Learn how to create a bootable USB flash drive to use to deploy Windows Server Essentials. As time has gone on, Windows 10 has been. Method Three: How to Create Bootable USB Flash Drive for Installing Windows 10 Using Legacy BIOS (without UEFI.

Why we should create a Windows 10 bootable USB on Mac? Having a bootable Windows USB makes it very easy to install or conduct repairs on Windows based computers. It gives you a portable installation drive that you can carry with you wherever you go, and all you need is a USB flash drive with adequate storage, and the appropriate Windows ISO file. The benefits of creating such a bootable USB are obvious: convenience, speed and portability. As such, this is an essential tool for IT administrators working in a Windows environment. Whenever a user has an installation or repair-related problem, it will be immensely useful.

So, how do you create a Windows 10 bootable USB on Mac? That's the tricky question because you have to choose the most convenient way for the job. There are tons of ISO burning utilities available on the Internet, but not all of them have high burn success rates for bootable ISO files.

The four methods described below are all popular ways to create Windows 10 bootable USB stick on a Mac, but they differ in that they require various levels of technical expertise. Only one of these methods can be executed by novice users. Let's take a look at all three, and make sure you have a USB drive with enough space to hold a Windows disk image for the particular version you require. You will also need to download the appropriate Windows ISO file, which you can get from Microsoft's site.

Part 1: Create Windows 10 Bootable USB on Mac via Terminal (Without Bootcamp)

Before macOS High Serria rolled into public eyes, there are two simple apps available on Mac for creating bootable Windows USB. They are Bootcamp and Disk Utility. For un-known reason, Apple removed the feature from the two apps and no longer valid to make bootable Windows installation USB. However, you can use the Teminal app to perform command line task so you can create Windows bootable USB without Bootcamp or Disk Uitility.

Step 1: Insert an USB flash drive and open Disk Utility app from Launchpad. You will see the drive name of USB on left sidebar.

Step 2: Right-click the drive name and choose 'Erase' from the drop-down menu. At there, you have to choose a partition format. For Windows installation disk, MS-DOS (FAT32) is preferred. Now, the disk will be erased and formatted with FAT32.

Step 3: Now open Terminal app and type 'diskutil list'. This will list all the storage devices on Mac, such as /dev/disk2 (with names and patition scheme).

Step 4: Now open Terminal app and type 'diskutil list'. This will list all the storage devices on Mac, at my computer is the USB drive is shown as /dev/disk2 (with name and patition scheme).

Step 4 : Run 'diskutil unmount Disk /dev/disk2' and hit Enter. Then input 'sudo dd if=/path/to/windows.iso of=/dev/disk2 bs=1m' . Replace the real path to Windows iso file. This command will write the ISO image to USB with bootable option.

Teminal is a great to make a Windows 10 bootable USB on Mac but it is also riksy enough! If you typed the wrong command, all the data on the selected drive would be erased and all data being vanished in seconds. So it is not ideal solution for beginners who don't know much technical staff.

Part 2: Easily Create Windows 10 Bootable USB on Mac via UUByte ISO Editor

People are more willing to use tools that fix the certain issue at minimal effort. That's why we recommend UUByte ISO Editor at this section. It is a market-leading application for burning ISO files and creating bootable media. Its flexibility allows you to choose your storage medium and change burn settings in an easy manner. The utility is fully tested on the world's top PC brands running all the recent versions of Windows. It is compatible with multiple file systems as well as both legacy BIOS and UEFI boot schemes.

The most important features are the high burn success rate and the simple UI that allows even novice users to quickly burn bootable ISO files to USB flash drive. These features have made UUByte ISO Editor extremely popular among both Windows and Mac users around the world. In a matter of a few steps, anyone can create a bootable USB drive for Windows 10/8/7. The process has been described in detail below:

Key Features of ISO Editor

• Support all Windows ISO images, including the latest Windows 10.
• Make bootable disk from USB or CD/DVD.
• Able to edit Windows ISO file before burning.
• Support legacy and UEFI booting.
• Create ISO image from local folders or files.
• Work well on macOS Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave and High Serria.

