Date: 2022-07-22
Before watching Philip Yip’s video, I couldn’t get a bootable Windows 10 USB.
Unlike a usual Linux ISO, the Windows 10 installer ISO should not be copied directly to a USB via dd.
Here’s a short summary of the steps involved.
First copy the Windows 10 ISO to the Desktop. We’ll be working in that folder exclusively.
Next open a terminal and set 2 variables to identify your USB device and the Windows 10 iso file:
usbdev=/dev/sdz
isofile=Win10_21H2_EnglishInternational_x64.iso
cd ~/Desktop
# Sanity check.
test -f "${isofile}" && echo 'OKAY so far' || echo "ERROR ${isofile} does not exist!" >&2
Next we’ll be running GParted on the USB device to reformat. Either do that in a GUI or run it from terminal as:
sudo gparted "${usbdev}"
In GParted, we’ll reformat the drive. As always, this will delete all data on the device, so you better be sure it’s your USB! When you are mentally prepared for the consequences, perform these 3 operations in GParted:
Finally, mount the ISO and partitions and copy files:
mkdir isomnt bootmnt installmnt
sudo mount "${isofile}" mountiso -o loop
sudo mount "${usbdev}1" bootmnt
sudo mount "${usbdev}2" installmnt
# Copy everything but the sources/ folder to BOOT.
sudo rsync -r --exclude /sources/ isomnt/ bootmnt/
# Copy sources/boot.wim over too.
sudo rsync -r --include /sources/ --include /sources/boot.wim --exclude '*' isomnt/ bootmnt/
# Copy everything to INSTALL. I didn't need root here.
rsync -r isomnt/ installmnt/ --progress
sudo umount isomnt bootmnt installmnt
rmdir isomnt bootmnt installmnt