Purchased Win 10. Came on a USB with a setup.exe Install?

[SwiftRob]

Hi all,

I'm trying to help a client. She lives very remotely (teamviewer install from my end) and has a Mac, she needs Windows so we're installing Win10 that she purchased. It came boxed but on a USB stick.

I thought, OK, let's just use VirtualBox and install a downloaded ISO and use the product ID that came in the box.
Went to https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/softwar ... ndows10ISO and have tried both the 64 and 32 bit versions but the product ID she received in the box does not work with those.

Can anyone offer some advice as to how to install Windows 10 on this Mac? She is desparate for getting it running for work tomorrow and I'm running out of ideas quickly.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. She won't be able to return it easily due to her remote location (Australia out back).

Rob

[loukingjr]

First, this is not a VirtualBox question at all. That being said, it might be possible to use dd commands in the Mac terminal to convert the USB Flash Drive to an .iso. That goes well beyond the scope of this forum. Even if you managed to do that, the Product key could be tied to a USB install and fail with an .iso install.

About the only hope I see is her calling Microsoft, explaining her situation, buying a new Product key and installing from an .iso. Then she would have to see if she could return the USB for a refund.

[ChipMcK]

It came boxed but on a USB stick.

A USB stick contains a disk-image.
Problem is how to get that image on a VirtualBox recognized media.

1. Create a virtual hard drive large enough to contain that disk-image
2. Mount that virtual hard drive on your host (see Virtual Disk Mounting tools)
3. Use Disk Utility to restore that disk-image onto that virtual hard drive
4. Unmount (eject) that virtual hard drive from host
5. Attach that virtual hard drive to a Virtual Machine

ymmv, of course

Best

[loukingjr]

According to the instructions from Apple to install Windows 10 in Boot Camp…

If you purchased the USB flash drive version you can download an ISO from Microsoft and use the Windows installation key that came with your flash drive. If you're installing Windows for the first time, make sure the Windows installer you're using is for a full installation (not an upgrade installer).

So the method you first tried should work assuming it is a legitimate key, if for some reason it doesn't work you need to call Microsoft support and ask why not.
There were some issues authenticating Windows 10 on metal which were supposed to be fixed.