Hello everyone. In this article, I am going to show you how to create a Windows 11 bootable USB on Ubuntu using the GParted project.
Updating Your System
Before we begin, if you’re using Ubuntu, it’s a good practice to update your system. I will show you how to create a Windows 10 or 11 bootable USB in Ubuntu. You can start by updating your system by typing “sudo apt update” in Terminal. If there are any packages that need to be upgraded, you can upgrade them by typing “sudo apt update“.
Downloading the Windows 10/11 ISO
So, the first step is to download the Windows 11 ISO image. Open your favorite browser or simply use the default browser that comes with Ubuntu. Simply search for “download Windows 11 ISO” and you’ll get the Windows 11 ISO image from Microsoft’s official website.
After that, you have to select the Windows 11 ISO image edition and click Download.
Choose a language and click Confirm.
Then click 64-bit Download and save it. It will save the file to your computer.
Now, I’m going to insert it because I already have it. If I have to show you, it’s in the Downloads directory, which I have simply imported from my main PC. The size is around 4 GB.
Preparing the USB Flash Drive
The second step is to attach the USB flash drive to your computer. I’ve already done that, so there’s no need for me to attach it.
The third step is to install GParted onto your computer.
You can use the Ubuntu Software or the Terminal. I prefer the terminal because it’s faster. Once it’s launched, simply type “sudo apt install gparted“.
The next step is to launch GParted, typing “sudo gparted” in Terminal.
You can also launch GParted from Launchpad. Just simply search for GParted and launch it.
Once it’s launched, select the USB flash drive.
Partitioning the USB Flash Drive
By default, you can see that it’s a bootable USB flash drive of Windows 11.
For now, I have to delete all of them and then I’ll show you how to create them again from the beginning.
Let me delete it first. You have to unmount it, then delete it. Sorry for that. Now delete.
Okay, it is deleted.
Now click Apply.
Once it’s removed, we need to create a partition for it. Go to Device and click Create partition table.
From here, select a partition style for Windows. We are going to choose gpt. Click Apply.
Remember, it’s going to remove everything from your USB flash drive, so back up your files.
Formatting and Copying Files
The next step is to create a file system for it.
By default, Linux personal file system is ext4. Windows is using NTFS. We’re going to choose NTFS. We can also label the USB flash drive. I’m going to name it “Windows 111“. Click Add.
Now you can see that it’s done, but the changes have not applied. Click Apply and wait for it.
Once it’s done, you can close it.
The next step is to open files and go to the Downloads folder where Windows 11 is located. Right-click on it and choose Open With Disk Image Mounter.
Finalizing the Bootable USB
Here you can see that Windows 11 is mounted. Right-click, copy, and now go to the USB flash drive and paste them here.
During the copy of the files, you will not face any type of error. If you face any type of error, it means the Windows 11 ISO that you downloaded from the internet has been corrupted. Maybe the speed of your internet connection was not fast and somehow it got corrupted.
So basically, this is how you can create a Windows 11 bootable USB. For now, I am going to wait until the files are copied from the ISO inside the USB flash drive.
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Creating a Windows 11 Install USB in 2022
I have been installing Windows for a long time. Does it get easier? I want to say it gets easier, but it seems like there’s always some new wrinkle! These instructions are as much a note to my future self as they may be useful to anyone else.
For me, I was not able to get any exfat-based installs, or even any of the GUI helpers to make this process any more straightforward. Maybe on your target Windows / host OS those helpers will work, but the below process (as of current year) is consistent, and not overly complicated.
Overview:
- Downloading an official ISO image from MS:
- https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows11
- Formatting the drive (at least 8GB) as GPT, and one FAT-format partition (aka MS-DOS)
- Can use Disks or Disk Utilty for this
- Mounting the ISO either in a file browser (eg. Files or Finder)
- Copying over all the files except
sources/install.wim - Using wimsplit from wimtools to split the
install.wimfile onto the destination drive- FAT-format filesystems have a limitation of 4GB per file, wimsplit creates two files in a format the Windows installer understands
Commands
Prereqs
Format the the target drive, as mentioned above. It should be at least 8GB, FAT/MS-DOS-formatted, and GPT partitioning scheme.