Step 1: Download UUByte ISO Editor on a Mac Computer

Download and install UUByte ISO Editor on a Mac computer. You need to input the user password before opening the program to authorize the permission. After that, you will see a clean user interface like this.

Step 2: Plug USB Flash Drive into Mac

When you launch the software, you will see multiple options on the home page. Click on 'Burn' to create the bootable disk.

Step 3: Import Windows ISO File and Start Burning it to USB on Mac

In the next window, select the bootable ISO file in the top section, and then the appropriate storage medium. Now click on 'Burn' after choosing the USB option.The bootable drive will be created in a few moments, and you can use it for Windows installations and other purposes.

There's no confusion with advanced settings, no command line work and no other tools required to complete the process. The formatting is done by the software itself, so the user doesn't have to worry about lengthy and complex actions.

[Notice]: The recent download of Windows 10 ISO from Microsoft is 5.8GB. And the install.wim file is bigger than 4GB. You will see a driver missing error during installation process. Fortunately, we solved this bug in latest version. Please download it from our website. The only difference is that an additional step is added to the end of burning process as the below screenshot shots. And this is only visible for large Windows 10 ISO image.

Creating Windows 10 bootable USB on Mac is not that simple as you could image. You won't want to wait for an hour and found out the USB was useless becasue it couldn't boot Windows from it, right? That's why UUByte ISO Editor comes into help!

Note: For the following two methods, you should first built a Windows virtual machine on your Mac as these two utilies are only available in Windows platform. Fortunately, it is quite easy to do this with free virtual machine software on Mac.

Part 3: Use CMD to Create a Windows 10 Bootable USB Stick on Mac in Virtual Machine

Command Prompt is an extremely useful utility in Windows, but you have to know what you're doing. Command improperly executed can lead you to several issues down the road. Therefore, you need to be confident in doing command line work in order to use this method. You can certainly try it if you are a novice, but that may not be the recommended course of action. In Windows 10, it's very easy to create a bootable USB from an ISO file or disk image, but you need to format the USB drive first. The process is described as Step 0 below, but remember to remove the single quotes when entering commands:

Step 1 : Open the Command Prompt by pressing Windows + R and then typing ‘cmd' and Enter in the run box.

Step 2 : Now insert the USB drive and type in 'diskpart' , then hit Enter.

Step 3 : Once the disk partition utility is running, you'll see a new window. In this, type 'list disk' and Enter. Select the USB drive from this list; it will usually be Disk 1, so now input 'select disk 1' and hit Enter.

Step 4 : In the next step, input 'clean' and again press Enter. After you see the success message 'Diskpart succeeded in cleaning the disk'. Then you can type 'create partition primary' and again press Enter.

Step 5 : Next, type 'select partition 1' and press Enter, then type 'active' and Enter, and finally, 'format fs=ntfs quick' and Enter. The chosen partition is now formatted as the NTFS file system. Now type 'exit' and hit Enter again.

Step 6 : Assuming your ISO file is on your hard drive labeled D: Now input the following command, followed by Enter after each line:
d:
cd boot
bootsect /nt60 g: (this assumes that your USB drive has been assigned this letter; otherwise, change it as appropriate)

Step 8 : The above command creates a boot sector on your pre-formatted USB flash drive to create bootable media. You can now exit the Command Prompt with 'exit'.

Cons:

• Hard to understand.
• Need to deal with text commands .
• More risk to ruin the computer if you did it wrong.

Part 4: Create Bootable USB Drive from Multiple Windows ISO Files

RMPrepUSB helps you format drives and burn multiple bootable ISO files on a single drive. It's useful for when you need the same drive to contain different versions of Windows. The biggest drawback, however, is that it is built for pre-Windows 10 bootloaders. It works well with Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Interestingly, RMPrepUSB was originally written for the purpose of wiping, partitioning and formatting USB drives, but it has evolved into a much larger software with multiple features.

