https://github.com/mattieb/windows-iso-to-usb
converts a Windows ISO to a bootable USB disk
https://github.com/mattieb/windows-iso-to-usb
iso usb windows windows-11
Last synced: about 2 months ago
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converts a Windows ISO to a bootable USB disk
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/mattieb/windows-iso-to-usb
- Owner: mattieb
- License: mit
- Created: 2024-01-25T00:08:50.000Z (over 2 years ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2024-03-23T14:12:43.000Z (over 2 years ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-04-11T21:56:40.264Z (about 1 year ago)
- Topics: iso, usb, windows, windows-11
- Language: Shell
- Homepage:
- Size: 440 KB
- Stars: 4
- Watchers: 1
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 0
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE.md
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README
# windows-iso-to-usb
A macOS tool to convert a Windows 11 ISO image to a bootable USB drive.
## Requirements
- The command-line tools from [wimlib](https://wimlib.net) (available in [Homebrew](https://brew.sh))
All remaining requirements are already included in macOS. Patches are welcome for portability.
## Usage
```
windows-iso-to-usb ISO_FILE DISK
```
Writes the content the ISO image in ISO_FILE to the USB disk at DISK.
DISK must be the device name (e.g. "/dev/disk6" or just "disk6"). You can find it with the "diskutil" command:
```
diskutil list
```
Or with Disk Utility, with "View" → "Show All Devices" set:
windows-iso-to-usb will show you information about the disk before erasing it, to confirm it is the disk you want to use.
## How it works
[windows-iso-to-usb](./windows-iso-to-usb) tries to mimic the output of the [Windows Media Creation Tool](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/learning-center/windows-media-creation-tool) as closely as possible. Specifically, it uses an MBR partition table and a single FAT32 volume which it names "ESD-USB".
FAT32 has a limitation of 4 GB files, so one extra step is needed: splitting a large install.wim file into files that will fit. Here, we mimic the steps taken [in Microsoft's Flash Drive installer documentation](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/install-windows-from-a-usb-flash-drive?view=windows-11#if-your-windows-image-is-larger-than-4gb) and split the image into chunks of 3800 MB.
Some ISO images (such as the ones created by [windows-esd-to-iso](https://github.com/mattieb/windows-esd-to-iso)) don't have install.wim, but have install.esd instead. If this is present, it convert it to an install.wim file before splitting.
## Caveats
- While this tool will likely operate on ARM ISOs, I have not tested the produced USB images.
- The "install" images are compressed with LZX compression, instead of LZMS compression like the images produced by the Windows Media Creation Tool. This does not materially affect the produced installer, and is [due to wimlib design](https://wimlib.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=702). I do not consider this an issue.
## Licensing
While this tool itself is [already licensed to you](./LICENSE.md), Windows itself may require licensing and activation.
You must address this; this tool does not.