If your Mac suddenly refuses to boot up properly, you might need a bootable macOS USB installer to make repairs. But how do you create such a disk if all you're left with is a Windows 10 computer? Fortunately, there's a great tool that you can use for free to create bootable macOS media on a USB drive in a Windows 10 environment. This article shows you how to download a macOS DMG file, format a USB drive using a GUID Partition Table, burn the DMG to the drive and boot your Mac from the USB. All the steps except the last one are done on a Windows 10 machine.
- Mac OS X El Capitan Free Download For PC Intel And AMD USB Bootable Install ISO DMG Free Download Latest Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 Latest PC Watch Video.
- Check all information about How to create Bootable USB for Mac OS EL Capitan on Windows for free.
- May 04, 2020 Create Bootable USB for Mac OS X El Capitan with TransMac. A new pop up box will appear, click on the three-dots, and then select the macOS X El Capitan.DMG file from Windows. Then click on OK. Choose Mac OSX El Capitan DMG file. Since the file is huge so it will take quite time to complete. It may take about 20 to 30 mins or more.
Part 1: Download macOS or Mac OS X DMG File
The first step is to get the DMG disk image file for the version of macOS that you want. You can get a copy of the latest macOS version from Apple download portal or App Store here. There are also several other direct download sites that offer various versions of Mac OS X in DMG format rather than the standard APP format that runs on Mac. Since you're working in a Windows environment, you need the DMG rather than the APP file.
macOS DMG Download Link:
Part 2: Easily Create a Bootable macOS USB from Windows 10/8/7 PC
You have now formatted the partition of USB drive. It's time to download UUByte DMG Editor for Windows. Although this is a premium software, you can use the initial free trial period to create a bootable macOS USB on Windows 10. After installing the application, follow the sequence of steps shown below:
I have an El Capitan, can I create a bootable USB of Windows 7? I also have a Windows 7 ISO. I need to use a USB since I will be reformatting a netbook without DVD/CD-ROM drive.
Updates (Dec 8, 2020): The latest version of UUByte DMG Editor is able to format the USB automatically.
Step 1: Right-click the software icon on desktop and select 'Run as Administrator' from the contextual menu. Choose 'Run' when prompted.
Step 2: Insert your formatted USB drive, and click 'Burn' tab on the main screen.
Step 3: Click 'Browse' button to import macOS dmg file into the program. And select the USB drive name from the second row. You can also set a volume labe for that USB drive.
Step 4: Click 'Burn' button at the bottom to start the process. You will see a progress bar and wait around 10 minutes to get it done.
Step 5: Once the progress bar is at 100%, a bootable macOS USB is ready. After that, you can use that USB drive for installing macOS.
This is one of the easiest way to create a bootable macOS USB on a Windows PC. The steps are simple and instructions are pretty clear.
Part 3: Format USB Drive to GPT If Failed
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If the USB drive created in above step was not seen as a bootable device on your Mac, then you need to take an addtional step before burning. That's formatting the USB to GPT.
Mostly, the USB drive was formmated to FAT32 in default when being shipped out from the factory. However, FAT32 can be only used for installing OS with legacy BISO, which doesn't work for macOS. So the next step is to format your USB drive in the GPT partition style in order to burn installation files to the desired USB drive. You can do this in Command Prompt as admin. In elevated Command Prompt (Ctrl+Shift+Enter), input the following series of commands followed by Enter after each line:
Diskpart
List disk
Select Disk X (X stands for the USB drive name that appears after the previous command)
Clean
Convert GPT
Create partition primary
Part 4: Boot Mac from macOS USB Drive for Installation
Now remove the USB drive and insert it into the Mac computer. To boot from the disk, you need to hold down the option key when you hear the boot chime. This will take you to the Startup Disk Manager, where you should be able to see the USB drive. It might have a different name, but as long as it is bootable, you'll be able to see it there. Once you select it, the computer will boot from the disk and the macOS installation will begin.
Troubleshooting
Flashing Error: You might receive a flashing error message at the end of burning process. Please don'y worry and ignore this error. The USB becomes a bootable disk and you can use it to install macOS even this error pops up.
About Official EI Capitan DMG: There has a serious bug in the official release of OS X El Capitan, which contains .pkg installer only. The burning process will fail for sure. Please use this modified EI Capitan DMG file instead, which was approved a good option.
Registration Failed: Please make sure the computer is connected to Internet and no proxy or VPB is running during registration. If the problem still exists, please send an email to support team asking for a new code.
Conclusion
The whole process might look a bit complicated if this is your first time, but just follow the instructions in this article and you should be fine. That being said, you need to be careful when downloading the DMG file and formatting your USB drive. If you don't do these two steps correctly, the output drive from the UUByte DMG Editor software won't be bootable, which means you can't install macOS from that USB drive, and you may need to do the whole thing over again.
Macbooks or iMacs hardly require reinstallation of their Mac OS, but when they do then it’s a fairly difficult process especially if your secondary computer is Windows. Reinstalling Mac OS is a time-consuming process and requires a lot of patience that’s why recommend doing this process in your free time or weekends.
To get started with you require a USB drive with at least 8GB storage (16GB recommended). Then you need a working Mac OS ISO or DMG Installation Image. You can download it from the Apps Store or you can find Mac OS Image at ISORIVER.
There are 2 Methods to Create a Bootable USB drive of Mac OS on your Windows PC.
Method 1: Using TransMac
- Download TransMac’s latest version for Windows from this link.
- Connect your USB drive
- Right Click on your USB drive option in TransMac and select Format Disk for Mac
- After that, right-click the USB Drive and select Restore with Disk Image
- Point to your Mac OS .dmg or .iso file by clicking the add button.
- After that TransMac will create bootable Mac OS USB within few minutes.
- Then you can insert it into your Mac, hold down the option key while turn on and boot your system with this USB.
Method 2: Using PowerISO
Another disk image utility that you can use is PowerISO. It can be used for burning both ISO files and DMG files to USB to create a bootable drive. Follow the steps below to Create a Bootable Mac OS USB on Windows PC.
Step 1: Firstly Download PowerISO and install it in your Windows PC. Launch the app and insert a USB drive into your computer.
Step 2: Import the DMG / ISO file directly by clicking on ‘Burn’ in the toolbar.
Step 3: In the Burn window, select the DMG / ISO file from the Source File section.
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Step 4: You can modify the settings to adjust burn speed. The default will be set to the maximum, so you can reduce that.
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Step 5: You can choose to finalize the disk and verify it. Any errors in the bootable USB will show up at that point.
Step 6: Now click on “Burn” and wait for the progress bar to reach 100%.
After the successful creation of Bootable Mac OS USB, boot your Macbook from this USB drive by clicking the option button during bootup and select this USB drive.
Watch this Video Tutorial
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That’s it for the tutorial If you face any issues or had any query then please let us know in the comment section below. You can also send us an email via the contact us page for personalized support.