Question for creating Windows 11 bootable USB on Mac?

[Rohmeny]

I managed to get the leaked version of Windows 11 ISO and plan to install it on my new PC. However, it seems Boot Camp is no longer working for creating Windows bootable USB drive. Can someone confirm it?

When I plugged in a USB flash drive and Boot Camp asks me to eject all external drives before continuing. This is not the case on Catalina.

My MacBook Pro is running macOS Big Sur 11.3.1 on an Intel Mac.

Is there any other workaround to create Windows 11 bootable USB on Big Sur?

Thanks in advance

 

[Darth.Titan]

Bootcamp doesn't create bootable USB installers for Windows anymore, it installs Windows from .iso files instead. Bootcamp actually won't even run with an external drive plugged in as you've discovered. (Kind of a pain when booting macOS from an external drive)

The easiest way to create a bootable Windows USB is in Windows, but Windows 11 is different it seems. Microsoft hasn't updated their media creation tool for 11 yet, and apparently doing it yourself is kind of an ordeal.

 

[Rohmeny]

@Darth.Titan thanks for the confirmation and refer links. Unfortunately, I only have a Mac at hand. And there is no OS on new PC. I would not upgrade the OS to Big Sur if I knew this problem, lol.

 

[Ethrem]

Download Windows 10 ISO, use this tool.

Make Windows 10 Bootable USB on macOS Big Sur in 3 Simple Ways

www.uubyte.com

Install Windows 10 trial and upgrade to Windows 11 Insider Preview.

This is much easier than all the steps to make Windows 11 USB drive.

Source: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...p/1fc083ee-1fd0-4ceb-9aa0-b67a67aa5ac7?auth=1

Look at post by user HowieMandal and people responding this method to make Windows 10 USB worked.

I personally did the Windows 10 trial and upgrade to Windows 11 in less than 40 minutes total and that was using virtualization which is slower than native.

 

[Rohmeny]

@Ethrem thank you very much for the suggestion! I tried using Terminal app to get it done first as it is free but wasted two hours on this without success. I am not a tech savvy and could not figure out the problem is by myself. No matter what I did, the USB is not recognized as a bootable device on my PC. Then I turned to UUByte ISO Editor and it worked flawlessly!

p.s I am not a big fan of virtual machines as it lags. Maybe the performance is much better now. Also, there is no much free space left on my budget MacBook Air for running a Windows VM or bootcamp instance.

 

[Ethrem]

@Ethrem thank you very much for the suggestion! I tried using Terminal app to get it done first as it is free but wasted two hours on this without success. I am not a tech savvy and could not figure out the problem is. No matter what I did, the USB is not recognized as a bootable device on my PC. Then I turned to UUByte ISO Editor and it worked flawlessly!

p.s I am not a big fan of virtual machines as it lags. Maybe the performance is much better now. Also, There is no much free space left on my budget MacBook Air.

Glad that it worked for you!

I have found that virtual machines can be pretty zippy or they can be very slow, depends on driver support, but I chose to do it that way because I didn’t want to risk Windows 11 screwing up macOS, Windows 10, and Linux I have installed natively. I installed it the day it popped up for insiders and I just don’t trust Microsoft not to screw things up so I put it in a virtual machine in Windows 10 (Hyper-V) lol.

 

[Rohmeny]

Glad that it worked for you!

I have found that virtual machines can be pretty zippy or they can be very slow, depends on driver support, but I chose to do it that way because I didn’t want to risk Windows 11 screwing up macOS, Windows 10, and Linux I have installed natively. I installed it the day it popped up for insiders and I just don’t trust Microsoft not to screw things up so I put it in a virtual machine in Windows 10 (Hyper-V) lol.

I won't risk my working Mac with a beta version of Windows OS. That's why I build a new PC for testing it out. If I was not using it extensively, a virtual machine could be fine.

 

[singularity0993]

You can run Windows 11 on Bootcamp?

I believe Windows 11‘s minimum system requirement includes a TPM 2.0 chip, which is not present on any Mac. Correct me if I’m wrong.

 

[Rohmeny]

You can run Windows 11 on Bootcamp?

I believe Windows 11‘s minimum system requirement includes a TPM 2.0 chip, which is not present on any Mac. Correct me if I’m wrong.

You are right. TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot are required to run Windows 11 according to Microsoft official document.