Create Bootable USB Flash Drive on Mac OSX for Windows 10 (for clean install on PC)

Do you want to create a copy of Windows10 on a USB on a Mac ready to do a clean install on your PC?

I've just spent my entire weekend Goolging and trying lots of different things to make this work. A lot of information out there which is right if you combine steps from some of them.
To help you all, I've just made a short video that walks you through the exact process.
N.B. You need to have already downloaded the Windows10 ISO from the Microsoft website (good luck with that)

For Terminal

cp -rp /Volumes/CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9/* /Volumes/WINDOWS10/

[its.stefgr]

SOLUTION FOUND. I was stuck as well and kept formating my usb drive the wrong way. It's my first time building a pc(im a total noob)and i've been using Mac only. I'm writing this while my windows 10 is actually installing. Here is what I did:
1) Download ISO file from Windows website.
2) You will need to format your flash drive to NTFS! For that you need to download an application called Tuxera. It's totally safe and legit.
3)Insert your flash drive in your Mac.
4) Cmd+Shift on your Mac to open spotlight and type Disk Utility.
5) Locate your flash drive and click on erase. It will then show your option to format on NTFS(if beneath that it asks for a scheme click on Master Boot Record).
6)After that you need to go to your windows ISO file and just open it. You will see a couple of files in there. Just copy paste all those files in your flash drive.
7) Eject and insert that bad boy in your PC(make sure its a USB 2.0 port).
8) Go to your BIOS > go to the save & exit screen
choose Boot override
choose your flash drive, PC will restart and boot from USB.

This absolutely worked for me and trust me i didn't know anything about PC building. I just did some research after failing so many times. Let me know if this worked for you guys and if yes spread the word around! Cheers.

[musicalmind]

After you click on iso file copy the name of it and replace Marc's "CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9", because your windows version might have another name and will not work in Terminal. Thanks Marc!

[katiea]

If this doesn't work I'm gonna end up installing windows on my mac to install windows on my pc lol

Update: I had to do exactly that

[milezsz]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!! You don't realize how happy I am 😭 after hours of trying many different methods online, reading forums, and troubleshooting, this is the ONE and only method that actually worked!!

[kelsdreams]

took me like 9 hours to get this work and a lot of frustration, but a few things I learned to make it work:


1: Try using Tuxera to format your Drive to NTFS, which is for windows exclusively. Use Terminal to Copy Paste files over. Once in BIOS on PC, try checking the boot order and seeing if a EUFI version of your Drive has appeared. Click that as the main startup priority then Save & Exit and Reboot.


2. Try plugging your drive into the back USB panels. Everyone always shows them swiftly putting it in the front panel and viola!- but no. Mine refused to boot from the front panel even though it showed up in the BIOS.


3. Check to make sure the Drive can boot windows onto the Mac you are using right now. I was able to install windows, but didn't have the partitions up- but I didn't need those, so long as the ISO file works, it should be good to go for your PC install!


4. Once you manage to get Windows installed, remember that on the next boot up you'll need to go into BIOS again and reconfigure that priority back to your SSD or HDD

[dakotapetrie]

Dud you're awesome! This solved my exact problem. I've been on nothing but Mac machines and decided to build own PC! but didn't have PC to create windows bootable drive. Thanks tons!

[saifislam]

Damn making bootable USB in windows is so much easier.

[hayleyevenett]

This was Super helpful thanks!
My grey cursor also did not ever turn clear, but i checked that the USB had the same file size as the copied contents and it worked fine for the PC USB boot up.

[jmulen]

Thank you so so so so so so much for this. I am in the process of building a computer, I was trying to install windows on a USB from my mac. No other tutorials were on google and I was stressing out. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

[biodunej]

If there’s a space in between your volume path name like “Windows 10” you can fix that by using a back slash between the space, like this “Windows\ 10”. Hope this should help after substituting the respective volumes

[KennethMesser]

Just a quick note that you need to keep the USB plugged in for several minutes as the file transfer takes time. I learned this the hard way unplugging the USB at 2-3gbs instead of the full download

[swordssolitude]

OK big important detail - my new MSi B450-A Pro Max motherboard wasn't liking exFat so I downloaded this software called Tuxera NTFS 2019 for Mac - it allows you to format a drive (thumb drive for me) on your mac with the NTFS format which is what Windows wants. Basically do everything Marc said, but instead of choosing exFat - use the Tuxera NT option after you've installed that software. It. Worked.

[stimulated]

- In Disk Utility use "Show All Devices" under "View" in de top menu bar.
- In Terminal, USE your country. Instead of cp -rp /Volumes/WINDOWS10/. I had to use cp -rp /Volumes/WINDOWS10/
- Click on "Windows10" volume in Finder and then "Show info". You can see if it's still copying.

[rybobuno]

Did anyone have issues with their PC recognizing the ExFAT drive?

[CrazyWS]

Thank you very much, I haven't tried it yet (just finishing up putting it on my usb) and everything has went very smooth. You talked about the cursor being clear after its finished, but as soon as I clicked off the window to continue with your guide, it went clear, while it still unloading stuff. So I'll let it sit for about an hour or so until it probably done. Thank you again, and wish anyone else doing this the best of luck, not that you'll need it, but still :)

Small edit: When I click back on the terminal window the cursor goes back to being grey'd out, don't know how long I should wait for see if it goes to being empty, but we'll see :]

[SparkMeer]

For anyone having recurring issues, download a trial of parallels desktop and just do it as a pc user would do it. After hours of failure, this is the only thing that gave me success...

[denisg]

After spending some time with this and doing a clean install on a Ryzen 3600, ASRock AB350 ITX what worked for me was formatting the drive to NTFS instead of exFAT and then running the exact same terminal command. macOS natively doesn't support NTFS but I downloaded a trial version of the first Google result and worked great.

[khizerkhan]

Hey man, you just made my life easy. Thanks, wherever you are (your accent suggests Scotland, which is my favourite place in the world).

[yakandyeti]

If this does not work then...bootcamp will work like a charm.
Just download the window iso file or if you have old downloaded window iso file then transfer it to your mac....format your usb in (disk utility)ms dos (master boot record). Open the bootcamp then click all the three option and click your usb and then hit ok. This one worked for me. Plug it into your pc for fresh install of window.

[simonecampobasso]

For checking the update status, just open and close the utility disk on mac and check the status.