Install wimsplit on Ubuntu:
sudo apt install wimtools
On macOS (needs brew first
brew install wimlib
Usage
- Let’s say
Downloads/Win11_22H2_English_x64.isois the Windows ISO.- Double click or right-click Open this file with «Disk Image Mounter» to mount it
- The USB drive is (FAT/MS-DOS formatted) mounted at
/Volumes/TheUSB- (on Ubuntu, it’s likely in
/media/<name>/<usb>)
- (on Ubuntu, it’s likely in
- The mounted Windows ISO is at
/Volumes/CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9(say that 10 times fast)- (Ubuntu:
/media/<name>/CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9)
- (Ubuntu:
The following command copies over all files except install.wim:
rsync -avP --exclude sources/install.wim /Volumes/CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9/* /Volumes/TheUSB
Then, this command splits and copies install.wim at 3000MB (Just under the FAT limit):
wimsplit /Volumes/CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9/sources/install.wim /Volumes/TheUSB/sources/install.swm 3000
Make sure to replace /Volumes with the path to where the files/drives are mounted in the above commands.
Result
If successful, you should see /Volumes/TheUSB (your target USB) looks very similar to /Volumes/CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9 (the mounted ISO), except that in the sources folder, the USB has install.swm and install2.swm. Again, these will be presented to the Windows installation environment as one file.
After this, put the USB in your target device, and boot off it from the boot menu.
Since we’re using UEFI boot, it should just appear in the boot menu of the computer.
If your computer hardwaare does not support UEFI boot, you can try reformatting the drive using MBR instead of GPT (But still using FAT). I can’t vouch for this, but according to sources online it should Also Work.
Bonus (Unsupported OS Workaround)
If you get the error «Unsupported OS» in Windows, this has to do with a deliberate attempt to make Windows 11 harder to install on platforms that Microsoft has not deemed worthy. Or something like that. And, to make this very clear, if you see this error, your platform is NOT worthy. (Again, according to the publicly traded company MSFT).
This worthiness is not an issue at this time, but if MS and Amazon merge or partner down the road, you could imagine you need the right hardware or you can’t buy groceries (Or… something)
To fix it, you can follow these steps, to summarize:
- At the install screen (Before you click Install) press Shift+F10 to bring up a cmd prompt
- (I hope you have F1 through F12 keys, otherwise you will need to get creative)
- In cmd, type
regedit, and press enter- This is the Windows Registry Editor. It’s an old program that allows you to modify different system and user config files. This is kind of similar to editing
plistfiles in~/Libraryon macOS.
- This is the Windows Registry Editor. It’s an old program that allows you to modify different system and user config files. This is kind of similar to editing
- On the left, navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINEthenSYSTEMthenSetup- Inside that
Setupfolder should be these three «Keys»:AllowStart,Pid,SETUPCL
- Inside that
- Right click the
Setupfolder, and create a new Key, named:LabConfig - Enter the
LabConfigkey, and on the right-hand-side, right click to create a newDWORD (32-bit)value. Do this three times, with the following names:BypassTPMCheckBypassSecureBootCheckBypassRAMCheck
- After creating each of those, double click or right-click -> Modify them, so that each of their values is
1. - Now continue with the installation
Note: If you are using Virtualbox (AKA, you probbaly aren’t on this page?) You should use these settings for Windows 11.
