Download Windows 10 (ISO) 1803 (April 18 Update?) that fits on a USB stick? How?

[game_over]

I need to re-install Windows but running into an issue where the most recent ISOs don't fit on a USB Drive due to the install.wim file being bigger than 4GB and not fitting on a USB stick.

 

I remember in the past I downloaded an older version, iirc it was April 18 update, it just about fits.

 

Unfortunately they have taken it down.

 

Can anyone help?

 

I understand formatting as exFAT is supposed to work? but I can't seem to get exFAT drives to boot.

 

I either need access to an ISO that definitely fits on a USB Drive or correct instructions to get the job done with a newer ISO.

 

I feel like I'm missing something, surely Microsoft don't make it this difficult? I also don't have access to a Windows OS, only Mac.

 

Thanks in advance :)

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

 

Are you downloading the .ISO directly and then trying to make a bootable USB flash drive using some kind of utility?  If so, try using the  Windows Media Creation Tool to download and create USB installation media, instead.  It will just create the correctly formatted installation media for the computer.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

[Sulphy]

If you need to do this via a Mac, a quick search this found handy guide! 

 

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-create-windows-10-installer-usb-drive-mac

 

I dont use a Mac, so cannot confirm or deny if it works.. 😛

[moriel5]

Try using NTLite to create a smaller image.

Or better yet, the MyDigitalLife forums have developers working on solutions of the kind.

[Sulphy]

5 minutes ago, moriel5 said:

Try using NTLite to create a smaller image.

Or better yet, the MyDigitalLife forums have developers working on solutions of the kind.

The guy is asking about creating bootable USB Win10 on a Mac  

[Neyht Member]

3 hours ago, goretsky said:

Hello,

 

Are you downloading the .ISO directly and then trying to make a bootable USB flash drive using some kind of utility?  If so, try using the  Windows Media Creation Tool to download and create USB installation media, instead.  It will just create the correctly formatted installation media for the computer.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

 

 

I think that's the one he wants....and it doesn't work.  I just tried it.

 

Well, I thought he wanted the 1803 update for one reason or another.  If the media creation tool should make a bootable usb drive...

[+BudMan MVC]

huh?  Get a bigger usb.. Why do you think the image needs to be less than 4gb?  Even the MS docs say have a usb with atleast 5GB free..

 

The lastest media creation tool for windows 1903 says at least 8GB usb is needed.

 

Have a buddy create the media if you only have a mac.

[adrynalyne]

16 minutes ago, BudMan said:

huh?  Get a bigger usb.. Why do you think the image needs to be less than 4gb?  Even the MS docs say have a usb with atleast 5GB free..

 

The lastest media creation tool for windows 1903 says at least 8GB usb is needed.

 

Have a buddy create the media if you only have a mac.

He is talking about the fat32 limitation and apparently must be trying to just copy the iso to the flash drive instead of formatting it as an installer. 

[adrynalyne]

19 hours ago, game_over said:

I need to re-install Windows but running into an issue where the most recent ISOs don't fit on a USB Drive due to the install.wim file being bigger than 4GB and not fitting on a USB stick.

 

I remember in the past I downloaded an older version, iirc it was April 18 update, it just about fits.

 

Unfortunately they have taken it down.

 

Can anyone help?

 

I understand formatting as exFAT is supposed to work? but I can't seem to get exFAT drives to boot.

 

I either need access to an ISO that definitely fits on a USB Drive or correct instructions to get the job done with a newer ISO.

 

I feel like I'm missing something, surely Microsoft don't make it this difficult? I also don't have access to a Windows OS, only Mac.

 

Thanks in advance

They all fit fine and NTFS is bootable for Windows 10 unless your PC doesn’t support the UEFI version needed. Microsoft isn’t making this difficult, your Mac is. See if you can find a program that allows you to create a usb installer on the Mac. 

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

15 minutes ago, adrynalyne said:

He is talking about the fat32 limitation and apparently must be trying to just copy the iso to the flash drive instead of formatting it as an installer. 

Can't he use ExFat?

[Bell Pep]

Just now, Mindovermaster said:

Can't he use ExFat?

no. Exfat isn't recognized as a UEFI standard. Generally its only fat32, fat16 etc.

