Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool fails to copy files

I was trying to create a bootable USB with Windows 8 using the “Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool”. It kept failing with a message that it was unable to copy the files. (I was using a 16gb USB stick).

After some searching, I found that if you make the USB stick bootable manually, then you can use the tool and it copies all the files successfully.

Here are the steps:

Open a command prompt window in administrator mode.

Run the following commands

diskpart
list disk
select disk #
      (Here replace # with the disk number. Be careful to select the correct disk number, else you may end up loosing all your data).

clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format quick fs=fat32
assign
exit

Now re-run the “Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool” and you should be able to successfully create a Windows 8 installation USB stick.