alright, I will now tell you how to self install windows 8 and reinstall it if you have to. things you will need. imagex.exe and bcdboot.exe from the windows aik for windows 8. A windows 8 source. either the original dvd set containing the install.wim or a self made source which I will cover in this tatorial. You'll need a 32 gig usb thumb drive or a external hard drive that plugs in usb. 1. first way to make your install 1. plug in your usb thumb drive and know that anything on it will be eraced. 2. Start a windows 8 command prompt with administrative privelages. You can do this by using the context key and going to run as administrator on the command prompt shortcut. 3. type diskpart at the command prompt. 4. type list disk at the command prompt taking note of which disk is your usb thumb drive or external hard drive. 5. Once you know the number of your thumb drive, type the command select disk 0 replacing the 0 with the number of your thumb drive. 6. Type the command clean. This will wipe everything from your thumb drive or your external drive, so be careful with this one. 7. Type create partition primary. this will create a primary partition on your thumb drive or external disk. 8. type active. This will make the partition on your thumb drive or external drive the active partition for booting an os. 9. Type format fs=ntfs quick label=win8usb. this will format the drive and give the disk a label so that when you have it plugged in you will be able to distinguish it from other drives. 10. Now go to your windows 8 source, and find the install.wim in the sources folder, and take note of where it is. 11. Now locate the imagex.exe folder under the petools folder in the windows aik, if you don't want to download the whole windows aik, I can upload the imagex.exe and the bcdboot tools. It doesn't matter if you use the 32bit or the 64bit tools, but I use the 32bit tools for vercitility, because they will work in any environment. 12. Type the command exit to exit diskpart, and now your at a command prompt. 13. Change the directory your in at command prompt to the folder containing the imagex.exe tools by typing cd\ and then the folder name where you have placed these tools. 14. Now type the following: imagex.exe /apply c:\image\sources\install.wim 1 e:. Replacing the path to the source and the destination with your own path. 15. wait, this process will take some time as it is writing the whole installation to your external drive. 16. Imagex.exe will then at some point say it has successfully applyed the image, and return you to the command prompt where you then need to change directories to the directory containing the bcdboot directory and type bcdboot.exe e:\windows replacing the correct drive you have for your external usb stick or external drive.. YOu can exit the command prompt, by typing exit. 17. Restart the computer booting from the usb thumb drive or the external disk. 18. Windows will run through many setup, and then restart itself again, putting you at the set up screen after about five minutes. 19. Now start narrator by pressing control windows u. 20. Run through the setup, answering all of the questions and setting your country and time zone and such. 21. In this phase, don't enter your product key, because this will be a fully functioning copy of windows 8 professional that you will be using to install windows 8 or recovering windows 8 on many machines, so don't enter the product key, as you change machines it will be a wasted activation. 22. Once setup is complete, you have a fully functioning copy of windows. I have plugged this in to many machines and started it and it finds the hardware and comes up. You could also use this method to plug a hard drive in from a customers machine using a hard drive usb adapter, apply the above steps, and after the bcdboot portion of the instructions, plug the drive back in to the customers motherboard, and let the many setup complete and you'd have there windows installed. THis process can also be used to install the wim from windows 7. If you want to create a backup of a windows 8 installation with all of the drivers and applications you have already installed, you would start the administrative command prompt from your external usb stick or external hard drive and navigate to the folder containing imagex.exe. There you would type imagex.exe /compress maximum /capture c:\ e:\image\windows8.wim "mywindows8drive". Replacing of cource the c: with the correct letter of your internal hard disk, and the e: with the letter and path to where you want the backed up wim to be placed. Now you have a windows 8 backed up image and you can restore it using the following command. imagex.exe /apply e:\image\windows8.wim 1 c:. Both of these commands will take some time as there copieing your hard drive. One note, when you backup and restore don't forget to backup your boot partition, because it's usually not assigned a drive letter. To assign it a drive letter, start diskpart, and type list disk. Once you find your internal disk number, type select disk 1 replacing the 1 with the correct internal disk number. Then type select partition 1. Then type assign. You can now backup the system partition using the same method above. I am sure this will need some rewriting, and I will answer any questions if some one wants to organize this tatorial better, but it is fool proof and works. Happy installs blindies! Original Message ----- From: "Darragh Ó Héiligh" <d@digitaldarragh.com> To: "Blind sysadmins list" <blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org> Sent: Monday, August 12, 2013 6:50 AM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] windows 8 self install for the blind
I think almost everyone on the list would be interested in this.
-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Isaac Sent: 12 August 2013 12:44 To: Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] windows 8 self install for the blind
Hi, if anyone is interested, I can give full instructions on how to install windows 8 with out sighted assistance, and with out using a silly live disk, and also how to create and restore system images as a complete guide, if interested please say so on the list and I'll be happy to help. This is a pretty much fool proof method, and can also be used to install windows 7 and xp multi boot right a long side windows 8. I can also bring back windows mail in windows 8, although some discourage this because you have to use files from windows 7 and vista, but it works flawlessly. We can also get back sapi four voices in windows 8 and the windows 7 sounds and so much more, so if you guys need help, I've been working on this for a while and am ready to share. Thanks: isaac _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins
_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins