Thread: How are you supposed to install Windows 8 DP?

I installed Virtual Box (VB) from Oracle on my C Drive, then did the install of Win 8 Dev Preview within VB. You can read about some of my adventures in Windows Secrets Lounge. Used this method to enable the installation directly from my downloaded file on my HD. Worked like a charm. I will not write all the trials and tribulations again, you can read about it in my link. Suffice it to sat Win 8 is running in a virtual machine. Does not give quite the performance it would have on it's own partition, but works well enough to "play" with.

I eliminated my Win8 DP from Virtual Box with the thought that I wished to set up a dual boot senario (Long story not worth mentioning here) I created a new partition of just under 50 GB on my hd to load the new OS. I also did not have a DVD with enough space (no dual layer) so I used 7Zip to extract the iso file on my Win 7 HD and activated the Setup.exe from there. During the initial phase I was NEVER offered the option of where to install Win 8 DP. It automatically installed in my Win 7 partition. Fortunately I had just made an Image of my Win 7 OS so that was a fortuate choice. I would still like to set up the dual boot option. I even tried to Image the Win 8 DP and then restore to the blank partition, but it does not even show in the Acronis. I tried this both with the new partition as unallocated, and with the new partition formated as NTFS. In both cases it was a no go. Does anyone have any suggestions?

The only Windows 8 ISO that I know would require a DL DVD is the 64 bit version with the developers tools included. Probably the easiest would be to download one of the other versions. Otherwise you will either need a DL DVD, or you will need to create a bootable USB thumb drive (if your computer will boot from USB), you can use the tool found here to get this done, but you'll need a thumb drive of adequate size.
Hope this helps.
Randy

Thanks Randy, I'm actually burning the DVD right now. I hope this will allow me to choose the partition to install to. I do not anticipate using the Dev Tools anyway. Plus if I want to I can set the VM up again with that version.

You will need to boot from the Installation Media and choose custom after that your available drives/partitions/unallocated space should be displayed for you to choose from.
There is a dual boot video here, which admittedly is not the best, but may help you through the steps.

I successfully installed Win 8 DP using 2 different methods. I will attempt to summarize each method for other than may wish to follow either installation path. Be advised that my original active OS is Win 7 Ultimate 64 Bit.

Method 1: Install in a separate partition

1) Use either Win 7 Disk Manager or a 3rd party partitioning app to re-size the Win 7 partition and reduce it's size. I chose approx. 50 GB. There are many sites to explain how to do this. I will not get into this here. This re-size will leave unallocated space on your HD equal to the size of the reduction.

2) Download the Win 8 DP iso file from the Win 8 Dev Center.

3) Burn the iso file to a DVD or Flash Drive. Right click the iso file and choose Burn Image to disk. The method to burn to a flash drive can be found in a Google search.

4) Insert your DVD or flash drive and boot to it (you may have to go into your Bios and change the boot order so the device you wish to boot from is in the first boot position.)

5)The Win 8 DP installer will commence the installation. You will have to choose your keyboard and language options, then choose Clean Install. Here you will see all the HD's and unallocated space. Choose the unallocated space and begin the install.

6) Let the installer finish, then go through the initial settings.

7) Once your PC reboots, you can choose which OS is the default OS. If you choose Win 7, when you start you will see the Win 7 boot loader (The very familiar screen) showing both Win 7 and Win 8 DP. If you choose Win 8 DP you will see the new Win 8 DP boot loader listing both OS's.

Have fun with your new dual booted Win 7 / Win 8 DP

Method 2: Install in a Virtual Machine (VM)

1) Choose the VM you wish to use. I chose Virtual Box by Oracle. Install the VM directly into Win 7.

2) Start the VM and follow the setup rules for that VM (I will not go through this procedure here)

3) There are 2 ways of installing Win 8 DP

a) While the VM is running insert the DVD you burned using the method in steps 2 and 3 of Method 1 into your DVD drive and begin the installation. Follow steps 5, 6 and 7 in Method 1

b) Follow this article to install Win 8 DP directly from the downloaded iso file without buring a DVD.

4) Follow instructions from the VM to start and use Win 8 DP.

I have not gotten too in depth here. My point is to attempt to lay out the major steps that will get your Win 8 DP up and running. You will have to investigate customizing your installation.

Have fun, Cheers, (2 only Please) Ted

Hmmm.. Not sure why some are having problems installing Win 8. I did it just like I would have a dual boot with Vista. Booted to the DVD and installed on a second partition.

Starting the install from within Windows 7 is basically an upgrade install, or what might be called a repair install, so I don't think it was designed to do that. If your DVD does not boot, I would download again and try burning it again. I am not using the version with the developer tools. Maybe it has something to do with where you downloaded from.

I did have to do one thing that was a little extra. The boot menu (blue icons) was not even shown until after the Win 8 Dev startup, which is not the normal scenario for Windows 7. Selecting Win 7 from there seemed to cause my system to reboot before continuing into Windows 7. I used the bcdboot command to replace the bcd store and now it boots to the boot menu as seems normal to me.

Edit: It is matters, I am using this on a UEFI install. Windows 8 does seem to handle that better.

Initially I was attempting to install Win 8 DP from within Win 7 without burning to a disk. This was a mistake because it actually replaces the present OS. That's OK because it was a learning experience as much of my "play" is with my PC. Actually that's why I create Images, so when something goes wrong, I can restore and start over.

Originally Posted by Ted Myers

Initially I was attempting to install Win 8 DP from within Win 7 without burning to a disk. This was a mistake because it actually replaces the present OS. That's OK because it was a learning experience as much of my "play" is with my PC. Actually that's why I create Images, so when something goes wrong, I can restore and start over.

That's what I did when I wiped my W7 install, I had read that it would give my a choice as to where to install it.

Before that I had tried twice to install from a DVD to a separate partition on my D:\ drive.
Both times it seemed to complete the install, I got a dual boot menu but I got only a black screen with a active cursor when I tried to boot into W8.

I haven't tried again since the last go around.

Maybe I'll give it another shot this week.
The problems seems to be that it isn't loading my display drivers and I don't know how to make it do so.

There is nothing weird about my setup a ATI 5870 video card with the latest drivers.
They load in Ubuntu with no problem.
Perhaps if I could stop it from trying to load them and stay with the basic mother board drivers until I get into Windows 8 I could straighten it out but I don't know a way to do that either.

How would I load Windows 8 in safe mode from a dual boot setup?

Mike

That's wierd because mine installed directly into my second partition without problem or complaint. I have a ATI Radeon mobility 4650 graphics card.

Don't know what to tell you.