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I want to install Windows 10 Technical Preview x64 on my computer, and I have downloaded the ISO file.

Now I need to make the USB stick bootable, but I am using Ubuntu 14.04 64-bit (Trusty Tahr), so how can I make a bootable pendrive for Windows 10 from Ubuntu?

I have tried making USB bootable using winusb, but it's not working! Is there another option?

Peter Mortensen
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Apurva
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  • http://askubuntu.com/questions/289559/how-can-i-create-a-windows-bootable-usb-stick-with-ubuntu – smali Apr 02 '15 at 10:43
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    I once answered a question how to install Windows 7/8 without USB/DVD. You may try it. Just use your USB against the partition. Please post the results if it works(works easily for Windows 7/8) for Windows 10 too. – Firelord Apr 02 '15 at 11:46
  • @Firelord it might work but it's not a good idea to partition the HDD – Apurva Apr 02 '15 at 11:52
  • That's why I mentioned in my last comment, change the HDD partition location with your USB location. It works for Windows 7/8. – Firelord Apr 02 '15 at 11:53

3 Answers3

14

I tried dd, but it didn't work. I tried UNetbootin, but it didn't work. I looked for winusb, but I couldn't find it and heard it doesn't work for Windows 10, anyway.

But! This did work for me! http://onetransistor.blogspot.com/2014/09/make-bootable-windows-usb-from-ubuntu.html

Note that I had to add "--force" on the grub-install command.

The steps are basically as follows:

  1. Format a USB drive; give it an NTFS partition. Write down the partition's UUID.
  2. Mount the Windows ISO image and copy all the files to the USB drive.
  3. Run sudo grub-install --force --target=i386-pc --boot-directory="/<path-to-usb>/boot" /dev/sdX, where sdX is like, "sdb". (Not sdb1.)

  4. Put the following text on the USB drive, in a new file at boot/grub/grub.cfg

    default=1
timeout=15
color_normal=light-cyan/dark-gray
menu_color_normal=black/light-cyan
menu_color_highlight=white/black
menuentry "Start Windows Installation" {
    insmod ntfs
    insmod search_fs_uuid
    insmod chain
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid <drive_UUID> --set root
    chainloader +1
    boot
}
menuentry "Boot from the first hard drive" {
    insmod ntfs
    insmod chain
    insmod part_msdos
    set root=(hd1)
    chainloader +1
    boot
}

In the file, replace <drive_UUID> with the partition ID you wrote down. (Note that when I booted it, I saw something like "no such drive U7A6.." or whatever the id I put in was...but it booted anyway, so hey.)

Drive should be bootable at that point. It worked for me. There are a few possible error messages he explains on the site, if you have problems.

Peter Mortensen
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Erhannis
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  • Thanks for the answer Erhannis; could you edit your answer and summarise the link you've provided please? The content may go stale or disappear. Thanks! – bertieb Aug 05 '15 at 12:35
  • I did this, however, my pc doesn't boot from usb. It isn't recognizing it as a boot device. I've set the first boot priority as usb... – deostroll Apr 04 '16 at 04:26
2

I did that with winusb. To install it, run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:colingille/freshlight && \
sudo sh -c "sed -i 's/trusty/saucy/g' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/colingille-freshlight-trusty.list" && \
sudo apt-get update && \
sudo apt-get install winusb

Then I think you can use this program without my help.

You can try UNetbootin. To install, run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gezakovacs/ppa && \
sudo apt-get update && \
sudo apt-get install unetbootin
Peter Mortensen
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Michael Vietluzhskih
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-1

Use the dd command to create a bootable USB stick.

First you must find the device where the USB stick is mounted. If you plug in the USB device and run dmesg you should see the location. An example would be /dev/sdf.

Next you will unmount the device where the USB stick is mounted and write the ISO image directly to the device.

NOTE: Replace the question mark with the USB device device file.

$ sudo umount /dev/sd?
$ sudo dd if=/path/to/windows10.iso of=/dev/sd? bs=1M && sync
Peter Mortensen
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Vengat
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  • How can I know my USB device is mounted on /dev/sdb? – Apurva Apr 02 '15 at 10:41
  • use dmesg command to find mount point of your device files – Vengat Apr 02 '15 at 10:44
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    You cant create windows bootable pendrive using dd command – smali Apr 02 '15 at 10:46
  • http://askubuntu.com/questions/289559/how-can-i-create-a-windows-bootable-usb-stick-with-ubuntu – smali Apr 02 '15 at 10:46
  • @ali786 - first read that article clear you can use dd command – Vengat Apr 02 '15 at 10:51
  • I tried the answer and made the bootable pendrive but it's not working! When I reboot my computer, it directly starts Ubuntu, doesn't show me any option to install windows 10. – Apurva Apr 02 '15 at 11:14
  • @Vengat yes dd command we can use but before that we need to do other steps like creating MBR , Formatting with NTFS, etc...its not an advisable procedure.. – smali Apr 02 '15 at 11:43
  • @Vengat your answere is here http://serverfault.com/questions/6714/how-to-make-windows-7-usb-flash-install-media-from-linux – smali Apr 02 '15 at 11:43
  • This works perfectly fine. I have been using dd to create bootable disks for a very long time. The iso contains contains the filesystem. If it is not working for you then you may have uefi and must specify to use uefi as the primary boot and disable legacy devices. I ran into this problem. I do agree that the answer should be modified to look up the location of the usb device and not just arbitrarily specify /dev/sdb. This could be very bad. – Chris Hinshaw Apr 30 '16 at 14:47
  • @Apurva Are you trying to go into the BIOS/UEFI and select the USB drive as the boot device? – figgyc May 24 '16 at 16:37