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How to create a bootable Windows 10 USB in OS X using Terminal

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n3oNLit3

n3oNLit3

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If you dont have access to a Windows machine, you can use terminal to create a Bootable USB

First thing you need is a USB of at least 8 GB, and a Windows 10 ISO image.

Next open and terminal and use
Code: 
diskutil list
to find the /dev/disk# in my case, for the USB drive it is disk5. For the rest of this guide I have highlighted 5, as this will be a unique number to your specific setup..​

 Screenshot 2015-09-14 08.33.19.jpg

Next you want to unmount that disk by entering
Code: 
diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk[B]5[/B]

Next add
Code: 
sudo dd if=
then drag and drop Win10 iso into the terminal window. In my case it was located on the desktop so then in terminal you will see
Code: 
sudo dd if=/Volumes/Hackintosh\ HD/El\ Capitan\ Home/[COLOR=#0000FF]yourusername[/COLOR]/Desktop/Win10_English_x64.iso

after that add a space (If its not already there) and type
Code: 
of=/dev/disk[B]5[/B] bs=1m
This is what the final command should look like:
Code: 
sudo dd if=/Volumes/Hackintosh\ HD/El\ Capitan\ Home/[COLOR=#0000FF]yourusername[/COLOR]/Desktop/Win10_English_x64.iso of=/dev/disk[B]5[/B] bs=1m
Next press enter, its going to ask for your password, enter your password and hit enter. This will start the process


You need to be patient when I first did this on a USB 2.0 it took 39 minutes. This time because i was curious I used a USB 3.0 and it took 21 minutes

When its finished you will see the bytes transferred, the time it took in seconds, and the bytes/sec.

Finally, you have one more step. In terminal you want to type
Code: 
diskutil eject /dev/disk[B]5[/B]

Screenshot 2015-09-14 09.19.10.jpg


​
This will eject the disk, and you can remove it from the USB port. For verification, I reinserted the USB, opened it up, and this is what you should see

​
Screenshot 2015-09-14 09.34.52.jpg


​
You now have a bootable Windows 10 USB drive.
​


​
 
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This does not say anything about formatting the disk first. Do you need to do that?
 
I'd like to make the win10 installer before my PC parts arrive, but I don't have any computer to test this on right now. Does this look like a correct USB stick that will boot?

Code: 
mbp:$ diskutil info /dev/disk3   
   Device Identifier:        disk3
   Device Node:              /dev/disk3
   Whole:                    Yes
   Part of Whole:            disk3
   Device / Media Name:      DataTraveler G3


   Volume Name:              J_CCSA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV5


   Mounted:                  Yes
   Mount Point:              /Volumes/J_CCSA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV5


   File System Personality:  UDF
   Type (Bundle):            udf
   Name (User Visible):      Universal Disk Format (UDF)


   Content (IOContent):      None
   OS Can Be Installed:      No
   Media Type:               Generic
   Protocol:                 USB
   SMART Status:             Not Supported


   Total Size:               8.0 GB (8011120640 Bytes) (exactly 15646720 512-Byte-Units)
   Volume Free Space:        0 B (0 Bytes) (exactly 0 512-Byte-Units)
   Device Block Size:        512 Bytes
   Allocation Block Size:    2048 Bytes


   Read-Only Media:          No
   Read-Only Volume:         Yes


   Device Location:          External
   Removable Media:          Yes
   Media Removal:            Software-Activated


   Virtual:                  No
   OS 9 Drivers:             No
   Low Level Format:         Not supported
 
Corraidhin said:
I'd like to make the win10 installer before my PC parts arrive, but I don't have any computer to test this on right now. Does this look like a correct USB stick that will boot?

Code: 
mbp:$ diskutil info /dev/disk3   
   Device Identifier:        disk3
   Device Node:              /dev/disk3
   Whole:                    Yes
   Part of Whole:            disk3
   Device / Media Name:      DataTraveler G3


   Volume Name:              J_CCSA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV5


   Mounted:                  Yes
   Mount Point:              /Volumes/J_CCSA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV5


   File System Personality:  UDF
   Type (Bundle):            udf
   Name (User Visible):      Universal Disk Format (UDF)


   Content (IOContent):      None
   OS Can Be Installed:      No
   Media Type:               Generic
   Protocol:                 USB
   SMART Status:             Not Supported


   Total Size:               8.0 GB (8011120640 Bytes) (exactly 15646720 512-Byte-Units)
   Volume Free Space:        0 B (0 Bytes) (exactly 0 512-Byte-Units)
   Device Block Size:        512 Bytes
   Allocation Block Size:    2048 Bytes


   Read-Only Media:          No
   Read-Only Volume:         Yes


   Device Location:          External
   Removable Media:          Yes
   Media Removal:            Software-Activated


   Virtual:                  No
   OS 9 Drivers:             No
   Low Level Format:         Not supported
Click to expand...

