Bootable USB flash drive mac os 10.8. Installing Mac OS on PC
On Thursday, a new operating system was released for Mac computers– OS X Yosemite. At the moment, the only way to get the coveted update is to download the image from App Store. The company's decision to switch to digital software distribution at one time caused many conflicting opinions. On the one hand, in the age of the Internet this step is quite justified, on the other hand, if there are several computers, the user is forced to download from the Internet installation file on each of your Macs. You can solve this problem by creating a bootable USB flash drive with OS X Yosemite.
Requirements:
- Connect to the Internet to download the OS X Yosemite image.
- Apple ID account.
- USB flash drive with a minimum capacity of 8 GB.
If everything is ready, you can start.
How to Create a Bootable USB Flash Drive with OS X Yosemite
Step 1: Launch the Mac App Store and download a licensed copy of OS X Yosemite. For the second time in the history of the platform, Apple is offering an update absolutely free.
Step 2: Launch Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Step 3: Select the USB drive in the left pane and go to the Disk Partition tab on the right.
Step 4: Select “Partition 1” in the Partition Layout drop-down menu, on the right – “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” format. Name the drive Yosemite.
Step 5: Click the Options button at the bottom. Click on the GUID Partition Scheme option and confirm your choice. Click Apply in the lower right corner of the program. Disk Utility will begin formatting the USB drive.
Step 6: Launch Terminal from the Utilities folder.
Step 7: Check that the USB flash drive is in place and that “Yosemite” is the only volume with that name.
Run the following command in Terminal to create bootable flash drive. Enter the administrator password.
Sudo "/Applications/Install OS X Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia" --volume "/Volumes/Yosemite" --applicationpath "/Applications/Install OS X Yosemite.app" --nointeraction
After 10-15 minutes, the Terminal will complete creating a bootable USB flash drive.
Step 8: Reboot your Mac with the flash drive installed while holding Alt on your keyboard.
Step 9: You can start installing OS X Yosemite!
The Mac OS operating system is a more stable system than Windows, but still sometimes, even this OS needs to be installed from scratch. For example, you replaced hard drive or you want to install another version, or you updated to the latest version over the old one and now you are faced with problems: it is unstable Wi-Fi network, constant problems with the operation of programs - they slow down, crash, and the like. This may be fixed with the next system update, or maybe not. Therefore, if you want Mac OS to work correctly and stably, you need to install it on a clean disk, completely deleting the old one.
How to create a bootable USB flash drive with macOS (OS X)
There are several options:
All methods are free and quite simple. To work, we will need a flash drive of 8 GB or larger and an image of the operating system that you are going to install - this could be Mountain Lion (10.8), Mavericks (10.9), Yosemite (10.10), El Capitan (10.11), Sierra (10.12), High Sierra(10.13), Mojave (10.14) or Catalina (10.15). All of them can be downloaded on the Internet, and the latest version of the macOS system can always be downloaded from the official Mac App Store, and for free.
And so, let's assume that you have a flash drive and you downloaded the operating system image. Let's start directly with the process of creating a bootable USB flash drive with Mac OS X on board.
Method No. 1
Creating a Bootable OS X USB Flash Drive Using DiskMaker X
This method is the simplest and requires the least effort. Program DiskMaker X is multifunctional and completely free, with its help you can create USB flash drive with completely different systems, from OS X Lion to macOS Catalina. You can download the latest version of DiskMaker X on the official website of the program developers. You can download previous versions from the Downloads section.
All the steps for creating a flash drive with macOS (OS X) are the same and do not differ from each other in any way, the only difference is in the versions of the programs with which it is made. Using this example, we will create a bootable USB flash drive for Yosemite.
Step 1 Download the version of DiskMaker X 6 from the official website, mount the downloaded file and move the application to the “Programs” folder
Step 2 Launch the copied program and click Open. If you have not downloaded the latest version of the program, a download window will appear in front of you. latest version. Click Not now, thanks, since we are creating a flash drive with OS X Yosemite, and in each version of the DiskMaker X program, you can only choose from the three latest macOS, and after Yosemite there are already 5
You can see which version of DiskMaker X is suitable for creating the required bootable flash drive at this link.
