Forum Discussion
Best way to burn iso to usb on Mac? I need a Windows 11 bootable USB
About burning ISO to USB on Mac. This method uses ba1enaEtchar, a tool designed for this exact purpose and known for its simplicity and reliability. However, for a Windows 11 USB to work on a non-Apple PC, we need to prepare the USB correctly first.
Step 1: Download the Windows 11 ISO
Step 2: Download and Install ba1enaEtchar
Step 3: Prepare the USB Drive
- Connect your USB drive to your Mac.
- Open Disk Utility (you can find it using Spotlight search - press Cmd+Space and type "Disk Utility").
- In the top menu bar, go to View > Show All Devices.
- In the left sidebar, select your USB drive (select the parent device, not the indented volume underneath). Its name might be like "Kingston DataTraveler" or "SanDisk Cruzer".
- Click the Erase button at the top of the window.
- Name: WIN11USB (You can use any name, but no spaces is best).
- Format: MS-DOS (FAT)
- Scheme: Master Boot Record (MBR)
- Click Erase. Confirm if prompted. This will completely wipe the USB drive.
- When it's done, click Done.
Step 4: Use ba1enaEtchar to "Flash" the ISO
Open ba1enaEtchar from your Applications folder.
The process is a simple 3-step flow:
- Step 1: "Flash from file" - Click it and select the Windows 11 ISO file you downloaded.
- Step 2: "Select target" - Click it and choose your USB drive (it should be named WIN11USB or whatever you called it).
- Step 3: "Flash!" - Click this button.
ba1enaEtchar will now burn ISO to USB drive. It will show a progress bar. This will take several minutes.
You may be asked for your Mac's password to grant permissions.
When it finishes, it will validate the write to ensure it was successful. You will see a "Flash Complete!" message.