The main challenge of creating the Windows 11 bootable USB drive is the install size.wim file in combination with the MS-DOS format of the drive itself. You can execute this command anywhere but ensure to include the full path to the Windows 11 ISO file. I’ve executed this command in the directory in which the ISO file was stored. The next step is to mount the Windows 11 ISO, you can use finder for that and click on the file, but as we are doing everything in the terminal, the command you can use to mount the iso is: hdiutil mount Win11_22H2_English_圆4v1.iso The name is 64GBUSB, and the identifier is disk5 diskutil eraseDisk MS-DOS '64GBUSB' MBR disk5 We need to retain the disk’s name and use the identifier. Use a Master Boot Record scheme (MBR) as this is necessary to find all the files during the installation of Windows 11. The next command is going to erase the USB drive using MS-DOS format. In my case, macOS assigned the identifier “disk5” to it. This helps you to spot your USB drive easily. The option “external” only displays mounted volumes. To discover which disk identifier macOS assigned to the USB driver, run the following command: diskutil list external If you want to store these drivers on the USB drive as well to be able to continue the Windows install process. Newer motherboards are typically equipped with these Intel 2.5 GbE NICs, and Windows 11 do not have the driver built-in.

I use a 64GB USB drive that can also store extra drivers. Insert a USB key that is large enough to contain Windows 11. To Install wimlib, run the following command: brew install wimlib My recent model Macbook Pro took about 6 minutes to complete. Open a terminal window and run the following command: /bin/bash -c '$(curl -fsSL )' Some already have it installed, and some don’t, so I will include the install command for Homebrew.

To install wimlib, you need to have Homebrew installed. This tool helps you to split a particular file (install.wim) as it is too large for the filesystem we use on the USB drive. The only missing one is the open-source Windows Imaging Library (wimlib). And because this is not a process I often do, I decided to document it for easy retrieval, which might help others facing the same challenge.Īs I mentioned, most of the tools are installed on macOS. However, most tooling is provided by macOS itself. To make things worse, trying to do this on macOS Monterey is extra difficult due to the heightened security levels that withhold you from running unsigned software. I need to install Windows 11 on a gaming PC, but I only have a MacBook in my house, as this is my primary machine for work.

Create bootable usb on mac