windows-bootable-usb-creator for Linux Files

Copyright (c) 2025 Jelle Geerts
License: MIT-0 (MIT No Attribution License)

Date: 2025-01-17

Purpose:

  Create a bootable Windows Setup USB drive.

  The script uses an existing ISO image file and creates a
  bootable USB drive with it.

  The open-source UEFI NTFS driver is used to boot from
  the NTFS partition that the script creates. An NTFS partition
  is used to support Windows Setup "install.wim" files larger
  than 4 GB.

  The USB drive will be formatted with two partitions:

    - A large NTFS partition, containing the Windows Setup
      files from the ISO image.

    - A tiny EFI-compatible boot partition with the UEFI NTFS
      boot loader, which loads an EFI NTFS driver and then
      boots into Windows Setup from the NTFS partition.
      The result is a bootable USB drive that behaves exactly
      as if the system's UEFI firmware boots Windows Setup
      from the NTFS partition.

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Usage: windows-bootable-usb-creator.sh WINDOWS_ISO_FILE OUTPUT_DEVICE

Example:
  windows-bootable-usb-creator.sh ./win.iso /dev/disk/by-id/usb-xxxx

Options:
  --skip-confirm    Skip confirmations. Continue with destructive operations.
  --unsafe          Do NOT use this. This skips safety checks, such as whether
                    the parameter order was accidentally reversed (we check if
                    the specified device is actually a block device).

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