Completely remove OS X, use W8, problem...

Hello. I'm using a 2013 MBA. I *can* use Bootcamp, but I hate losing ~40GB of space for OSX. I don't care about firmware updates, it runs fine. Here's what I've done...

• Removed OSX by wiping the drive in recovery/disk utility
• Installed Windows 8 via USB by holding down 'option' when the Macbook starts
• Windows 8 installed

At this point I get the personalisation screen for Windows 8... but neither my trackpad or keyboard work... this doesn't happen when I use bootcamp.

When I hold down 'option' to choose what to boot to, I also have an option of 'efi', when I try to install Windows that way I get some message saying that the drive is partitioned a certain way and it won't work...

What exactly do I have to do to get it to work?

It's probably worth mentioning the USB stick of W8 that I am using was created by Bootcamp, which previously worked fine with bootcamp, my next step is to try a plain old W8 USB stick created by Microsofts USB tool but I doubt I'll have much luck

Any suggestions? Thanks

 

That didn't work... but here's a support page I found in relation to the issue:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4589

Tried a USB 2.0 stick as well, same problem, that page is wrong...

 

Thanks for the suggestions, it was difficult to get through them all but I finally came up with something that worked by myself. For anyone else having the same issue:

• Create bootcamp partition in OSX
• Don't let it install W8 by itself, when it reboots hold option and boot from the EFI option
• Select the drive, format it in W8 setup, install to it
• Now W8 will work, restart once it's finished
• Hold option again, go into Recovery
• Format the OSX partition into something Windows can use
• Done... you have 2 separate partitions, but you are now able to use all available space

And that is that.

 

Correct, unless you can show me a Windows laptop that:

• Has the same sort of responsive touchpad
• Has 2-3 hours battery life while gaming
• Is small and as light
• Can run both Windows + OSX (when needed, it's better to have the option)
• Has a screen that's just as bright
• Has the same resolution for a 13" model

And if so, then I will gladly stop buying them.