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Make Bootable Mac



A bootable USB is super convenient to have on hand if you need to install or repair an operating system on your computer. You can easily make your own bootable USB that’s equipped with the operating system of your choosing. Whether you’re using Windows or a Mac, we’ll walk you through the process step-by-step. PowerISO: Make Bootable Mac Install USB on Windows 10/8/7. This Windows utility allows you do create bootable USB from DMG on a PC. You can also edit the DMG or extract the contents, and there's also an option to copy it to a disk. This is how simple it is to make bootable Windows 10 USB Mac with the help of this tool. Method 2: Use UNetbootin to Install USB Driver on Mac UNetbootin is a Windows 10 USB tool Mac that is completely free to use and can be used in a scenario wherein you have to make bootable USB Windows 10 on Mac system.

  • And if your Mac is experiencing problems, a bootable installer drive makes a handy emergency disk. (OS X Recovery lets you repair your drive and reinstall OS X, but to perform the latter task, you.
  • Rufus won't make a bootable USB compatible with Mac as it cannot interpret the boot loader (at least not in Mavericks and up). Fat32 can't handle the 5+GB Mavericks image either. Not say you didn't get an older version to work, however, just to keep others from wasting their time. – MC9000 Jan 5 '18 at 20:36.

Apple has just released the final version of macOS Big Sur to the public. You can start upgrading your compatible Mac devices by downloading Big Sur from the App Store or Settings > Software Updates. But if you prefer to completely wipe out your Mac and do a fresh install of macOS Big Sur, you will need a bootable media.

I perform a fresh install every time Apple releases a major macOS version – which usually happens once a year. This time too, I will update my Macbook Air by performing a fresh install. And to do that, I will make a bootable SD card. You can also use a USB stick aka pen drive aka flash drive and perform a fresh install.

In this quick tutorial, I will share how I make a bootable macOS memory card or USB stick, wipe my Mac, and perform a fresh install. You will need a stable internet connection and a storage media with minimum 16GB space. Before you begin, make sure you have taken backup of your Mac.

Step 1: Download macOS Big Sur

Open App Store and search for macOS Big Sur. Click Get and the Software Update window will open. Click upgrade now and it will start downloading the macOS update. If you don’t see macOS Big Sur in App Store, follow this link and choose open link in App Store.

The installer is 12GB so be patience.

Once it finished downloading, the macOS installer is placed under Applications and will run automatically. Close the setup window.

Step 2: Preparing the Storage Media

Insert the storage media you would like to use. I use a 64GB micro SD card with my MacBook Air. You can use a USB-C to USB adapter for Mac models without USB A ports and memory card slot.

Open Disk Utility.

Select the storage medium you just connected from the list on left and click Erase. Select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) from Format dropdown. Type BigSur or any other name you like. Make it simple because you will use this name in the next step.

Click Erase and wait until the media is erased.

Step 3: Making the Bootable Media

Now open Terminal and type the following command. Make sure you don’t leave any spaces. Replace BigSur with whatever name you chose in Step 2.

Press enter.

Enter your password, type Y and press enter again. The process takes roughly 20 minutes. After it’s finished, you will notice that the name of your USB stick/SD card has been changed to Install macOS Big Sur.

Step 4: Installing macOS Big Sur from Bootable Media

Mac

Right. Now you have a Big Sur bootable media. It’s time to start the installation process.

Restart your Mac. When it’s booting up (right after the chime sound), press and hold Option key until you see a screen with an option to select the startup disk.

Select Install macOS Big Sur and click continue. Let the installer load.

Now you will see the macOS Recovery screen which will ask you to select a user account which you know the password of. Choose your administrator account and enter password. Note that this is the user on your current macOS setup.

Click Disk Utility and continue. Select the volume where macOS is currently installed on your Mac. Click Erase. Leave all options as default. Click Erase again.

After the process finishes, close Disk Utility and you will return to the recovery screen. Choose ‘Install macOS’ this time and click continue.

The macOS installation process will start and your Mac will reboot a few times.

