We have recently shown you how to create a Windows 10 USB installer, but for those Mac users, that method won’t work since you can’t install the Windows executable file on your Mac. You can easily download the ISO file from the Microsoft website, but how can you create a USB installer in Mac? Here is how you can.
Getting the Windows 10 ISO file
1. To download the Windows 10 ISO file, you just have to visit this Microsoft site on your Mac. Select “Windows 10” from the drop-down menu, and then select the language. Lastly, select the “64-bit download” link to download the 64-bit ISO file.
The following instructions require you to have a USB drive of minimum 8GB. All the data in the USB drive will be wiped.
Creating Windows 10 USB Installer Via Bootcamp
1. In your Mac, open LaunchPad and type “bootcamp.” Select and open “BootCamp Assistant.”
2. In BootCamp Assistant, click “Continue.”
3. On the next screen, make sure the checkboxes beside “Create a Windows 7 or later version install disk” and “Download the latest Windows support software from Apple” are checked. Leave the last checkbox (install or remove Windows 7 or later version) unchecked.
4. Select the Windows 10 ISO file that you have previously downloaded and set the Destination disk to your USB drive.
5. A prompt will appear to inform you that the drive will be erased. Click “Continue” to proceed.
Bootcamp will then proceed to create the USB installer.
Once the installation is done, you will find a newly-mounted USB drive named WININSTALL in your Finder. You can now use it to install Windows 10 on any PC.
Note: if you have not upgraded to BootCamp 6, you might face the issue that “saving windows support software” is stuck and not moving. In this case, you can stop Bootcamp and follow the instruction here to fix the support software issue.
Creating Windows 10 USB Installer Via Terminal
If you are having an issue with BootCamp, you can try this method with the terminal.
1. Open the terminal and type the following command:
hdiutil convert -format UDRW -o ~/path/to/windows-10-iso.img ~/path/to/windows-10-iso.iso
Replace ~/path/to/windows-10-iso with the actual file path of the ISO file. This command will convert the ISO file to IMG format.
Note: OS X tends to add a .dmg to the end of the IMG file. You can simply rename the file and remove the .dmg.
2. Next, check the location of your USB drive:
diskutil list
In this case, my USB drive is in “/dev/disk2.”
3. Unmount the USB drive.
diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskX
Replace /dev/diskX with the location of your USB drive.
4. Run the following command to create the USB installer:
sudo dd if=/path/to/windows-10-iso.img of=/dev/rdiskX bs=1m
Replace /path/to/windows-10-iso with the actual filepath of the ISO file and /dev/diskX with the location of the USB drive. This will take some time.
5. Lastly, eject the USB drive.
diskutil eject /dev/diskX
Once that is done, you will have a USB installer that you can use to install Windows 10.
Image credit: Jak dopasowa? menu Start w Windows 10
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Damien Oh
Damien Oh started writing tech articles since 2007 and has over 10 years of experience in the tech industry. He is proficient in Windows, Linux, Mac, Android and iOS, and worked as a part time WordPress Developer. He is currently the owner and Editor-in-Chief of Make Tech Easier.
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