Creating a Bootable USB on macOS

When going to install Windows on a laptop, it is important that you have your USB configured to the correct format. If your drive is not configured to NTFS you will not be able to copy the ISO onto your USB drive.

Once you have formatted and got the ISO copied you still need an executable for your BIOS to install windows. The steps below show you how its done.

1) Download Windows ISO.

If you don’t have your own windows image you can get one from Microsofts official website here.

2) Format and create a bootable USB

The easiest and fastest way is through the terminal.

  • First run diskutil list
  • then insert your usb stick
  • and run diskutil list again to see the disk node (e.g. /dev/disk2).
  • Now run diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskN
  • and do sudo dd if=/path-to.iso of=/dev/rdiskN bs=1m (or bs=1M with homebrew)
  • When finished diskutil eject /dev/diskN

While dd is running, press Ctrl-T to see its progress. If your bs=1m then 182+0 records out means 182 MB have been transferred. 3) Load bootable USB insert the USB drive into the computer that will be getting a fresh windows install 4) Find your USB Allowing your BIOS to find your USB and booting from it will depend on the configuration of your computer. If you are having trouble following this guide please get in touch, I’d be happy to help.