woeusb - Man Page
Bootable Windows installation/PE USB storage creator
Examples (TL;DR)
- Format a USB then create a bootable Windows installation drive:
woeusb --device path/to/windows.iso /dev/sdX - Copy Windows files to an existing partition of a USB storage device and make it bootable, without erasing the current data:
woeusb --partition path/to/windows.iso /dev/sdXN
Synopsis
woeusb [OPTIONS] --device|--partition source_media target_media
Description
woeusb is a command-line utility that enables you to create your own bootable Windows installation USB storage device from an existing Windows Installation DVD or its ISO image.
It mainly extracts all files from source_media to target_media , then installs GNU GRUB bootloader and a small configuration into it to support chainloading Windows BOOTMGR.
It also supports UEFI bootstrap scheme, however in this case Windows UEFI bootloader is used instead.
Command-Line Options
Creation Method
- --device / -d source_media target_device
Drop target_device ´s partition table(if there's any), create a new PC/Legacy/MBR partition table, create a FAT32/NTFS partition spanning (almost) the entire disk, then setup bootable Windows on it.
WARNING: ALL PREVIOUS DATA ON target_device WILL BE DROPPED!
- --partition / -p source_media target_partition
Mount target_partition ´s file system, extracts all files from source_media into it, then make it bootable.
WARNING: ALL FILES EXISTING ON target_partition WITH THE SAME FILENAME IN source_media WILL BE OVERWRITTEN!
Miscellaneous
- --help / -h
Print application help message
- --version / -V
Print application version
- --about / -ab
Print info about this application
- --verbose / -v
Be more verbose
- --debug
Enable script debugging
- --no-color
Disable message coloring
- --label / -l filesystem_label
Specify label for the newly created file system in --device creation method
Note that the label is not verified for validity and may be illegal for the filesystem
- --workaround-bios-boot-flag
Apply workaround for buggy BIOSes that doesn't consider a device bootable if none of its partition's boot flag is toggled.
- --debugging-internal-function-call function_name (function_parameters...)
Development option for developers to test certain function without running the entire build
- --target-filesystem / --tgt-fs filesystem_name
Specify the filesystem to use as the target partition's filesystem. Currently supported: FAT(default)/NTFS
Examples
We love examples!
Completely DESTROY all previous data on a USB storage device, recreate the partition table and the target partition, copy the Windows files, and make it bootable
# woeusb --device win7_amd64.iso /dev/sdX # woeusb --device /dev/sr0 /dev/sdX
Copy Windows files to an existing FAT partition of a USB storage device and make it bootable
# woeusb --partition win7_amd64.iso /dev/sdX1 # woeusb --partition /dev/sr0 /dev/sdX1
Exit Status
0 when success, 1 (and non-zero if there's any) when failure
Bugs
Refer to our issue tracker for any known issues
See Also
woeusbgui(1)
Authors
Colin GILLE / congelli501 <colingille@hotmail.com>
林博仁(Buo-ren, Lin) <Buo.Ren.Lin@gmail.com>