Make A Uefi Bootable Usb Drive For Windows 10 On Mac

Step 1: The first step is to download the RMPrepUSB zip file, extract the .exe file and run it to install the software on your Windows PC. Then launch the application and follow the instructions provided below.

Step 2: To format the drive, there are five parameters that you must enter:
Partition size - set as MAX for maximum allowable partition size
Drive name - specify a name for your drive
Bootloader options (select the first option for Windows installations)
File system - for smaller USB drives use FAT16; for larger ones over 16GB, use NTFS.

Step 3: Finally, click on 'Prepare Drive' to format it and add the bootable ISO file.

Cons:

• Complex settings and user interface.
• Not supporting Windows 10 ISO .
• Take a lot of time to find the correct user manual.

Conclusion:

RMPrepUSB utility is clearly not for everyone. If you have no experience handling disk images, then we recommend using Method 2 described above. UUByte ISO Editor does not require any sort of technical expertise, and the software comes with superb technical support if you get stuck at any point. With most other bootable media creation software, you'll come across issues like drive not found, file system incompatibility or other problems. Not with UUByte ISO Editor. It's the one software utility that you can trust to create bootable USB drives accurately every time.

What Can You Do with a UEFI Bootable Disk

A UEFI bootable USB drive can be used to complete an in-place Windows upgrade or clean install of Windows 10. It's also needed to start the system when your computer cannot be booted due to a virus attack, MBR damage, bad sectors, corrupted system files, etc. Once you can start your computer from the USB bootable drive, you can perform a disk check and repair. These are the two most important reasons to use a bootable USB disk. Other purposes include backing up systems, using portal operating systems on a foreign computer, and protecting computer data security.

But how to create a Windows 10 UEFI bootable USB drive?

We all know that there are two boot modes for computers: BIOS VS UEFI. If you have a computer with a Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), instead of the legacy Basic Input/Output System (BIOS), you should know how to create a UEFI bootable USB drive on Windows 10.

There are several different ways to make a bootable disk in UEFI mode. Let's learn together.

Buy A Bootable Usb Drive

How to Create a UEFI Bootable USB Drive in 3 Ways

In this part, we will introduce three common ways to create a bootable USB drive by using Windows 10 Midea Creation tool, Diskpart, and third-party software - Refus.

1. Create a UEFI Bootable USB with Windows 10 Media Creation Tool

If you want to create a UEFI bootable USB media for an in-place upgrade or clean install of Windows 10, you can use the Microsoft Media Creation Tool.

To create a Windows 10 UEFI bootable USB, prepare a USB flash drive with at least 8GB of capacity. Then use these steps:

Make A Uefi Bootable Usb Drive For Windows 10 On Mac Software

Step 1. Download Windows 10 installation media from the official website of Microsoft.

Step 2. Run the exe file of MediaCreationTool. Click 'Accept' to agree to the license terms.

Step 3. On the Windows 10 Setup screen, select 'Create installation media (USB flash drive, DVD, or ISO file) for another PC'. Click the 'Next' button.

Step 4. Click 'Next' on the language, edition, and architecture screen. Select the 'USB flash drive' option, and click 'Next'.

Step 5. Select your connected USB flash drive from the list. And click 'Next > Finish' to complete the process. Wait for the Media Creation Tool to download the files and create a bootable USB flash drive that you can use to install Windows 10 on devices with support for UEFI and BIOS.

2. Create a UEFI Bootable USB on Windows 10 with Diskpart

With the built-in Diskpart utility, you can also create a Windows 10 UEFI bootable USB drive. Note that this solution requires command-line operations, so if you're not confident, you’d better choose a simpler graphical solution.

The process of making a USB bootable drive will erase all data on it. Remember to back up important files and data in advance.

Step 1. Connect your USB flash drive to the computer.

Step 2. Type CMD in the Search box, and right-click on the Command Prompt, and select Run as Administrator.

Step 3. In Command Prompt, type Diskpart and press Enter.

