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How do I create bootable Windows 7 USB in mac osx?

J

jdnhldn

macrumors newbie
Original poster
I have managed to download windows 7 from msdnaa. It's in ".iso" file format. Through hdiutil, I then converted it to ".img" but it says ".img.dmg" but I think it's both.

Main question: What do I do next to make it a bootable winows 7 usb?
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

You can't get it to boot via USB. Windows generally doesn't like to boot that way and Macs are particularly finicky about it to the point that the sanctioned USB installers don't usually work.

Three ways you can go that are proven:

1 burn the ISO to disc and boot from that
2 install it via parallels/VMWare fusion
3 create a throwaway partition on your internal HDD and install from that.

The latter two are detailed in a thread I will link to later. EDIT: here https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/601414/

B
 
balamw said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

You can't get it to boot via USB. Windows generally doesn't like to boot that way and Macs are particularly finicky about it to the point that the sanctioned USB installers don't usually work.

Three ways you can go that are proven:

1 burn the ISO to disc and boot from that
2 install it via parallels/VMWare fusion
3 create a throwaway partition on your internal HDD and install from that.

The latter two are detailed in a thread I will link to later. EDIT: here https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/601414/

B
Click to expand...

I'm not going to boot it on mac. I will boot it up on my PC.
 
jdnhldn said:
I'm not going to boot it on mac. I will boot it up on my PC.
Click to expand...

How was I supposed to guess that?

The tools to do so on Windows are plentiful, if you don't already have Windows on your Mac download Virtualbox or a trial of Fusion/Parallels and install Windows from the ISO to that don't use the product key or activate it since you will only use it to build your USB.

I've personally used this guide to do so: http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-windows-7vista-from-usb-drive-detailed-100-working-guide/ or use the tool MS provides http://store.microsoft.com/help/iso-tool

B
 
balamw said:
How was I supposed to guess that?

The tools to do so on Windows are plentiful, if you don't already have Windows on your Mac download Virtualbox or a trial of Fusion/Parallels and install Windows from the ISO to that don't use the product key or activate it since you will only use it to build your USB.

I've personally used this guide to do so: http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-windows-7vista-from-usb-drive-detailed-100-working-guide/ or use the tool MS provides http://store.microsoft.com/help/iso-tool

B
Click to expand...

Sorry that I didn't mention that.

Another question, is it possible to install windows on boot camp using a bootable usb? or do I need to have cd? I have mba and it's no cd drive on it.
 
balamw said:
That's where we started. There are two methods that work on all Macs I mentioned above.

A USB drive prepared as in my last post seems to work for some folks on the 2010 MBA after they install rEFIt. http://refit.sf.net. See here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1056451/ and http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/9136...with-boot-camp-without-an-external-dvd-drive/

B
Click to expand...

So I can install Windows 7 through the Virtual machine and boot naturally? Will it come with any boot handler? Or boot loader to make it possible choosing os?
 
jdnhldn said:
So I can install Windows 7 through the Virtual machine and boot naturally? Will it come with any boot handler? Or boot loader to make it possible choosing os?
Click to expand...

There is a built in boot loader in OS X as part of Boot Camp.

The pure VM route just uses the VM software to copy all the files from the ISO to the Boot Camp partition and then goes forward as a standard Boot Camp install. (I don't recall if there is an additional step required to make sure it will boot or not, but check the thread I linked earlier and ask specific questions there).

B
 
case closed everything works

balamw said:
There is a built in boot loader in OS X as part of Boot Camp.

The pure VM route just uses the VM software to copy all the files from the ISO to the Boot Camp partition and then goes forward as a standard Boot Camp install. (I don't recall if there is an additional step required to make sure it will boot or not, but check the thread I linked earlier and ask specific questions there).

B
Click to expand...

http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/9136...with-boot-camp-without-an-external-dvd-drive/

Which is the one u mentioned, is a great tutorial. Not too much text either. Works great! Just remember to put the Windows 7 in NTFS when doing a formate of the USB!
 
Do you realize Windows is one activated install at one time?

No, you cannot install a MSDN copy on a PC, a Mac on a bootcamp, and a virtual machine at the same time and expect it to function.

Do not put it on USB. Just burn the disk.
 
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