bootbootcampmacosusbwindows
Reasons for wanting create such a usb include:
What are the necessary steps to create such a Windows 8.1 bootable usb on a Mac ?
There is an alternative method to
Assuming that you have the ISO handy (if you don't, there's Digital River links here), download Unetbootin.
Unetbootin allows you to create bootable USB drives from many Linux distributions and also ISO images. (note that Unetbootin requires admin privileges) The following image demonstrates how to manually select the ISO image. Click the "..." button to browse for your image.
To boot from your USB drive, I recommend rEFIt. I use it myself to boot from an Ubuntu partition on my external hard drive that I use as a Time Machine on another partition. It is useful for recognizing operating systems installed on your computer and devices connected to your computer (and their partitions). I recommend simply burning rEFIt to a CD/DVD to boot to the Windows 7 install USB. Having had trouble trying to install it to the Mac itself (without the DVD), I usually boot to the rEFIt DVD, and continue to boot to my choice of operating system.
(boot to a rEFIt DVD by holding down the C key [or the option key, as you stated] after you hear the chime of the startup)
I know for a fact that Unetbootin works for creating bootable Windows install USB's (I've run them before on PC's). I will test booting from rEFIt and update this answer when I have.
Quick shot:
Not smart but it should work...
I'm searching for a faster way without creating a VM
Best Answer
I am not really sure why you would want to install Windows 8.1 without BootCamp.
The USB stick needs to be a little bigger than the
.isofile you are going to be burning. It doesn't matter if there is any data on it, this will totally erase the whole thing.Steps To Achieve Victory
Open Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities)
2.1 Navigate to the path where the .iso file is located
2.2 Use
lsto list all the folders2.3
cd /path/to/isoto dive in to folder orcd ..to go back the path.isoto.imgusing hdiutil:hdiutil convert -format UDRW -o /path/to/target.img /path/to/source.iso.dmgending:mv /path/to/target.img.dmg path/to/target.imgdiskutil listto get a list of currently connected devicesdiskutil listagain to see what your USB stick gets assignedeg - /dev/disk3diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskN(whereNis the number assigned to your USB stick, in previous example it would be3)sudo dd if=/path/to/target.img of=/dev/diskN bs=1m(if you get an error, replacebs=1mwithbs=1Mdiskutil eject /dev/diskNand remove your USB stickIMPORTANT For the step #9 you can use the destination to
/dev/rdiskNto reduce the copy time.NOTE: Sometimes, not always, Step #4 will be necessary. Not all the time. I am not sure why it will add the
.dmgending and other times leave it alone.NOTE 2: Might I suggest you learn the name of the
.isoyou downloaded, or just rename itwin8.1.isoor something, and put it on your Desktop folder. That way, when you are typing commands like #3 and #4 etc, etc, you can type it like this:and
and step #9 would look like this:
IMPORTANT - You can track the progress by pressing CTRL + T It will show the process info and records in and out, since we use the
bs=1meach record is 1Mb in size so you can easily track the progress.I don't mean to be insulting with Note and Note2, I am just making sure that you know what all these commands mean. It's the simplest method. Unless someone else comes up with something better.