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Procedures

Preparing a Windows installation drive

The awkward part is not the writing, it is the 4 GB file inside a modern Windows image and the firmware requirements the installer enforces. Both are manageable once you know they are coming.

Check these first

• A licence covering the installation. The installer will run without a key entered, but using Windows requires one.
• A 16 GB or larger USB drive with nothing on it you want to keep.
• The target machine's firmware mode and whether it meets the release's requirements — recent versions check for UEFI, Secure Boot and a TPM.
• A backup of the machine you are about to install on. Installation is destructive by design.
• Network drivers for that machine saved somewhere separate, in case the installer does not include them.

Getting the image

Microsoft publishes installation images and its own media creation utility on its software download pages, under microsoft.com. Take the file from there rather than from a third-party mirror: you get the current build, and you can compare what you received against the published details.

Microsoft's own media creation utility will prepare a drive for you in one pass, which is the shortest route if you are already on Windows and want no decisions. The rest of this page is for when you want control, or you are not on Windows.

Choosing a method

The usual route on Windows

1. Select device and image

   Open Rufus, pick the USB drive at the top, then select the ISO. Read the device name carefully; external hard drives have been erased at this step.

2. Set partition scheme and target

   GPT with target "UEFI (non CSM)" for a modern machine. MBR with "BIOS or UEFI" if the target is older or you are not sure. Leave the file system at the suggested value.

3. Let it deal with the large file

   Rufus detects an oversized install.wim and either splits it or builds an NTFS partition with a UEFI driver. Both are normal and both boot.

4. Write and wait

   Ten to twenty minutes on a reasonable drive. Do not unplug it because progress appears stuck at 99% — that is the flush at the end.

5. Boot the target machine from it

   Use the one-time boot menu — usually F12, F9, Esc or Option depending on the vendor. Pick the entry prefixed UEFI if two appear.

Doing it from Linux

WoeUSB-ng handles the file-copy path including the oversized file. A typical invocation, with the device path confirmed by lsblk beforehand:

# confirm which device is the stick before running anything
lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,MODEL,TRAN

sudo woeusb --device Win.iso /dev/sdX --target-filesystem NTFS

The alternative is an image loader: install it on the stick once, copy the Windows ISO across as a file, and let the menu handle the rest. That also leaves room for other images on the same drive.

Common stumbles