Sunday, December 16, 2012

Error code 0x80070017 when installing Windows 8 (it means your CD is bad!)

If you're burning a Windows 8 ISO with anything other than ImgBurn, chances are you're going to make a coaster. Symptoms of a coaster include error 0x80070017, which is technical gibberish for "Y'all DVD is broken". This might not seem right because hey, how hard is it to burn a DVD?!

None of these people used ImgBurn. 

The error message has the description:

Windows cannot install required files. The file may be corrupt or missing. Make sure all files required for installation are available, and restart the installation. Error code: 0x80070017.

I'm not saying you don't know how to burn a CD, only that some CD burning tools have a greater chance of making frisbees. If your'e using a Mac, don't use Apple MacOS X's Disk Utility: it burns unusable Windows 8 coasters 100% of the time. Swallow your pride and burn it on a Windows 7 PC.

The answer: burn your Windows ISO on a Windows 7 PC using ImgBurn. It's 100% free! In fact, if this blog post was useful to you and you're feeling charitable, please PayPal the ImgBurn author a dollar. Oh, and kudos to Microsoft for being charitable and giving free copies of Windows 8 to all RMIT students!