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I know it might be weird, but I'm trying to boot a Windows version on dual boot in Linux for gaming. I followed these steps:

  1. Download a version of Windows;
  2. Copy the files inside the *.iso to the mounted USB stick with cp command;
  3. Restart the machine;
  4. Change BIOS to recognize either USB CD/DVD or USB Hardrive as first boot in priority.

The system does not recognize the stick. I suspect it might be due to permissions issues.

Thank you in advance.

Zanna
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Bruno Lobo
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    cp will copy the file to the file system on your thumb-drive, where it can be used by a booted system, but it won't be bootable unless the thumb-drive was already setup & bootable (and it'll boot that prior bootable system). I use dd to expand the ISO to a thumb-drive myself; but dd (data dump) doesn't protect users from themselves and safer programs are around that do the job. – guiverc Sep 02 '19 at 00:55
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    Please, provide the name of the software which do the job. – Bruno Lobo Sep 02 '19 at 01:01
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    This is a possible off-topic question. I know loads of tools that will expand an ISO to a thumb-drive, and know they work with any GNU/Linux or Ubuntu ISO, but have no idea about a windows ISO. I already provided the tool I use anyway. (with caveat about what seems a lack of knowledge on your behalf, the tool can be dangerous without reasonable knowledge) – guiverc Sep 02 '19 at 01:04

2 Answers2

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It is complicated to create a live Windows system (live: will boot from USB and run the operating system). And it is off-topic here at AskUbuntu anyway.

If you want a Windows installer (that can install Windows into an internal drive), you can use WoeUSB according to the following link. It is possible to create the installer with an NTFS file system, when there is a file exceeding the size limit of FAT32.

WoeUSB Error Code 256 with NTFS formatted USB

In Ubuntu 20.04.x LTS there are problems with WoeUSB, but you can use mkusb (mkusb-dus or mkusb-plug).

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb

sudodus
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It's easiest to use a live USB creation tool to do this, such as WoeUSB. This automatically handles making the drive bootable To install WoeUSB:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt update
sudo apt install woeusb

You can then run WoeUSB and you'll need to select your source .ISO (in your case the Windows installation disk image) as well as the target USB drive that you want to make bootable.

IIRC WoeUSB can only create bootable USB drives with the FAT32 file system, for the latest builds of Windows 10 (version 1903 +) install.wim is often larger than 4GB (i.e. larger than FAT32 supports) so WoeUSB will fail for these newest versions of Windows (try an older Windows 10 version (like 1809 or 1803), then run the upgrade to 1903 after you've installed Windows).

ycnz
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