This tutorial will show you how to create a Windows To Go USB drive that supports Mac computers, then you can run Windows to go on a Mac computer to complete the work that must be done under Windows.
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I hav a late 2016 MacBook Pro with MacOS and Windows 10 Pro dual systems installed on it, so far so good, but I only use Windows 10 Pro to play some games that can't be run on MacOS. Now I'm trying to get rid of my Bootcamp installation, because of low space on main SSD drive. I noticed that WinToUSB can install Windows to a USB drive, can the Windows USB drive created by WinToUSB be started from a Mac computer? How do I make it? Could let me know step by step for using your tools.
- Despite the Mac's recent gains in market share, Windows is still the dominant operating system, especially in businesses. That means there may be times when you need to run the Microsoft OS.
- I started by preparing my usb 3.0 disk with diskapart command in windows terminal and fallow all the steps in TransMac with different mac os versions but the final result was always the same, when I plug the usb pen in my mac, I turn on pressing option key and I select usb but it always go to Mac OS X Utilities.
Yes, the Windows To Go USB drive created by WinToUSB can be started from a Mac computer, but not all Windows To Go USB drive created by WinToUSB can be started from a Mac computer. So we need to understand what causes the WinToUSB USB drive to fail to boot and then we can effectively avoid it.
1. Now All of Apple's computers use Intel CPUs, and Apple selected the Intel-designed Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) as its BIOS firmware to replace the Open firmware used on the PowerPC architecture. So in order to boot a Mac computer, we have to make sure that the Windows To Go USB drive that we created supports EFI booting.
2. For booting Windows on an (U)EFI-based computer, the Windows version must match the PC architecture, that means a 64-bit (U)EFI-based computer can only boot 64-bit versions of Windows and a 32-bit (U)EFI-based computer can only boot 32-bit versions of Windows. Mac computers use 64-bit Intel CPUs, so make sure you use 64-bit Windows to create Windows To Go.
Tutorial to create and run Windows To Go on a Mac computer with WinToUSB.
Step 1. Download Mac Boot Camp Support Software for Windows To Go, please refer to:
How to download Boot Camp Windows Support Software for Windows To Go?
Step 2. Copy the Boot Camp Support Software downloaded in the previous step to the computer with an installed copy of WinToUSB, and connect the destination external hard drive or USB flash drive to this computer, then run WinToUSB.
Step 3. Click the button, then click the button and select the Windows installation ISO file from the open dialog box.
Step 4. WinToUSB scans for and lists available operating systems. Pleae select the edition of Windows you want to install, then click 'Next'.
Step 5. Select the destination drive in the drop-down list. If the drive is not correctly recognized by WinToUSB, please click the button for the program to recognize the drive.
Step 6. A pop-up will appear asking you if you want to format it to continue, select the partition scheme you want to use and click 'Yes' to format it. Mac computer is a UEFI based computer, so you have to select the 'GPT for UEFI' or 'MBR for BIOS and UEFI' option as the partition scheme. If you choose 'Keep the existing partition scheme', you need to manually prepare the partitions on the USB drive before this step, and here is the user guide on how to manually prepare partitions for Windows To Go. Please note that the 'Keep the existing partition scheme' option is valid only for an external disk.
Step 7. Select the system partition and boot partition from the partition list, the selected partitions will be marked as red, specify the directory of the additional drivers as the save path of Boot Camp Support Software, then click 'Next'.
Tips:- The directory of the additional drivers you specify should only contain drivers that need to be injected into Windows. If this directory contains too many useless files, the process of injecting drivers will become very slow.
Step 8. After clicking 'Next', WinToUSB begins installing Windows.
Step 9. It takes some time to install. After installation, safely unplug the USB drive from the Windows computer, then connect the USB drive to the Mac computer you want to boot. If you have only the USB-C interface on your Mac computer, you will need to use the USB-C to USB Adapter to connect the USB device to your Mac computer.
Step 10. Power on the Mac computer, and then immediately hold down the Option key, then select the USB drive and press Return to boot from it.
Step 11. Windows normal installation starts up and you have to complete all the installation steps. If the Mac's own keyboard or touchpad does not work, you have to use an external USB keyboard or mouse to complete the installation. After that, you can install Windows Support Software (Boot Camp drivers), programs, copy files, etc.
Now you know how to create and run Windows To Go on a Mac computer with the best free Windows To Go Creator WinToUSB, you can also use WinToUSB to clone existing Windows to a USB drive and then boot Windows from that USB drive on a Mac computer.Related Guides
The last release of Mac OS doesn't have the option to create a bootable USB from Bootcamp like previous versions, and it is a problem because that require uses other tools.
