Blog / SysAdmin / Windows

How to make a bootable windows usb key (2020-12-21)

• Partition a usb key with cfdisk or similar
  • One partition EFI and another with at least 8GB fat with GPT partionning
  • mkfs.fat /dev/sdX2
  • mount /dev/sdX2 /mnt/usbkey
• Copy the ISO files to the the second partition
  • sudo mount Win*.iso /mnt/cdrom
  • One file is larger than 4GB and of course doesn’t fit on FAT
  • https://wimlib.net/downloads/ to the rescue
  • rsync -avh –progress –exclude=sources/install.wim /mnt/cdrom /mnt/usbkey
  • wimlib-imagex split /mnt/cdrom/sources/install.wim /mnt/usbkey/sources/install.swm 3800
  • eject done
• BIOS : remove secure boot and put Other OS instead of Windows since the above is not UEFI compliant.