I've been trying to install windows 8 on my late 2012 iMac for a couple of weeks, and finally succeeded. I could not find any definitive guide even after many hours googling, so here is a forum post to help people who come after me. The main issue was that the bootcamp assistant only formats the install USB disk to FAT32, which means that windows 8 probably won't fit on it, on account of the install.wim file being above 4 GB.
You will need:
1) Win 8 ISO file or disk
2) Two USB sticks, one at least 8GB size, one smaller
3) One windows PC
Steps:
1) Follow this guide first:
http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-install-windows-8-on-a-mac/
important: Remember the size of the windows partition you create, so you can tell it apart from your other system-generated partitions later on.
2) If your mac boots into windows 8 installation, proceed to step 4.
3) If your mac throws an error that there is no bootable USB, then restart, and as soon as the boot sound comes on, press and hold the alt/option key, until you are given the choice to boot from Macintosh HD or windows 8 USB key. Choose the latter.
4) Continue with the windows 8 installer. As soon as it asks you to choose drive to install to, select the "BOOT CAMP" partition. It will throw an error. Choose to format the "BOOT CAMP" partition. When done, try to select it again. If it works, then skip to step 6.
5) If it doesn't work, then you first have to restart your mac again. When the boot sound comes on, hold down alt/option key, until presented with the boot options. Choose windows 8 bootable USB. Follow same path, only now you will be able to select the partition you created in step 4, and continue installing windows 8, hopefully without any issues.
6) After you boot into windows 8, you can now insert the small USB key you created in step 1, which contains the boot camp drivers for windows. Install them, and you are good to go. It takes a while to install the nVidia drivers, so don't worry if it seems frozen for a while.
You will need:
1) Win 8 ISO file or disk
2) Two USB sticks, one at least 8GB size, one smaller
3) One windows PC
Steps:
1) Follow this guide first:
http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-install-windows-8-on-a-mac/
important: Remember the size of the windows partition you create, so you can tell it apart from your other system-generated partitions later on.
2) If your mac boots into windows 8 installation, proceed to step 4.
3) If your mac throws an error that there is no bootable USB, then restart, and as soon as the boot sound comes on, press and hold the alt/option key, until you are given the choice to boot from Macintosh HD or windows 8 USB key. Choose the latter.
4) Continue with the windows 8 installer. As soon as it asks you to choose drive to install to, select the "BOOT CAMP" partition. It will throw an error. Choose to format the "BOOT CAMP" partition. When done, try to select it again. If it works, then skip to step 6.
5) If it doesn't work, then you first have to restart your mac again. When the boot sound comes on, hold down alt/option key, until presented with the boot options. Choose windows 8 bootable USB. Follow same path, only now you will be able to select the partition you created in step 4, and continue installing windows 8, hopefully without any issues.
6) After you boot into windows 8, you can now insert the small USB key you created in step 1, which contains the boot camp drivers for windows. Install them, and you are good to go. It takes a while to install the nVidia drivers, so don't worry if it seems frozen for a while.
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