Create a bootable USB flash drive for Windows 10 on Mac. A guide to creating a bootable USB flash drive for Mac OS X from Mountain Lion to Mojave. Creating a bootable USB drive from the command line

If you want to see on our website answers to your questions about everything related to Apple technology, programs and services, iOS or Mac OS X, iTunes Store or App Store, write to us via .

We received the following question:

Good afternoon, friends.
I have a question about the Terminal.
Lately I've often been asked how to create a bootable USB flash drive with Windows. I always answered that I don’t know and that I need to Google it. But everything turned out the other way around, the other day I needed a flash drive, but I couldn’t find anything useful on the Internet. I found several commands to load a flash drive, but I didn’t get the result I was hoping for. Please tell me if there is a way to burn a bootable flash drive from Windows using Terminal or any third-party applications
Thanks in advance

Good afternoon

Neither Terminal nor any third-party applications are needed here, because create a bootable Windows USB flash drive from Mac OS X possible using the built-in system Boot Camp Assistant. In general, Boot Camp Assistant is probably the most mysterious utility in OS X for beginners, around which there are many rumors. In fact, Boot Camp Assistant does not change anything in OS X, much less in the Mac's EFI firmware. This utility can only do three things:

prepare bootable media for Windows
download Boot Camp drivers to ensure Mac hardware works in Windows
create an additional partition for Windows on your Mac hard drive

To create a bootable USB flash drive with Windows from an image, launch Boot Camp Assistant, click the continue button on the start screen, then check the “Create a Windows 7 or later installation disc” checkbox:

In the next step, you will be asked to connect a flash drive to your computer and will be warned that all content on it will be erased. Here you will need to specify the path to the Windows image:

Then the deployment of the image to the flash drive will begin, which will take about five minutes.

In this article I will tell you how to create a bootable USB flash drive with Windows using the program WinToFlash.

Using the example, I will use a Windows image that has already been downloaded in advance onto my PC.

You can download Windows 10 Pro from Yandex.

Download the WinToFlash program from Yandex, or from the program’s official website.
Install WinToFlash, select a free license.

Create a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 10

Let's launch the program. The program prompts us to start working in wizard mode, I also recommend using the program in this mode, click on the icon.

Click on the checkbox so that the program always runs in wizard mode, or you can skip this agreement, then click "Next."

Choose source - folder, disk or file image, I choose " I have an ISO image or archive (RAR, ZIP)". If you have a disk or an already unpacked image in a separate folder, choose the first option. Then click "Next."

To select an ISO image file, click "Choose".

Select the path to our ISO image, then click "Open".

Insert an empty USB flash drive (at least 4GB, preferably 8GB) into the computer, click update if it was not displayed earlier. Then click "Next."

A warning window will open stating that all information on the USB flash drive will be erased, if we agree, click “ "Continue."

We accept the Windows License Agreement. and press "Continue."

If you did everything correctly, it will start on its own "Creating a bootable USB flash drive"

Recently a new operating system of the Windows family was released – Windows 10.

The easiest way is to update your Windows to version 10, but if you need to install from scratch (either with a second system “to try”, or the previous OS was not Windows), you will have to install from external media - a disk or flash drive.

This article is dedicated to how to create a bootable USB flash drive for Windows 10.

To solve this problem, you will need, in fact, a flash drive itself with a size of 4 GB, an ISO image of the installation Windows disk 10 and a program that will transfer installation data to a flash drive and make it bootable.

There are a huge number of such programs, we will look at two of them: Windows 10 Installation Media Creation Tool, an official utility from Microsoft, and Rufus 2.3 Portable from third-party developer Akeo Consulting, and also learn how to make a bootable USB flash drive with command line without the help of other applications.

Important! It should be remembered that all information on the flash drive will be destroyed, so use an empty flash drive or first make a copy of all the necessary data.

Windows 10 Installation Media Creation Tool

Download and run Windows 10 Installation Media Creation Tool - an official utility from Microsoft designed to update an already installed Windows to version 10 or to create bootable external media (DVD or USB drive) for installing Windows 10 on another computer.
At this point, the flash drive should be prepared and inserted into the USB port of your computer.

On the first screen we will be given two options to choose from: update this computer or create installation media. Select the second one and click Next.

Next, select the language - Russian, the release we are interested in - Windows 10 (Win10 N and KN are versions for Europe and South Korea without pre-installed Windows Media Player, Skype and other programs falling under antimonopoly legislation these countries) and we find ourselves faced with a choice of OS bit depth – 32-bit or 64-bit. This choice depends on whether your computer has a 32-bit or 64-bit processor. Roughly speaking, both types of processors will work under a 32-bit OS, and under a 64-bit OS, the x64 processor will work faster and be able to use more RAM, while the x32 will not work at all.