I am updating this post today Dec 12, 2018. The reason is that I was only using UNetbootin to create the bootable USB, I will leave guide as a second method since it still working, and I will explain to you how you can create the bootable Windows USB without extra software.
The first step for both methods requires to format your USB device to NTFS, this is the default filesystem, alternative you can use ExFAT but the installation could fail.
Format USB to ExFAT (Under your own risk)
In order to boot from the USB, you need to format the USB to ExFAT, you can do it using Disk Utility (it comes with MacOS).
This step is the same for both methods. Mp4 to flv mac. You need to show all the devices in Disk Utility' before to start the process.
Select your USB device in the list (not the partition), right click and then click on the Erase option:
In the next screen make sure you select these two options:
- Format: ExFAT
- Scheme: Master Boot Record
Click the Erase
button. Razer mechanical keyboard mac.
If for some reason it fails, probably is because MacOS still using the USB, just repeat the steps, but if you see a screen similar to above screen is because the operation is successful.
Format USB with the terminal
You also can format the USB from the terminal, but you have to take care to use the correct device because, if you use the wrong name you will lose everything.
With this command you can list the device on MacOS:
This is an example, my USB is the disk2:
This command is to format the USB, the last parameter is the the USB:
Copy Windows files to USB - Method 1
This process is very easy doesn't require to install other software, and they are just a few steps:
Open Windows ISO
Just double click on the ISO image, MacOS mount the image automatically.
Copy files
Now you only need to copy the files and paste them to the USB. Time machine to another mac.
Command + A
Select all files.Command + C
Copy files.- Go to your USB
Command + V
paste the files.
Windows Sous Mac
This process could fail if you are using a USB with FAT32 because the file install.win
is over 4GB, if this is the case try to open the terminal and copy paste the files from there (no always works. Try to follow the instructions to format the USB in ExFAT, NTFS works for some BIOS).
This is the command to copy the files from the ISO to the USB:
And that is all, now you can try boot from the USB.
UNetbootin - Method 2
I will show you how you can use UNetbootin to create a bootable USB, it can be used no only for Mac but for Windows and Linux distributions too.
Windows Sous Machineasousj.com
UNetbootin is free software and it is also available for Windows and Linux.
Check the path name of your USB Disk.
Always in Disk Utility, select the new partition that we created in the previous step, and click on the information button, it will give you the information about the new partition.
You also can use the terminal and the command diskutil
to see the list of drives:
Download UNetbootin:
Download the
dmg
directly from the Website.
And copy theapp
to the/Application
folder.I prefer to use homebrew to install applications, you can check this article for more information: Installing Applications on Mac with Homebrew:
Creer Une Cle Bootable Windows Sous Mac
Makes the USB booteable
Open UNetbootin and you only need select 3 options:
- Diskimage and ISO
- Now we need open the ISO Windows image that is on our computer.
- Select your USB device on UNetbootin.
- Click on the OK, button and wait to the process end it will take a time.
Windows Sous Mac
This process could fail if you are using a USB with FAT32 because the file install.win
is over 4GB, if this is the case try to open the terminal and copy paste the files from there (no always works. Try to follow the instructions to format the USB in ExFAT, NTFS works for some BIOS).
This is the command to copy the files from the ISO to the USB:
And that is all, now you can try boot from the USB.
UNetbootin - Method 2
I will show you how you can use UNetbootin to create a bootable USB, it can be used no only for Mac but for Windows and Linux distributions too.
Windows Sous Machineasousj.com
UNetbootin is free software and it is also available for Windows and Linux.
Check the path name of your USB Disk.
Always in Disk Utility, select the new partition that we created in the previous step, and click on the information button, it will give you the information about the new partition.
You also can use the terminal and the command diskutil
to see the list of drives:
Download UNetbootin:
Download the
dmg
directly from the Website.
And copy theapp
to the/Application
folder.I prefer to use homebrew to install applications, you can check this article for more information: Installing Applications on Mac with Homebrew:
Creer Une Cle Bootable Windows Sous Mac
Makes the USB booteable
Open UNetbootin and you only need select 3 options:
- Diskimage and ISO
- Now we need open the ISO Windows image that is on our computer.
- Select your USB device on UNetbootin.
- Click on the OK, button and wait to the process end it will take a time.
NOTES:
- I tested other tools like
dd
andEtcher
but they are not working because Windows requires extra steps, for the moment this is the only easy tool that I know that works if you are on Windows try Rufus. - Some users reported that UNetbootin is not working, if after to format the USB drive and change the block size is not working for you try another Drive with enough space.