Windows 8.1 Pro ISO - can we shrink/compress it?

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You can just extract the .wim and install via that. Another way is install over network.

 

Size of ISO is 3.63 GB, 4 GB flash drive size is 3.75 GB. So, I don't know how it's impossible for you to put Win8.1 RTM x64 install on 4GB USB. Try with tools which makes bootable USB. If you can't put ISO on USB on this way, use 8 GB USB drive (if you have it).

 

OP is right with his problems as I said. Most so called 4 gig USB don't have that space available and all tools like Rufus, Power ISO et cetera give you an error saying that there is not enough space on the stick. Only high quality sticks like the one I showed above, a Toshiba Transmemory can deal with a 64 bit iso

 

Mine is 3.79, fingers crossed.

 

I think you can rip the wim so it has only index1(pro) or index2(core), don't know how much space could be saved.

Another way is to re-compile the wim into ESD which has a higher compression.

 

ESD is the structure that will come through winstore update because it is run from inside the W8. Only problem is that you cannot boot from it

 

ESD is for Windows RT, right?

 

in the above case it has nothing to do with RT

 

I said that ESD is for Windows RT, like WIM for Windows 8, but OK.

 

I've got a cheap £7 4GB Flash drive that works fine for Windows ISO installs

NTFS uses more space, if you can use FAT32 you might get a small amount of space back, not sure if you can use FAT32 for Windows 7/8/8.1 installs though

 

when using tools like Rufus or such, the file system automatically will be set to NTFS afaik

 

Same with Microsoft USB Tool too

Manually creating it using diskpart and then copying the setup files to the drive could do it

 

best is when using the MS tool, it lets you wait until the end of the process and after 10 or 15 minutes working on the file it tells you that space ran out. Rufus and PowerISO gives you the error just at the beginning.
By manually doing the job copying the setup files only, you cannot boot as far as I can see it

 

Yea you can boot it if you go through the whole process properly, I've done it a few times

--
diskpart
list disk
select disk x ------ (x = being the disk number of your USB drive)
clean
create partition primary
active
format fs=fat32 quick
assign
Exit


Then copy setup files to flash drive

 

Nah, you can use DISM in win8.1 to compile ESD and replace the wim, win8/8.1 installers can read ESD.

Actually if you download a ESD from winstore or whatever, you would be given a choice to save it into a (bootable) ISO or USB FD.

 

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Ultraiso uses FAT32 with writing an iso to usb, but it's not free.