How to make a bootable USB flash drive for Windows 8 Dev. Prev. X64

[Debraj]

I have recently switched to Windows Developer Preview Edition and I was using windows 7 previously and now I am willing to create a bootable USB flash disk for the Windows Developer Preview Edition but I don’t know how to do it and I don’t have much idea about it as well and I also want to know the system requirement for the Windows 8 Developer Preview. Is there anyone who has an idea about it and can help me out? Any suggestion regarding this will be appreciated.

[Alfons]

The system requirement for the Windows 8 Developer Preview is as followed

• 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
• 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
• In order To run the Metro style Apps you should have a screen resolution of 1024 X 768 or greater

[Gania]

In order to make a bootable USB flash drive using DISKPART. Just insert the USB flash drive and you will need to have 5.5 GB of disc space for the “Windows Developer Preview with developer tools English, 64-bit (x64)” after you make sure that you have the required space then Run CMD.EXE as an administrator and then run DISKPART and then press enter and then type help and then press enter and then take a look at the commands and then your usb will be formatted and you do not have to format the drive with Windows Explorer. After this just Open the .ISO file and then save the contents to the USB flash drive you can do the same by Burning the .ISO to a DVD or simply extract files from a .ISO to the USB flash.

[Abhiroopa]

I will like to inform you that if you are copying the files to a temporary directory to your hard disk then you can use the XCOPY or ROBOCOPY as well:
robocopy <source directory> <usb flash drive root directory> /mir
For e.g. robocopy d:\Win8Files e:\ /mir
xcopy <source directory>\*.* /E/Q/H <usb flash drive root directory>
For e.g. xcopy d:\ Win8Files\*.* /E/Q/H e:\

[Erakna]

You can also use a tool named bootsect.exe and you will have to download it from the Microsoft Store account and in order to download it just follow the below steps:

• Go to your Microsoft Store account in order to view the purchase history
• Check for your Windows 7 purchase.
• Near the Windows 7 you will find an "Additional download options" drop-down menu.
• Select "32-bit ISO." In the drop-down menu,

And then Right-click on the link and save the bootsect.exe file at the location where you have the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool and after saving the file go back to the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool and then create a bootable USB flash disk for the Windows Developer Preview Edition

[Bontu]

You can also use a copy of Virtual CloneDrive by SlySoft in order to mount the ISO.What all you have to do is plug the USB flash drive and then open the command prompt and then follow the below steps:
(Press enter after each command)

• diskpart
• list disk
• select disk 3 (your USB)
• clean
• create partition primary
• select partition 1
• format fs=ntfs quick label="Windows8"
• active
• assign
• Open an Explorer window when prompted.
• exit

After this Open the mounted ISO in Windows Explorer and then copy the content to the USB drive and then later plug the usb drive in to the OS recipient and then boot form it.

[Essien]

I will suggest you to use the Partition Wizard - Server Partition Software because what I have found is that if you use the the developer tool in order to copy the Windows 8 Dev. Prev. then you won’t be able to copy it to the USB Flash Drive because of the limitation of the Fat 32 file system which means that the file is too big to copy. I had installed the Windows 8 Dev. Prev. X64 and then i had downloaded and then extracted "Windows 8 Dev. Prev. with the Dev. Tools" iso using 7Zip and then after launching the program I just followed the instruction and then I was able to create a bootable USB flash disk for the Windows Developer Preview Edition without any problem.

[Clarice]

I will suggest you to Download and install MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition and then download the Windows Dev. Prev. X64 and then extract the file using 7Zip and then attach the USB Flash drive and then launch “MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition program” and then right click on it and then select delete and then again Right click on the flash drive and then click on Create. After this Right click again and format Fat32 and then click on Apply and then select the flash drive and then click on Set Active. After you finish all this Launch Windows Explorer and then go on to the menu and select >folder option>View Tab>and then select "Show hidden Files, Folders” and apply it and then Copy the files to your Flash drive and then Reboot and then enter the Bios Setup Program and then Install Windows 8 but Make sure that your flash drive is set to Boot first. Hope that helps

[CGale]

This problem has been raised by a no people and there is one thing common that most of them have faced this problem after upgrade to Lion which is actually not the main cause and it is due to removing the samba in Lion and the solution that I have found for this is adding Samba 3 to Lion so you can just try that out and if that does not help than I will suggest you to run a virtual machine of XP or something and then try to share the files and folder through it and I think that the other have to install Mac drive to mount the Mac formatted HDDs. Hope that helps.