Bonus 2 (UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME)
If, after installing, you get a bluescreen that occurs quickly with the code UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME, there are tutorials online that will have you run variations of the following commands:
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootsect /nt60 sys
bootrec /fixboot (yes, again, after the bootsec)
bcdedit /rebuildbcd
If you mess around with those commands, but still nothing seems to fix it, I would suggest just completely deleting the EFI partition. Leave that space as unallocated, and allow the Windows installer to recreate it all on its own. I used to have a 1GB EFI partition manually created (FAT format) that housed both ubuntu and Windows boot folders. As of Windows 11, however, no matter what I did, the Windows bootloader refused to boot with this partition.
After deleting the partition, however (And backing up EFI/ubuntu), the Windows installer recreated the EFI partition as a 100MB partition, alongside 2 other recovery/unused partitions. I believe there’s some issue with the boot logic where it expects these partitions to be present during UEFI boot, and if Linux created the EFI partition, it ends up in an unexpected state.
Once Windows 11 recreated them during the install, and boot normally, I just copied back the EFI/ubuntu folder, and was able to boot back into Linux. If you aren’t able to back up this folder, you should be able to re-create the entries needed for Linux like this:
(With the EFI partition mounted at /boot/efi):
grub-install --efi-directory=/boot/efi
UEFI booting is supposed to be simpler: just manage an entry on the EFI partition. The UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_ERROR makes it seem more complicated, but I would mentally file this under «Microsoft just requiring some special sauce» category of issues. Copying and moving around the /boot/efi/ubuntu folder back and forth to the EFI partition, whether Windows create it or not, on my machine allowed me to consistently boot back into Linux.
As an aside, this is why some tutorials will suggest for dual boots to install Windows first, let it set up the partitions how it wants them, and then after that, install Ubuntu/Linux.
In case you are in a similar situation to me, here are some rough CMD analogues to some common unix commands:
cp [targ] [dest]->xcopy [targ] [dest] /E /H /C /Imv [targ] [dest]->ren [targ] [dest]ormove [targ] [dest]rm [targ]->del [targ]rm -rf [targ]->rmdir /s [targ]
And next time someone tells you DOS commands being arcane isn’t an issue because Powershell or WSL exists, kindly remind them that these won’t help you when it’s 2am and you can’t get your OS to boot.
WoeUSB is the best way to create a bootable Windows 11 USB on Linux. It takes care of the formatting, flashing, and other configuration settings. All the user has to do is provide a Windows 11 ISO.
The WoeUSB app isn’t installed on any Linux operating systems by default. Thankfully, you’ll be able to set up the app using the commands below.
Ubuntu
Sadly, Ubuntu doesn’t provide WoeUSB in their official software repositories, and past PPAs are no longer available. As a result, Ubuntu users will need to get it working with the Python3 package tool.
You must set up the dependencies required to run the software to start. Using the apt install command down below, set up the packages.
sudo apt install git p7zip-full python3-pip python3-wxgtk4.0
With all of the packages set up and configured, use the pip3 install command to download and install the latest version of WoeUSB on your Ubuntu system.
sudo pip3 install WoeUSB-ng
Debian
Like Ubuntu, there is no way to get the WoeUSB app through official software sources, so it must be installed via Python. Use the apt-get install command and set up the latest dependency packages.
sudo apt-get install git p7zip-full python3-pip python3-wxgtk4.0
Once all of the packages are configured and installed on your system, you can install the latest version of the WoeUSB application on your Debian Linux system.
sudo pip3 install WoeUSB-ng
Arch Linux
The WoeUSB application is available in the Arch Linux Community software repository. However, this version doesn’t ship with a GUI. To get the GUI version, install WoeUSB with the commands below.
wget https://builds.garudalinux.org/repos/chaotic-aur/x86_64/woeusb-ng-0.2.10-1-any.pkg.tar.zst sudo pacman -U woeusb-ng-0.2.10-1-any.pkg.tar.zst
Fedora
The WoeUSB application is in the official Fedora Linux package repositories. However, the Python version of the app works much better. Install the dependency packages using dnf install and set up the app using pip3 install to get it set up.
sudo dnf install git p7zip p7zip-plugins python3-pip python3-wxpython4 sudo pip3 install WoeUSB-ng
OpenSUSE
To get the latest version of WoeUSB working on your OpenSUSE Linux system, head over to the WoeUSB-ng page on the OpenSUSE build site. Then, select your operating system, and choose the “1 Click Install” button to install the software to your system.