 

The filesystem will read the files inside any modern os (windows, macos, linux) but it wont innate the UEFI load sequence to boot the files like boot.efi to pass on control to the installer

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

1 minute ago, Bell Pep said:

no. Exfat isn't recognized as a UEFI standard. Generally its only fat32, fat16 etc.

 

The filesystem will read the files inside any modern os (windows, macos, linux) but it wont innate the UEFI load sequence to boot the files like boot.efi to pass on control to the installer

Oh, OK.

[adrynalyne]

9 minutes ago, Mindovermaster said:

Can't he use ExFat?

For transferring, yes. 

[Bell Pep]

If you need a older windows installer however since microsoft releases msdn file hashes you can download the .iso's here(they have all the previous editions of windows) https://tb.rg-adguard.net/public.php

(warning: not affiliated with Microsoft link), and im not even sure if Microsoft still host, but if you can find a direct link, you may be searching a good part of the day. Also the site is likely russian, but as long as you can verify the SHA1 hashes to a known msdn release (which you can) you can verify indeed this is a untouched iso.  and then upgrade to 1903. That would probably be the best bet that you can directly verify the files, time consuming, but yeah.

The install.wim is bigger in later updates but it also has more editions, i don't mind if OP wants me to create a slim down version for him, that just has home and pro and not Education, Pro for Workstations and all the N editions for the EU. Convert the wim to a ESD (which is more compressed). IF op wants I can likely create you a slimmed down 1903 iso under 4gb with just home and pro and english only (don't have other languages/etc) .wim is kind like a zip file, and esd are more like more modern .rar or 7z files, they can be much more compressed. Since I often reinstall windows on a variety of computers that's generally what I do with the aforementioned NTlite program. Sadly NTlite is windows only.

Also OP are you using Boot Camp Assistant? or UNetbootin or other tool to create the usb stick? I hope the computer you booting into uses UEFI (most do, but double check) otherwise you will have to create a NTFS volume and format the MBR of the flash disk accordingly

 

Also to the OP: flash drives are super cheap: here for example i've used these cheap adata and they have went down in cost: https://www.newegg.com/adata-model-auv128-32g-rby-32gb/p/N82E16820211763?Description=flash drive&cm_re=flash_drive-_-20-211-763-_-Product

[+BudMan MVC]

21 hours ago, game_over said:

surely Microsoft don't make it this difficult?

They are not - you are

 

They provide a simple point and click exe you run to create media with...

[moriel5]

7 hours ago, adrynalyne said:

He is talking about the fat32 limitation and apparently must be trying to just copy the iso to the flash drive instead of formatting it as an installer. 

He wants to create an installer, otherwise he wouldn't be mentioning reinstalling Windows 10, or being unable to boot with exFAT.

 

@game_over, perhaps CrossOver can help you run NTLite, and then you can shrink the ISO from your Mac.

 

Another option would be to boot Linux from a flashdrive, and installing Wine to run NTLite.

 

Otherwise, I can send you an ISO I had modified (Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 1809), so you can install that, and create the ISO you want from there.

Edited June 20, 2019 by moriel5

[adrynalyne]

2 hours ago, moriel5 said:

He wants to create an installer, otherwise he wouldn't be mentioning reinstalling Windows 10, or being unable to boot with exFAT.

 

@game_over, perhaps CrossOver can help you run NTLite, and then you can shrink the ISO from your Mac.

 

Another option would be to boot Linux from a flashdrive, and installing Wine to run NTLite.

 

Otherwise, I can send you an ISO I had modified (Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 1809), so you can install that, and create the ISO you want from there.

What he wants and what he is doing aren’t the same thing...

[Shiranui]

10 hours ago, BudMan said:

huh?  Get a bigger usb.. Why do you think the image needs to be less than 4gb?  Even the MS docs say have a usb with atleast 5GB free..

This x 1000.

WTF?

[adrynalyne]

Just now, Shiranui said:

This x 1000.

WTF?

Stop skimming and mysteries will be solved. 

[game_over]

On 6/20/2019 at 9:16 AM, goretsky said:

Hello,

 

Are you downloading the .ISO directly and then trying to make a bootable USB flash drive using some kind of utility?  If so, try using the  Windows Media Creation Tool to download and create USB installation media, instead.  It will just create the correctly formatted installation media for the computer.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

I can't use that tool at this time unfortunately as my Windows machine is down (hence the re-install) I can only solve this issue from a Mac.

