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Creating a USB drive image

Avatar Richard I
For my Christmas project, I have to fix a windows laptop by installing a clean version of windows via a USB drive.

I have downloaded an ISO image from Microsoft and it is sitting in my Mac's download folder.

I am running Mojave.

How do I get the image onto the USB drive such that it will boot up on the windows machine??

(looking at youtube videos suggest using Boot Camp Assistant. However, in Majove, it does not give the option to burn a Windows install disk. It looks like it will create a partition on the Mac, which I certainly do not want!)

Any ideas?

Re: Creating a USB drive image

Avatar Stuart Affleck
Boot Camp Assistant is the correct option. Have the USB inserted & formatted to FAT32, run BCA, select the 'create an installer' option, deselect the 'Install or remove' Windows option- that would have caused the partitioning option to appear- and you're good to go.

Re: Creating a USB drive image

Avatar Richard I
Thanks, Stuart
Unfortunately, BCA prompts me as follows: "External storage device attached. Please remove any external storage device attached to this system before continuing" with an OK button. I have looked through the menus and can't find a "create installer" option.

Having removed the external drives, pressing continue results in a dialogue box with a progress bar stating "clearing up temporary files to make room for bootcamp".

This sounded bad so I pressed "stop"!

I note that under the actions menu the only item is "Download windows support software". Is that a clue?

Re: Creating a USB drive image

Avatar Stuart Affleck
What Mac are you trying to install on? If it is an older model, for example a 2006-12 Mac Pro, it won't install to USB without altering the BCA preference files, burning a DVD will be the only option (must admit I'd forgotten that). Try following the instructions here…
https://darraghking.com/create-a-bootable-windows-10-usb-installer-with-a-mac/

Re: Creating a USB drive image

Avatar Richard I
The Mac I am using is a late 2015 MBP (no DVD, but I have an external writer) running Mojave.

To be clear, I am not trying to put windows on this mac, but to create a bootable device (ideally USB drive) that will be used to reinstall windows on a PC.

Thanks for your help

Re: Creating a USB drive image

Avatar Stuart Affleck
Got what you were trying to do- done it (Windows ISO setup on Mac) a few times myself, on both USB and DVD.
That MBP is on the list for USB install, so it's a bit odd. Following those instructions should work....

Re: Creating a USB drive image

Avatar Tony Still
Is it possible that you have downloaded the wrong thing? I thought that an ISO image was a DVD image.

That also raises the thought of trying to burn a DVD instead - something I assume you could do with Finder or otherwise Disk Utility (it'll be slower to use, of course).

Re: Creating a USB drive image

Avatar Richard I
Thanks for all the help chaps.

I understand now that an ISO is meant for disks and may not work with USB sticks.

However, that would not have solved the problem of not being able to generate anything useful using Boot Camp Assistant.

Anyway, I have to break it you you gently... that I ended up using a windows machine, and the process was smooth and successful.

Ironically, the USB drive I used to boot from and install windows 10 was the AUGW one I was given when I joined!!

Re: Creating a USB drive image

Avatar Tony Still
So using a Windows machine to update a Windows machine is easier than using a Mac to do it. I think I expected that 🤓.
 
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