[GUIDE] Install Win8 on VHD/HDD on the fly without DVD or USB

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hey
if u want to try windows 8 without messing ur main os and not have to burn dvd or usb drive this is nice guide to help u


steps to install on VHD

0. u will need few apps
EasyBCD
Gimagex

1. first lets create vhd with "Computer Management" @ Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Administrative Tools, right click on disk management and choose create VHD, create 15gb its enuf for testing, after its mounted format it

2. use Gimagex to apply/deploy the image of windows, install.wim, the windows 8 image is in iso u downloaded, at sources dir

3. with easybcd create new virtual disk entry

that's it


steps to install on HDD a bit difficult

Soon

0. we need few apps
EasyBCD [Optional]
Gimagex
and Windows PE/Setup [any version will help windows vista / 7... ]
we need windows PE so we can boot the system to another OS and be able to move few OS dirs


[needed if u have old OS if not skip to step 2]
1.lets boot the system with windows PE / windows setup of any kinda [6.x] and open CMD.exe with
shift + F10
we need to move few dirs like:

Windows, Program files, ProgramData, Users, Program Files (x86)

Example how to move
Move "Program files" c:\windowsOLD\

after we move all the current OS dirs to windowsOLD lets

2.from windows PE\Setup launch cmd.exe with shift + f10 then run gimagex.exe, deploy the image as we did with VHD [ check step 2 in VHD guide]

[needed if didn't have old OS installed before]
3. now we gonna use windows recovery that with windows setup disk or wim
to recovery the OS if u didnt have any OS before

Tips
1.
u dont need to have windows setup on dvd
u can add boot.wim [that include setup boot] to boot menu with easybcd and then boot to it [much faster booting then dvd]

2.
if u like to change back to ur old OS and dont have to format u just have to do this again but now move the dirs of windows 8 to windows8 dir and move back windowsOLD dir to c:\


Problems ?
if u get problem with winload.exe that not digital signature
overwrite bootmgr and bootmgr.efi in c:\ dir with new version of windows 8 setup disk

i do overwrite bootmgr and bootmgr.efi in the windows dir but the same error is there, what is here false?

Originally Posted by LAZMUSTI

i do overwrite bootmgr and bootmgr.efi in the windows dir but the same error is there, what is here false?

not in windows dir,

in c:\ or the drive is select to boot in bios



another topic i gonna update the guide to hdd too

I completely understand your guide; howeverm that's probably because I have extensive computer experience. I HIGHLY (and I can't stress this enough) recommend that you rewrite your tutorial; any novice computer user is going to have no idea what you're trying to instruct him/her to do.
Your guide is extremely difficult to read.

It's great that you're sharing your idea with everyone; I'm sure I'm not out of place in saying that everyone around here appreciates it; but I'm sure they would appreciate it a thousand times more if they could follow your guide!

The biggest tip I can give you for guiding someone through anything on a computer is to pretend you're talking to an 80-year-old woman with virtually no experience with computers (such is the literal job of a computer tech).

Again, though, thank you for sharing your idea; it seems like a highly complicated way to avoid a dual-boot, though; however, it is certainly a different method that I had never thought of before, and outside-of-the-box thinking is always welcome here!

Sent from my DROID3 using xda premium

thx but can u be more specific about which parts should be more informative