Advertisement Whether you are dual-booting your Mac or formatting a new PC, the best way to get Windows 10 is through a fresh installation, not an upgrade. But you’ll need to create a bootable Windows 10 USB drive first. The process is a little more complicated if you’re using a Mac. Microsoft offers a simple tool to create a bootable USB on Windows, but there is no such tool for Mac users. Fortunately the process is pretty easy, if you know how. Plus, this is a great opportunity to get Microsoft’s last version of Windows for free. Remember, Microsoft has confirmed that the free Windows 10 upgrade will expire. After July 29, a Windows 10 license will cost $119.
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2 When Boot Camp Assistant loads, on the first screen click Continue and then select only the first option which says “Create a Windows 7 or later version install disk. ” and click Continue. If you do not see this option move to the next step, otherwise go to step 8. Microsoft offers a simple tool to create a bootable USB on Windows, but there is no such tool for Mac users. Fortunately the process is pretty easy, if you know how. Plus, this is a great opportunity to get Microsoft’s last version of Windows for free.
We show you how to become eligible to install Windows 10 for free, even. For existing Windows 7 or 8 users. So if you have an old laptop, you could use that license to activate and dual-boot Windows 10 on your Mac. What You Will Need. An 8GB or larger USB drive whose data you don’t mind losing. You can pick up a new 8GB drive for as little as $5. $49.47.
Your MacBook power adapter should be plugged in. You don’t want the laptop running out of battery in the middle of creating the bootable drive. This method obviously requires a valid Windows 10 license to activate the operating system. An active Internet connection to download any updates required.
1. Download the Windows ISO Microsoft has free downloadable ISO files for Windows 10 on its official site. There are two things to keep in mind when you download:. Can't seem to install the Windows 10 Fall Update? It wouldn't be the Microsoft we know and love, if there wasn't some kind of screw-up along the line. Let us help!—you’ll see the digits 1511 in the file name if it is.
Older versions don’t let you use Windows 7 or 8 keys to activate it directly. Don’t worry about “K”, “N”, “KN”, “Simple Language” or other suffixes. Just download the plain Windows 10. Those suffixes are for lighter versions of Windows made for Europe and South Korea, due to anti-trust litigation against Microsoft. Start Boot Camp Assistant Mac OS X’s built-in Boot Camp Assistant (BCA) is capable of creating the bootable Windows 10 installer USB drive, so you don’t need any third-party apps.
To start BCA, press command+ spacebar Spotlight has been a killer Mac feature for years, with Cupertino regularly schooling Redmond in the art of desktop search. Here are a few tips to help you find more on your Mac., type “Boot Camp Assistant” (without the quotes), and press Enter. Click Continue at the introduction dialog box. 5. Choose Your ISO Image & USB Drive Browse to and select the Windows 10 ISO file you downloaded.
In Destination Disk, make sure you see your 8GB USB drive. Click Continue when done. Copy The Image to Disk BCA will format this USB drive, so again, make sure it has no important data on it that you can’t lose. All the data will be wiped.
Click Continue to proceed. The installation process will now start and you don’t need to interact at all. Just let it run. If you’re on a MacBook, don’t shut the MacBook’s lid! It’s an instinctive act that several of us do when we aren’t using the laptop, but this will put your Mac to sleep and interrupt the process. When everything is done, you’ll see a window that says “The Windows support software has been saved.” Click Quit to finish your procedure, unmount and unplug your USB drive. This is now a bootable Windows 10 installer. While Booting: USB vs.
UEFI When you go to install Windows 10 on a PC with this USB drive, your motherboard might not boot with it, even if you have set to boot with the USB first. It’s a common problem with a simple solution. Inside the BIOS you can change basic computer settings, like the boot order. The exact key you need to strike depends on your hardware. We have compiled a list of strategies & keys to enter. By tapping F2 or Delete as it powers on.
In the Boot settings, you will likely see two options for your USB drive that seem similar, titled something like “USB Mass Storage Device” and “UEFI USB Device”. Choose UEFI instead of USB Mass Storage. Save the new settings, exit BIOS, and restart. This time, your computer should boot into your Windows 10 installer USB drive.
Instead of the traditional BIOS, and BCA uses it by default when creating USB installation media. It makes no real difference to a regular user, so just change the setting and you’re good to go. Alternate Method to Create the Installer The Boot Camp Assistant is the easiest way to make a bootable USB installer for Windows 10, but some users have reported problems with it.
