Is there a way to install windows 10 to onto a USB flash drive? I basically want to use a 128 GB USB stick to run Windows 10, so that I can just plug it in to a pc and boot into a preinstalled version of Windows 10. Is that possible? Thanks!
Many people want to install Windows 10 onto a USB flash drive. Unfortunately, Windows Installer does not allow you to install it to a USB flash drive. Is there a way to install windows 10 to onto a USB flash drive? Yes, here you will find instructions on how to install any version of Windows 10 onto a USB flash drive and run Windows 10 from the USB flash drive. After the installation is complete, you can install programs and copy files to the USB drive, then you can take the Windows 10 To Go USB flash drive to anywhere you want to go and use it on any computer, whether it is a Legacy BIOS or UEFI computer.
Tutorial to install Windows 10 on a USB flash drive with WinToUSB.
Download Windows 10 ISO File Using A Mac. Head over to this link using Safari. Scroll down to the 'Select edition' section and select the edition of Windows 10 you wish to download. 10 Best USB Bootable Softwares for Windows/Mac Rufus Windows USB/DVD Tool Universal USB Installer RMPrepUSB Etcher YUMI WinSetUpFromUSB DiskMaker X UNetBootin EaseUS Applies To: Windows, macOS Back in the days, to install an operating system or to create a rescue disk we had no other option other than to burn the whole system into a.
Step 1. Connect the USB flash drive to the computer.
Step 2. Download and install WinToUSB, then run it as administrator.
Step 3. Click the button, then click the button and select the Windows 10 installation ISO file from the open dialog box.
Step 4. WinToUSB scans for and lists installable operating systems in the Windows 10 installation ISO. Please select the edition of Windows you want to install, then click 'Next'.
Step 5. Select the USB flash drive in the drop-down list. If the USB drive is not correctly recognized by WinToUSB, you need to click the button for the program to recognize the USB drive.
Step 6. After you select the USB drive, a pop-up will appear asking you if you want to format it to continue, tick the 'MBR for BIOS and UEFI' checkbox, then click 'Yes'.
Step 7. After clicking 'Yes', WinToUSB begins formatting. Please wait until that format operation is complete.
Step 8. After successfully formated the USB drive, select the installation mode, then click 'Next'.
Step 9. After clicking 'Next', WinToUSB begins installing Windows 10 to the USB drive.
Step 10. It takes some time to install. After installation restart the computer and change BIOS to boot from your USB drive.
Step 11. Windows 10 normal installation starts up and you have to complete all the installation steps. After that, you can install programs, copy files, etc.
Follow these simple steps, you can create a Windows 10 To Go on a USB flash drive easily.
Related Guides
To troubleshoot an issue with Windows 10 (especially boot-related issues), it can be handy to boot to Windows 10 that is not installed on a Boot Camp partition. It is relatively straightforward to create a bootable USB Flash drive to boot to the Windows 10 installer, and then open up a DOS prompt for troubleshooting.
What is needed
- USB Flash drive (8 GB or larger recommended)
- Windows 10 Installer ISO for Windows 10
Preparation
All the preparation is done in macOS on the Mac that is having an issue booting Windows. It is important to use this Mac since it will be used to identify the correct Windows drivers.
USB Flash Drive
The USB Flash drive must be formatted as exFAT.
- Insert an 8GB or larger flash drive into a USB port on the Mac
- In Disk Utility, format the Flash drive as exFAT. Quit Disk Utility after this operation completes.
Boot Camp Driver
Open Boot Camp Assistant in the Utilities folder, and download the current Windows Support Software from the Action menu. Save the Windows Support Software to your desktop or other location, but do not save directly to the USB Flash Drive.
Windows Install Media
Download the current install media from the Microsoft website. Windows is not going to be installed, but the install media will give access to the command line tools in Windows. Select the version of Windows that is closes to the version of Windows installed on the Mac (Windows 8, Windows 10). It does not matter what edition of Windows is used since Windows is not going to be installed.
