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

[Gotenks98]

If at all possible go to another Windows machine and do the ISO download with the creation tool. This will give you the latest version with fewer updates to download. If that is not an option for you then you will need to go to Windows machine and use DISM to split the wim file. If that does not work for you then you can do the 2 partition method. You only need enough space to boot to the install in fat 32. You can put some of the other files in the sources folder on an NTFS partition. The installer will see it as one partition when using it to install. The easier method is just use 2 flash drives. One Fat32 and one ntfs. The NTFS will have all the files. The fat32 will have everything but the install.wim that is too big. Once you boot into the installer just swap the usb drives. It should let you install that way.

[moriel5]

On 6/21/2019 at 1:12 PM, game_over said:

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.

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

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

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. 

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

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

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. 

As said above, Rufus is a much better choice (or Etcher, if on a Mac), since UNetBootin has some issues in regards to partitioning.

 

On 6/21/2019 at 9:50 PM, PGHammer said:

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.)

 

 

In my country, 8GB flash drives and microSD/SD are almost as expensive as their 16GB equivalents (from the same brands even), so I go with 16GB or more nowadays (~7$ for 16GB, ~16$ for 32GB, after converting).

[riceBox]

 

What I do is split the install.wim file with the following command. Change the directories used accordingly.

dism /split-image /imagefile:c:\iso\sources\install.wim /swmfile: c:\iso\sources\install.swm /filesize:4095 /checkintegrity

Afterwards I remove the original install.wim file in my bootable USB Windows installer, with the .swm files generated by the above command. 

 

Do note that I use a Win10 ISO with no additional cumulative updates integrated to it (ex. vanilla Win10 1903 ISO), then use Rufus to create the UEFI bootable USB before doing the above. Might also try installing a trial of a Mac hypervisor, installing Windows on that, and doing the instructions mentioned, if there's absolutely no chance to borrow a Windows PC.

Edited June 23, 2019 by riceBox

[PGHammer]

On 6/20/2019 at 8:07 PM, adrynalyne said:

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

Rufus can create both GPT and MBR-compliant USB sticks; it can also create MBR-compliant USB sticks on a GPT-compliant PC (which is, in fact, THE reason I still use it; I use my desktop PC for downloading images).

 

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