Windows 8 install from USB freezes
- by Rafael Almeida
I'm trying to install Windows 8 from an 8GB Kingston Data Traveler. I'm currently using the Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool to put the iso into the flash drive. It copies the files, but in the end it says it 'had a problem with bootsect' and could not make the flash drive bootable. This seems to be because my current system is Windows 7 32bits, and the bootsect.exe in the ISO is a 64-bit executable. Then I downloaded the 32-bit bootsect.exe and made the drive bootable by running:
bootsect /nt60 E: /mbr
Then I restarted and managed to boot via the flash drive, but now everything is very slow. It takes about two minutes for the initial black screen with the Windows logo and the spinner go away, then it goes to a purple-ish blank screen that stays on for about five more minutes and then it finally shows a dialog asking for the installation, date/time and keyboard languages. I input then, click "Install Now" and it takes about three more minutes with a "Setup is starting" screen. After that, the PC apparently reboots, the CPU fan speeds up considerably, and there's no video and nothing more happens even after more than ten minutes.
What is happening? I already tried using another USB port and even installing from a Samsung G3 Station 2TB external hard disk, but the same thing happens. The file transfer speed to the Kingston drive was about only 3 megabytes per second.