[SOLVED] Mac To Windows 8

[brndnttr]

Hey I am building a custom pc after using mac for a few years and the i don't want to shell out extra money on a disc drive. i was wondering if it is possible to make a windows-8.1-iso-usb instead of having to buy a disc drive and a windows disc, but i will have to format this usb on my mac and then boot up windows on my brand new pc. is this possible? thanks in advance!

 

[USAFRet]

I have not seen a way to do that on a Mac.

For the Windows license, it costs the same whether you get a disk from Newegg or an ISO from MS.

 

[k1114]

The usb should already be fat32 but if not mac can format as fat32. Mount the iso from disk utilities and just drag the files onto the usb.

 

[USAFRet]

The usb should already be fat32 but if not mac can format as fat32. Mount the iso from disk utilities and just drag the files onto the usb.

Will that create a bootable Windows install?

 

[bruzanHD]

So it will boot up a PC with no OS to windows and then run me through the regular install correct?

 

[k1114]

Ya it's the same process as what you do in windows. In windows I just use winrar but it just doesn't have software by default to unpack or mount an iso.

 

[Ijack]

The usb should already be fat32 but if not mac can format as fat32. Mount the iso from disk utilities and just drag the files onto the usb.

Will that create a bootable Windows install?

No, it won't - any more than it would on Windows. BootCamp will create bootable USB sticks; I've never tried it but I can't see why the resulting stick wouln't work on a PC; it will just have some additional drivers that aren't needed.

 

[k1114]

Well I guess I'm a wizard if it works for me on any pc or mac. The iso has all the files, there is nothing special to make a usb bootable.

 

[Ijack]

Well I guess I'm a wizard if it works for me on any pc or mac. The iso has all the files, there is nothing special to make a usb bootable.

I guess you are! The thing that makes any bootable device special is the boot sector. Dragging and dropping files isn't going to copy that in a thousand years.

 

[k1114]

It already has a boot sector. Just go try my method, just format the usb and unpack the iso on it.

 

[Ijack]

No it doesn't, unless you create that boot sector using a Windows PC. You can do that, as you say, by formatting it as a bootable drive. But you need to do that on a Windows PC, and we are talking about a Mac here. The ISO image already has this bootsector, so burning it correctly to the drive does the trick; simply copying the files doesn't.

You might find the following of interest, particularly the section on using diskpart to make the drive bootable: http://www.davescomputertips.com/how-to-create-a-bootable-windows-7-usb-flash-drive/

But you use whatever you think works for you.