Bootable flash drive refers to external USB flash drive which contains operating system files, bootable files as well as drivers necessary for system boot, etc. People make use of it to boot into the certain OS they have installed into the USB drive. Usually, the certain operating system is the one the user is familiar with and he has been used to work on its environment. With the bootable USB flash drive, he can get access to his own system environment anywhere and anytime as long as he can find a working computer to boot up from his Windows to go bootable flash drive.
If yours system is Windows 8 Enterprise edition, you can use its self-contained function to create a Windows to go workspace. To make use of this built-in feature, you have to do some preparations.
Windows 8 installation image file (iso, wim or esd), no matter which edition it is.
Windows To Go certified USB flash drive, which is capable for high random read and write speeds, can boot and run on hardware certified for use with no lower than Windows 7 and are backed with manufacturer warranties. The minimum size of the USB should be 32 GB.
When all preparations are done, you can start to make Windows 8 flash drive bootable.
1. Mount Window 8 installation image in your computer and connect the certified USB flash drive to it.
2. Search for and find out Windows to go service in the Control Panel of your device.
3. In the main interface of Create a Windows To Go workspace window, first of all, select the inserted certified USB disk as target drive.
4. Click Add search location to search for the mounted Windows 8 installation file.
5. Decide whether to make use of BitLocker or not. If use it, you should set password here; if not, click Skip.
6. A warning window will tell you that the certified USB disk will be formatted. Back up important data out if there are.
7. Specify whether to automatically boot from the created Windows To Go to test it when restart the PC or not. If you want to, choose Yes and click Save and restart; if not, select No and click Save and close.
If yours is not Enterprise Edition, if your OS is Windows 8 Core or Windows 8 Pro, you can rely on 3rd party software to make Windows 8 to go; that is AOMEI Partition Assistant.
To make use of AOMEI Partition Assistant, you should download the free edition or demo of AOMEI Partition Assistant; install and launch it on your PC.
Also, you should prepare Windows 8 installation image file as well as a USB flash drive. The USB do not have to be certified here and its minimum size can only be 16 GB.
To answer how to make my flash drive bootable Windows 8? Let’s see the following steps.
1. On its main UI, select Windows To Go Creator in the left wizards column.
2. The connected USB disk will be automatically selected as target. For source Windows image, you should browse it on the location where you put it.
3. Finally, click Proceed to carry out Windows 8 to go creation.
Not only make Windows 8 bootable USB, AOMEI Partition Assistant can also create bootable USB based on Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7, etc. PC operating systems as well as Windows Server OSes only if you use its Server Edition.
