Windows 8 installation - No USB Drive or CD

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CGurrell

CGurrell

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So basically, I have the .iso file for Windows 8 64-bit from Microsoft Dreamspark to install on my dads PC. My problem is i don't have an optical drive (so can't make a disc) and I dont have a USB drive big enough for the file, as I use a portable HDD which is at my dads house (ironically). I have my dads HDD installed in my PC at the moment as I backed up all of his files (from when he was running Vista) and have now formatted the HDD, as i have everything he needs. Can i simply put the iso file onto the HDD and install windows from there? (I can make a separate partition if need be).

My dads PC also only has 3GB DDR2 memory, but he may upgrade to 4gb in the future, so should I install the 64-bit version or go ahead and get the 32-bit version?

Thanks guys :)
 
Solution
Iron124


Believe it or not, I was in your same position very recently. I tried most of these roundabout methods, and let me tell you from personal experience, they do not work or are not guaranteed to work. Most of these "guides" are written by people who used the method once and assume that it will work for everyone, that is simply not the case. Do yourself a tremendous favor and go buy an 8GB flash...
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Iron124

Iron124

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Assuming you have a 64-Bit processor, install the 64 bit version of Windows, there is no advantage to 32-bit at all. You cannot install Windows on a drive that is currently being used on the system, as it needs to be formatted several times and re-written during the install process. It sounds like you have 2 drives in your system at the moment, so that would be impossible to install Windows without formatting 2 of them (and I assume you can't format your boot disk to make it into an installer partition) Pick up an 8GB USB stick and save yourself the trouble.


 
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CGurrell

CGurrell

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Basically i need this installed by tonight, and the shops here where I can buy an 8gb USB stick are closed.

I was reading through this before, but I get an error at the last step in CMD which may be because I'm running windows 8.1 but I'm not sure. Any ideas? http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-CLEAN-Install-Windows-8-directly-from-Hard-/
 
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Iron124

Iron124

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Believe it or not, I was in your same position very recently. I tried most of these roundabout methods, and let me tell you from personal experience, they do not work or are not guaranteed to work. Most of these "guides" are written by people who used the method once and assume that it will work for everyone, that is simply not the case. Do yourself a tremendous favor and go buy an 8GB flash drive, order one online for overnight delivery, or go to Wal-Mart Whatever you gotta do.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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You need valid install media. Either a bootable DVD, or a USB stick large enough.

Anything else will 1. take twice as long, and 2. probably won't work even then.
 
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CGurrell

CGurrell

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Like i said, I would go buy an 8gb flash drive if all of the shops weren't closed (at least the ones that sell flash drives, I'm in the UK, its around 9:30pm on a tuesday night, PC World/Maplin etc are closed)

Is it worth at least trying this to see if it works?
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Well, yeah. You can spend the evening trying to make it 'work'. Assuming you have another PC to do it from.
Don't be surprised if it doesn't, though.
 
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CGurrell

CGurrell

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don't have the disc or even a blank DVD lying around, I could always "borrow" the optical drive from my dads PC to burn the disc using my PC but I'd still need a blank disc :/
 
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