Why would you have a Kingston USB drive formatted read only volume with an optical disc DVD format?
You will have to reformat it to something else if you want to make a Win10 installer. See http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2376-usb-flash-drive-create-install-windows-10-a.html for instructions to create a Win10 install USB.
 
I didn't format it, and I think dd doesn't care about filesystems. It just writes over anything and creates it's own filesystem. Maybe the image I'm trying to burn is for optical media.

Thanks for the link, but all methods there require me to run windows, and I don't have a windows computer right now.
 
Corraidhin said:
I didn't format it, and I think dd doesn't care about filesystems. It just writes over anything and creates it's own filesystem. Maybe the image I'm trying to burn is for optical media.

Thanks for the link, but all methods there require me to run windows, and I don't have a windows computer right now.
Click to expand...

In that case, format the flash drive GPT with OS X disk utility and follow guide at http://www.tonymacx86.com/windows/172458-how-create-bootable-windows-10-usb-os-x-using-terminal.html to create the Win10 USB installer.
 
Going Bald said:
In that case, format the flash drive GPT with OS X disk utility and follow guide at http://www.tonymacx86.com/windows/172458-how-create-bootable-windows-10-usb-os-x-using-terminal.html to create the Win10 USB installer.
Click to expand...

Which is what I did and it produced the file system I pasted up there. I'm not sure, but I think that all computers are not capable of booting an USB stick that has a file system of an optical media. If someone knows the details of this, I'd be happy to learn more.

Also I don't believe that formatting matters at all. Doesn't dd work in such a way that it directly writes the input (the dvd image) to the device, and the file system of the image will be copied over what ever the usb stick has?

Anyway, I now have a bootable usb media. I negotiated for some computing time on teh wife's pc laptop, and for some reason the microsoft Media Creation Tool (the first option in your link) failed with "Something Happened 0x80070002 – 0x20016" error code (internets said you could try logging in as admin etc. but I gave up.). Next I tried with the Rufus tool, which got the job done using the same .iso file I originally tried to copy with dd. This approach worked, and I got a UEFI bootable usb stick, so thanks for your link. :thumbup: Although it's a bit annoying that I wasn't smart enough to do it with a mac, I'll get over it. Here's how a bootable usb stick looks like:

Code: 
mbp:$ diskutil info /dev/disk3s1   Device Identifier:        disk3s1
   Device Node:              /dev/disk3s1
   Whole:                    No
   Part of Whole:            disk3
   Device / Media Name:      Microsoft Basic Data


   Volume Name:              J_CCSA_X64F


   Mounted:                  Yes
   Mount Point:              /Volumes/J_CCSA_X64F


   File System Personality:  MS-DOS FAT32
   Type (Bundle):            msdos
   Name (User Visible):      MS-DOS (FAT32)


   Partition Type:           Microsoft Basic Data
   OS Can Be Installed:      No
   Media Type:               Generic
   Protocol:                 USB
   SMART Status:             Not Supported
   Volume UUID:              82EB4166-DD93-3F03-A76D-7748471DD114
   Disk / Partition UUID:    B25A04D9-ADFE-4AA6-8585-925497EB263E


   Total Size:               8.0 GB (8010055168 Bytes) (exactly 15644639 512-Byte-Units)
   Volume Free Space:        3.9 GB (3944542208 Bytes) (exactly 7704184 512-Byte-Units)
   Device Block Size:        512 Bytes
   Allocation Block Size:    4096 Bytes


   Read-Only Media:          No
   Read-Only Volume:         No


   Device Location:          External
   Removable Media:          Yes
   Media Removal:            Software-Activated
 
tooresvaev said:
When i select usb (F12 on up5-th) it says:
"Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key"
Click to expand...
Hey tooresvaev, did you finally sorted it out since then? I'm experiencing the same issue. BTW, I also couldn't format the USB key with DiskUtility afterwards…
 
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