Generic Linux
If you’re using a Linux OS not covered by the instructions in this guide, you’ll still be able to install the software through Python 3. However, you’ll first need to set up the package dependencies.
To create a bootable Windows 11 USB on Linux, follow the step-by-step instructions below.
Step 1: Open up the app menu and launch “Woeusb-ng.” When you launch the app, you’ll be asked to enter your password. Using the keyboard, enter your password to access the app.
Step 2: Once the Woeusb-ng application is open, you must download Windows 11. Head over to the Windows 11 download page and find “Download Windows 11 Disk Image (ISO).”
Step 3: After locating “Download Windows 11 Disk Image (ISO),” find the “Select Download” menu and choose “Windows 11 (multi-edition ISO),” and click on the blue “Download” option to download the ISO file.
Step 4: Once the Windows 11 ISO is done downloading, go to WoeUSB and find the “From a disk image (iso)” area. Click on the “None” button to bring up a pop-up window.
Step 5: Use the pop-up window to browse for the Windows 11 ISO you downloaded previously. Then, find “Target device” and select your USB flash drive. Finally, click on the “Install” button when you’re ready to begin.
Step 6: After selecting the “Install” button, WoeUSB will present a message. This message states, “Are you sure? This will delete all your files and wipe out the selected partition.” Click the “Yes” button to continue.
The installation process will take time to complete, as the Windows 11 ISO file is enormous. When the process is complete, you will see “Installation succeeded!”
Other ways to create a Windows 11 USB on Linux
While the WoeUSB app is undoubtedly useful, it isn’t the only way to create a live Linux USB. It is also possible to create one by hand by following the step-by-step instructions below.
Step 1: Head over to the official Windows 11 download page, find “Download Windows 11 Disk Image (ISO),” and download your ISO.
Step 2: After downloading your ISO file, install the gparted app, plug in your USB flash drive, and open the Gparted application.
Step 3: Select your USB flash drive inside of Gparted. Then, click on the “Device” menu. Next, select “Create Partition Table,” select the “Gpt” option, and click “Apply.”
Step 4: Right-click on “unallocated” and select the “New” option in the right-click menu. Create a new Fat32 partition with 1024 MB in size.
Be sure to label it “BOOT” in all caps.
Step 5: After creating the Fat32 partition, right-click on the unallocated space, select the “New” option and create a new NTFS partition with the remaining space left over. Be sure to label this partition “INSTALL.”
Step 6: Open the Linux file manager, select downloads, and right-click on the Windows 11 ISO file. Select “Open with disk image mounter.”
Alternatively, you can mount the ISO with the following commands.
mkdir -p ~/win11iso/
sudo mount -o loop ~/Downloads/Win11_English_x64v1.iso ~/win11iso/
Step 7: Once the image is mounted, copy all files to the flash drive to create your Windows 11 live USB.
Случается так, что даже самому заядлому линуксоиду приходится использовать Windows или помогать знакомым, приросшим к Windows без остатка. Самая простая и очевидная просьба: «Переустанови мне WIndows — тыж программист», может обернуться настоящей морокой. Мало того, что нужно вспоминать, как получить образ винды (СПО развращает, да :)), так и записать его на флешку простым dd не получится. Unetbootin новых версий не умеет опять же…
Рассказывать здесь, как и где скачать Windows 7/8/10 максимальную ультимейт эдишен про файнал, я не буду — гугл даст ссылки на торренты лучше меня.
Давайте лучше о том, как записать образ на флешку так, чтобы с неё можно было установить Windows.
