Creating Windows USB with Etcher

Creating Windows USB with Etcher | Generated by AI

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Question: How does the balenaEtcher GUI method create a Windows installation USB from a Mac?

Answer:

balenaEtcher official website is a simple graphical tool that writes an ISO image directly to a USB drive.

The idea is:

Windows ISO file
        |
        v
   balenaEtcher
        |
        v
 USB flash drive (bootable)
        |
        v
 Lenovo Xiaoxin boots Windows installer

Instead of manually formatting the USB, copying files, splitting install.wim, etc., Etcher does a raw image write.

1. Install balenaEtcher on macOS

Download:

balenaEtcher downloads

Choose:

macOS Intel

for MacBook Pro 2017.

Install:

balenaEtcher.app

Move it to:

Applications

2. Download Windows ISO

Example:

Windows 11 ISO:

Download Windows 11 Disk Image (ISO)

You get:

Win11_24H2_English_x64.iso

Size:

~6GB

3. Plug USB drive

Use:

USB >= 8GB
16GB recommended

Check the disk:

diskutil list

Example:

/dev/disk2
   external physical
   16GB USB

4. Open Etcher

You see three steps:

+-----------------------+
| Flash from file       |
|                       |
|  Win11.iso            |
+-----------------------+

          ↓

+-----------------------+
| Select target         |
|                       |
| USB 16GB              |
+-----------------------+

          ↓

+-----------------------+
| Flash                 |
+-----------------------+

Click:

Flash from file

Select:

Win11_24H2_English_x64.iso

Select USB:

SanDisk 16GB USB

Then:

Flash!

5. What Etcher actually does

Behind the GUI:

open ISO
       |
       |
       v
write ISO blocks
       |
       |
       v
USB sectors

Equivalent roughly to:

dd if=windows.iso of=/dev/disk2 bs=4m

It creates a bootable USB layout.

6. Boot Lenovo Xiaoxin

Insert USB.

Power on:

Fn + F12

or:

F12

Boot menu:

UEFI:
   USB Storage Device

Select it.

Windows installer starts.

Important caveat: Windows ISO + Etcher

For Linux ISOs, Etcher is almost perfect.

For Windows ISOs, there is a historical issue:

Windows ISO
    |
    +-- install.wim
          |
          +-- sometimes >4GB

UEFI firmware usually expects:

FAT32

but FAT32 cannot store:

single file >4GB

So some Windows ISOs written by Etcher may not boot on some machines.

For Lenovo Xiaoxin (modern UEFI), success rate is usually good, but if it fails:

black screen
“no boot device”
USB appears but installer does not start

then use the wimlib FAT32 method.

For your case:

MacBook Pro 2017
        |
        | create USB
        v
Lenovo Xiaoxin
        |
        v
Windows 11

I would try Etcher first because it takes ~10 minutes. If Lenovo cannot boot it, switch to the wimlib method.

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