If Windows is already installed on the computer for which you are preparing a flash drive, you should look at the properties already installed system(right click on Computer and choose Properties or press the key combination Win+Pause/Break).

If there is “x64” in the system properties, feel free to select the 64-bit version. If the system type is x32 (in 32-bit Windows XP the bitness is not indicated), do not rush to make a choice: first you should check the bitness of your processor.

Accurate information about the processor bit depth can be obtained from its documentation or you can find a technical description on the manufacturer’s website by the name of the processor (it can be taken from the system properties item CPU for Win7/Vista and Computer for WinXP – everything written before the @ icon).

Such a check seems appropriate given the fact that the vast majority of modern processors are 64-bit.

Now we just have to specify “USB flash memory device” as the media, select your connected flash drive and wait while the program downloads and writes the Windows 10 installation files.

Rufus 2.3 portable

There are a huge number of applications like Rufus 2.3 that can create a bootable USB drive: WinToFlash, WinSetupFromUSB, WinISO, UltraISO, Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool, etc., but working with them always comes down to choosing a flash drive on which to recording is made, specifying an ISO image with Windows 10 and pressing a button that will start the process of creating a bootable USB flash drive.

Creating a bootable USB drive from the command line

If you are preparing a USB flash drive for installation on a computer with UEFI, and you have a 64-bit version of Windows 7 or 8, you can do without third-party applications and create a bootable USB flash drive from the command line using the DiskPart snap-in.

UEFI(Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) is a more modern analogue of BIOS, or more precisely, an interface for managing low-level hardware functions, designed to initialize equipment when the computer is turned on and then transfer control of the equipment to the operating system.

Download the Windows 10 ISO image.

Insert the prepared flash drive into the USB port.

Run the command prompt as administrator (in Windows 7 it can be found in Start/Programs/Accessories and right click select Run as administrator; in Windows 8, press the Win+X key combination and select the appropriate item in the menu that appears.)

Run the following commands sequentially:

diskpart– start of the equipment.

listdisk– display a list of disks. Here you need to determine what number the USB drive goes under. It is better not to make mistakes here, since all data on the selected disk will be destroyed.

Most likely, he will be last on the list. However, it is better to check its size and disconnect all other USB drives. In our case, this is disk 6.

selectdisk 6 – select disk 6 to work.

clean – deleting all partitions from the selected disk

createprimarypartition creating a primary partition on the selected disk

formatfs=fat32quick– quick formatting of a partition in FAT32.

active– the command makes the partition active (i.e. the computer can boot from it)

assign– assigning a name to the partition (the so-called drive letter)

listvolume– displays a list of all sections. Here we look at what letter our flash drive received (in in this case M).

exit – exit from the equipment.

This is what it should look like:

So, the flash drive has become bootable, and now we need to copy files from the Windows 10 ISO image to it. Please note, not the image itself, but its contents.
You can open the image using a virtual CD/DVD drive (for example, Daemon Tools), an archiver (Winrar, 7-zip, etc.) or using Windows itself ( Connect by right mouse button).
It doesn't matter which method you choose, the main thing is to gain access to the files contained in the image. We select them all and copy them to the newly created volume, the name of which we looked at in the list displayed by the command listvolume.

Once the files are copied, you will receive a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 10, but remember that it is only suitable for computers with UEFI.

At the end of the article, it should be noted that with the release of Windows 10, the procedure for creating a bootable USB flash drive has not changed at all, and all methods that were suitable for earlier Windows versions, are still relevant.

So if you are more accustomed to working with some other program, you can easily use it too.

How to make a bootable USB flash drive for Windows 10

How to create a bootable USB flash drive for Windows 10: installing a new OS on your PC

A bootable MAC OS flash drive is created quite simply and quickly. This can be done using the same operating system or any other.

1. We use MAC OS

In all cases, to complete the task we will need an empty flash drive with a capacity of at least 8 GB, as well as an Internet connection. If you use MAC OS, you also need account in Apple ID.

The step-by-step process for creating a boot drive is as follows:

Download the system image from apple.com. There's always latest version. Usually on the main page there is promotional material for the OS and the inscription “Update your system now.” It can also be found on the App Store. To do this, use the search. Apple companies often give away their latest creations for free.
Insert the flash drive. Run the downloaded image. This is a special utility for creating bootable media. In the left panel, select the inserted drive. Go to the "Partition" tab.
Under “Partition Layout”, select “1 Partition”. It is also advisable to indicate the name of the flash drive. It is most convenient to call her by name operating system. In our case it is “El Captain”.
In addition, indicate the format next to “Format” “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” and the size of the flash drive - enter as much as is on the media. Click "Apply".

Now go back to the downloaded folder and launch the terminal. In it, enter the command shown in Figure 2. It can also be seen in this file.

Wait approximately 15 minutes. After this, the process will be completed and you will have bootable media ready to install the operating system.

