Installing Microsoft Windows 8.

1 on the MinnowBoard
Table of Contents
Requirements................................................................................................................................................ 1 Preparing the board ...................................................................................................................................... 2 Windows 8.1 Installation procedure............................................................................................................. 3 Step 1: Mount Windows 8.1 image.......................................................................................................... 3 Step 2: Prepare bootable media ............................................................................................................... 3 Format the drive ................................................................................................................................... 3 Make the drive bootable....................................................................................................................... 4 Step 3: Boot and install Windows 8.1 on your MinnowBoard.................................................................. 5

Requirements
In addition to the MinnowBoard itself, a few hardware and software components are necessary for successful installation and usage of Windows 8.1 Operating System. 1. Windows uses a graphical user interface, so a monitor, keyboard and mouse are needed to control the installation process and in order to use Windows. MinnowBoard conveniently allows to plug-in HDMI monitors and USB keyboard and mouse. 2. An installation media such as USB flash stick or SD card is needed to boot and install Windows from. Regular 8 GB USB flash stick is sufficient. Since USB flash stick will use one of the 2 USB host ports on the board, in order to use both keyboard and mouse, a USB hub can be used with the other port. Another alternative is to use wireless USB keyboard and mouse with shared wireless USB dongle. WARNING: Installation procedure assumes that all files on the bootable media will be destroyed! 3. Since full version of Windows cannot be installed on removable disks (with the exception of Windows To Go), a regular SATA hard drive can be used. The disk capacity needed depends on the installed version and selected features of Windows, but a small 30 GB drive is sufficient in most cases. A small, low-power SSD is a great choice considering low-power and small dimensions of the MinnowBoard. The hard drive will need power, so a SATA cable with power (such as the one described on the MinnowBoard Accessories page http://www.elinux.org/Minnowboard:Minnow_Accessories) or an externally powered drive can be used. As a short-term solution, an external ATX PSU with 24/20-pin PSU tester can be used to power the drive. WARNING: Installation procedure assumes that all files on the SATA disk will be destroyed! 1

4. MinnowBoard UEFI Firmware Release Version 1.00 or newer is required for Windows 8.1 installation. Version 1.00 can be downloaded from the Intel UEFI Community Resource Center (http://uefidk.intel.com/content/minnowboard-uefi-firmware-download). Firmware update procedure is described on the MinnowBoard wiki site at http://www.elinux.org/Minnowboard:SPI_Boot_flash as well as this video on the YouTube Channel Intel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCmcRPHwlTo. The easiest and fastest way to update the UEFI Firmware on the MinnowBoard is update from UEFI Shell which does not require SPI Programmer and keeps boards Ethernet adaptor MAC address intact. 5. Current releases of MinnowBoard UEFI support 32-bit Operating systems (OS) only, so 32-bit (x86) version of Windows is required. A 90-day Evaluation Windows 8.1 Enterprise can be downloaded from the Microsoft TechNet website: http://technet.microsoft.com/enus/evalcenter/hh699156.aspx#. 6. ISO-mounting software is needed in order to prepare bootable Windows media. Many of the available disk image manipulation tools available as freeware or shareware. A comparison of some popular disk image manipulation applications can be found on the Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_ISO_image_software. 7. A host computer running Windows 7 or newer version will be needed to prepare bootable Windows 8.1 media.

Preparing the board

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Disconnect the MinnowBoard from the power; plug the hard disk to the SATA port on the board. Plugin the HDMI monitor, keyboard and mouse. Power up HDMI monitor and the SATA disk (rotational HDD may need a few seconds to spin up). Power up the MinnowBoard and boot to the UEFI shell. Download and update the MinnowBoard UEFI Firmware to the Version 1.00 or newer following the steps described on the MinnowBoard wiki site: http://www.elinux.org/Minnowboard:SPI_Boot_flash

Windows 8.1 Installation procedure

An overview of steps required to install Windows 8.1: 1. Download and mount Windows 8.1 ISO image on your host computer. 2. Prepare the bootable Windows media. 3. Boot and install Windows 8.1 on your MinnowBoard.

Step 1: Mount Windows 8.1 image

Download 32-bit (x86) Windows 8.1 ISO image on your host computer. A 90-day Evaluation Windows 8.1 Enterprise is available from the Microsoft TechNet website: http://technet.microsoft.com/enus/evalcenter/hh699156.aspx#. Mount the ISO image using the ISO image software of your choice. Launch an elevated (as an Administrator) command prompt. If youve successfully mounted an ISO image you can check it by browsing the files:

Step 2: Prepare bootable media

Format the drive Insert the media you will be using to boot and install Windows 8.1 from into your host computer. WARNING: All files on your bootable media will be destroyed! From the elevated command launch Windows diskpart tool and type following commands: a) DISKPART> list disk - to show the list of active disks b) DISKPART> select disk # to select disk that will be your bootable disk, where # is the number of the disk 3

c) DISKPART> list disk - to show the list of active disks. An asterisk * in the left column indicates selected disk, double check that correct disk was selected. d) DISKPART> clean to delete all existing partitions (and files) on the selected disk. WARNING: all data will be lost! e) DISKPART> create partition primary to create new primary partition on the chosen media. f) DISKPART> select partition 1 to select newly created partition. g) DISKPART> active to make the new partition active. h) DISKPART> format FS=FAT32 QUICK to format the drive with the FAT32 file system. This will take a few seconds. Make sure you select FAT32 as the file system as this is file system fully supported by the MinnowBoard UEFI Firmware. i) DISKPART> assign LETTER=K to assign disk letter to the drive (you can chose any available letter). j) DISKPART> exit to exit diskpart tool. Make the drive bootable In this sequence we assume that Windows 8.1 Image was mounted under driver letter I: and drive letter K: was assigned to the bootable media. a. In the elevated command prompt, change the current directory to the boot folder of the Windows 8.1 ISO image youve mounted: cd /d I:\boot b. Type bootsect /nt60 K: (where K: is the drive letter youve assigned to your bootable media disk). c. Copy Windows 8.1 files to the bootable media: xcopy I:\*.* K:\ /E /F /H (this step will take a few minutes depending on the speed of the media and interface type).

Step 3: Boot and install Windows 8.1 on your MinnowBoard

i. ii. iii. iv. Remove the bootable media from the host computer and insert it in the MinnowBoard. Power up the MinnowBoard and boot to UEFI Shell. Make sure MinnowBoard UEFI Version 1.00 or newer is installed. Insert the bootable media. From the Shell prompt, navigate to the FS0:\EFI\Boot directory on the bootable media: FS0: cd EFI\Boot Launch bootia32.efi EFI application. Follow the Windows 8.1 Setup installation instructions.

v. vi.