Step 3 A window will appear asking you to select the operating system that we can load onto the flash drive. Depending on the version of DiskMaker X, the choice of systems may vary. In our version, these are Yosemite (10.10), El Capitan (10.11) and Sierra (10.12). Choosing Yosemite (10.10)
Step 4 Specify where the system image itself is located, if you downloaded it from the Mac App Store, then it will be in your “Programs” folder and DiskMaker X will find it itself and you will only need to click Use this copy
and if OS X was downloaded from the Internet, then you need to indicate the location where it is located by clicking on the button Select an OS X Installation App... or Select an macOS Instalation App... (for new versions)
Before selecting, do not forget to mount the .dmg file and copy the file from macOS (OS X) from it, since if you try to select a system image in .dmg format, the program will simply not select it
Step 5 If you have an 8 GB flash drive, select An 8 GB USB thumb drive, otherwise Another kind of disk
Step 6 Select the flash drive directly on which you are going to record and press the Choose this disk button
Step 9 After this, the process of creating a bootable USB flash drive will begin, which will take from 10 to 20 minutes, after which you will be notified with a message
Congratulations. Bootable USB flash drive for Mac OS X is ready!
Method No. 2
Creating a Bootable OS X USB Flash Drive Using Install Disk Creator
Compared to the previous method, this one is even simpler, since all operations are performed in one program window:
Step 1 Launch the program Install Disk Creator, you can download it from the official website, developed by MacDaddy
Step 2 Select the USB drive that should become bootable
Step 3 Specify the location on the disk where the installer is located macOS system(OS X). If the image was downloaded from the Mac App Store (it is in the “Programs” folder), then the program will find it itself, if not, then you need to click the Select the OS X Installer button and specify the path
Step 4 Click Create Installer and enter our administrator password to get started
Then you just have to wait a little while the Mac OS X bootable USB flash drive is created.
Method No. 3
Creating a Bootable OS X USB Flash Drive Using "createinstallmedia"
This option is a little more complicated. Here we will do everything ourselves, without the help of third-party programs.
First we need to prepare a USB flash drive for recording.
Preparing a flash drive in OS X Mavericks and OS X Yosemite
Step 1 Open the program Disk Utility, to do this, go to the Programs → Utilities folder. Connect the USB flash drive and select it in the left panel of the program
Step 2 In the right menu, select the Disk Partition tab, where you need to format the flash drive. For this on the left Partition scheme in the drop-down menu select “Partition 1”, and on the right specify the format for the USB flash drive "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)", name it as you wish
Step 3 Now, at the bottom of the window, click on the Settings button and select GUID Partition Scheme and click OK
Step 4 Having selected the partition scheme, in the lower right corner of the program click on the Apply button
Disk Utility will display a warning window that all data on the flash drive will be erased, agree to this and click Partition Disk
Preparing a flash drive in OS X El Capitan, macOS Sierra, High Sierra, Mojave and Catalina
Step 1 Connect the USB flash drive and open the program Disk Utility, and then select it in the left panel of the program
Step 2 In the top menu, click Erase to redistribute the flash drive under Mac system OS
Step 3 Now in the field Name give the flash drive a name of your choice in the field Format select format file system "OS X Extended (Journaled)", and in the field Scheme — "GUID Partition Scheme" and click Erase
When we have prepared the USB flash drive, we will start copying the OS X operating system files onto it. Before doing this, do not forget to copy the installation file from the OS to the “Programs” folder
Launch Terminal, also from the “Utilities” folder and enter the following command (don’t forget to change the name of your flash drive):
for OS X Mavericks
sudo "/Applications/Install OS X Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia" --volume "/Volumes/ name of your flash drive" --applicationpath "/Applications/Install OS X Mavericks.app" --nointeraction
for OS X Yosemite
sudo "/Applications/Install OS X Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia" --volume "/Volumes/ name of your flash drive" --applicationpath "/Applications/Install OS X Yosemite.app" --nointeraction
for OS X El Capitan
sudo "/Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia" --volume "/Volumes/ name of your flash drive" --applicationpath "/Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app" --nointeraction
for macOS Sierra
sudo "/Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia" --volume "/Volumes/ name of your flash drive" --applicationpath "/Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app" --nointeraction
for macOS High Sierra
sudo "/Applications/Install macOS High Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia" --volume "/Volumes/ name of your flash drive"
For macOS Mojave
sudo "/Applications/Install macOS Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia" --volume "/Volumes/ name of your flash drive"
for macOS Catalina
sudo "/Applications/Install macOS Catalina.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia" --volume "/Volumes/ name of your flash drive"
Press Enter and enter our password account, to start creating a bootable flash drive, press Y on the keyboard, after which the copying process will begin
Erasing Disk: 0%... 10%... 20%... 30%...100%...
Copying installer files to disk…
Copy complete.
Making disk bootable...
Copying boot files...
Copy complete.
Done.
After 10-15 minutes, the bootable USB flash drive with Mac OS is ready for use
Method No. 4
Creating a Bootable OS X USB Flash Drive Using Disk Utility on Yosemite and Below
This method is the last and most labor-intensive, since here you need to do much more operations than in the previous ones. Plus, this method cannot be used in all macOS - starting from El Capitan and higher, this is no longer possible, since Apple has cut down the capabilities of the Disk Utility program.
