FIXES, SBS 2008, SERVER 2008, SERVER 2008 R2, SERVER 2012, SERVER

ESSENTIALS, SBS, WINDOWS 7, WINDOWS 8, WINDOWS VISTA

USING DISKPART TO CREATE A

BOOTABLE USB OF WINDOWS 8
AUGUST 16, 2012 BOONTEE7 COMMENTS

Windows 8 was released today on MSDN and Technet. It will

soon be released publically. With that comes the many GBs of
downloads for the ISOs. Many may have newer Ultrabooks,
which do not feature DVD drives anymore. Rather than burning
the ISO to a DVD disc, why not put it on a bootable USB stick?
There are many ways to do this, and I have found that the best
way to do this is to use a command tool called DISKPART. The
commands are fairly easy.

1 Open an elevated Command Prompt and type DISKPART. You

will open up the Diskpart tool, as evidenced by the DISKPART>
prompt.
2 DISKPART>LIST DISK <- This will give you a listing of the disks
on your system. It is very important to identify the USB disk, asyou
really do not want to format your system drive.
3 DISKPART>SELECT DISK n <- this will make select the USB disk
n, as identified in step 2
4 DISKPART>CLEAN <- This effectively does a quick format/wipe of
the USB disk
5 DISKPART>CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY <- This will create a
primary partition on the disk
6 DISKPART>SELECT PARTITION 1 <- Since there is only one
partition, this will select it.
7 DISKPART>ACTIVE <- This makes the partition active
8 DISKPART>FORMAT FS=FAT32 <- This formats the disk and
sets it up as a FAT32 formatted drive. This will take a while to
complete
9 DISKPART>ASSIGN <- This assigns the next drive letter to the
drive
 10 DISKPART>EXIT <- To exit the utility
Once the USB drive has been prepared, you can now use a
utility like 7-Zip to extract the ISO directly to the drive.

BTW. This process will also work when creating bootable USB
disks of other Windows ISOs Windows Server 2012, Windows
Small Business Server 2011, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows
7, and even Vista.

Create a bootable USB Flash Drive using

the diskpart utility

Table of Contents:
11 Create a bootable USB Flash Drive using the Diskpart utility.
12 How to use Diskpart.

CAUTION: These instructions are aimed at advanced users. You may change a setting that
could prevent your computer from starting correctly and you could suffer a potential loss
of data. Use these instructions at your own risk !

This article provides instructions on how to create a bootable USB flash drive using the
Diskpart utility.

1. Create a bootable USB Flash Drive using the Diskpart utility

A user may want to create a bootable USB flash drive which has a larger partition than the
maximum 2Gb created using the Dell Diagnostic Distribution Package (DDDP), see Article
SLN143196.
Diskpart can be used to create a partition larger than 2Gb on the USB flash drive so larger
files can be used. Diskpart is a Disk Partition utility available within Windows.

Please follow the steps in the next section on how to use Diskpart to create a bootable
Windows USB flash drive:

NOTE: You will need a minimum 4Gb USB flash drive and your Windows re-installation DVD

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2. Using Diskpart

WARNING: All data on the USB flash drive will be lost, make sure you save any data before
proceeding.

13 Insert your USB flash drive (4Gb + preferable) into your system
14
15 Navigate to the Command Prompt. Select Start & type CMD in the search field,
right click on CMD.exe and select Run as administrator
Alternatively, navigate to Start > All programs > Accessories > right click on Command
Prompt and selectRun as administrator
16

17 A User Account Control (UAC) dialog Window may appear. Click Yes to Continue.
18 When the Command Prompt opens, enter the following commands followed by
Enter
19 DISKPART - This will start the utility
20 LIST DISK - This will show the disk number of your USB flash drive. In the image
below the USB flash drive shows as Disk 2.
 21 SELECT DISK X (Replace X with your USB flash drive number, we are using 2 in this
example)
22 CLEAN - This wipes the drive
23 CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY- Creates partition
24 SELECT PARTITION 1- Selects partition 1
25 ACTIVE- Marks the current partition as active
26 FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK - This formats the partition
27 ASSIGN- Assigns a drive letter.
28 EXIT

Insert your Windows DVD into the optical drive.

From the command prompt, enter the following:
g: <enter> (Where "g" is your DVD drive letter)
cd boot <enter> (changes to boot directory)
G:\boot bootsect /nt60 d: <enter> (Where "d" is your USB drive letter)

Copy all files from the Windows CD to the USB flash drive using xcopy

cd\ <enter>
G:\xcopy g:\*.* /s/h/f f:\ <enter>

This will copy the Windows installation files onto the USB flash drive, it may take several
minutes.

xcopy switches are as follows:

/s - Copies directories and subdirectories except empty ones.

/h - Copies hidden and system files.
/f - Displays full source and destination filenames while copying.

To display the full list of switches, type xcopy /? <enter>

This makes the USB drive bootable and when selected at startup, will boot straight into
the Windows installation.

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Quick Tips content is self-published by the Dell Support Professionals who resolve issues
daily. In order to achieve a speedy publication, Quick Tips may represent only partial
solutions or work-arounds that are still in development or pending further proof of
successfully resolving an issue. As such Quick Tips have not been reviewed, validated or
approved by Dell and should be used with appropriate caution. Dell shall not be liable for
any loss, including but not limited to loss of data, loss of profit or loss of revenue, which
customers may incur by following any procedure or advice set out in the Quick Tips.

Article ID: SLN153364