On 6/20/2019 at 9:24 AM, Sulphy said:

If you need to do this via a Mac, a quick search this found handy guide! 

 

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-create-windows-10-installer-usb-drive-mac

 

I dont use a Mac, so cannot confirm or deny if it works.. 😛

I dont think this works on latest version of macOS unfortunately. thanks though.

22 hours ago, Ned said:

 

 

I think that's the one he wants....and it doesn't work.  I just tried it.

 

Well, I thought he wanted the 1803 update for one reason or another.  If the media creation tool should make a bootable usb drive...

1803's install.wim file is smaller than 4GB thanks to containing less updates therefore it generally works fine.

20 hours ago, BudMan said:

huh?  Get a bigger usb.. Why do you think the image needs to be less than 4gb?  Even the MS docs say have a usb with atleast 5GB free..

 

The lastest media creation tool for windows 1903 says at least 8GB usb is needed.

 

Have a buddy create the media if you only have a mac.

I have an 8GB USB drive, the size is not the problem.. The problem is that the install.wim file contains most of the OS data in newer versions of Windows 10 ISOs contain so many updates that it is much bigger than 4GB and therefore doesn't fit on FAT-32 formatted drives. 

19 hours ago, adrynalyne said:

They all fit fine and NTFS is bootable for Windows 10 unless your PC doesn’t support the UEFI version needed. Microsoft isn’t making this difficult, your Mac is. See if you can find a program that allows you to create a usb installer on the Mac. 

Ah cool, didn't know that I could boot from NTFS. Thanks

19 hours ago, Bell Pep said:

If you need a older windows installer however since microsoft releases msdn file hashes you can download the .iso's here(they have all the previous editions of windows) https://tb.rg-adguard.net/public.php

(warning: not affiliated with Microsoft link), and im not even sure if Microsoft still host, but if you can find a direct link, you may be searching a good part of the day. Also the site is likely russian, but as long as you can verify the SHA1 hashes to a known msdn release (which you can) you can verify indeed this is a untouched iso.  and then upgrade to 1903. That would probably be the best bet that you can directly verify the files, time consuming, but yeah.

The install.wim is bigger in later updates but it also has more editions, i don't mind if OP wants me to create a slim down version for him, that just has home and pro and not Education, Pro for Workstations and all the N editions for the EU. Convert the wim to a ESD (which is more compressed). IF op wants I can likely create you a slimmed down 1903 iso under 4gb with just home and pro and english only (don't have other languages/etc) .wim is kind like a zip file, and esd are more like more modern .rar or 7z files, they can be much more compressed. Since I often reinstall windows on a variety of computers that's generally what I do with the aforementioned NTlite program. Sadly NTlite is windows only.

Also OP are you using Boot Camp Assistant? or UNetbootin or other tool to create the usb stick? I hope the computer you booting into uses UEFI (most do, but double check) otherwise you will have to create a NTFS volume and format the MBR of the flash disk accordingly

 

Also to the OP: flash drives are super cheap: here for example i've used these cheap adata and they have went down in cost: https://www.newegg.com/adata-model-auv128-32g-rby-32gb/p/N82E16820211763?Description=flash drive&cm_re=flash_drive-_-20-211-763-_-Product

This is awesome, that link allows me to download the version I need... Also using UNetbootin. 

9 hours ago, Shiranui said:

This x 1000.

WTF?

I have an 8GB USB drive, the size is not the problem.. The problem is that the install.wim file contains most of the OS data in newer versions of Windows 10 ISOs contain so many updates that it is much bigger than 4GB and therefore doesn't fit on FAT-32 formatted drives. 

[adrynalyne]

This might be useful too. 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.aioboot.com/en/network-boot/amp/

[Bell Pep]

PXE servers can be fun... but they are a pain to go through.