Once finished, you should see the macOS setup screen. After you are done with onboarding, you will see the desktop and are all set to start using macOS Big Sur.

The same bootable media you just made can be used to install macOS Big Sur on all your (compatible) Macs. This approach helps save bandwidth if you have more than one devices while also letting you erase all data and perform a clean install. It will also come in handy as a recovery media if your Mac software misbehaves in future.

That’s all, folks. This was a tutorial on making a bootable macOS Big Sur installation media. I hope you found it useful and I’d like to thank you for reading.

Support Me: If this article/tutorial helped you today, please consider supporting me and help me run techstuffer.com.

If you’re still using a Mac OS X the time will come when your computer won’t boot, or a problem may arise where you can’t take control of the device, and booting from an OS X installation media will be required.

This is why it’s recommended that you make a Mac OS X bootable USB when your Mac is in working conditions. However, if you find yourself on a scenario where your device (iMac, MacBook Pro, Air, Mac Pro or Mini) is not responding and you happen to have a Windows 10 device, then you can still be able to make a USB bootable installation media for your Mac OS X to reinstall the operating system using the Recovery Assistant.

These instructions will also work for Windows users who are running Mac OS X on a virtual machine and need to upgrade to the latest version. For instance, to OS X Yosemite.

Requirements

Before you dive into this guide, you’ll need a few things:

  • A broken Mac computer with Mac OS X.
  • A trial copy of the TransMac software.
  • One high quality USB flash drive with 16GB of storage.
  • A copy of Apple’s macOS (DMG file).

Now that you have all the necessary ingredients, you’re ready to make a Mac OS X bootable USB using the DMG file of the operating system with the steps below.

Create Mac OS X bootable USB installation media

Before you can use TransMac, you first need to partition your USB flash drive with a GPT partition, as a normal MBR partition may not work. To do this, you’ll need to use the Diskpart command-line utility on Windows 10.

Setting up GPT partition

Use these steps to set up a USB drive with a GPT partition:

  1. Open Start on Windows 10.

  2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result and select the Run as Administrator option.

  3. Type the following command to open Diskpart and press Enter:

  4. Type the following command to determine the USB flash drive and press Enter:

  5. Type the following command to select the storage and press Enter:

    Quick tip: The select disk 1 command as an example, but you have to replace 1 with the number of the flash drive you want to use.

  6. Type the following commands to delete everything from the USB thumb drive and press Enter:

  7. Type the following command to convert the drive into a GPT partition and press Enter:

  8. Type the following command to select the new partition and press Enter:

After you complete the steps, the USB flash drive from MBR to GPT format, you can use the steps below to create a bootable USB installation media to install Mac OS X.

Create USB install media

Use these steps to create a bootable media to install Mac OS X:

Usb

  1. Download and install a copy of TransMac.

    Quick note: TransMac is a paid software, but it has a 15-day trial solution, that give us more than enough time to move the DMG files to the USB drive from Windows. (If you want to support the developer, you can purchase the full version.)

  2. Insert the USB drive that you’ll use to fix your installation of OS X. (Remember that all the data in the USB will be erased. Make sure you take off any important documents.)

  3. Right-click the TransMac software icon and Run as administrator. (You’ll be prompted to Enter Key or Run, because we’ll be using it once, click the Run option.)

  4. On the left pane, you’ll see all the Windows PC drives listed, right-click the USB drive that you’re intending to use to reinstall Apple’s OS X and select the Restore with Disk Image option.

  5. In the warning dialog box, click the Yes button.

  6. Use the Restore Disk Image to Drive dialog box to browse for the DMG file with the installation files for Mac OS X Yosemite in this case, and click the OK button to create a bootable USB of the operating system.

    Now, you’ll have to wait a long time. No kidding. It could take one or two hours to complete the process depending on your computer and other variables.

Once your bootable USB installation media is ready, remove it and insert it into your Mac, power it on, holding down the Option key, and select the USB you just created to reinstall Mac OS X.

Make

Make Bootable Mac Disk

If you’re having issues trying to create a bootable media, you can get a USB flash drive that comes with Mac OSX ready to install.