Create Bootable USB Thumb Drive (Key)

Using Diskpart with Windows 8 Media to

Install Windows 8 Release Preview or Other
Operating System
TechNet Blogs ITProGuru Blog by Systems Management Expert Dan Stolts Create Bootable
USB Thumb Drive (Key) Using Diskpart with Windows 8 Media to Install Windows 8 Release
Preview or Other Operating System
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Create Bootable USB Thumb Drive (Key) Using Diskpart with Windows 8 Media
to Install Windows 8 Release Preview or Other Operating System
Dan Stolts ITProGuru
26 Jul 2012 3:16 PM

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Create USB Thumb drive key from Windows 8 ISO DVD or media to be used for install Stepby-StepThese procedures were written using Windows 8 Release Preview but will work with
prior versions of Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows 7 and Windows Vista and
Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2. There is a video walkthrough of this
process at the bottom of this post.
If you do not have the media, you will need to download. See Windows 8 Release Preview
(RP) and Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate (RC) Available for Download
1) Put the Windows DVD in a drive (or mount the ISO) and make note of the drive letter. In my
case it is drive G:
2) Put in the USB Thumb Drive Key in the computer and make note of the drive letter and the
size of the disk. In my case it is E: and 3.8gb

3) You need to run an elevated command prompt. Start | type cmd | Right-click cmd (top of
menu) | Run as Administrator
4) Next you will run Diskpart to prepare the disk for the OS {question mark ? below
should be replaced with the disk number of the drive you are using}
diskpart
list disk
select disk ?
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=ntfs quick label=Win8-RP-x64
exit

Leaving DiskPart...
5) Now we need to copy the boot sector. You should still be in the command prompt
window
C:\Windows\system32>g:
G:\>cd boot
Run "bootsect /help" for detailed usage instructions.
G:\boot>bootsect /nt60 e:
Target volumes will be updated with BOOTMGR compatible bootcode.
Bootcode was successfully updated on all targeted volumes.
G:\boot>exit

If you get an error message similar to below you may need to close any open windows with
that drive and try again. You could also use the /force switch if you prefer.

Updated NTFS filesystem bootcode. The update may be unreliable since the
volume could not be locked during the update:
Access is denied.
(This usually happens when the drive is open when trying to transfer boot sector)
6) Now we just need to copy files

This post has moved to...

Create USB Thumb drive key from Windows 8
ISO DVD or media to be used for install Stepby-Step
xcopy g:\*.* e:\ /E /H /F
Diskpart Command-Line Utility Syntax and Description
Video of this process: