hi,. i bought an A$er desktop recently, MC605 that came preloaded with windows 8 core single language edition, the main issue is, they came with lots of malwares, ads ware, insane amount of short-cuts on metro from OEM (A$er here in case), and basically unusable. i believe windows 8 is super fast without those crazy freebies. i plan to do clean install with only windows 8 core single language iso which i already DIY from core iso based on thread in this forum. but i failed to boot from USB after i use USB DVD Download Tool know i open up the recovery partition from A$cer, and i saw there exists file install.swm install1.swm, install2.swm and etc, could i split my install.wim to swm using dism and overwrite them into recovery partition, and perform a system reset? would it works?
hi Tito, thanks, i tried to clean install Windows 8 Core SL, but failed, i guess maybe i didnt gpt my usb pendrive, bios F8 boot menu doesnt see my pendrive, btw, could i clone unactivated Windows 8 Core SL, since i need to deploy clean Windows 8 Core SL on 10 more pc?
Do you have the option in your bios to enable USB bootable devices? If so make sure its enabled. I do not believe GPT is needed for the usb drive to install it even if you have GPT partitions on the HDD. Deploy on 10 more pc's? Are they all the same? You could install Win 8 on one machine, enter Audit Mode by press Ctrl+Shift+F3, run Windows Update and customize the OS how you want, then capture that image and make your own Win 8 OS install disk that has those updates and os customizations already added.
hi Humphrey, thanks, if the A$cer bios set to Launch CSM, (default is never), then i could see usb pendrive & dvd, if never, then only see UEFI hard disk, after i use a trick from this forum, set ISO Backup Tool, DisableFormat = 1, format is to vfat first, then only clone iso to usb, i am able to see UEFI pendrive now, yes, those 10 pc are same mc605, but, wouldnt online would cause the machine to get activated? because you mentioned about running windows update, maybe antivirus update and etc others softwares, capture activated windows 8 csl and deploy to other 10 machine, (idk how to capture image atm) but this looks like good clone feature, except i am confuse about the activation part. update: found my answer here, thanks, i learnt a new trick, Ctrl+Shift+F3
If you need any info on the method of capturing the WIM file then ask. I have been doing that for the past couple weeks and its fresh in my mind. Basically what I do is install Win 8 in VMware. Update it and add customizations. sysprep capture using DISM replace the install.wim with the one i created that is in the sources folder on a Windows 8 install iso/dvd Install like normal.
hi Humphrey, in Ctrl+Shift+F3 audit mode, i installed antivirus, windows updates and some open source softwares, i read from MSDN, it mentioned, i need to generalize, shutdown, then capture image using Win PE, my problems are, i dont have PE 4.0, or PE 3.0 i only got 1 file, WAIK-KB3AIK_EN.iso, Windows 8 MSDN ISO, and slow internet connection. any suggestion for such situation?, then Windows 8 ADK is huge near 2GB,
Hi, I got another question, Since your idea is to capture audited system into a wim file, then rename it to install.wim then replace with iso install.wim, but what if our wim file is larger than 4GB, since i am using fat32 for uefi pendrive to install windows 8, if we split it to multiple file (maybe swm) would they still get recognize by windows 8 installer?
I can walk you through , but answer the below which of the two do you prefer 1. PERFECT . TEXT BOOK METHOD 2. Easy shortcut Method
for this question the WinPE is on your install dvd. The boot.wim file. In this file there are two images, first is WinPE while second is Windows setup
hi BTOR, could i choose to know both ways? hi Tito, so, you mean no automatic way ? since In Windows® 8, Windows® Setup does not support installing a split .wim file. use default install.wim, then after installation, only restore capture image, is that what you mean?
thanks adit123tya, so, how would i create a uefi usb pendrive that contained this boot.wim bootable into PE mode? do dism capture?
copy the boot.wim, use dism to mount it, and add dism package included in windows ADK to make dism available in WinPE first
can you tell, how is it possible? if using VirtualBox and .vhd/.vhdx i can understand what you speaking of,but with VMware i perfectly have no idea. AFAIK the removable media should be FAT32 for UEFI to work,can you explain the above.
hi adit123tya, ok, i assume i could create a minimal win pe 4.0 just using windows 8 dvd, am i correct? i tried the following, 1. convert gpt a cleaned pendrive (i can boot this uefi fat32 pendrive already through bios menu) 2. i copy [boot], [efi] folder into pendrive, 3. i copy bootmgr.efi and bootmgr into pendrive / directory 4. i create a [sources] folder, and i copy win8 dvd boot.wim into it, the system boot, pendrive running, then i come to windows 8 setup gui, i assume i am sort of half way into a small pe 4.0 to captureimage, please advice, 10q