Will bootable usb created by bootcamp on mac work with PC?

Solution 1:

After reading through several stackexchange answers, I found steps that worked on this site.

He walks you through how to format the USB stick so that Windows will recognize it, and how to use Unetbootin to copy the ISO image.

I'll reproduce the steps here for convenience:

Format the disk in Disk Utility, with the correct MBR

Open Disk Utilty
Select the USB device
Click Partition
Select 1 partition in the partition layout
Select “Master Boot Record” in the options
Select MS-DOS (FAT) in the format type.
Click Apply, then Partition
Close Disk Utility

This will wipe the USB disk and set it up with the correct boot record

Install the MBR binary from the SysLinux project

Use the command line diskutil to find the device name for your USB drive.
```
diskutil list
```
Unmount the USB drive with the command line. NB: Be sure to swap the device reference (in my case it is /dev/SOMEdisk2) with the correct one for your usb key that you identified in the previous step – this will change for each machine.
```
diskutil unmountDisk /dev/SOMEdisk2
```

Mark the partition active, then unmount it again

sudo fdisk -e /dev/SOMEdisk2
print
f 1
write
print
exit
diskutil unmountDisk /dev/SOMEdisk2

Download Syslinux and extract the mbr.bin file
Install the MBR
```
sudo dd conv=notrunc bs=440 count=1 if=mbr.bin of=/dev/SOMEdisk2
```
NB: see my full instructions if you need further help with steps 4 & 5.

Use UnetBootin to install your OS install files

Download and install UnetBootin if you haven’t already
Load the application, choose your preferred distribution, and then click OK
When it’s finished, eject the USB key and use it

Solution 2:

I have tried that, and all i get is a black screen and a white blinking underscore. I have tried other things to fix but I can't seem to fine a good enough solution. Also, my pc is brand new and I built so there is no optical drive. Plus, i have never installed windows before.

Solution 3:

No. Bootcamp will make a bootable copy of Windows for a Mac only. Macs have UEFI instead of traditional BIOSes. PCs are adopting this technology but slowly.

I believe OS X formats the USB stick using GUID/HFS+, which PCs and Windows do not like. There are just too many hurdles to believe a bootable copy of Windows will work on a PC.

However, you could try this alternative method: Creating A Bootable USB Of Windows 8.1 On OS X?

Note: Just make sure the USB stick is formatted using MBR instead of GUID to maximize impartiality.