A lot has been written on installing Windows 8 from a
USB flash drive. There are quite a few working guides and applications
available on the web to create a bootable USB flash drive, or to install Windows 7 from USB flash drive. The best way to install Windows 8 from USB flash drive is to create a bootable USB drive using the Command Prompt and then use the bootable USB drive as installation media to complete installation.
But
the problem with all these USB guides is that your PC’s BIOS should
support USB boot. In other words, you can’t use a USB flash drive as
installation media if your PC doesn’t support this feature. Many of you
might have a notebook or netbook that doesn’t support USB boot. So, is
there a workaround to install Windows 8 from USB on a PC that doesn’t
support USB boot? The answer is yes.
Even though the procedure is simple and
straight-forward, we recommend this method only if your PC doesn’t
support booting from USB.
Method 1:
NOTE: In this guide, we assume that you are trying to install Windows 8 on a PC running with Vista or Windows 7.
Step 1: Begin the procedure by downloading
and installing the popular EasyBCD software on your machine that
doesn’t support USB boot. EasyBCD is a free software and is compatible
with both x86 and x64 versions of Windows.
Step 2: The next step is to run EasyBCD software. Run EasyBCD, click Add New Entry button in the left side. On the right-side, under Portable/External Media, switch to BIOS Extender tab. The BIOS extender can be used to boot from network, CD, or USB on computers that don’t natively support it.
Step 3: Under BIOS Extender tab, click Install PLoP button to install PLoP entry to the boot menu.
Step 4: You have just made your Windows machine to boot from USB drive.
Step 5:
Now that you have installed PLoP and EasyBCD BIOS Extender, it’s time
to test your bootable Windows 8 USB on your machine. Plug-in the
bootable USB drive, and reboot your PC.
Step 6:
You will see a new entry in the boot menu named EasyBCD BIOS extender.
Select the BIOS extender option and hit enter key to see to the next
screen. In the following screen, you will see a list of options.
Step 7: Select USB option to start booting from your USB flash drive. From here onwards, follow the on screen instructions to complete Windows 8 installation process. Good luck!
Method 2: Use this method if your PC is not bootable or you don’t have any OS on your PC. Note that your PC must have a working CD ROM drive to use this method.
Step 1: Download the PLoP Boot Manager from here
and burn the ISO file it to a CD or DVD (you need to extract the zip
file to get ISO file). If you are on Windows 7, use the native ISO
burner for this job.
Step 2:
Switch on your PC, insert the PLoP CD or DVD into the optical drive.
Use the appropriate key to enter the BIOS and change the boot priority
to CD/DVD drive so that you can boot from CD/DVD.
Step 3:
Connect your bootable Windows 8 USB flash drive (learn how to make
bootable Windows 8 USB) to your PC and reboot your PC. Your PC will boot
from PLoP CD/DVD and within a few seconds your will be taken to this
screen:
Select
USB option and press enter key to boot from already connected bootable
USB flash drive. Follow the on screen instructions to finish installing
Windows on your machine. Good luck!
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