Clue: To boot from the resulting media, connect it to your computer while holding down the Alt button. Then simply follow the installer's instructions.

As you can see, everything here is extremely simple. Difficulties arise if you are not able to use MAC OS to complete the task. Then you will have to resort to “workarounds”.

2. We use Windows

In this case, the installation image from the App Store will not work. You need to search on torrent trackers or regular sites. And then there are two options - either you will find the image in .dmg format, or in .iso format.

In the first case, you need to do this:

Download and install the TransMac program on your computer. The best way to do this is on the website acutesystems.com (it’s official). The program is paid, but it has a trial period of 15 days. During this time, you can manage to create many flash drives.
In the left panel, select the flash drive that you are going to make bootable. Right-click on it and click “Format Disk for Mac” in the drop-down list. A prompt will appear in which you simply need to click “Yes” or “OK”.
Once formatting is complete, right-click on the drive again, but now select “Restore with Disk Image.”
In the window that appears, under the words “Disk Image to restore”, indicate the path to the .dmg file that you downloaded earlier. Click OK. In all subsequent warnings, also click “OK” or “Yes”. Everywhere they talk about the fact that all data will be lost, and the image will be installed on the selected disk. But that's what we need.

In the future, use the flash drive in the same way as when creating one in MAC OS, that is, insert it into the computer and hold down “Alt”. The corresponding menu will appear and the OS can be easily installed.

If you managed to find an image in .iso format (which is most likely), then you have a lot of options for creating a bootable drive with it. And they are all absolutely free. For example, you can use Rufus.

To do this, do this:

Download the program from the official website (rufus.akeo.ie) and run it on your computer.
In the “Device” field, select the flash drive that you are going to make bootable. You can change the remaining fields up to the one related to the name at your discretion. If you don’t understand, it’s better not to touch them at all.
In the New Volume Label field, enter the name of your media. This is not necessary, but it is better to name the drive accordingly to make it easier to deal with later.
Check the boxes next to “Quick format” and “Create a boot disk.” To the right of the last one, select “ISO image” and click on the button in the form of a disk drive. Specify the path to the downloaded image.
Click "Finish" and wait for the process to complete.

In the same way, you can use the following programs:

Enter the command "diskutil list". After completing it, you will see a complete list of disks that are currently in use on the computer. Find your drive there.
Enter the command "diskutil unmountdisk [media name]". That is, if the flash drive is called “/dev/mydisk”, the command will look like “diskutil unmountdisk /dev/mydisk”.
Enter the command “sudo dd if=[folder where the image in .iso format is located] of=[name of the removable drive] bs=1024”. Then if the folder with the image is called “z:/papka/obraz”, then the command will look like “sudo dd if= z:/papka/obraz of=/dev/mydisk bs=1024”.
Wait for the creation process to complete.

As you can see, in Linux it is easiest to complete the task.

Recently, I was asked to reinstall Windows 10, my experience with this OS ended 3 years ago when I bought myself a macbook. At the time of using Venda, I had Windows 7 installed. But we'll talk not about this, but about how to make a bootable USB from Windows via Mac OS X and in my article “ Make a bootable USB from Windows via Mac OS X“everything will be written out.

I was wondering how I could burn an image to a USB drive with Windows 10. It turned out that it was not a particularly long and complicated process.

Make a bootable USB from Windows via Mac OS X

1. The first thing you need to start with is downloading the image itself from Window. I won’t tell you how and where to download and I also won’t promote this or that site. But you can download the image either from the official website, or you can find a site with pirated software on the Internet.

Windows 10 can run on all modern Macs and support hardware thanks to Boot Camp. If you want to run Windows and have OS X on the same Mac, you want to create a bootable Windows 10 on USB, which can be created through OS X and the Boot Camp Assistant tool. To create an installation USB with Windows, you will need to have a flash drive (at least 8 GB).

And so, the downloaded Windows 10 image is available on my macbook.

2. Connect the USB drive to the Mac - it will be erased. Therefore, copy and do not lose the data!
3. Open the “Boot Camp Assistant app” utility, it is located in /Applications/Utilities/ (or you can launch it through Spotlight, which is what I did). To launch any utility (search and run it) you need to press “control + space”, enter “Boot Camp Assistant app” and press “enter” - in case someone didn’t know.

Click on the “Continue” button. Select only “Create disk” windows installations 7 or later" and click on the "Continue" button:

As you can see from my screenshot, I chose the path to the downloaded Windows 10 image. We are warned that the data on the selected disk (this is a flash drive) will be lost. And again click on the “Continue” button.

The USB drive will be formatted and then installation will take place. bootable WINDOWS 10 per flash drive.

It took me about 20-30 time. That's it, the topic “Make a bootable USB from Windows via Mac OS X” is completed.

After which you can install windows on a mac or any other laptop or PC.