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I have an ASUS EEE 1000HE netbook that I am attempting to install the Win 8 release preview on. I have prepared a bootable USB memory stick (4Gb) using the "Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool" per instructions here: How to install Windows 8 from a USB Drive

I previously successfully installed Win7 on that netbook using the same tool (a couple of years ago). Currently the netbook has Ubuntu Linux installed.

When I select the USB stick as the only bootable device in the BIOS and restart the netbook, I get an error saying "Reboot and select a proper boot device...".

If I do the same thing on my big Toshiba laptop, it starts the Win8 installer as expected.

The facts:

  • The USB stick is bootable from another machine
  • The netbook has previously booted from and installed Win 7 from a similarly prepared USB stick
  • The netbook will not boot from the Win8 bootable stick
  • The version of Win8 is 32 bit, Release Preview ISO, downloaded from Technet site
  • I've tried formatting the stick as FAT32 and NTFS, neither work
  • I've tried the entire creation process from both a 32 bit and 64 bit Win 7 machine

Anyone have a clue why this isn't working?

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    Try pressing escape at boot and explicitly selecting the USB drive (not UEFI).
    – Lucas Kauffman
    Jul 15, 2012 at 15:36
  • Well, I'll be! That worked! How odd that it wouldn't boot normally, but would when explicitly selected. Thank you so much, @LucasKauffman! You should convert your comment to an answer so I can select it as the correct answer.
    – Richard B
    Jul 15, 2012 at 16:09
  • Done :), I spent 2 days trying to install Ubuntu on my netbook having the same problem, it's just bad UEFI support.
    – Lucas Kauffman
    Jul 15, 2012 at 16:11

2 Answers 2

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Try pressing escape at boot and explicitly selecting the USB drive (not UEFI).

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  • Good call, my man! Any idea why the explicit selection from the boot menu would be required? Strange ASUS thing, I suppose.
    – Richard B
    Jul 15, 2012 at 16:15
  • Well if you select it from the menu I think that it uses BIOS instead of EFI which is less complex. Probably you cant use some features, but I wouldn't even know what those features are or if they have any use at this time.
    – Lucas Kauffman
    Jul 15, 2012 at 16:20
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I'm not sure this solution may really help you. Anyway I did something similar few months ago with a win7 setup and I followed a detailed guide I found on the internet. I know you already successfully installed win7 on that same computer and your usb stick works flawlessly on another machine but maybe it could worth a try.

  • Format the usb stick with NTFS from the Windows Explorer.

  • Run the cmd prompt as administrator then type..

    diskpart

    list disk (now record the disk id of the usb stick)

    select disk X (where X is the above mentioned id)

    list partition (now record the partition id you want to make active)

    select partition Y (where Y is the above mentioned id)

    active

  • Finally you have to find a tool called bootsect somewhere in the windows setup (it should be in the boot folder) and type at the command prompt:

    bootsect /nt60 X: (where X is the usb stick drive letter)

That's something that may work on your already prepared stick (if you don't format the drive of course)...in case it doesn't, try copying the whole setup folder in the usb stick, at the end of the described procedure.

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  • Thanks for the response, @Diego! Oddly enough, the solution was to use the boot menu to make an explicit boot selection. I say "Odd", because, what could possibly be the difference between specifying the USB drive in the BIOS and selecting it from the boot menu?... anyway, thanks again!
    – Richard B
    Jul 15, 2012 at 16:13
  • Yes I didn't even consider that possibility. Glad you solved your problem anyway.
    – Diego D
    Jul 15, 2012 at 16:16

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