As in method 3, we need to prepare our USB flash drive for copying the operating system onto it. Therefore, we prepare it as described above. (cm. )
Go to the Contents → SharedSupport folder and mount the InstallESD.dmg file by double-clicking on it
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles true;killall Finder
To again disable showing hidden files, you need to specify “false” instead of “true”
Now we see hidden files, open the InstallESD.dmg disk we mounted. We need the BaseSystem.dmg file, mount it by double-clicking on it
We return to the open disk utility and go to the Recover tab, where we drag BaseSystem.dmg into the Source field, and the previously created section of our flash drive into the Destination field. Now click on the Restore button and enter the computer administrator password. Creation procedure boot disk takes about 10 minutes, then close Disk Utility
As soon as the files are copied, the flash drive will be mounted automatically. Open it in Finder and go to the System → Installation folder, where we need to delete the alias (shortcut) to the Packages folder
After this, all we have to do is copy the original Packages folder, which is located on the previously mounted OS X Install ESD image; we deleted the alias (shortcut) of the same name into that folder from there. Once copying is complete, our bootable USB flash drive with Mac OS X is ready!
Method No. 4
Creating a bootable macOS USB flash drive in Windows 10, 8 and Windows 7
If for some reason you were unable to create a bootable USB flash drive with the system in macOS, then you can do it from under Windows. You will need the TransMac program; you can download it from the developer’s official website. The program is paid, but it has a trial period of 15 days!
Step 1 Run the TransMac program as Administrator (click on the program icon with the right mouse button and select Run as administrator) and click the Run button. When using the trial period, you will have to wait 10 seconds for the button to appear. Step 4 In the window that appears, click the button... and select the system image downloaded in .dmg format, then click Yes to begin the procedure for creating a bootable USB flash drive
In a few minutes your bootable USB flash drive will be ready, but remember that the created flash drive is intended only for installing the system on Mac computers
As you can see the consciousness of a bootable flash drive with operating system macOS (OS X) can be done in different ways, from light: pressing a couple of keys, to heavier. You can use the method convenient for you.
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Every self-respecting user should have at least a disk with an operating system on hand in order to boot the computer from it and perform a recovery if for some reason it was unable to boot on its own. This applies not only to Windows, but also to Mac OS. True, you need to create such an image in advance, so as not to suddenly find yourself disarmed. In Apple's OS, you can use programs such as MacDaddy Install Disk Creator and DiskMaker X for these purposes, but what if trouble happened and you never bothered to create bootable media with the Apple system in advance?
It’s unpleasant, but not catastrophic, because you can create it on another Mac, and if it’s not available, a PC running it will do just fine. Windows control, you just need to install the TransMac program on it. This simple application is designed to view the contents of optical and hard drives, flash drives and Apple volumes File System, as well as dmg, dmgpart, sparsebundle and sparseimage files. The program supports working with HFS, HFS+ file systems, creating, editing and splitting DMG images, writing them to optical and flash drives.
Creating a bootable Mac OS USB flash drive
To create a bootable Mac OS flash drive, you will need a DMG installation image with the Apple operating system, a 16 GB flash drive and installed on a computer with Windows program TransMac. Before you start recording, the flash drive must be properly prepared by creating a GPT partition on it. To do this, open as administrator command line and run the following commands in it:
The first command launches the Diskpart utility, the second and third commands display a list of media connected to the computer and select the number the desired disk, in this case flash drives, the fourth and fifth commands clean and convert the disk to GPT, the sixth command creates a primary partition on it. Finally, the exit command exits the Diskpart utility.
Having prepared the media, run the TransMac program as an administrator, right-click on the connected flash drive in the left panel and select the “Restore with Disk Image” option from the menu.
Confirm the action in the dialog box that opens, then in the new dialog box
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. You can also create a flash drive 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.
After the download is complete, the installation package will appear in the Applications folder. macOS file Catalina 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 when iMac Help 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.
Relatively recently a new version of the operating system was released from Apple, which was called Mac OS X High Sierra. Many MacBook owners immediately wanted to install it for themselves. However, something went wrong. During the standard update to Sierra, the Mac refused to start. Therefore, it will not hurt to find out how you can create a bootable USB flash drive for Mac OS High Sierra. It’s worth noting right away that there is nothing complicated about this. You just need to strictly follow the instructions. Among other things, we will tell you how to create a bootable USB flash drive with Mac OS on board from Windows. But first, a little about the operating system itself.
You might be interested in:
What is "Mac OS"?
