installation of the Windows 8 OS. Run the GimageX utility and click on the ‘apply’ tab. In the source field, select the ‘INSTALL.WIM’ file, which we have extracted earlier from the Windows 8 ISO file. Select the USB drive letter in the destination field. Keep all the settings in the remaining fields untouched and then click on the ‘Apply’ button.Now GimageX utility will extract the contents of the Install.wim file, which includes the necessary Windows 8 folders and system files. Please note that the procedure may take a few minutes based on the speed of your USB drive. When the GimageX utility logs is telling that the process is complete,close the GimageX and start the command prompt again.

Our next target is to make the USB bootable in order to run Windows 8 from the USB drive. For this, run the following command as mentioned:

 bcdboot C:\Windows /s F:  (To make the USB stick bootable. Where C is the drive where home windows ins installed and F: is the drive letter of your USB stick to which Windows 8 is to be installed.)  Please make sure to replace the drive letters of main/home OS and USB drive, accordingly in the command. This command will take a few seconds to transfer the necessary booting files to the USB drive. Once done, you can quit from the command prompt.

bcdboot command1 How to Install Windows 8 on USB Pen drive

bcdboot command

Step 3:

Now reboot your PC, by enabling ‘booting from the USB drive’ boot option by using the BIOS configuration window. Woww… Your PC is booting from the USB drive directly into Windows 8. Please specify the serial key is asked and more details such as username and password. Please proceed and configure Windows 8, as you wish and install all your favorite software and applications, as you would perform on a new Windows 8 PC. Please note that all the applications/softwares will be installed to the USB drive by default, unless specified with a different installation path.

pixel How to Install Windows 8 on USB Pen drive
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