Creating Windows Bootable USB on macOS

This is a simple tutorial to create a Windows-bootable USB on macOS. I created this page to remember the commands and help anyone who needs to do the same.

Step 1: Download the Windows ISO

You can choose which version of Windows you want to install, and download the ISO file from the Microsoft website.

Step 2: Insert the USB drive and format it to FAT format

Insert the USB drive into your Mac and open the Disk Utility app. Select the USB drive and click on "Erase". Choose the format "MS-DOS (FAT)" and click on "Erase".

Step 3: Unmount the USB drive

After formatting the USB drive, unmount it:

To unmount the USB drive, we need to know the disk identifier first. Run the following command to list the disks:

diskutil list

Find the disk identifier of the USB drive and unmount it:

diskutil unmountdisk {disk_identifier}

Step 4: Copy the Windows ISO to the USB drive

Just run the following command to copy the Windows ISO to the USB drive:

sudo dd if={image.iso} of={disk_identifier} bs=1m

This command can take a while to finish, be patient.

Step 5: Eject the USB drive

After the command finishes, eject the USB drive:

diskutil eject {disk_identifier}

That's it! Now you have a Windows-bootable.