Creating a bootable windows flash drive from mac os x. Install Mac OS on PC. Creating a bootable flash drive from original App Store images
Where I try, to the best of my ability, to help beginners install Hackintoshes on a PC, and I came across 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 under 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 unable to unpack files onto a flash drive, you do not know the basic differences file systems and don’t know why you need an operating room Mac system OS, 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 a GUID Partition Map, since only with such markup is a hidden section EFI 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.
I have the same this moment I have a 16GB flash drive and I want to install two operating systems, MacOS Sierra and OS X El Capitan, on it. On my PC, these versions work stably, quickly, and will continue to develop, so I chose them. You can use the versions you need.
In this article we will look at installing different images that will help achieve the same goal. Flash drive size may vary with use different methods from 4 to 16 GB.
Creating a bootable flash drive from original App Store images
To create this installation flash drive we will need:
- Flash drive at least 16GB;
- Sierra and El Capitan installation images from the App Store;
- Latest version.
Format and split the flash drive into sections
The first thing we need to do is format the flash drive. Be sure to use the diagram GUID. Now this flash drive has an Apple standard, a hidden EFI partition(aka ESP) which we will use for Clover, but we need to create another partition, we are making a flash drive to install two systems.
By the way, if you are going to do what I did in Sierra Disk Utility, then you should take into account that formatting is successful only the second, and sometimes even the third time. In order for formatting and other manipulations to be successful the first time, you should unmount the internal partitions. Near which there is an EJECT icon, if this condition is met, everything will go without a hitch.
Now let's move on to the breakdown into sections. Open the “Partition” tab.
After formatting, we have only one partition; to install two systems, we need to create a second one. To do this, click “+” under the diagram and, highlighting each section, give it a NAME. For clarity, I set the name El Capitan, but it is recommended to use the section name without spaces to avoid recording errors. So in the name El Capitan, you can use El_Capitan instead of a space.
After assigning names, click “Apply”.
And we get the desired two sections.
Writing boot images to flash drive partitions
Recording OS X El Capitan
Move the installation image to the “Programs” folder and open the terminal utility. Then we enter the code, to simplify it you can copy and paste.
sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia –volume /Volumes/ El Capitan–applicationpath “/Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app”
It is worth considering that commands must be preceded by two hyphens, very often when copying and pasting into the terminal, two hyphens “–” are replaced by one “-“. In this case, an error will be displayed. This glitch is very common on websites, since many engines automatically replace characters.
(instead of El Capitan we write the name of your USB partition)
Press ENTER, enter the password, El Capitan may also ask for confirmation. In this case, press Y and Enter.
DONE, which will mean that the recording was completed successfully. Writing files can take different times, it all depends on the speed of the drive and hard drive, system load, so we don’t panic, but just wait for execution. Forcibly removing a flash drive while writing or reading can lead not only to data loss, but also turn the drive into an interior element; in many cases, the flash drive may not be repairable.
Recording MacOS Sierra
We perform all the same actions as in the previous case. Only the recording code will differ. To record Sierra we use the code
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia –volume /Volumes/ Sierra–applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app –nointeraction
(instead of Sierra we write the name of your USB partition)
We wait for the operation to complete until the message appears in the terminal DONE.
At this stage, the installation (bootable) flash drive is completely ready for installation on Apple computers or using Clover EFI, which is already installed on HDD on Hackintosh.
For a clean installation on a PC, Hackintosh needs to be installed Clover bootloader EFI Bootloader. I will not repeat myself; I have many articles in which this point is described in detail, so follow the link and read: the only point is to select any partition of the Flash drive we created instead of the system disk. Everything else is exactly the same.
Be careful when setting up config.plist to match the two operating systems. If your configuration does not allow you to get by with one file, create two different ones and place them in the Clover folder, and during installation and download, select the one you already require through the bootloader control panel. To understand how it works, I advise you to read the book - it’s the most detailed instructions from the bootloader developer.
Creating a bootable flash drive using recovery images
To do this, you need to download the official Apple packages for Recovery HD.
Since we are making this flash drive to install two specific systems, we will download packages for them accordingly.
The sizes of these packages do not exceed 500 MB each, I recommend downloading them one by one, before downloading the second package, move the first one to a folder calling it the name of the system for which the package is intended, otherwise I guarantee confusion.)
