Install Windows 8 from an old 256 MB USB stick with Windows PE

This is my fourth Windows 8 installation. This time, I installed it on my personal notebook instead of a VHD, because Windows 8 was finally ready for release. I started by downloading the Enterprise edition through my MSDN subscription. Unfortunately, my USB drive had died, leaving me without enough removable storage to boot from the image. So I started thinking about installing it over the network. Luckily, I still had my rusty ten-year-old 256 MB USB drive, which was just large enough for a Windows PE image. I also downloaded the Windows 8 ADK to create that boot image.

First, install the Windows 8 ADK. Then open a command prompt and enter the following commands to create an image.

mkdir c:\winpe_amd64
call copype.cmd amd64 c:\winpe_amd64
Makewinpemedia /ufd c:\winpe_amd64 F:

The first command creates a directory on your C: drive, which you can remove afterwards. The second creates the files needed for a 64-bit installation. The third copies them to your USB drive (F: in my case) and makes it bootable. For a 32-bit installation, replace amd64 with x86.

Next, create a share on a PC in your network and extract the contents of the Windows 8 ISO to it. Configure its permissions to allow everyone to access it. Also make sure your firewall responds to ping commands; this comes in handy when checking the connection. I created a share called Win8.

Now it's time to boot from the Windows PE image—in my case, from that small, rusty USB drive.

Make sure your PC is connected to the network with a cable, because a bare Windows PE image doesn't natively support your wireless connection. If you really need to use wireless, you'll have to add wireless drivers to the image. Look in the Windows ADK documentation for more information.

Once Windows PE has booted, you'll get a command prompt. First, we need to connect to the shared folder. Let's try pinging the computer that hosts the share, then connect to the share itself.

ping 192.168.0.10
net use z: \\192.168.0.10\Win8

The first command checks whether the computer is reachable on the network (it only works if you've enabled ping in the firewall). The second maps the share to the z: drive.

z:
dir

The first command switches to the newly mapped z: drive. Enter dir to list its contents. You should see setup.exe. Now just run it…

setup.exe

Your Windows 8 installation will start. After a few minutes, you'll be ready to go, with one thing left to do: activate your product key. If you're having trouble entering it, you can use the following command. I found it in Gill Cleeren's post.

slmgr -ipk xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

Just replace the xxxx placeholders with your own key.

If you're having trouble finding the command prompt in Windows 8, press Windows+F, select Applications, and type command. Windows+F lets you search different types of content on your Windows 8 machine.

If you'd rather install it on a VHD or in a virtual machine, one of my previous posts might help:

• Install Windows 8 Consumer Preview on a VHD
• Install and boot Windows 8 from a VHD
• Install Windows 8 Developer Preview in VirtualBox

Have fun using Windows 8.