[How To] Installing Windows 8.1

Introduction

If you ever find yourself in the need to re-install your
Windows 8 or 8.1 operating system, we've written this short guide to help you
along with the setup. Installation of Windows 8.1 is relatively simple and very
similar to that of Windows 7. Without further ado, let's get started on the
first basic steps.

First Steps

In order to even begin the installation of Windows 8.1, you
must have a Windows disc and an optical drive to read it. You must also have
enough space on your HDD if you plan not to format or perform a clean install.
Usually, it's recommended to leave at least 30GB for OS install. If you plan on
wiping your drive, this won't matter.

To get started, you'll need to boot your computer with the
Windows CD in the drive, from the CD itself. This part is very important. Some
users will try to install Windows by simply putting in the disc and trying to
run setup from their existing Windows installation. This is usually a very bad
choice (especially if you're trying to replace a broken installation) and it
will likely cause problems. You want to simply boot from the CD, at the very
beginning when you turn on your computer, because by default the computer will
boot from the hard drive if untouched.

The goal is to force the computer to boot from the optical
drive and start the Windows 8.1 Setup utility. Most motherboards have quick key
for accessing a boot menu. For Asus, it's F8. For Gigabyte, it's F12. Some
other boards use Esc key, F9 and others. Refer to your motherboard manual to
find out which key can access the boot menu. If your board does not have a
quick boot menu, then you will need to change the boot order priority inside of
the BIOS, usually entered by pressing DEL key. Your motherboard manual covers the
instructions on how to modify the boot priority of your devices.

When the boot menu comes up, make sure that you choose the
optical drive from the list. If you have multiple optical drives you may need
to restart your computer and keep choosing until you guess the correct one.
(Unless you already know)

Some boards will force the boot right away. Others will
provide a message on the screen that says “please press any key to boot from
cd/dvd…”. You must press a key when you see this message. You have a very short
window, about 3 seconds, so make sure that you press a key when you see the
message as soon as possible. If you miss it, the boot process is going to skip
the CD and go look for the hard drives.

If you've done everything correctly, the Windows 8.1 will
boot from CD and you should see a loading Windows logo like in the picture
below. If instead your OS loads from your hard drive, then you know the booting
was unsuccessful and you need to repeat the process:

Once you've booted from the CD correctly, you should be
greeted with the following setup screen:

Here you can modify your keyboard settings and the setup
language if you wish. If you don't need to make any modifications, simply press
next. Now you'll be greeted with the Install Now screen. This screen also has a
link to Repair Your Computer. You can use this utility too in case you want to
make minor OS repairs. We will create another guide soon showing you how to use
this, but for now we'll focus on the Windows installation. Press Install Now to
continue.

At this point, the system will ask you for the key. In
Windows 8 and 8.1, this question is now mandatory so that the system can
appropriately install the correct version of Windows you've purchased. Simply type
in your license key and click next. After this, you'll see the License
Agreement page, where you need to check the box if you accept the terms and
click Next.

Now, you'll be given a choice of the type of installation
you'd like to do. 2 choices are offered, Upgrade and Custom Installation.
Upgrade option would only be used if you have a healthy OS install and you
would simply like to upgrade to new version. For example, going from Win 7 or
Win 8 to 8.1 you could use this option. For clean installs, you always want to
perform Custom Installations, so let's go ahead and choose that.

Here is what the setup looks like on our test machine. We
have a 30GB virtual drive for testing, which currently has a Windows install on
it already. Here you can see the default partitions created by original Windows
installation. Yours would vary depending on how many hard drives, as well as
how many partitions you have.

Now, depending on what kind of an installation you want, you
can either choose to delete these 2 partitions, or you can leave them be and
select the primary partition, then click Next. The difference between the 2
methods is that if you leave everything as is, then data on C drive will remain
intact. This is useful if you have a lot of data on that drive that you did not
get a chance to backup. If you do this, old Windows install along with program
files folders and users folders will be moved to a folder called Windows.old.
You need at least 30GB of space to use this method. If you have less, you won't
be able to choose that option.

The other choice involves deleting the existing partitions
belonging to your OS disk (in our case, disk 0). Simply highlight each
partition and click Delete. Then you will be left with just 1 entry of Total
unallocated space. Here's what that looks like now

Once you click next, the installation will begin. From here
on, the process is automated and may take a few restarts to complete.

The most
important thing to remember here is that you no longer need to boot from your
CD. So if you have made permanent changes in your boot order, you might want to
revert them, so you're no longer booting from the CD. Booting from it would
only result the process to start over.

If you simply let the system boot from your OS drive, then
you will be greeted by the Windows welcome screen where you can create your
account, choose security settings, etc. Once you've done that, Windows will go
through the install welcome pages, where you'll see several hints and tips on
how to use your new OS. You will need to wait a little while until the OS is
ready and the tile screen is shown.

From here on, your OS install is completed. If you've
performed the installation where the partitions were not deleted, then you'll
be able to access old files in C:\Windows.old as well as anything else in C:\
that was not part of Windows, Program files or Users folders.

The last part of any clean installation requires device
drivers to be installed. Usually, your motherboard CD will contain all the
necessary drivers for the components already on the motherboard. These
typically include audio, USB, chipset, network, etc. Display drivers are
typically found on CDs that come from video card manufacturers such as EVGA,
ASUS, GIGABYTE and others. They will often specifically state VGA or Video
drivers on the label. If you have any third party add-on cards such as wireless
cards, sound cards, RAID controllers or TV tuners, you will also need to
install the CD drivers for them too.

Once this part is done, your system is ready to be used. We
recommend that this point you also perform full Windows updates as well as
install some kind of an anti-virus protection, such as Microsoft Security
Essentials. You want your PC protected before it gets infected, not afterwards.
Best way to ensure that is to install some kind of protection before you begin
using your PC.

Now, if you have done this several times over the course of
ownership, then you might want to consider creating a custom image just for
your system. This state of clean install would be a perfect snapshot to create an
image that can speed up this process in the future. Once you prepare your
computer for first use, grab some kind of imaging and backup software such as
Acronis TrueImage or perhaps Macrium Reflect. Create a system image and a
restore disc. These 2 things will allow you to go back and in just minutes
restore your entire installation including programs, drivers and Windows updates.
It can certainly speed up the process and allow you to restore your computer
back into fresh working condition very fast. On average, full Windows
installation can take several hours. By taking a snapshot of your system with
one of these programs, you can be back up and running in just few minutes.