Creating a mountain lion bootable flash drive. Make a bootable USB from Windows via Mac OS X
A bootable flash drive with macOS Catalina comes in handy when you need to install the system from scratch, or update several machines at once. Now I will tell you how to create such a flash drive in macOS itself and in Windows. The instructions are suitable for High Sierra, Mojave and Catalina.
How to create a bootable USB flash drive on macOS
We will need any USB drive from 8 GB and a free utility Disk Creator. A flash drive can also be created using console commands through the terminal, but I don’t see the point in suffering.
Step 1: Download macOS Catalina
If you currently have macOS High Sierra or a later version of macOS installed, you can download macOS Catalina from the Mac App Store, then in the folder Applications macOS will have a new icon Install macOS Catalina.
Once the download is complete, the macOS Catalina installation file will appear in the Applications folder. Step 2: Launch Disk Creator
If you downloaded the macOS Catalina installer in advance, Disk Creator will automatically find it and display it in the interface. All you have to do is select the flash drive to which you want to deploy the image:
To create a bootable USB flash drive, select a drive. The macOS Catalina installation file will be downloaded automatically
Step 3: Create a boot disk
Click Create Installer and wait while Disk Creator creates a bootable USB flash drive with Catalina. On a fast drive, the process takes 3–4 minutes.
Notification that the creation of a bootable disk with macOS Catalina is complete
Insert the bootable USB flash drive into the Mac and turn it on while holding down the Option key. The computer will start booting into the flash drive. If you are going to install the system on a Hackintosh, you will select the flash drive as a “bootable” drive in the BIOS.
🤦♂️If loading from a flash drive does not happen, you should try to recreate it again or try a different drive. I myself have more than once encountered situations when the installer simply did not want to boot with certain patches.
Step 1: Download macOS Mojave
Alas, there is no official way to say macOS from Windows. You will have to download it using your iMac or MacBook. Or find an installer on torrents.
Please note that the installer must be in .dmg format
Step 2: Run TransMac in Administrator Mode
Right-click on the TransMac icon and select the appropriate item in the menu.
Right click on TransMac and run it in administrator mode
Step 3. Format the flash drive
- Format Disk for Mac.
Before creating a bootable USB flash drive in Windows, the flash drive itself must be formatted
Step 4. Select the dmg file with the macOS image
- Right click on the name of the flash drive;
- Restore with Disk Image ;
- Specify the path to the macOS installation file;
- Wait until the bootable USB drive is created.
Start recovery from disk image
Locate the Mojave installation file you downloaded earlier
Wait until the bootable USB drive is created
How to boot from a flash drive and start installation
Insert the bootable USB flash drive into the Mac and turn it on while holding down the Option key. This will allow you to begin the installation. If you are going to install the system on a Hackintosh, you will select the flash drive as a “bootable” drive in the BIOS.
And definitely. In this article, I told you how not to forget anything and spend a minimum of time reinstalling the system.
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We received the following question:
Good afternoon friends.
I have a question about the Terminal.
Lately I've often been asked how to create a bootable USB flash drive with Windows. I always answered that I don’t know and that I need to Google it. But everything turned out the other way around, the other day I needed a flash drive, but I couldn’t find anything useful on the Internet. I found several commands to load a flash drive, but I didn’t get the result I was hoping for. Please tell me if there is a way to burn a bootable flash drive from Windows using Terminal or any third-party applications
Thank you in advance
Good afternoon
Neither Terminal nor any third-party applications are needed here, because create a bootable Windows USB flash drive from Mac OS X possible using the built-in system Boot Camp Assistant. In general, Boot Camp Assistant is probably the most mysterious utility in OS X for beginners, around which there are many rumors. In fact, Boot Camp Assistant does not change anything in OS X, much less in the Mac's EFI firmware. This utility can only do three things:
- prepare bootable media for Windows
- download Boot Camp drivers to ensure Mac hardware works in Windows
- create an additional partition for Windows on your Mac hard drive
To create a bootable USB flash drive with Windows from an image, launch Boot Camp Assistant, click the continue button on the start screen, then check the “Create a Windows 7 or later installation disc” checkbox:
In the next step, you will be asked to connect a flash drive to your computer and will be warned that all content on it will be erased. Here you will need to specify the path to the Windows image:
Then the deployment of the image to the flash drive will begin, which will take about five minutes.
