To install Windows 8 from a USB drive in UEFI mode you first need to prepare a USB thumb drive within the Windows 8 installation files formatted as a FAT32.
- Prepare your Windows 8 ISO file
- Attach USB flash drive to your computer
- Download the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool
- Run the tool:
- Step 1 of 4: Select Windows 8 ISO file
- Step 2 of 4: Click “USB device“
- Step 3 of 4: Select your USB device from the list and click “Begin Copying“
- Step 4 of 4: Wait till copying finishes
- Create a new folder on your computer disk, for example, C:\W8USB
- Copy all the files from your USB thumbdrive (the one you got prepared at 3rd step) to the newly created folder (created in the previous step)
- Right click on the USB drive icon in Computer window and select “Format…” from the context menu. Make sure you select “FAT32 (Default)” in “File system” drop down menu. Click “Start” and wait till the drive gets formatted
- Copy all the files from the folder you created earlier (C:\WIN8USB, for example) to the formatted drive
- Your Windows 8 installation USB drive is ready. Attach it to USB 2.0 port (some computers doesn’t support booting from USB 3.0 ports) of the computer you want to get Windows installed
- Reboot computer and launch BIOS/UEFI config menu (on most computers it can be done pressing F1 after computer starts)
- Find settings related to UEFI. Make sure you have something similar to “UEFI Only” or “UEFI first, legacy second” selected. If you leave the setting as “Legacy first“, Windows will proceed with regular, non-UEFI installation
- Save settings and reboot the computer. It should boot with the USB drive
- Proceed with Windows installation normally