Windows bootable USB on a Mac

[Claryn]

Hi.

 

I currently dont have any machines running Windows and I want to install Windows alongside OS X on my hackintosh. I have the USB and the Windows .iso file. I just need a program like Rufus in order to make the drive. No I am not talking about Boot Camp because that will screw up my bootloader on the Hackintosh.

 

Any guides or programs that easily allows me to create a Bootable USB with Windows on? On OS X.

 

Thanks

[Satlen]

All you need to do is partition your hard drive you want windows on, then extract the iso, and copy the files to the root of a usb. Then boot the usb and install windows onto the partition you set up. Your bootloader should auto recognize windows.

[Claryn]

All you need to do is partition your hard drive you want windows on, then extract the iso, and copy the files to the root of a usb. Then boot the usb and install windows onto the partition you set up. Your bootloader should auto recognize windows.

Should I format it as MS-DOS?

[Satlen]

Should I format it as MS-DOS?

Yes, then when you are installing windows, you will format that same partition again and use that partition to install windows.

[Claryn]

Yes, then when you are installing windows, you will format that same partition again and use that partition to install windows.

Nah I will be installing Windows on another disk in my system But thanks for the help. Just finished copying over the files. Fingers crossed. 

[Claryn]

Alright I am able to boot from the USB.

However...

 

I have a drive that I have split in 2 partitions. 1 for storage on OS X and 1 for Windows. 
 

Windows wont be installed to either becuase the partition table is a MBR.. 

[bradscoolio]

Unix like operating systems (OS X) have "dd" installed by default, it's a command line image creating/buring tool.

Open terminal and type "lsblk" this should result in an output similar to this:

$ lsblkNAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE       RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTsda           8:0          0     111.8G  0    disk ├─sda1   8:1          0     104G      0    part  /└─sda2   8:2          0     7.8G       0    part  [SWAP]sdd           8:48       1     3.7G       0    disk └─sdd1   8:49       1     3.7G       0    part  /media/brady/308C3D258C3CE74E

(I have a linux system but this should be very similar) the ouput here shows me that I have a usb drive of 3.7G at the device location of /dev/sdd and that it's mounted the /dev/sdd1 partition in my media directory.
The device location will vary on your system so make sure to get this correct.

 

The syntax of this command is as follows:

dd if=/directory_of_iso of=/dev/sdX

for my instance, if I wanted to run the dd command on my usb I would run it like this:

dd if=~/Documents/iso/windows_7.iso of=/dev/sdd

When you run the command it will look as if it's hung with a blinking and nothing's happening, this is because dd doesn't have any output, but once it's done, the program will terminate and the cursor will return to the command line. Be patient young padawan learner.

[Robin88]

You really should have installed Windows first, because installing Windows is going to fudge up iBoot by overwriting it and making OS X unbootable, but it isn't impossible to work around this.

First off though, there's an even simpler way of creating a bootable USB drive in OS X, although the guide above gives you much finer control and works even when the GUI doesn't.
But to create a bootable USB drive in OS X do this.

Open Disk Utility in Applications/Utilities.

Go to your USB drive in the left side pane of Disk Utility and format it as MSDOS(FAT) And under "Options" choose "GUID Partition Table" before you format it.

Then open the folder where your Windows ISO is kept and drag the ISO to Disk Utility, this should mount the ISO for you allowing you to restore it to to the USB drive. Close any windows that open.

Now go to the "Restore" tab on your USB drive in Disk Utility and drag the Windows ISO from the left side pane into "Source" and drag your USB drive to "Destination" and click apply, it'll ask for your Password, enter it and click ok and wait, it'll take about half an hour or so, so just be patient.

Aaand you've gone and shot yourself in the foot. You're gonna have to format your hard drive you were going to install Windows to. You can convert MBR to GPT, but I don't think it's possible on OS X, you need a Windows install to do that.
Can you back up your files in your OS X storage partition to another drive while you do this part? Cause otherwise you're gonna lose everything.

If you can back everything up then do this, if you can't, then you're gonna need a third HDD to continue.

In Disk Utility, click on the HDD you're going to use Windows for and format and partition it as 2 HSF+ (Journalled) partitions of whatever size you wish them to be, Make sure to go to "Options" and choose "GUID Partition Table" before you format and click apply and once it's finished quit Disk Utility and shut down your PC.

Now, unplug your HDD/SSD that OS X is installed to and start up your PC

Boot to the Flash drive and click through the installer until you get to choosing where you want to install it.

Click on one of the large partitions that you created in Disk Utility and then delete the partition you selected and choose to install to the now blank space where that HSF+ partition was, now it should allow you to continue the installation as normal, once it's finished and you've booted into Windows you can finally plug back in your OS X drive and whenever you want to use Windows you just hold down F12  as you press the power button to choose your boot drive and select your Windows drive.