On September 20, Apple finally presented the official release of macOS Sierra. Now all Mac owners can evaluate all the innovations of the operating system by downloading the distribution kit from the App Store.
But what if you have not one, but several poppies? Should I wait every time until 4 GB of OS is loaded onto the computer? But what if you don’t want to just upgrade, but install the system “from scratch” and thus not drag around various system garbage with you? Here, creating a bootable flash drive can be very helpful. Do it once and update at least a thousand Macs.
Compatible Mac Models
Keep in mind that you can install macOS Sierra on the following macs:
- MacBook Pro and Air - models from 2010.
- Mac mini and Mac Pro - also from 2010
- MacBook - from 2009
- iMac - from 2009.
Preparatory operations
There are two simple and reliable ways to create a bootable USB flash drive. But before we begin to consider them, we will do a number of preparatory actions that are necessary in both cases.
So, we need:
1. USB flash drive (at least 8 GB) Make sure in advance that it does not contain the information you need, since the media will be formatted.
2. Mac distribution. You can download from the link
3. The mac itself
Method No. 1 (standard) using the Terminal
Make sure the downloaded image is in the applications folder
- We connect the flash drive
- Open Terminal (programs>other. Or through Spotlight, control+spacebar)
Attention! Follow the next steps very carefully! - We write sudo and press space
- Now through Finder we go to the folder programs(Applications), then right-click on “install macOS Sierra” and then “show package contents”
Open the folder Resources, find the file createinstallmedia and drag it into the Terminal window 
- After the lines that appear we write --volume(required two dashes) and press space
- Now we transfer the flash drive icon from the desktop to the terminal window
- Add - applicationpath and again a space
- There's still a little bit left. Drag the “macOS Sierra installation” distribution kit into the Terminal from the program folder and click enter
Enter the password and enter again 
- If confirmation is required, please write y and enter again
- We wait 15-20 minutes and the macOS Sierra bootable flash drive is ready.
"Erasing Disk: 0%... 10%... 20%... 30%...100%...
Copying installer files to disk…
Copy complete.
Making disk bootable...
Copying boot files...
Copy complete.
Done."
By the way, you could simply copy and paste this entire block of commands into the Terminal at once, but practice shows that rarely does anyone get by without syntax errors in this case. So it’s better not a couple of minutes longer, but it’s reliable.
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia –volume /Volumes/Untitled –applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app –nointeraction &&say Done
Method number 2. Bootable macOS Sierra USB flash drive using the utility DiskMaker X
Read on topic: — preparing Mac for the transition to macOS Sierra
This method is also very reliable, and also quite simple.
- Insert the flash drive
- Download the DiskMaker X utility
- Launch and press the button macOS Sierra (10.12)
- The utility informs you that it has found the installer in the program folder. Click Use this copy
- At this stage, DiskMaker warns that all data on the flash drive will be erased. Click An 8 GB USB thumb drive
- Select a flash drive from the list and click Choose this disk
- Another warning that data from the flash drive will be deleted, click Erase then create the disk
Nowadays, almost everyone has a flash memory drive: USB flash drives, memory cards, small external hard drives - all this has become commonplace. Their prices are quite low, and the capacity of the same flash drive of 4 - 8 GB has long become the norm. So why not install a fully functional but lightweight version of Mac OS X on it, with the necessary minimum set of applications and files? After all, many Mac users would like this opportunity, especially those who often work on different computers and want to constantly be in the same environment. So let's look at how to install Mac OS X like this.