 

 

Since OP replied.... the easiest solution for OP since he/she has a flash drive bigger than 4gb (new info) would be to use this tool rufus: https://rufus.ie/

Sadly rufus is windows only but it solves this 4gb fat limitation on the installer by formatting the disk as a fat and then during the install porition it will load a NTFS.sys filesystem and then continue to load the rest of the installer. If you want the details they are documented here:

https://superuser.com/questions/1023290/how-to-do-uefigpt-with-a-iso-file-greater-than-4gb#1289251

and from the dev himself: https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/wiki/FAQ#Blah_UEFI_Blah_FAT32_therefore_Rufus_should_Blah

This solves the bigger than 4gb install.wims by putting it on a NTFS volume but still loading the essential .efi for uefi booting on a smaller fat filesystem.

Now for op to do this he has two options: install bootcamp on his mac and use rufus to create the installer from the .iso they download from mct (windows 10 media creation kit)
OR
Install any windows onto the machine he wishes to (windows 7, windows 8, windows 10) that is under 4gb with the older versions i linked above. Then once that's installed, use RUFUS on that computer to redownload windows 10 from MCT directly since downloading from MCT ensures files are directly from microsoft and don't have to do any hash/sha1 file comparisons with reuploads. rufus works on any modern windows OS, so it doesn't matter what system hes using since MCT will download and make .iso on any modern windows

 

MCT: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Rufus really is better than UNetbootin and most usb creation tools, but sadly it isn't crossplatform. Also i think to complicate matters in the MacOS space, in the little i've used MacOS it doesn't support NTFS writting, it will read ntfs volumes. So im not sure how a crossplatform tool would even be able to do this unless it loads NTFS-3g module into the program and bypasses it. It's frustrating that even most linux distros have ntfs-3g which is able to read and write NTFS. Idk, i think you can enable NTFS writting in MacOS, but i've never done it and i think it requires dropping down to the terminal, but hey to each their own. 

[PGHammer]

On 6/20/2019 at 5:35 AM, moriel5 said:

Try using NTLite to create a smaller image.

Or better yet, the MyDigitalLife forums have developers working on solutions of the kind.

In my case, I use Internet Download Manager to download the ISO, and Rufus to put it on the USB stick.  (It still works - I used it for the last major ISO release, and the same tag-team this time around  (It still works, despite the new image options - such as Pro for Workstations - which I use on my desktop.   I can still use the same ISO.)

[Bell Pep]

In case anyone with a 4GB or smaller disk needs a direct way to install this, i created a NTlite iso with 1903 iso with June 2019 updates applied with a smaller than 4gb install.esd and uploaded it for the OP. Since now knowing he/she has a flash drive bigger than 4gb, they can still use this, but creating through MCT would be the recommended way since they not taking some random .iso from a stranger on the internet that can't be verified with sha1/sha256/file hashes.

For those of you unlucky with a smaller than 4GB disk here and since i already made the iso, no need to not share to public in case anyone actually has a 4gb stick and under: https://mega.nz/#!oOhT0AhS!VCyb9MrNGiREqeS_z3BYPRTofSUznrrc-J1Cz7JDEBw
 

just remember to use UNetbootin  or w/e utility that works on your OS. Rufus is highly recommended, but sadly it isn't MacOS compatible

[PGHammer]

5 minutes ago, Bell Pep said:

In case anyone with a 4GB or smaller disk needs a direct way to install this, i created a NTlite iso with 1903 iso with June 2019 updates applied with a smaller than 4gb install.esd and uploaded it for the OP. Since now knowing he/she has a flash drive bigger than 4gb, they can still use this, but creating through MCT would be the recommended way since they not taking some random .iso from a stranger on the internet that can't be verified with sha1/sha256/file hashes.

For those of you unlucky with a smaller than 4GB disk here and since i already made the iso, no need to not share to public in case anyone actually has a 4gb stick and under: https://mega.nz/#!oOhT0AhS!VCyb9MrNGiREqeS_z3BYPRTofSUznrrc-J1Cz7JDEBw
 

just remember to use UNetbootin  or w/e utility that works on your OS. Rufus is highly recommended, but sadly it isn't MacOS compatible

When the 8 GB USB sticks dropped to the equivalent to the 4 GB USB stick (before Windows 7 went into  beta) I have shifted to recommending 8 GB sticks instead of 4 GB sticks - the only change is where I get them.  (Amazon - period.  If you would rather get them retail, go to MicroCenter.  The 8 GB sticks from MicroCenter are the store-branded USB sticks - I call them the Green Machine USB sticks - they are green in color.)