Create a bootable Windows 10 USB drive (UEFI) from Linux
Beside this, I’ve tried creating a GPT partition table and one partition of type ef00 and formatted as fat32, and then copied all ISO contents to it. It boots OK, but when I go to start installation it shows the prompt for media dialog.
- Created a GPT
- Created a FAT32 at end of drive of 50 MB
- Created NTFS at remaining space
- Put UEFI:NTFS on FAT32
- Copied ISO content to NTFS
The installation starts ok, but at start of progress shows error 0xc0000005 (if i remember correctly).
7 Answers 7
You did all right. Make gpt table with fat32 and copy all data from iso on it. But you also need to set flag «msftdata»(not «boot») on this partition with e.g. parted.
You cannot put all data onto a FAT32 drive as of June 2019. The latest update contains a windows.wim which is larger than 4.1 GiB.
@Ben You can when you compress the install.wim file using dism or wimtools , see tqdev.com/2019-cannot-copy-windows-10-install-wim.
I tried this and didn’t work (and a lot of other things like exFat format for newer Windows 10 isos) So in the end I gave up, went to Windows and downloaded their Media Creator Tool. After that I checked and the USB worked. I checked the flags and they are boot and lba
Windows 10 October 2018 release UEFI bootable USB drive on any Linux distribution.
Notice, that since Windows 10 October 2018 release the installation file sources/install.wim is larger than the maximum FAT32 file size, so we will format USB drive to NTFS . Windows installer also cannot work with an EFI partition (code ef00 ), so we will use Microsoft basic data partition type (code 0700 ).
Variant A (For PCs with NTFS support)
Steps for creating USB drive with name /dev/sdc (Replace all commands with YOUR device name!):
- Insert USB drive to computer and make sure it is unmounted. Some distributions like to automount USB drives, so make sure you unmount them. Mounted partitions can be found with mount -l | grep ‘/dev/sdc’ , then unmount with sudo umount /dev/sdcX (where X is partition number).
- Open USB block device using gdisk /dev/sdc , configure it as GPT and create Microsoft basic data partition (code 0700 ), then write changes and quit (Next steps will destroy partition table in your USB drive. ).
sudo gdisk /dev/sdc o > This option deletes all partitions and creates a new protective MBR. > Proceed? (Y/N): y n > Partition number . > hit Enter > First sector . : > hit Enter > Last sector . : > hit Enter > Current type is 'Linux filesystem' > Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300): 0700 p > Should print something like: > Disk /dev/sdc: 15646720 sectors, 7.5 GiB > Model: DataTraveler 160 > Sector size (logical/physical): 512/512 bytes > Disk identifier (GUID): . > Partition table holds up to 128 entries > Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 33 > First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 15646686 > Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries > Total free space is 2014 sectors (1007.0 KiB) > Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name > 1 2048 15646686 7.5 GiB 0700 Microsoft basic data w > Final checks complete. About to write GPT data. THIS WILL OVERWRITE EXISTING PARTITIONS!! > Do you want to proceed? (Y/N): y q
mkdir ~/tmp-win10-usb-drive sudo mount /dev/sdc1 ~/tmp-win10-usb-drive
- Download Windows installation ISO, create new temporary directory in your home and mount it there:
mkdir ~/tmp-win10-iso-mnt sudo mount Win10_1809Oct_English_x64.iso ~/tmp-win10-iso-mnt
sudo cp -rT ~/tmp-win10-iso-mnt/ ~/tmp-win10-usb-drive/
sudo umount ~/tmp-win10-iso-mnt/ ~/tmp-win10-usb-drive/ rmdir ~/tmp-win10-iso-mnt/ ~/tmp-win10-usb-drive/
Variant B (For PCs without NTFS support)
Steps for creating USB drive with name /dev/sdc (Replace all commands with YOUR device name!):
- Insert USB drive to computer and make sure it is unmounted. Some distributions like to automount USB drives, so make sure you unmount them. Mounted partitions can be found with mount -l | grep ‘/dev/sdc’ , then unmount with sudo umount /dev/sdcX (where X is partition number).
- Open USB block device using gdisk /dev/sdc
- Configure it as GPT
- Create first partition of 1GB size and type Microsoft basic data (code 0700 ).
- Create second partition of rest of the size and type Microsoft basic data (code 0700 ).
- Write changes and quit (Next steps will destroy partition table in your USB drive. ).
sudo gdisk /dev/sdc > o > This option deletes all partitions and creates a new protective MBR. > Proceed? (Y/N): y > n > Partition Number: Enter > First sector: Enter > Last sector: 1G > Type: 0700 > n > Partition Number: Enter > First sector: Enter > Last sector: Enter > Type: 0700 > p # Should print something like: > Disk /dev/sdc: 30031250 sectors, 14.3 GiB > Model: Ultra USB 3.0 > Sector size (logical/physical): 512/512 bytes > Disk identifier (GUID): C657C0AF-3FE2-4152-8BF1-CE3CCA9F3541 > Partition table holds up to 128 entries > Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 33 > First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 30031216 > Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries > Total free space is 4061 sectors (2.0 MiB) > Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name > 1 2048 2048000 999.0 MiB 0700 Microsoft basic data > 2 2050048 30031216 13.3 GiB 0700 Microsoft basic data w > Final checks complete. About to write GPT data. THIS WILL OVERWRITE EXISTING PARTITIONS!! > Do you want to proceed? (Y/N): y q
sudo mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sdc1 sudo mkfs.ntfs -Q /dev/sdc2
mkdir ~/tmp-win10-fat-usb-drive mkdir ~/tmp-win10-ntfs-usb-drive sudo mount /dev/sdc1 ~/tmp-win10-fat-usb-drive sudo mount /dev/sdc2 ~/tmp-win10-ntfs-usb-drive
- Download Windows installation ISO, create new temporary directory in your home and mount it there:
mkdir ~/tmp-win10-iso-mnt sudo mount Win10_1809Oct_English_x64.iso ~/tmp-win10-iso-mnt
- Copy following files with from mounted ISO to FAT32 formatted USB drive (basically copy everything besides sources/ but include sources/boot.wim ):
sudo cp ~/tmp-win10-iso-mnt/* ~/tmp-win10-fat-usb-drive/ sudo cp -r ~/tmp-win10-iso-mnt/boot ~/tmp-win10-fat-usb-drive/ sudo cp -r ~/tmp-win10-iso-mnt/efi ~/tmp-win10-fat-usb-drive/ sudo cp -r ~/tmp-win10-iso-mnt/support ~/tmp-win10-fat-usb-drive/ sudo mkdir ~/tmp-win10-iso-mnt/sources ~/tmp-win10-fat-usb-drive/ sudo cp ~/tmp-win10-iso-mnt/sources/boot.wim ~/tmp-win10-fat-usb-drive/sources
sudo cp -rT ~/tmp-win10-iso-mnt/ ~/tmp-win10-ntfs-usb-drive/
sudo umount ~/tmp-win10-iso-mnt/ ~/tmp-win10-usb-fat-drive/ ~/tmp-win10-usb-ntfs-drive/ rmdir ~/tmp-win10-iso-mnt/ ~/tmp-win10-usb-drive/