Member Avatar for Travz03

Hi, I need your help in making a USB bootable which is compable to Windows 7, 8 and 8.1. Thanks

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by amazbhola

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asked for a USB that will boot Windows 7 / 8 / 8.1. ’s Easy2Boot suggestion is useful when carrying multiple ISOs on one stick, but it’s more complex to set up. ’s BartPE steps are for Windows XP-era tooling and won’t apply to a Windows 8.1 installer.

Simplest, most reliable approaches: use Microsoft’s official USB creation tool (it downloads and prepares the installer) or use Rufus to write an existing Windows 8.1 ISO. Rufus lets the installer work on both UEFI/GPT and BIOS/MBR targets by choosing the correct partition scheme and filesystem. Important notes: native UEFI (and Secure Boot) expects FAT32; FAT32 cannot hold files >4 GB (install.wim commonly exceeds that), so either split the WIM or use NTFS with a tool that supports UEFI:NTFS.

Advanced manual workflow (no third‑party GUI):

  • Prepare the USB with diskpart:
diskpart
list disk
select disk X    # replace X with the USB disk number
clean
create partition primary
format fs=fat32 quick    # or use ntfs if splitting is not preferred
assign letter=U
active                  # omit on GPT/UEFI-only setups
exit
  • Mount the ISO and copy all files to the USB. If sources\install.wim is >4GB, split it:
Dism /Split-Image /ImageFile:C:\path\to\ISO\sources\install.wim /SWMFile:C:\temp\sources\install.swm /FileSize:3800
  • For legacy BIOS boot, run boot\bootsect.exe /nt60 U: from the ISO to make the stick bootable.

Troubleshooting tips: enable/disable Secure Boot or CSM depending on target firmware, try USB 2.0 ports when the installer can’t see the drive, and ensure the USB is first in boot order. For older machines (Windows 7 targets), missing USB 3.0 or storage drivers can block installation — supply drivers or use a USB 2.0 port.

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Member Avatar for Hiroshe

What do you want the USB to boot into?

Member Avatar for Travz03

I want to boot to Windows 8.1 installer.

Member Avatar for Hiroshe

I've used this. It works very well, but it is a little complicated.

The advantage is that after it's set up, you can just copy/pase ISO's onto the USB and it will just work.

Member Avatar for amazbhola

  1. Open My Computer and navigate to the c:\PEBuilder\SRSP1 folder and verify the two files are there.

    1. Next, you need to create a compressed version of Windows XP using PE Builder. Make sure you Windows XP Professional CD is in your computer's CD drive, then launch the PE Builder program. In the Source field, type in the drive letter assigned to your CD Drive (you can check in My Computer if you are not sure) (e.g. "d:"). In the Output field, type BartPE. Make sure the None option is selected in the Media output section. Then click the Build button.

Bart PE

A progress report shows the progress of the bootable image build. When the build process is complete, click the Close button.

  1. Now, you can create the bootable USB flash drive. Open a command prompt again and type cd c:\PEBuilder to change to the PEBuilder folder. Make sure your USB drive is plugged in to your computer and type pe2usb -f e: (change "e:" to the drive letter assigned to your USB flash drive, if necessary) to create the bootable drive. When prompted to begin the process type YES. When the process is complete, press any key to exit the program.

Your USB flash drive is now set up to be a bootable USB drive for Windows XP using the Bart PE interface.

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