I have a MacBook Pro M2 running the latest macOS Sonoma. I am looking for a way to make a Windows 10 bootable USB on my Mac so I can fresh install Windows 10 on my newly built PC for my son. Does anyone know know how to do this? In the past, this could be done easily with the stock Built-in Bootcamp Assistant app but it is not available on Sonoma.

[Update Dec 12] The solution that finally worked is WonderISO app. Here is the online tutorial:

https://www.sysgeeker.com/online-help/wonderiso.html

P.S. Still received notification from this post frequently. I did try the new suggested app but unable to open it, saying 'WinDiskWriter cannot be opened because it is from an unidentified developer.'

I was searching for the best solution for hours, and then even ran into issues within the dated solutions that I saw here. I even tried creating a virtual machine, but my MacBook’s old 4 GB RAM couldn’t handle a Windows 10 VM (to be compatible with the flash drive).

I thought I’d share to save anyone else some trouble, at least for the time being. In my case, I was creating a bootable USB for Windows 11, and only had access to Macs and admin-blocked PCs.

Here are the steps that worked for me (no terminal required!):

1. Download the .iso file for the operating system of your choice from the Microsoft website.

2. Download UNetbootin at https://unetbootin.github.io. It’s safe and has been recommended here before, but as with any software on the internet, look it up yourself first just for the habit if anything.

3. Insert your USB flash drive.

4. Despite what you read elsewhere, you’ll want to reformat your USB from FAT32 to ExFAT. Search your Mac for “Disk Utility” and open it. Then select your flash drive and click “Erase” at the top. Enter a new name for the flash drive and use the dropdown to select “ExFAT”. Click OK.

5. Open the UNetbootin file and try to run it. If there is a security popup, click OK then go into your System Preferences -> Security and select “Open Anyway” next to UNetbootin.

6. Select the “Diskimage” radio button and search for the .iso file you downloaded in step 1. Also select the USB drive you are using. If concerned, you can find its name in the Disk Utility app, but mine was something like “Disk2s1”.

7. Click OK and wait. Could be several minutes loading certain files, so don’t worry - it’s still loading even if it’s not moving.

8. After it’s done, eject and use it to boot your new PC.

Hope this helps anyone else in my situation at least for a while.

Hello

I'm trying to find a link that can help me create a bootable USB to reinstall Windows 10 for a PC and a surface on a mac computer. All the links I have tried do not work.

Thanks in advance

I am in the process of my first build and got everything to POST and was ready to install Windows 10. The only Windows machines I have were employer issued and were locked down on admin privileges and forced you to encrypt any drive that was plugged in. All I had was my personal MacBook Air. Spent all day reading instructions and trying different methods to create a bootable USB. Was successful using the link below. This may have been posted here before or I found it in a comment. Wanted to move it up the list with the amount of people building during the pandemic, I am sure I am not the only one in this situation. Instructions were super easy and took about 15-20 minutes to complete

Link: https://alexlubbock.com/bootable-windows-usb-on-mac

I only have a macbook air and I just bought a new tower and I will install a new SDD on it. I read putting windows 10 on a usb is the best way to go.

Is that possible? if so let me know the steps I should take.

thank you.

Hi, I need some help trying to make a bootable drive of win10 in macos 13.1. I have tried a tutorial I found on youtube and also on a few websites (all of them had terminal commands and everything went right), but nothing seems to work. The drive gets created as a bootable on the macbook, but when I plug it into the pc, I get a shown "select proper boot device" error. I have checked the bios and have made sure that my usb drive is selected and it being recognised by the pc, but changing the boot sequence or the usb slots have done nothing and I keep getting the same error. I did find a usb tool which would help me make it, but it was paid and I don't want to pay for a piece of software that I will probably never use again. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks in advance!

edit: thanks to jamvanderloeff for helping me with this. The bootable drive was created and I've installed windows!

My build is now complete but I am getting my ass handed to me while attempting to create a bootable windows usb drive from this MacBook. I’ve been able to get to the wimlib split command: wimlib-imagex split /Volumes/CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9/sources/install.wim /Volumes/WINDOWS11/sources/install.swm 3000. The response being: wimlib-imagex split WIMFILE SPLIT_WIM_PART_1 PART_SIZE_MB [—check]

Some uncommon options are not listed; see ‘man wimsplit’ for more details.