Использовать мы будем программу winusb. Если вы используете Ubuntu 13.10 или меньше, то ставится она из консоли так:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:colingille/freshlight sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install winusb
Для версий Ubuntu / Linux Mint выше нет в ppa пакета. Но ничего — старый (13.10) тоже подходит, поэтому ставим вручную:
wget https://launchpad.net/~colingille/+archive/freshlight/+files/winusb_1.0.11+saucy1_i386.deb
— для 32-битной версии,
wget https://launchpad.net/~colingille/+archive/freshlight/+files/winusb_1.0.11+saucy1_amd64.deb
— для 64-битной системы.
sudo dpkg -i winusb_1.0.11+saucy1*
— ставим пакет.
sudo apt-get -f install
— фиксим зависимости.
WinUSB установлен! Теперь можно открыть его из панели запуска приложений, либо из консоли командой winusbgui.
Выбрали образ/диск и устройство. После нажатия install, как можно догадаться, будет создана установочная флешка с Windows 7, 8, 10 и т.д. — в зависимости от ситуации.
How to create a bootable Windows 11 USB flash drive in Linux.
Below is the procedure for creating a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 11.
The same process should also work with any HDD/SSD connected to your system.
1. Download Windows 11 image
https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows11
$ sha256sum Win11_English_x64v1.iso
4bc6c7e7c61af4b5d1b086c5d279947357cff45c2f82021bb58628c2503eb64e Win11_English_x64v1.iso2. Plug your USB flash drive
Linux detected /dev/sde as the USB stick, in your case it will most likely take a different name.
3. Format your USB flash drive
Work as root account and make sure to replace /dev/sde with your USB flash drive!
Use lsblk and dmesg | tail -50 commands to locate your USB flash drive.
# wipefs -a /dev/sde
# parted /dev/sde
(parted) mklabel gpt
(parted) mkpart BOOT fat32 0% 1GiB
(parted) mkpart INSTALL ntfs 1GiB 10GiB
(parted) quitCheck the drive layout now:
In my case I’ve used 100% instead of 10GiB when created the «INSTALL» ntfs partition —
mkpart INSTALL ntfs 1GiB 100%. But you can use anything that should be larger than 6 GiB to fit the data from Windows ISO image.
# parted /dev/sde unit B print
Model: SanDisk Extreme (scsi)
Disk /dev/sde: 62742792192B
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1048576B 1073741823B 1072693248B BOOT msftdata
2 1073741824B 62742593535B 61668851712B INSTALL msftdata4. Mount Windows ISO somewhere
I mounted it to /mnt/iso directory:
mkdir /mnt/iso
mount /home/<your user>/Downloads/Win11_English_x64v1.iso /mnt/iso/5. Format 1st partition of your USB flash drive as FAT32
mkfs.vfat -n BOOT /dev/sde1
mkdir /mnt/vfat
mount /dev/sde1 /mnt/vfat/6. Copy everything from Windows ISO image except for the sources directory there
rsync -r --progress --exclude sources --delete-before /mnt/iso/ /mnt/vfat/7. Copy only boot.wim file from the sources directory, while keeping the same path layout
mkdir /mnt/vfat/sources
cp /mnt/iso/sources/boot.wim /mnt/vfat/sources/8. Format 2nd partition of your USB flash drive as NTFS
mkfs.ntfs --quick -L INSTALL /dev/sde2
mkdir /mnt/ntfs
mount /dev/sde2 /mnt/ntfs9. Copy everything from Windows ISO image there
rsync -r --progress --delete-before /mnt/iso/ /mnt/ntfs/10. Unmount the USB flash drive and Windows ISO image
umount /mnt/ntfs
umount /mnt/vfat
umount /mnt/iso
sync11. Power off your USB flash drive
udisksctl power-off -b /dev/sdeDone
Now you are ready to boot off of your USB flash drive to install Windows 11.