Step 4. Type the following commands in order, and press Enter after each one.

list disk
select disk #
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=fat32 (it means you format the drive with fat32 file system)
assign
exit

Step 5. Copy the Windows installation files to the USB flash drive. You can do this by simply using copy-and-paste. Then, the process of creating a bootable UEFI flash drive with Windows 10 finishes.

3. Create UEFI Bootable USB Drive with Rufus

If you have difficulty in creating Windows 10 UEFI bootable USB with Diskpart, you can use Rufus, an open-source program that allows you to create a UEFI bootable disk on Windows 10/8/7.

Step 1. Download Rufus from the official website: https://rufus.ie/en/.

Step 2. Connect your USB flash drive to the computer.

Step 3. Run this program and make the following main settings:

• Device: Select your USB flash drive.
• Boot selection: Select DISK or ISO image. And click the SELECT button to choose the Windows 10 ISO file from the folder location.
• Partition scheme: Select GPT for UEFI.
• Target system: Select UEFI (non CSM).
• File system: Select NTFS.

On other options and settings, choose based on the actual situation. Then, click the START button to let Rufus create a UEFI USB flash drive.

How to Boot Windows 10 Computer from UEFI Bootable USB Drive

You can create a UEFI bootable USB drive on Windows 10 by taking any of the methods above. After successfully creating the boot disk, you also need to know how to boot your computer from the bootable USB.

Follow the steps below to start your computer from Windows 10 UEFI bootable USB drive.

Step 1. Connect the UEFI bootable USB disk to a dead, unbootable, inaccessible Windows computer.

Step 2. Restart your computer, hold F2/F11/Del to enter BIOS.

Step 3. Go to the Boot Drive section and set the UEFI bootable USB as the boot drive.

Step 4. Save the changes and exit BIOS. Wait for your computer to boot up from the UEFI bootable USB disk.

Bonus Tip: How to Repair Hard Drive and Recover Data with a WinPE Bootable Disk

When your computer cannot start, besides using the BIOS or UEFI USB bootable drive, is there another way to access the computer to fix errors and manage hard drives? Yes, you can resort to a disk management WinPE bootable disk by using partitioning software - EaseUS Partition Master.

With simple clicks, you can create an EaseUS Partition Master WinPE bootable disk and run it on your computer without system boot partitions. Then, you can repair and manage your hard drives with advanced solutions, or restore data by cloning the hard drive.

EaseUS Partition Master

• Resize, merge, delete, create, and format partitions
• Repair corrupted MBR that causes the hard drive to fail to boot
• Clone hard drives to rescue data

Steps for creating a WinPE bootable USB drive with EaseUS partitioning software.

Step 1. To create a bootable disk of EaseUS Partition Master, you should prepare a storage media, like a USB drive, flash drive or a CD/DVD disc. Then, correctly connect the drive to your computer.

Step 2. Launch EaseUS Partition Master, find the 'WinPE Creator' feature on the top. Click on it.

Step 3. You can choose the USB or CD/DVD when the drive is available. However, if you do not have a storage device at hand, you can also save the ISO file to a local drive, and later burn it to a storage media. Once made the option, click the 'Proceed' button to begin.

When the process finishes, you have successfully created an EaseUS Partition Master WinPE bootable disk. Now, you can manage your hard disks and partitions through the bootable drive whenever the computer fails to boot normally.

If you have RAID drives, load the RAID driver first by clicking Add Driver from the menu bar, which can help you add the driver of your device under WinPE environment, as some specific device cannot be recognized under WinPE environment without drivers installed, such as RAID or some specific hard disk.

Once the Easeus Partition Master bootable disk has been created, you can access your computer and the disk from this USB bootable drive for subsequent disk repair and data recovery operations.

Wrapping Up

How to create a UEFI bootable USB on Windows 10? If you are still struggling with this question, you can find the answer here. You can create a UEFI bootable disk in four ways by using Windows 10 installation media, Diskpart, and Refus.

If you need to boot your computer from a USB bootable disk and manage or repair your disk in a WinPE environment, we strongly recommend you use EaseUS Partition Master, which enables you to clone failing hard drive to a new HDD/SSD.