Create Recovery USB Flash Drive
To create the USB Flash drive, follow these steps:
- Mount the Windows ISO that was downloaded from Microsoft. To mount the ISO, double click on the ISO in the Finder.
- Drag all the files and folders from the mounted ISO to the USB Flash Drive.
- Drag the contents of the Windows Support Software to the USB Flash Drive.
- If there is not an AutoUnattend.xml at the top level of the drive (as shown below), download AutoUnattend.xml, unzip it, and add it to the drive. AutoUnattend.xml provides the location of the $WinPEDriver$ folder to load the drivers during boot.
- The 2018 MacBook Air (and potentially Macs after that) have cannot load the IntelMEI driver and give a 'Windows Setup could not install one or more boot-critical drivers. To install Windows, make sure that the drivers are valid, and restart the installation'. On the USB Flash drive, open the $WinPEDriver$ and remove the IntelMEI folder.
Once the Flash drive has been created, it should look like this:
The $WinPEDriver$ folder is important because the $WinPEDriver$ folder contains the drivers for Windows to boot successfully from the USB Flash drive and the hardware on that Mac.
Boot from the USB Flash drive
To inject the drivers, the Mac must be booted from the USB Flash drive.
- Insert the USB Flash drive into an available USB port on the Mac
- Reboot while holding the option key.
- Select EFI volume in the startup selector.
If Windows does not boot from the USB Flash drive after showing the Windows logo, you may have to run the following command to tell the firmware to boot the windows installer from the USB flash drive. This has been observed on the late-2014 Mac Mini but may affect other models as well. To set the variable:
- Disable SIP by booting to the recovery partition.
- Boot back to macOS and open Terminal. Run the follow command and enter the admin password when prompted:
sudo nvram InstallWindowsUEFI=1
Insert the USB flash drive if it is not inserted, reboot, and select the EFI volume from the startup selector.
Note the InstallWindowsUEFI variable is cleared at each reboot, so you will to set it again if you do not select the USB Flash Drive.
Download Windows 10 To Usb Flash Drive On Mac
Command Prompt and Mapped Drives
When Windows 10 starts up, it will prompt for installation of Windows 10. To open up a DOS window, press Fn-Shift-F10 (or just shift-F10) or click Repair Computer->Troubleshoot->Command Prompt (if available).
Once in the command prompt, there are usually 3 drive letters available: X, C, and D.
- X: This is Windows that you are booted into in memory. The files from the boot.wim on the flash drive are copied to memory and then booted to.
- C: Boot Camp partition
- D: The USB Flash drive
Running Utilities
Within the Windows command prompt, you can run utilities on the Boot Camp partition.
Step 1. Connect the USB flash drive to the computer.
Step 2. Download and install WinToUSB, then run it as administrator.
Step 3. Click the button, then click the button and select the Windows 10 installation ISO file from the open dialog box.
Step 4. WinToUSB scans for and lists installable operating systems in the Windows 10 installation ISO. Please select the edition of Windows you want to install, then click 'Next'.
Step 5. Select the USB flash drive in the drop-down list. If the USB drive is not correctly recognized by WinToUSB, you need to click the button for the program to recognize the USB drive.
Step 6. After you select the USB drive, a pop-up will appear asking you if you want to format it to continue, tick the 'MBR for BIOS and UEFI' checkbox, then click 'Yes'.
Step 7. After clicking 'Yes', WinToUSB begins formatting. Please wait until that format operation is complete.
Step 8. After successfully formated the USB drive, select the installation mode, then click 'Next'.
Step 9. After clicking 'Next', WinToUSB begins installing Windows 10 to the USB drive.
Step 10. It takes some time to install. After installation restart the computer and change BIOS to boot from your USB drive.
Step 11. Windows 10 normal installation starts up and you have to complete all the installation steps. After that, you can install programs, copy files, etc.
Follow these simple steps, you can create a Windows 10 To Go on a USB flash drive easily.
