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Wintousb vhd11/9/2023 Select Custom when asked Which type of installation do you want? On the first Windows Setup screen, choose your language and click on Next. To make a bootable USB Flash drive that will install Windows 8 onto a netbook or other computer, simply run RMPrepUSBĪttach both USB devices and boot from the USB stick (or DVD) to start Windows 8 setup. If your system has a DVD drive or you have a USB DVD drive then you do not need to make a bootable Windows 8 install USB Flash drive. VHD = Virtual Hard Disk - a file that is mounted by Windows as if it was a real hard disk USB stick (bootable, with Windows 8 setup files) - or a Windows 8 Installation DVD Reboot after the Windows 8 installation files have been copiedĦ Removing the Windows 8 boot manager from the internal hard diskĪ Windows Netbook/PC/Notebook with internal hard drive - preferable a system that is a 'test' system and not your work or office system!Ī USB external hard drive (the VHD file will be created on here) - at least 20GB of free space is required These changes can however be undone after the installation has been completed (see end of this Tutorial).ĥ 3. already has Windows Vista or later OS on it) then the boot menu loaded by bootmgr will be affected. If the USB Hard drive already has a valid BCD (i.e. If the USB hard drive is a grub4dos multiboot HDD, then you will need to add an extra entry to chainload to the bootmgr bootloader. In addition, the boot partition of your external USB Hard drive will also be changed, as the hard drive needs to be able to load bootmgr. If you use a Windows Vista/7/8/Server2008R2 system, an extra boot entry will be added to the boot menu for the external Win8 USB VHD file. You will still be able to boot to XP on the internal HDD, but the first 'default' boot option will fail unless you also have the external USB drive connected which has the external Win8 USB VHD file on it. If you use a Windows XP system, it will change the bootloader to use bootmgr instead of XP's ntldr. This means that the Windows 8 Setup program will make you internal hard drive dual/multi bootable because it will add the entry for the Windows 8 VHD: The internal hard disk boot files will be changed by Windows 8 Setup! Note: to avoid altering your internal hard disk boot files, you can follow Tutorial 53 but create and mount a VHD as described below, instead of installing Win8 directly to the USB drive volume.Īs we are going to install a copy of Windows 8 onto a system (even though Windows 8 will actually be on an external USB drive and in a file), You can also move the Windows 8 VHD to another USB hard disk, provided that you also run bcdboot on the new drive. This means it is very easy to back up the whole Windows 8 installation, as it just means you copy one file. MS recommend that the Flash drive is a 'WindowToGo' approved flash drive (meaning it appears as a Fixed Disk and not a Removable Disk to Windows).īecause a VHD file is used, you can easily copy the VHD file from the USB drive to any or all of your USB Hard disks and USB Flash drives (if they are big enough!). The Flash drive will need to be at least 16GB though. I have not fully tested this on a USB Flash drive, but initial testing shows it should work (especially if it is a USB 3.0 Flash drive). This Tutorial has been tested using an XP netbook with a 60Gib USB HDD connected. You can thus boot your existing system from the OS that is on it's hard drive or boot the system from the Windows 8 VHD file on the external USB drive. So a 20GiB VHD file will appear to Windows as a 20GB drive containing the Windows OS and from which Windows 8 can boot. Note: A much easier method is now available! Use the free version of WinToUSB to quickly create a bootable USB drive.Ĭaution: This Tutorial is not for beginners - please read the Warning below!Ī VHD file is a file that can be loaded and treated by Windows as if it was a hard disk. This tutorial shows how you can create a Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) file on an external USB Hard drive and make the system boot to Windows 8 from the VHD file rather than from a flat file structure on the USB drive. This Tutorial has been adapted from misty's method 3 from reboot.pro. #Install Windows 8 to a VHD file on a USB drive!
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