Ever had one of those days where your tech decides to take a nosedive at the worst possible moment? Picture this: 7 PM, a dead hard drive, and a new job starting the next day. Cue the panic mode!
The hard drive was genuinely dead. The solution? A new SSD — ordered and on her desk by 9 AM the next day. Now here's the kicker: I'm in Paarl, she's in Blouberg. Doing a Windows 10 install remotely is like guiding someone through defusing a bomb.
The Challenge: No Spare PC
She didn't have a spare PC to create a bootable flash drive. But she did have a MacBook. Ever tried making a Windows 10 bootable USB on a Mac? It's like fitting a square peg into a round hole — but we made it work!
Step 1: Brew Some Homebrew Magic
First, we installed Homebrew on the Mac — the Swiss Army knife for macOS:
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"Step 2: Format, Mount, and Copy
We formatted the USB drive in FAT (the one format both Mac and Windows agree on), mounted the ISO, and copied all files except the sources directory — because the install.wim file is too large for FAT.
Step 3: Splitting the Wim
To handle the oversized install.wim, we split it using wimlib:
wimlib-imagex split /path/to/install.wim /usb/sources/install.swm 4000That's some straight-up wizardry right there!
Step 4: The Moment of Truth
She plugged in the USB, booted from it via BIOS, and — BAM! — the Windows 10 install screen greeted her like an old friend.
Step 5: Data Rescue Mission
With Windows back in action, we used data recovery tools to pull her personal files off the old drive. She was ready for her new job.
And that, my friends, is how you turn a tech disaster into a tech triumph — all from the comfort of Paarl. Next time your hard drive takes an unscheduled vacation, give us a call at 065 902 9650.