El Capitan users, in particular, have noted that BCA does not offer the “Create a Windows 7 or later install disk” option at all. In case you face this problem, there is an alternative to create your bootable drive. Use With VirtualBox you can easily install and test multiple operating systems. We'll show you how to set up Windows 10 and Ubuntu Linux as a virtual machine. Then it’s just a matter of using the Windows Media Creation Tool or any of the other Regardless of how you arrived at Windows 10, there's a way to create your own installation media. Sooner or later you might need it. Let us show you how to be prepared.
It takes more resources and the process has more steps than BCA, so use this as the last option. This method will usually not use UEFI firmware, so the BIOS settings change won’t be needed. Are You Dual-Booting Windows 10? With all of these options, you should be able to easily make Windows 10 installation media on your Mac.
The question is, are you going to use it? As the July 29 deadline approaches, we are curious to know how many of you are dual-booting Mac OS X and Windows 10 already, and how many of you plan to do it in the near future? Is Windows 10 better on a Mac than earlier versions of the operating system?
Apple uses its App Store to distribute its software, like new Mac operating systems. It’s convenient, but sometimes it can take a while for a download to finish. And if you have multiple Macs, it’s inefficient to download the new OS to each and every Mac. That’s why I like to make a bootable external drive for the sole purpose of installing the Mac operating system. When I need to tend to a bunch of Macs, it’s much faster to use a bootable drive instead of going to each Mac, launching the App Store, searching for the operating system, downloading it (after entering my Apple ID), and then running the installer. You can create a bootable USB flash drive with the macOS Sierra installer that’s now available. The installer software will take up nearly 5GB of storage space.
Here’s how to create a bootable macOS Sierra installer drive. Macworld also has bootable-install-drive instructions for:. Download the macOS Sierra installer Launch the App Store app, then look for macOS Sierra in the store. (.) Click on the Download button, and your Mac will download the installer to your Applications folder. If it automatically launches after download, quit the installer.
Keep the installer in the Applications folder. If you’ve already upgraded your Mac to Sierra, the installer is removed from the Applications folder. You can download it again if you go to Purchased in the App Store. Look for macOS Sierra in the list of apps that you’ve bought, and click on the Download button. If it automatically launches after download, quit the installer.
Get an external drive You can use a USB flash drive or a hard drive with room for the installer software. I’ve used different drives with success, including a VisionTek 120GB USB 3.0 Pocket Solid State Drive ($83 on ) and an old 8GB Iomega Micro Mini Hard Drive. Don’t worry if the drive isn’t formatted for the Mac. The drive will be reformatted automatically as part of the process.
Change the name of your drive to Untitled; you need to do this for the steps below. The quick and easy way The process detailed below involves the Terminal. If your really don’t want to use Terminal, there are a couple of free apps you can use. is a straightforward way to create a boot disk. I was able to make a macOS Sierra external USB boot disk in a few minutes, and the installation worked without a hitch. Also works with older versions of OS X.
is a popular app. It also supports older versions of OS X. Use the Terminal to create a boot disk So you have your external drive, and the Sierra beta installer is in place. Now you’re going to use Terminal to create a boot drive. If you’ve never used Terminal before, don’t worry. This is pretty easy. Here are the steps to create a macOS Sierra beta boot disk.
(.). Connect the external drive to your Mac.
(In the Terminal command you will use, I use Untitled to represent your external drive. If your drive is named something else, you need to change Untitled to the name of your drive.). Launch Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app). Copy the following: sudo /Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia -volume /Volumes/Untitled -applicationpath /Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app. Go back to Terminal and paste the copied code at the prompt.
Terminal will ask for a password. This is your user password. Terminal doesn’t display characters when you type it in.
Terminal will tell you that it will erase your drive. To confirm that you want to continue, type Y and hit Return. You’ll see that Terminal erases your drive. When that part is done, your Mac may ask you if you want to use the drive for Time Machine.
Click Don’t Use. Terminal will copy the installer file to your drive. This will take a few minutes. After copying, Terminal is done. You should see Terminal display a “Copy complete” and Done notice. You can quit Terminal and your drive is ready for use.
How to boot from the installer drive. Plug your external drive into your Mac. Power up (or restart) your Mac. Press down on the Option key while the Mac boots. After a few moments, your Mac should display the Startup Manager, which will show you the available boot drives.
Click on the external drive and hit Return. (You don’t need to select a network to proceed.). Your Mac will display an OS X Utilites window. If you want to install Sierra and leave the data intact, select Install OS X. If you want to start over and wipe out the data, you need to go into Disk Utility to reformat the internal drive first, and then install macOS Sierra.