If anyone can help me for the love of god please do😭😭😭

I need help with installing Mac OS on my Mac book pro 2012 with a usb stick. I recently installed kali Linux on my main drive which was the biggest mistake I could’ve ever done, because now I can only boot on windows. I tried re installing Mac OS X via the recover mode but it dint work it just said « missing components cannot install ». So I tried making a usb bootable but I only have windows pc’s so I used a software called transmac and it dint work the installation won’t show on the boot menu. Can any one help me ? I do not want to go to an apple shop just to install Mac OS and pay 100$

Dear friends,

I only have a working Mac at home and my daughter's PC needs to be reinstalled.

I download two different versions of the ISO from Windows (english and italian), have formatted the USB stick with MS-DOS FAT32/MBR and used a Mac utility called Unetbootin to transfer the ISO to the stick.

When I boot the PC from it after a couple of screens I get an error:

"Unable to open a needed file E:\Sources\install.wim ..." (translated from Italian) and cannot proceed.

Inspecting the USB stick on the Mac shows there is a sources\install.wim file of around 4.7GB (from my memory). Please note that the sources on the Mac finder is lowercase while the Sources in the message is upper case.

Any idea or solutions? Thanks a lot.

My desktop pc stopped working, I can sometimes get it into the bios menu, but usually the screen starts flashing during the boot up process and takes me to a screen saying "Windows 10 didn't load up correctly"

I'm wondering if its possible to fix this by loading up windows 10 from a bootable usb?

The only problem is that I only have a MacBook 2018 for creating the bootable windows usb (MacOS 12.6.3). Is there any way to use the Mac to create the USB? All the tutorials I find online seem to link to sketchy websites/apps and I'm not sure if its safe.

I have a late 2011 MB Pro that was gifted to me by a friend. He removed his hard drive and told me how to put a new one in and use recovery to install OS X, but I just get an error every time that a download is missing. Is there a way for me to make an install USB in windows 10?

Seen a few posts in this sub about this exact topic but no definitive answer, and no solutions that have worked for me so far.

I have a brand new build with an Asus ROG 450f motherboard which apparently requires a USB to be in FAT32 format to boot from it. The problem is that on MacOS that format restricts individual files from being larger than 4gb, and the install.wim file in the Microsoft iso is about 4.4gb

I have 2 separate 32gb usb sticks, and so far nothing I've tried has worked. I downloaded Paragon so I could format drives as NTFS, but burning the iso onto that didn't work. I tried something called UNetBoot something, and that didn't work.

I don't have easy access to a windows PC that I could use to create this easily. Maybe I could try the public library but they typically have restrictions on flash drives and downloads, so that seems unlikely.

Any thoughts? I'm getting very impatient and just want to set up my PC! Thanks.

I have a mac (Intel obviously) that I would like to get to run windows. I have a 128gb usb that I want to use as a bootable drive, thus keeping my mac hard drive free of windows things. I couldn't find a tutorial online that clearly stated that the drive was being used as a bootable as opposed to partitioning the Macintosh HD. Again, just to be clear, (if possible) I'd like all the windows files stored on a USB drive, NOT the Macintosh HD. If someone could send a reliable tutorial my way that'd be great! Thanks!

Just set up my pc and need to install windows but I only have a MacBook Air (M2) available to use at the moment. Is there a way to create a bootable windows usb using the Mac?

I wanted to post this as a separate post in the hopes that others find it quickly in the future and save themselves the headache I got. Getting a working Windows 10 install USB on a Mac literally took longer than the entire rest of the build.

I figured out a great workaround for it finally and it's actually pretty simple and free (though Paragon is a great app and I'm supporting them for the headache they relieved):

1. download Paragon NTFS for Mac, it enables full NTFS support.

2. format a thumb drive with it, NTFS filesystem of course

3. mount the ISO (downloadable from the MS website), and copy all the files from there to the thumb drive (the files are already bootable)

4. follow the rest of the install process on your new PC

With Paragon it's probably roughly as easy as making the install USB in Windows. Without it I think the only solutions are Parallels or finding a Windows PC. I think I probably tried every other suggestion out there and none of them work.

I recently acquired a Mid 2012 MacBook Pro that I want to use as it does all I need it to. However, it came without a Hard drive so I need to install OS on it. It’s my first Mac computer and I have a windows one already so need to know how I can make a bootable USB on there for free.

Alright, so I have a Mac and I'm building a pc. I have a license but I need to create a bootable usb ISO. My question is, is it pretty straightforward as putting the ISO on the USB, or is it more involved (I'm using the Mac to create it)? Sorry for the newb question. It's been awhile since I'm done any of this... Thanks for any help!

I’ve built my new pc and am trying to install Windows 10. I only have access to a MacBook to create a USB installer. I’ve looked online and can’t find the right help. So...

Can I use a Mac to create an install usb?

If so, how?

Thanks.