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Failed to make a Windows 10 bootable USB on Big Sur with Boot Camp

I desperately need to create Windows 10 bootable USB to rescue my broken PC. Currently, I am on my room mate MacBook Pro with Big Sur 11.1.


I am using Boot camp but failed multiple times with a file copying error message at the end of process.


The Windows 10 ISO file was downloaded from Microsoft website (5.7GB) and the USB drive is brand new SanDisk 3.0.


Anyone has luck to get this done on Big Sur?


Thanks

Posted on Mar 30, 2021 11:28 PM

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Posted on Apr 7, 2021 11:39 PM

According to my recent experience, Boot Camp has serious issue with latest Windows 10 ISO and not longer working because it can not handle larger install.wim file, which is over 4GB when unpacking from ISO. You have to split the file into small ones. You can do this with wimlib (command line) or UUByte ISO Editor (GUI app).

https://wimlib.net/

https://www.uubyte.com/make-windows-10-bootable-usb-on-macos-big-sur.html

I tested both of them on my MacBook Pro with Big Sur and worked perfectly.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 7, 2021 11:39 PM in response to hhzk388

According to my recent experience, Boot Camp has serious issue with latest Windows 10 ISO and not longer working because it can not handle larger install.wim file, which is over 4GB when unpacking from ISO. You have to split the file into small ones. You can do this with wimlib (command line) or UUByte ISO Editor (GUI app).

https://wimlib.net/

https://www.uubyte.com/make-windows-10-bootable-usb-on-macos-big-sur.html

I tested both of them on my MacBook Pro with Big Sur and worked perfectly.

Apr 1, 2021 11:11 PM in response to hhzk388

How does your PC boot? Legacy MBR or UEFI? Does your PC have an optical drive?


It used to be really easy making a Windows UEFI booting USB using macOS, but now that one of the Window's installer files is over 4GB in size it has become more difficult. I tried making a Windows 10 USB boot disc a year or so ago shortly after the Win10 installer included a 4GB+ file, but I was unable to get the PC to boot regardless of how I made the Win10 USB installer. I'm usually pretty good about figuring this out, but I had to give up due to time constraints. If you search online you will find instructions for splitting the 4GB file into two separate files (I did so using a Linux utility - may be able to access on a Mac using Homebrew), to use exFAT or NTFS for the USB installer, use a Linux USB boot disk with support for booting .iso files, and even apps to create a bootable Win10 USB installer from the Win10 .iso file. I think success depends on exactly what PC you have since each PC BIOS contains so many quirks.


I forget how I created a bootable Windows USB installer from an .iso using Linux. I may have some notes stored somewhere.

Failed to make a Windows 10 bootable USB on Big Sur with Boot Camp

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