Now we launch the downloaded packages one by one and select the corresponding partition on our flash drive as the installation location.
I launch RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg from the El Capitan folder and select the El Capitan partition on the flash drive being created. 
After the installation is complete, I repeat everything with RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg from the Sierra folder and install it on the corresponding partition of the flash drive. 
I'm waiting for the installation to finish. 
I run the command in the terminal.
And I check what happened. 
And it turned out as planned!
I repeat, in order to repeat this, a 4 GB flash drive is sufficient.
All that remains is to load your hardware using this UEFI flash drive as a boot device, go to the Clover menu and select the required Recovery HD partition, and then everything is exactly the same as on any original Mac.
A bootable flash drive with Recovery HD can also be created from under Windows using the program.
Why Recovery HDs weigh so little
Because this is not a full-fledged system, but a kind of engineering OS for restoring and configuring the main one, which is stored in an image and deployed only when it boots, Windows also has similar images with wim extensions, the same Win PE is a suitable example for comparison.
Having booted into Recovery HD, we will only get access to the disk utility in order to partition our HDD, and of course there is the opportunity to deploy your own or someone else’s image with the system, as well as the ability to use the Time Machine, but that’s not what I suggested, there is official item by clicking on which any person. can install the system from scratch, using the following algorithm instead of the installation image of the Apple server.
Booted into Recovery HD, selected disk utility, partitioned my disk as expected Apple rules and your own needs, closed the disk utility, chose to restore..., the system will automatically contact the Apple servers and ask which partition you want, you will indicate to it the partition that you had previously planned in the disk utility, the installation has begun. The installation time depends only on the speed of the Internet and the load on the Apple servers at the immediate moment; in this way, installing macOS is even twice as fast as the classic one, but there are difficult moments, but they are rare.)
As you can understand, there are several ways to achieve the same goal. I hope now you will always have order with bootable flash drives.
This article was created based on my personal experience and advice from a hackintosh community specialist
Nowadays, almost everyone has a flash memory-based storage device: USB flash drives, memory cards, small external hard disks- 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 about the volume in advance - after Mac installations OS X left 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, only on 400 MB, perhaps, it will 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 will decide for themselves what software they need. 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 from installation disk any program 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 your 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 prompted full list installation packages, from which you need to select only two: (in the Contents of OSInstall.mpkg -> Contents of EssentialSystemSoftware -> Contents of EssentialSystemSoftwareGroup folder, 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 selection necessary 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 required software package and copy the most necessary files, as far as the remaining storage space allows.
The screenshot above shows the contents of the Applications folder immediately after installation.
You can use macOS not only on a MacBook, but also on a regular Windows computer. Next, we will tell you how to install macOS on a PC and what programs you will need for this. After this, you will be able to use all the features of the Apple operating system.
Installation Features
There are several ways to install macOS on a regular PC. Each has its own characteristics, so read them carefully and choose the one you need:
- As the main operating system. Then you can use all the features of OS X right on your PC. All computer resources (hard disk space) will be concentrated on the selected OS.
- Second operating system along with Windows. OS X will be used as an additional one. After starting the computer, you can choose which system to boot (Linux, Windows or OS). It will not be possible to use all the capabilities of the PC (HDD capacity).
- Inside Windows, using virtual machine. To do this, you will need special software and distribution kits of the required OS. The method allows you to simultaneously work with several operating systems, manage available system resources (for example, determine how much random access memory will receive OS).
In all cases, you will need a distribution kit to install the operating system. 
If you are going to install OS X as the main or additional OS, you will have to create a bootable USB flash drive or use a ready-made disk with macOS.
Preparing a bootable OS X flash drive
Bootable USB flash drive- a regular Flash drive on which the distribution kit with the operating system is recorded. In our case, this will be OS X. You can create it from Windows or another computer (Linux or Mac). In all cases the methods will be different. To create a flash drive with macOS on a Windows PC, follow these steps:
After all the necessary files and programs have been downloaded, you can proceed to the next step - creating a bootable USB flash drive. To do this, you will additionally need a USB drive with a memory capacity of at least 8GB.
