Tag Archives: usb drives

Installing Windows 8 with Developer Tools on a netbook without a CD-ROM

I bought an Inspiron Duo over the last week or so and I am highly impressed by it, not only is the touch screen responsive.  It is as powerful as my old work laptop, runs windows 7 and Windows 8.  I ran into quite a few problems trying to install.
 
Tools needed:
USB Drive 8-16GB
Windows 7 DVD USB Download I used this to load the windows 8 USB (With Developer Preview)
WinToFlash (incase the above errors). I used this to load Windows 7 Ultimate  SP 1 onto a USB .
 
Problem: The USB drives have a hard cap on file size, the Windows 8 Developer Preview install.wim file is too large to copy to the USB.
So I have seen tons of people with the windows 8 operating system, but none with the OS and all the tools as well.
 
The Windows 7 DVD tool errored when trying to use it on Windows 7 but came in handy on Windows 8
Once you have the setup files copied to the USB, in the DUO you can hit F2 for a boot menu and select Install from USB.
 
On the Duo it had a 350 GB HD and the ITB drive I bought had an extra platter so it wouldnt fit :(.
 
I went with 50 GB on windows 7 with VS, Expression, Office and 50GB on Wind0ws 8 with 200 GB of shared storage.
 
 
The Windows 7 tool uses some bit transfer that bypasses the maximum and allows for the install.wim to be loaded onto the usb without having to do any tricky file splitting.
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