May be for the first step give user a checkbox if he needs those steps? There quite different windows configurations might be.

Yeah, sounds like a good way to go. I'll hopefully be looking at this really soon.

You might want to check out what the official Windows USB/DVD Download Tool provided by Microsoft does to the USB drive as well. I've been using this tool for Windows 7 without issues whenever I'm being forced to install that OS again.

@Forage i tryed to burn Windows 10 image to flash on MacOS, but it didn't work.
Windows USB/DVD Download Tool is exist for MacOS.
I'm not first time meet this task.
If you resolve this task you get many users on MacOS.
Now there is no simple method for do it.

See also https://github.com/resin-io/etcher/blob/master/docs/USER-DOCUMENTATION.md#why-is-my-drive-not-bootable
And https://gitter.im/resin-io/etcher?at=585358a7c5a4e0233b8ec470 suggests that you can use Bootcamp on MacOS.

@lurch Bootcamp doesn't work for me.
Before using this use should fix configs of Bootcamp.
And after all, working is not guarantee.

Somemebody on our gitter channel recently suggested http://www.windowscentral.com/how-create-windows-10-installer-usb-drive-mac for Mac users.

That's not entirely accurate, given that in newest MacBook Pro models (like mine), there is no need to create an external bootable drive (you select the image and the Mac reboots straight into it), and therefore you don't even get the change to select an external drive.

See https://support.apple.com/kb/PH25913?locale=en_US

Depending on the model of your Mac, you might not need an external USB drive to install Windows (you’re asked for one when you prepare your Mac for Windows if it’s required).

The BootCamp assistant will add Apple software to the Windows image though.
Also, in the case of creating an installer medium; on macOS Sierra there's no option to flash it to SD cards anymore (only USB thumb drives still work afaik).

For some more inspiration: https://github.com/slacka/WoeUSB

Hello I'm one of the contributor of the WoeUSB project mentioned above, and I'd like to ask to add WoeUSB as one of the alternative tool that support burning Windows image, refer #1743 for the PR.

Bootcamp didn't provide an option to create a windows USB stick on my late 2009 13" MacBook running OS X 10.11.6 (El Capitan).

However, I was able to boot my PC with UEFI BIOS from the USB stick by simply copying the contents of the Windows 10 ISO to the stick, after erasing it in Disk Utility using MS-DOS FAT and a Master Boot Record as described in this video - https://youtu.be/49NxbzhgsTE

High Sierra has removed the ability to create a bootable USB Windows image. If we can merge the capability of WoeUSB into etcher, that would solve this headache for a LOT of users.

@martinbogo that's odd, I am on High Sierra, and can still do that through the Bootcamp Assistant. Is that missing for you?

@martinbogo the screenshot didn't make it (GitHub doesn't add them when sent via email); Yeah, updated last night, and it still has that option for me as far as I can see. Did you upgrade from Sierra, or are you on a clean install of High Sierra?

Well just FYI, all WoeUSB magic lies in https://github.com/slacka/WoeUSB/blob/master/src/woeusb , the problem is it depends on Linux-only utilities and must be replaced by portable ones.

Deepin boot maker has been able to flash windows ISO for quite some time.
You can look into that.

Still waiting for this.

WoeUSB seems to work for linux. It would be much easier and convenient if Etcher had this feature as well.

Still waiting in
10 April 2018

@lurch I would say the docs you're referencing are just out of date to be honest. For example, they have a section for USB with Windows tool Rufus(an Windows only alternative to Etcher for this task), and it specifically mentions the ISO file:

Download the Clonezilla Live iso file.
From MS Windows, run the Rufus program and follow the instructions in the GUI to install Clonezilla Live on your USB flash drive.

And this is exactly what I did. I don't remember the exact message, but Rufus detected some issue with the syslinux setup on the ISO, mentioning two missing or incompatible files, I do recall it saying some version supplied on the ISO was from 10-15+ years ago and Rufus asked to go online and update that with something more recent.

I could perform that again if specifics would help. After Rufus accomplished the task, I booted the Clonezilla Live media just fine and made a backup image of my Windows install.

Personally, it would be nice if Etcher could support the same feature that Rufus has handled, it apparently does so for other media that needs it(prompt user for permission). I'd rather not need to have access to a Windows system if I could use my preferred cross-platform tool Etcher for this.

but Rufus detected some issue with the syslinux setup on the ISO, mentioning two missing or incompatible files

Yeah, that's the kind of logic that Etcher doesn't (yet?) have. That sounds quite different from supporting Windows ISOs, so I wonder if it's worth creating a separate issue? 🤷‍♂️

After Rufus accomplished the task, I booted the Clonezilla Live media just fine

Nice to know that at least you have a workaround 🙂
@thundron Is this something that should be added to the documentation? https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/blob/master/docs/USER-DOCUMENTATION.md#why-is-my-drive-not-bootable

That sounds quite different from supporting Windows ISOs, so I wonder if it's worth creating a separate issue?

