Editor's note: I am also the author, so this is entirely a superfluous editor's note to begin with. Sorry. Nonetheless, the first part of this blog is really more of a rant about how stupid this whole thing was, so you might want to scroll down a bit to get the actual answer...
So more or less since Windows 8 came out, I've been trying (quite unsuccessfully) to get it installed after downloading it from OnTheHub.com (which is the University of Iowa's "partner" for Microsoft products, or more correctly speak, one more middleman to fuck things up, as per usual. ANYWAY), and of course, that meant that I got to play the "frantically Google the shit out of every possible iteration of the phrase 'Windows 8 install fail'" game, as well as the fine past time of "get passed back and forth between OnTheHub (a division of an equally shitty company known as Kivuto Solutions, who were about as douchey as they sound), Microsoft and University of Iowa ITS (who were initially helpful, but in person were your typical front-desk shitheads who refused to let me talk to someone who could actually help me)" - all of which was totally fun, and had me losing faith in my vaunted ability to Google the shit out of something until I figured out (AKA, 94% of what Geek Squad actually does behind their curtain, or really basically what any good tech support fiend does first), and at one point I even resorted to torrenting the goddamn ISO just in case I somehow was never able to download the installation file (because OnTheHub's baby-retard-zebra service only gives you access for 30 days, ostensibly so enterprising students don't somehow keep using their free software illegally, although how you're supposed to do this without the Product Key is beyond me, so as usual, poor design to prevent unlikely piracy fucks everyone again) until I finally found the answer here, but here's the brief summary:
(HI! If you read the editor's note above, and decided not to read the above rant and skip down here, this is where the actual information starts)
-I'm guessing that at some point, you probably downloaded the Windows 8 preview, yes? For whatever reason, when you go to do it "for real," the Windows 8 setup doesn't overwrite the old file, called the "WebSetup" folder. If that folder is still there, you'll get the "Sorry, something happened and we couldn't finish creating the ISO. Restart setup and try again" message.
The location of the folder is at: C:\%UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WebSetup
where %UserProfile% is the user account you downloaded it under (probably your default account) - this is the folder you need to delete.
Once that folder is deleted, run the Windows 8 setup file (found here, if you haven't, like me, already downloaded it 8 different times thinking it was a corrupted file), and it should prompt you at that point for your product key - which is something it wasn't doing for me. After that, you can choose to make it an ISO, run it normally, run it from USB, etc.
If you need screenshots, check the EightForum link below.
(h/t to EightForums, where I originally found and condensed this guide.)
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