Creating a Windows 11 bootable on Linux (backup copy from nixaid.com)

Bootable.md

Here is the procedure formatted as clean, copy-pastable Markdown.

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Creating a Bootable Windows 11 USB on Linux

This procedure outlines how to create a bootable Windows 11 USB flash drive (or HDD/SSD) using the command line.

⚠️ WARNING: DATA LOSS This process involves formatting drives. Identify your device identifier correctly (e.g., /dev/sdX). In the examples below, the device is /dev/sde. Do not copy/paste commands containing /dev/sde without verifying your specific drive identifier.

1. Download Windows 11 Image

Download the ISO from Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows11

Verify the checksum (optional but recommended):

sha256sum Win11_English_x64v1.iso
# Example Output:
# 4bc6c7e7c61af4b5d1b086c5d279947357cff45c2f82021bb58628c2503eb64e  Win11_English_x64v1.iso

2. Identify and Prepare the USB Drive

Plug in your USB drive. Use the following commands to find the correct device identifier (e.g., /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc, etc.).

lsblk
dmesg | tail -50

3. Partition the Drive

Note: Run all following commands as root.

Wipe the existing filesystem signature:

# Replace /dev/sde with your actual device identifier!
wipefs -a /dev/sde

Create the partition layout (GPT label, a FAT32 boot partition, and an NTFS install partition):

parted /dev/sde

Inside the parted interactive prompt:

(parted) mklabel gpt
(parted) mkpart BOOT fat32 0% 1GiB
(parted) mkpart INSTALL ntfs 1GiB 100%
(parted) quit

Verify the layout:

parted /dev/sde unit B print

4. Mount the Windows ISO

Create a mount point and mount the downloaded ISO image:

mkdir -p /mnt/iso
# Adjust the path to your ISO file location
mount /home/user/Downloads/Win11_English_x64v1.iso /mnt/iso/

5. Setup Partition 1 (Boot/FAT32)

Format the first partition as FAT32, mount it, and copy the boot files (excluding the large sources folder).

mkfs.vfat -n BOOT /dev/sde1
mkdir -p /mnt/vfat
mount /dev/sde1 /mnt/vfat/

# Copy all files EXCEPT the 'sources' directory
rsync -r --progress --exclude sources --delete-before /mnt/iso/ /mnt/vfat/

Create the sources directory and copy only the boot.wim file:

mkdir -p /mnt/vfat/sources
cp /mnt/iso/sources/boot.wim /mnt/vfat/sources/

6. Setup Partition 2 (Install/NTFS)

Format the second partition as NTFS, mount it, and copy the full contents of the ISO.

mkfs.ntfs --quick -L INSTALL /dev/sde2
mkdir -p /mnt/ntfs
mount /dev/sde2 /mnt/ntfs

# Copy everything (including the large install.wim inside sources)
rsync -r --progress --delete-before /mnt/iso/ /mnt/ntfs/

7. Finalize and Unmount

Unmount all drives and ensure data is synced to disk.

umount /mnt/ntfs
umount /mnt/vfat
umount /mnt/iso
sync

Power off the device (safely remove):

udisksctl power-off -b /dev/sde

Confirmed working with 25H2, thanks!