I created a separate issue. I only chimed in here based on the forum link to this issue being advised as related to the problem. I've not attempted to create a bootable Windows OS for a while, so I can't recall what Rufus does differently vs Etcher to make the ISO bootable if it's different from what happened with Clonezilla.

Support!

I recently went through the hell of running the latest macOS and attempting to "burn" the official Windows 10 iso from Microsoft onto a 16GB USB:

1. The latest iso has an sources/install.wim that is larger than the FAT32 4GB file limit, resulting in the file to be missing on the USB (generating quite the annoying error)
2. macOS 10.15 (Catalina) has removed the Bootcamp Assistant approach people have described. So that's out.
3. To side-step the 4GB limit I attempted ExFat as some suggested. However, using ExFat formatting did not make the USB bootable

The only way I was able to get a successful Windows 10 USB installation medium with a macOS host was to follow this blog post: https://alexlubbock.com/bootable-windows-usb-on-mac. Spoiler: You have to split the large install.wim into 4000 MB chunks (just like rar part files) using some sort of particular splitting binary.

Based on the research I see, Etcher would have to automate the steps of that guide in order to support macOS hosts.

How is it after 4 years Etcher still isn't able to create a bootable Windows 10 USB? Guys I love Linux as much as the rest of you, but please get on this asap.

This alone made me uninstall Etcher. It's ridiculous that the developer doesn't care.

@JosephTico Remember that the "developer" is also you - this is an open source project and we're already working on a number of other things that you may or may not know, but saying we don't care can't be more wrong.
If anyone feels like implementing this, feel free to, it isn't a priority of ours for now

Apparently I'm still subscribed to this. Whilst I don't agree with Joseph's attitude :( I really have to reinforce to whomever reads this. Support for burning Windows .iso to USB is of paramount importance and should be the number one priority moving forward. If this application is to be offered at a cost for mass flashing of bootable media, it does not make any sense that Windows is not a supported OS.

I hope this is prioritised in the future, because if Windows was supported I (and I am sure a great deal of other people) would not see remotely any need to use other applications whatsoever.

My best to the Balena team. Have a lovely Summer/Winter everyone.

Support for burning Windows .iso to USB is of paramount importance and should be the number one priority moving forward.

That may be of "paramount importance" to you, but that doesn't mean that it's equally important for Balena, which is the company paying for @thundron and @zvin to be working on Etcher.

If this application is to be offered at a cost

?? AFAIK Etcher has always been (and always will be) Open Source Software, downloadable for free.
If you're talking about EtcherPro, then I think I remember reading somewhere that you'll (obviously) be paying for the hardware, but that the software itself will remain Open Source.

How is this not implemented yet? Very frustrating to not be able to do such a basic task.

Please lock this issue. It's need and requirements are clear by now and nothing useful is being added to the discussion any more.
Actual constructive discussions can take place again when someone steps up and creates a PR.

How is this not implemented yet? Very frustrating to not be able to do such a basic task.

Use WoeUSB

How is this not implemented yet? Very frustrating to not be able to do such a basic task.

I get the complaint, but if it is this important.. Why don't you implement it yourself then? Would be happy to brainstorm about it with you.

if it is this important.. Why don't you implement it yourself then?

Are you under the impression that all users are developers?

Any scripts for Mac? - the couple of links above go into longwinded tutorials about manually splitting wimlib files, etc. Any tools to simplify it? -- if not, I may just go ahead and create one :D

+1 for windows 😅

I don't want to run my VM everytime ;__;

Please vote on the issue instead of replying with a non-helpful comment.

https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html got a brief review in this month's LinuxFormat magazine, and apparently it's capable of booting Legacy / UEFI / Linux / Windows / etc. ISO images - sounds cool!

@thundron @zvin I wonder if it might be worth adding that to https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/blob/master/docs/USER-DOCUMENTATION.md ?

[gelbal] This issue has attached support thread https://jel.ly.fish/83b1da11-14b2-454d-86bf-1b4ea4199e6d

[chrisys] This issue has attached support thread https://jel.ly.fish/cd4916c6-9f65-4c8c-9447-616a0d7859f7

[hades32] This issue has attached support thread https://jel.ly.fish/189c0459-c919-4626-9f78-5d7b639dff89

rufus can burn my Windows 10 Beta ISO, but balenaEtcher 1.5.121 still cannot.

[zwhitchcox] This issue has attached support thread https://jel.ly.fish/cbdac561-a16f-4aec-bd20-10fd05f4d89a