Creating a bootable USB flash drive
Installing macOS X consists of several steps, one of which is creating a bootable USB flash drive or disk. Without this, changing the operating system will not work. Therefore, next we will tell you how to do it using the free BootDiskUtility utility:
Wait for the operation to complete. Once the operating system is recorded, the flash drive can be used as a boot drive to install macOS.
If you want to install macOS on Windows as a second operating system, you don't need to completely format the disk.
Installing macOS
Installing the macOS operating system on a PC begins with creating a bootable USB flash drive. Therefore, when the USB drive is ready, you can move on to the next step. To begin installation, follow these steps:
Depending on the technical characteristics computer and other features of the operating system, as a rule, the process takes no more than 20 minutes. Now you know how to install macOS on your computer instead of Windows 10 and what you need for this.
Installing the macOS X operating system on a PC is not only downloading, but also setting up the OS. After unpacking is completed, you need to correctly configure the main parameters. 
To do this, follow these steps:
- From the list, select the language in which the device will be registered and click Continue.
- Specify your keyboard layout. If you are not using a Mac, it is recommended to select “Russian - PC”.
- If you have not previously used other Apple devices and you do not have backup copies, then in the “Information transfer” block select “ Don't transfer data to Macbook» and click the Continue button.
- If you have an Apple ID, then log in using your details account. This setting can be configured at any other time, so click Don't sign in.
- Accept the terms of the license agreement and create a user account. These are common measures to protect data stored on a computer. Therefore, if necessary, set a password.
- Select your time zone and check the box next to “Do not register.”
You can change most of these parameters on macOS later, through the menu “ Settings" This may require you to enter your administrator account and Apple ID information. If necessary, set up synchronization and backup.
We use a virtual machine
If installing the macOS operating system on a PC as the main or additional one is not suitable, then you can use the capabilities of a MacBook through a virtual machine. To do this, follow these steps:
Installing a macOS distribution from a flash drive takes no more than 40 minutes. But if you don’t plan to use the operating system too actively, then you can make do with the image in a virtual machine. Using a virtual machine you can boot other operating systems.
Conclusion
This article talked about how to install macOS on a PC using necessary programs. There are several installation options, and which one to use is up to you. We hope our article will help you achieve your plans faster and easier.
Video on the topic
Reference: format .dmg - standard file format - disk image in operating systems Macintosh (Mac OS) from Apple Corporation.
You have decided to install Mac OS X retail on your PC. We even downloaded an image of the original disk. Only bad luck, the image is made in the format .dmg ! And Windows doesn’t know it and doesn’t want to open/write it. What to do?
There are two solutions.
First– convert this .dmg into a more familiar and understandable one for Windows And Linux format .iso, and then write it to disk using “regular” programs. It seems like a good method, but here you will have to make additional unnecessary movements to open/close programs, convert, etc. I personally was too lazy to bother with these issues.
I used second way. It is to directly write a .dmg image to disk under Windows . This can be done using the program TransMac.
TransMac- Very simple program For working with dmg images under Windows . It allows you to open them, view them, burn them to disk, and even change them. Despite its simplicity, the program is paid, but has a trial period of 15 days. For the task of writing an image to disk, the trial was enough for me. Therefore, if you do not need to open dmg files under Windows every day, you should not bother looking for all sorts of cracks for this program, as well as buying it :)
This is what the program window looks like:
So let's get started. To record a dmg image to disk you need to open a dialog Tools->Burn CD/DVD Image.
Note: I hope you noticed that Mac image OS X has enough big size, and will only fit on double layer DVD disc. (At least, the retail image of Max OS X 10.6.6 Snow Leopard is written to just such a blank.)
Select it first drive unit, which will record, then write speed (everywhere they say that it is better to leave high), and, of course, himself image file to burn . Now click OK.
If you are trying to record an original Mac OS X image, the program will most likely say that the image is packed and will offer unpack it. Agree with this proposal and select the location and name of the file into which the unpacking will be carried out. At the end of it, you will need to open the dialogue again Tools->Burn CD/DVD Image, but choose a new one there, just unpacked dmg image .
Now the program will not swear and require any other body movements. Just click OK and recording will begin.
At the end of it, you will have a disk with the original Mac OS X, recorded from a dmg image under Windows, no different from the same one recorded under Mac OS X itself.
Note: the performance of the method was tested on Windows 7 x64 With TransMac version 9.3 trial.
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