Related Guides
To troubleshoot an issue with Windows 10 (especially boot-related issues), it can be handy to boot to Windows 10 that is not installed on a Boot Camp partition. It is relatively straightforward to create a bootable USB Flash drive to boot to the Windows 10 installer, and then open up a DOS prompt for troubleshooting.
What is needed
- USB Flash drive (8 GB or larger recommended)
- Windows 10 Installer ISO for Windows 10
Preparation
All the preparation is done in macOS on the Mac that is having an issue booting Windows. It is important to use this Mac since it will be used to identify the correct Windows drivers.
USB Flash Drive
The USB Flash drive must be formatted as exFAT.
- Insert an 8GB or larger flash drive into a USB port on the Mac
- In Disk Utility, format the Flash drive as exFAT. Quit Disk Utility after this operation completes.
Boot Camp Driver
Open Boot Camp Assistant in the Utilities folder, and download the current Windows Support Software from the Action menu. Save the Windows Support Software to your desktop or other location, but do not save directly to the USB Flash Drive.
Windows Install Media
Download the current install media from the Microsoft website. Windows is not going to be installed, but the install media will give access to the command line tools in Windows. Select the version of Windows that is closes to the version of Windows installed on the Mac (Windows 8, Windows 10). It does not matter what edition of Windows is used since Windows is not going to be installed.
Create Recovery USB Flash Drive
To create the USB Flash drive, follow these steps:
- Mount the Windows ISO that was downloaded from Microsoft. To mount the ISO, double click on the ISO in the Finder.
- Drag all the files and folders from the mounted ISO to the USB Flash Drive.
- Drag the contents of the Windows Support Software to the USB Flash Drive.
- If there is not an AutoUnattend.xml at the top level of the drive (as shown below), download AutoUnattend.xml, unzip it, and add it to the drive. AutoUnattend.xml provides the location of the $WinPEDriver$ folder to load the drivers during boot.
- The 2018 MacBook Air (and potentially Macs after that) have cannot load the IntelMEI driver and give a 'Windows Setup could not install one or more boot-critical drivers. To install Windows, make sure that the drivers are valid, and restart the installation'. On the USB Flash drive, open the $WinPEDriver$ and remove the IntelMEI folder.
Once the Flash drive has been created, it should look like this:
The $WinPEDriver$ folder is important because the $WinPEDriver$ folder contains the drivers for Windows to boot successfully from the USB Flash drive and the hardware on that Mac.
Boot from the USB Flash drive
To inject the drivers, the Mac must be booted from the USB Flash drive.
- Insert the USB Flash drive into an available USB port on the Mac
- Reboot while holding the option key.
- Select EFI volume in the startup selector.
If Windows does not boot from the USB Flash drive after showing the Windows logo, you may have to run the following command to tell the firmware to boot the windows installer from the USB flash drive. This has been observed on the late-2014 Mac Mini but may affect other models as well. To set the variable:
- Disable SIP by booting to the recovery partition.
- Boot back to macOS and open Terminal. Run the follow command and enter the admin password when prompted:
sudo nvram InstallWindowsUEFI=1
Insert the USB flash drive if it is not inserted, reboot, and select the EFI volume from the startup selector.
Note the InstallWindowsUEFI variable is cleared at each reboot, so you will to set it again if you do not select the USB Flash Drive.
Download Windows 10 To Usb Flash Drive On Mac
Command Prompt and Mapped Drives
When Windows 10 starts up, it will prompt for installation of Windows 10. To open up a DOS window, press Fn-Shift-F10 (or just shift-F10) or click Repair Computer->Troubleshoot->Command Prompt (if available).
Once in the command prompt, there are usually 3 drive letters available: X, C, and D.
- X: This is Windows that you are booted into in memory. The files from the boot.wim on the flash drive are copied to memory and then booted to.
- C: Boot Camp partition
- D: The USB Flash drive
Running Utilities
Within the Windows command prompt, you can run utilities on the Boot Camp partition.