So, Mac OS X is an operating system from Apple that is installed on laptops and all-in-one PCs from the Cupertino company. It differs as much as possible from the usual "Windows" in both appearance, and in structure. Let's start with the fact that this OS is based on UNIX. And this makes it very close to Linux distributions. That is why it has a cooler security system (than in Windows). Applications written in this OS also cannot be launched so easily. You will need special emulators to do this. In terms of design, Apple's operating system is considered the standard of style. IN new version OS developers took up security and design. The result is a beautiful and secure system. That's why many people are thinking about how to install a new Mac OS. Creating a bootable USB flash drive is a very simple process. The main thing is to follow the instructions. And everything will be fine.
This is the second stage. Its essence is to find and download a suitable image. Creating a bootable USB flash drive for Mac OS X is much easier than creating a drive with Windows. You can simply download a suitable version of Mac OS from the company's AppStore completely free of charge. And you don't need to activate it. While you have to search for a suitable and activated Windows image using torrent trackers. In principle, "Mac OS" can also be found there. But why? It is much easier and more reliable to download it from the official store. And you can write the image to a flash drive both from a Mac and from a classic PC. So, select the appropriate OS edition from the AppStore and download it to your computer. Attention, the OS is downloaded in a DMG image. This is a classic image extension for Macs.
Flash drive recording. Program selection
So let's get started Mac recordings OS. Creating a bootable USB flash drive in the Mac OS itself can be done in several ways: using the built-in capabilities of the Mac and using third party applications. Each user chooses the most suitable method for himself. The recording quality will not be different. Only now third party programs burn a flash drive much faster than the standard utility. But we will look at two options. This way you can see the advantages and disadvantages of each of them.
Drive recording. Using the system utility
Creating a bootable Mac OS El Capitan USB flash drive using the operating system is a fairly simple process. However, you can make mistakes in it if you do not follow the instructions. And you need to do the following.
This was just preparing the drive. Now let's get down to recording Mac OS itself. Creating a bootable USB flash drive using the operating system is done exactly this way. In order to record, the user will need some terminal skills. Please note that after entering the sudo command, you must enter the superuser password. Otherwise the command will not be applied. Although the operating system itself will warn the user about this.
Step by step instructions:
This is how you create a bootable USB flash drive for Mac OS using the operating system. The process is quite complex and intense. Therefore, many people choose the option of using third-party utilities. This is exactly what we will look at now.
Drive recording. Using a third party utility
So, first you must select a program to create a bootable USB flash drive in Mac OS. Many knowledgeable people recommend using Install Disk Creator. The program is ridiculously simple. Moreover, it is completely free. And you can download it in the same AppStore. So, download, install and run the utility. Everything else is simple:
The creation of bootable media will begin immediately. You can go have some tea, as this process will last about fifteen to twenty minutes. After successful completion, the program will display a corresponding message. You can reboot the machine and begin installing the latest version of Mac OS.
In addition to the simplest utility Istall Disk Creator from MacDaddy, there are several other programs of the same kind. Almost all of them have similar functionality. They only know how to write Mac OS to flash drives. And nothing more. Even their designs are a bit similar. Therefore, there is no difference in which recording program to use. The result will be exactly the same.
Recording a drive in Windows. Software selection
Creating a bootable Mac OS USB flash drive in Windows is also possible. But for this you will definitely need to use specialized software. There isn't much choice here. Only the TransMac program can correctly write a DMG image to a flash drive. No Rufus can handle this. The catch is that TransMac is by no means free application. But the good thing is that for the first fifteen days the unregistered version of the program works without any restrictions. It is worth noting that the process of working with TransMac is quite complicated. Therefore, it is recommended to do everything exclusively according to the instructions. Now let's look at the process itself.
Recording a drive in TransMac
So, let's start recording to a Mac OS flash drive. Creating a bootable USB flash drive in Windows should begin with downloading the TransMac program from the official website of the developer and its subsequent installation. Next, you can proceed to the drive creation process itself:
The flash drive has now been created. You can take it and install Mac OS. Creating a bootable USB flash drive from Windows is much more difficult than when using the same Mac. But this is also possible. Just remember that the TransMac program only works normally for fifteen days. If you wait too long to write, nothing will come of it.
Conclusion
So, now it’s clear what Mac OS is. Creating a bootable USB flash drive with this operating system is not such a difficult task. The main thing is to do everything according to the instructions. Only then will the user’s efforts be crowned with success. The most valuable thing is that a flash drive with this operating system on board can be created both in the Mac OS itself and using programs in Windows. The only difference is that when carrying out this process on a Mac, you can use the capabilities of the OS. But you can’t do that in Windows. There you will have to use third-party programs. It is worth noting that recording in any case will take quite for a long time. So be patient.
