O.S. installed from flash drive

[imagoon]

The first time I installed 8.1, I simply used 7-Zip to extract the iso to a usb stick. Worked fine.

That won't make it bootable though. It is fine for "upgrades."

 

[Underclocked]

Try it. Mine booted.

 

[uallas5]

I use the Windows 7 USB DVD download tool. It can read the raw ISO and put it on a 4 - 8 gig USB stick for you.

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool

Works for everything Windows 7 and newer so far. Just used it this week to upgrade the office test tablet to 8.1.

+1...used it for 7, 8 and 8.1. also been using it to load up windows 10, worked fine both times, one 32 and one 64bit installs.

 

[serpretetsky]

That won't make it bootable though. It is fine for "upgrades."

Try it. Mine booted.

I think that will work with EFI systems, but with systems with the older bios boot you need to write the to MBR of the flash drive.

 

[Underclocked]

Just to be certain, I just now used nothing but 7-zip to extract a Win8.1 iso to a Dane 8GB flash drive. The flash drive was formatted for normal storage use and nothing was done to the MBR. It booted and started preparing to install 8.1.

I have EFI capability but boot mode is legacy. Try it.

 

[serpretetsky]

Just to be certain, I just now used nothing but 7-zip to extract a Win8.1 iso to a Dane 8GB flash drive. The flash drive was formatted for normal storage use and nothing was done to the MBR. It booted and started preparing to install 8.1.

I have EFI capability but boot mode is legacy. Try it.

I, unfortunately, do not own a non-EFI system to truly test this. And I don't trust that just setting to legacy most deactives all efi booting.