Hopefully this will work for you, but if not then I'm afraid you're gonna have to redo it all from the start and install Windows first and partition all your drives correctly before you install OS X.

[Claryn]

You really should have installed Windows first, because installing Windows is going to fudge up iBoot by overwriting it and making OS X unbootable, but it isn't impossible to work around this.

First off though, there's an even simpler way of creating a bootable USB drive in OS X, although the guide above gives you much finer control and works even when the GUI doesn't.

But to create a bootable USB drive in OS X do this.

Open Disk Utility in Applications/Utilities.

Go to your USB drive in the left side pane of Disk Utility and format it as MSDOS(FAT) And under "Options" choose "GUID Partition Table" before you format it.

Then open the folder where your Windows ISO is kept and drag the ISO to Disk Utility, this should mount the ISO for you allowing you to restore it to to the USB drive. Close any windows that open.

Now go to the "Restore" tab on your USB drive in Disk Utility and drag the Windows ISO from the left side pane into "Source" and drag your USB drive to "Destination" and click apply, it'll ask for your Password, enter it and click ok and wait, it'll take about half an hour or so, so just be patient.

Aaand you've gone and shot yourself in the foot. You're gonna have to format your hard drive you were going to install Windows to. You can convert MBR to GPT, but I don't think it's possible on OS X, you need a Windows install to do that.

Can you back up your files in your OS X storage partition to another drive while you do this part? Cause otherwise you're gonna lose everything.

If you can back everything up then do this, if you can't, then you're gonna need a third HDD to continue.

In Disk Utility, click on the HDD you're going to use Windows for and format and partition it as 2 HSF+ (Journalled) partitions of whatever size you wish them to be, Make sure to go to "Options" and choose "GUID Partition Table" before you format and click apply and once it's finished quit Disk Utility and shut down your PC.

Now, unplug your HDD/SSD that OS X is installed to and start up your PC

Boot to the Flash drive and click through the installer until you get to choosing where you want to install it.

Click on one of the large partitions that you created in Disk Utility and then delete the partition you selected and choose to install to the now blank space where that HSF+ partition was, now it should allow you to continue the installation as normal, once it's finished and you've booted into Windows you can finally plug back in your OS X drive and whenever you want to use Windows you just hold down F12  as you press the power button to choose your boot drive and select your Windows drive.

Hopefully this will work for you, but if not then I'm afraid you're gonna have to redo it all from the start and install Windows first and partition all your drives correctly before you install OS X.

 

I will try installing Windows on the SSD, format the HDD, install Windows on the HDD and then OS X on the SSD.

I believe Cinemera (The bootloader I am using for OS X) will recognize the WIndows install even if it was installed first!

[Robin88]

I will try installing Windows on the SSD, format the HDD, install Windows on the HDD and then OS X on the SSD.

I believe Cinemera (The bootloader I am using for OS X) will recognize the WIndows install even if it was installed first!

Try my method first, because all of that you mentioned is just a long and convulted way to fix things, the way I mentioned is still a bit involved, but is simpler than doing 3 or 4 installs/reinstalls.

All you really need to do with my method is back up your files in your OS X storage partition to a separate drive while you install Windows, once that's done you only have to restore them, about 2 hours work at worst.

Your method will require backing up your OS X install files, your storage partition and then installing Windows, then installing Windows to a second drive, and then restoring your OS X install files to a flash drive and reinstalling that, and then getting all your Kexts, bootloader and everything else restored, and that's about 4 or 5 hours work easily. (I've done Hackintosh stuff before, it is never a quick or easy thing, even when you've done it a dozen times before, and the less you have to mess with reinstalling OS X, the better off you'll be)

And if Chimera can detect new installs then even better, you don't have to use F12 to choose your boot drive when you want to use Windows.

[Claryn]

You really should have installed Windows first, because installing Windows is going to fudge up iBoot by overwriting it and making OS X unbootable, but it isn't impossible to work around this.

First off though, there's an even simpler way of creating a bootable USB drive in OS X, although the guide above gives you much finer control and works even when the GUI doesn't.

But to create a bootable USB drive in OS X do this.

Open Disk Utility in Applications/Utilities.

Go to your USB drive in the left side pane of Disk Utility and format it as MSDOS(FAT) And under "Options" choose "GUID Partition Table" before you format it.

Then open the folder where your Windows ISO is kept and drag the ISO to Disk Utility, this should mount the ISO for you allowing you to restore it to to the USB drive. Close any windows that open.

Now go to the "Restore" tab on your USB drive in Disk Utility and drag the Windows ISO from the left side pane into "Source" and drag your USB drive to "Destination" and click apply, it'll ask for your Password, enter it and click ok and wait, it'll take about half an hour or so, so just be patient.

 

 

When I do this, I get the following error:

 

"Restore Failure.

Could not validate source - Invalid argument"

[Claryn]

Got hold of a WIndows laptop and used Rufus..