The editors had a 2 GB Kingston SD card and a card reader on hand, and it was decided to use it for our experiment. But instead, you can easily use popular USB flash drives, memory cards of other formats, or external hard drives. We carried out the installation process on an Intel Mac; we didn’t have an old PowerPC machine at hand, and it’s more difficult to do it on it. In addition, do not forget that you will not run an Intel system on a PowerPC computer, and vice versa.
It’s worth saying a few words in advance about the volume - after installing Mac OS X, there was about 400 MB of free space on the card, so it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to use a gigabyte card. At the same time, on only 400 MB it will probably not be possible to install at least the minimum necessary software, not to mention any additional files - we will install the system almost bare (even without Safari and Mail) and everyone for themselves will decide what software he needs. So to demonstrate the very possibility of installing such a system, 2 GB is quite enough, but for at least some adequate work you will need a larger volume - at least 4 GB.
So let's get down to business. First you need to format the Flash card. Open Disk Utility, select the drive, the Erase tab, the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format, a name of your choice (in our case - MacLife), safely disable the “Install Mac OS 9 Disk Driver” checkbox and click Erase.
After formatting, if you select the drive in Disk Utility, you will see an “Owners Enabled: No” option at the bottom. This needs to be fixed. Open Terminal, enter the following line (hereinafter, instead of MacLife, you must, of course, indicate the name of your drive):
sudo /usr/sbin/vsdbutil -a /Volumes/MacLife
After that, enter the password and check the result in Disk Utility: “Owners Enabled: Yes”. Great.
The full version of Mac OS X, as you know, takes up quite a lot of space, so we will install only the most necessary components of the system - everyone will choose the rest for themselves. This can be done using the very good Pacifist utility (you can download it, volume 1.3 MB).
This utility is really useful and can help in many cases (for example, if you want to reinstall a program from an installation disk, without reinstalling the entire system. So, download, mount, transfer to Applications and launch. Now you need to insert the installation disk with Mac OS X that came with the computer.
After Pacifist recognizes the disk, select "Open Apple Install Packages" and then select the first installation disk. Pacifier will begin to analyze it and may offer to insert a second one - skip it by pressing skip (all the files we need for installation are on the first one). After analyzing the disk, which will take a couple of minutes, you will be offered a complete list of installation packages, from which you need to select only two: (in the Contents of OSInstall.mpkg folder -> Contents of EssentialSystemSoftware -> Contents of EssentialSystemSoftwareGroup select Contents of BaseSystem.pkg and Contents of Essentials.pkg).
Of course, users who know exactly which system components they want to install can additionally select them - just do not forget about the storage capacity. After selecting the required components, select File -> Install Files to Other Disk..., select your flash drive and click Install. You can now rest a little - the process will take about 10 - 15 minutes.
After the process of installing the necessary installation packages is completed, if you have every megabyte on your account, you can throw out unnecessary fonts from the contents of the flash drive: System/Library/Fonts, for example, Chinese and Japanese. You will save about 100 MB.
In addition, we did not install Setup Assistant, which is useful when installing programs: in Finder we copy it from System/Library/CoreServices (in the root of the disk, not the home folder) to the corresponding folder on the flash drive (authorization will be required). We will also need BaseSystem.pkg and Essentials.pkg (in the root of the hard drive /Library/Receipts in the same location on the flash drive).
As you know, Mac OS X allows you to run the system only from disks and drives connected via FireWire. But this can be easily circumvented by running the following command in Terminal (without line breaks):
sudo bless –verbose –folder “/Volumes/MacLife/System/Library/CoreServices” –bootinfo -bootefi
So we just copied the files. Now you need to correct the access rights - to do this, select the drive in Disk Utility and click on the “Repair Disk Permissions” button at the bottom.
By and large, that's all. You can now, to be more sure, check whether the disk appears in System Preferences -> Startup Disk (you can select it there so that it can constantly boot from it).
