How to Create a Windows 10 Installation USB Drive from Mac

1. Preparing Your USB Drive

Before creating a Windows 10 installation USB on your Mac, you need to prepare your USB drive. First, make sure that the USB drive has at least 8GB of available space. This is necessary to store the Windows 10 installation files.

Once you’ve chosen your USB drive, format it to the FAT32 file system. This step is important as it ensures the drive will be compatible with Windows. To format your USB on a Mac, open Disk Utility, select the drive, and choose "Erase." Choose the "MS-DOS (FAT)" format, which is equivalent to FAT32 on Mac.

2. Downloading the Windows 10 ISO Image

The next step is to download the Windows 10 ISO image from Microsoft's official website. You can do this by visiting the Windows 10 Download Page.

Choose the "Download tool now" option and select the desired edition and language of Windows 10. After downloading the ISO image, keep it in a place where you can easily access it on your Mac.

3. Creating a Bootable USB Drive on Mac

With your USB drive ready and the Windows 10 ISO image downloaded, it’s time to create a bootable USB. The easiest way to do this on Mac is by using the Terminal and the "dd" command. Here’s how:

• Open Terminal from the Applications > Utilities folder.
• Insert the USB drive into your Mac.
• Type the command diskutil list to find the USB device’s disk number (e.g., disk2).
• Unmount the drive with diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskX (replace X with the appropriate disk number).
• Run the dd command: sudo dd if=/path/to/windows.iso of=/dev/diskX bs=1m (replace the path and disk number accordingly).
• Once done, type diskutil eject /dev/diskX to safely eject the USB drive.

This process will copy the Windows 10 installation files to your USB drive and make it bootable. Be patient, as it might take some time depending on the speed of your USB drive.

4. Testing the Windows 10 USB Installation Drive

After creating the bootable USB drive, it’s essential to test it to ensure it works properly. To do this, insert the USB drive into a Windows PC and restart the system. Enter the BIOS (usually by pressing F2 or Delete during boot) and set the USB drive as the primary boot device.

If the USB drive is bootable, the computer should load the Windows 10 installation screen. From there, you can proceed with the installation or repair tasks you need.

5. Troubleshooting Windows 10 Installation USB Issues

If your USB drive is not booting or you're facing issues during the installation process, here are some troubleshooting tips:

• Ensure the USB drive is correctly formatted in FAT32, as other formats may not work for booting.
• Make sure the Windows ISO file is not corrupted. If necessary, re-download it from the official Microsoft website.
• Verify that the BIOS settings of the target computer allow booting from USB devices. Check that USB booting is enabled and placed at the top of the boot order.

By following these troubleshooting steps, you should be able to create a Windows 10 installation USB drive from Mac without any issues.