Now we reboot with the Alt key pressed, select a drive from the proposed options and begin the short process of preparing Mac OS X (set your username and password, fill out forms, select the time zone and layout - these steps are familiar to almost all Mac users).
After launching a freshly installed system, do not be surprised by the question marks in the Dock - these are programs that do not exist. All that remains is to configure the system, Internet connection parameters, install the desired software package and copy the most necessary files as far as the remaining space on the drive allows.
The screenshot above shows the contents of the Applications folder immediately after installation.
I created a telegram group “Hackintosh in Russian”, where I try to the best of my ability to help beginners install Hackintoshes on PCs and was faced with the fact that people who want to install Mac OS for the first time do not know how to write an image to a flash drive from various systems and using various applications. I decided to eliminate this gap and write a manual on this topic. All the actions I described are for informational purposes only; the site’s editors are categorically against installing unlicensed software. I also warn you that the site administration is not responsible for damage to your equipment, if any. If you, as a user, are not able to unpack files onto a flash drive, do not know the basic differences between file systems and do not know why you need the Mac OS operating system, then I recommend not reading further so as not to waste your time. Please note that to create a bootable flash drive you will need a USB flash drive with a capacity of 8 gigabytes or more.
1. Create a bootable Mac OS USB flash drive in Windows using BDU
The first method of creating a bootable flash drive, I think, is the most correct and does not require user qualifications. To do this, we need to download Boot Disk Utility from the official website and unpack the files from the archive to your computer. The files look something like this:
- Launch the utility
- Destination disk → select our flash drive
- Format disk
- Extract from the archive HFS Partition File (HFS+), a file with the extension .hfs.
- In the BDU “Destination disk” utility window, select Part 2 of our broken flash drive.
- Click “Restore partiton”.
- We search and select our *.hfs file. Please note that it must be no larger than PART 2 partition.
2. Creating a bootable Mac OS USB flash drive in Windows using BDU
Download the image of High Sierra for example or Sierra- Mount the ISO image
- We use a flash drive of at least 8 or more.
- Insert into a USB flash drive, call diskpart, write
enter sel disk X where X flash drive number
then enter clean and exit upon completion
- Install R-Drive (in the distribution).
- Deploy the rdr image to a flash drive by selecting “Recover from image”
3. Create a bootable Mac OS USB flash drive in Windows using Transmac
We install the trial version of Transmac from the official website, run it as administrator, format our flash drive
then we restore from the existing image 
4. Creating a bootable Mac OS USB flash drive in Mac OS
If you have a computer running Mac OS or a virtual machine with this operating system, then the process of creating a bootable USB flash drive will be radically different from the above. This guide was written for owners of modern motherboards using a UEFI bootloader.Download the required image from the Appstore (Mojave, High Sierra, Sierra, El Capitan)
- We connect your flash drive with a capacity of 8 gigabytes or more
- Open Disk Utility
- Select your flash drive in the left column and click “Erase”
- Select the following settings:
- Name: tehnojam
- Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
- Schema: GUID Partition Map
- Click “Erase”
It is extremely important to select the GUID Partition Map, since only with such a markup is a hidden EFI partition created on which we will install the CLOVER bootloader.
Let's write the installer files to our flash drive
- Opening Terminal in spotlight or launchpad
- Copy the following code depending on what system you plan to install:
To install Mac OS Mojave:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/tehnojam --nointeraction To install High Sierra:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app --volume /Volumes/tehnojam/To install Sierra:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app --volume /Volumes/tehnojam/To install El Capitan:
sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app --volume /Volumes/tehnojam/- We insert in Terminal
- Click Enter
- Enter the password (password characters will not be displayed) Press Y when prompted to erase and press again Enter
After finishing recording, we have two options: - Use this flash drive to install on a real Apple device.
- Install Clover on it, edit its config.plist to suit your needs and use a USB flash drive for installation on a PC.