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.
Using a Mac with at least OS X 10.6.8 installed, access the Mac App Store and download the Lion (10.7) or Mountain Lion (10.8) app installer. Insert the USB drive into the Mac and launch Disk.
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
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. However, as explained above, Apple regularly updates the OS X installer on the Mac App Store so that it installs the latest version of OS X 10.9. If you create a new bootable installer using the. Possibly the best and most complete tool to create bootable USB drives from ISO files in.
- 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.
Step 4: You can modify the settings to adjust burn speed. The default will be set to the maximum, so you can reduce that.
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
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.
I had a guy bring me in an old Mac Book Pro that had a corrupted hard drive. I saved his Data but then realized his computer was so old that I was going to have trouble getting a copy of OSX installed. His computer was no longer supported on current OSX releases. To make things worse his DVD drive wouldn't read a install disk. So this post is the result of me finding a way to resurrect an old Mac Book Pro. I hope it will help someone else in a similar situation.
Note:
Before starting this tutorial, ensure that you have a USB drive with at least 8GB of storage as well as a Leopard, or Snow Leopard retail DVD or disk image. Grey DVDs that were included with a Mac at the time of purchase cannot be used to make USB boot drives as they do not include drivers for Macs other than the computer it was shipped with. In this tutorial I will be creating a Snow Leopard USB install disk. The steps are the same to create one for Leopard.
Creating a Snow Leopard USB Boot Drive Using Disk Utility
Start by launching Disk Utility on the Mac. To do this, you can either search for the application in Spotlight or find it in the Applications folder. Locate the USB drive on the left-hand side of the window and click on its name, not its partition.
Format the USB drive
- Click the Partition tab
- Under the Partition Layout header click on the 1 Partition option in the drop-down menu
- Click the Format drop-down menu and select Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
Bear in mind that this will erase all data from the USB drive, so backup any important files before proceeding.
- To format the USB drive drive, click the Apply button in the lower right-hand corner of the Disk Utility window.
Snow Leopard, DVD or Disk Image
- Locate a Snow Leopard disk image or DVD on the Mac
- If you're using a disk image, mount it to the desktop
- In the Disk Utility window, click the Restore tab in the USB drive's menu
In the center of the window you'll see two boxes: one labeled Source and another Destination.
- Drag-and-drop the USB drive's partition into the Destination box
- Drag-and-drop the Mac OS X Install Drive disk into the Source box
- At the bottom right-hand corner of the screen and click the Restore button
Disk Utility will restore the OS X Install DVD or disk image to the USB drive; this process may take anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour depending on how quick the Mac is.
Mac Os Usb Creator
Using The Snow Leopard USB Drive
Now that you've created a Snow Leopard USB drive, let's use it to install OS X Snow Leopard as well as access Terminal, Disk Utility, and other OS X utilities.
- Power down the Mac and reboot while holding the Option key
- Select the OS X Install DVD from the boot menu using the arrow keys on the Mac's keyboard
- Select the language you'd like to use when prompted
Installing OS X Snow Leopard
To install OS X Snow Leopard from the USB drive, you'll need to reformat the Mac's hard drive. To do this, look towards the top of the screen and click on Utilities from the top menu and then click Disk Utility from the drop-down menu.
Usb Creator For Mac Os X 10.8
Formatting The Mac's Hard Drive
- Click on the Mac's hard drive name
- Click the Erase tab
- Select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) from the Format drop-down menu
- Name the drive whatever you'd like
Please note that all data on the Mac's hard drive will be erased, so backup all important files before proceeding.
- Press the Erase button to format the Mac's hard drive
Mac Os X Boot Usb
Starting The Snow Leopard Installer
- Quit Disk Utility by pressing Command-Q on the keyboard
- Press the Continue button
- From the center of the window, select the Mac's hard drive
- Press the Install button
OS X Snow Leopard may take a bit of time to install depending on the Mac's hardware. Upon completion, the Mac will restart and prompt you to create an account.
Disk Utilities on the Snow Leopard USB Drive
Additionally, you can access Disk Utility, Terminal, Safari (to access Apple help articles. not general browsing) and other Mac utilities from the Snow Leopard USB drive.
Boot the Mac to the USB drive using the steps shown above and click on the Utilities button from the top bar. You can access all available utilities from this drop-down menu.
It's nice to have these utilities available to use from the USB drive, especially Disk Utility. For example, if you believe your hard drive has died or is corrupted, you can boot your Mac from the USB drive and use Disk Utility to check the the hard drive's SMART status and repair said drive.
OS X Snow Leopard USB Drive, Completed
In this tutorial, I've shown you how to create a bootable OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard USB drive. You can now use the USB drive to upgrade, maintain and restore Macs to OS X 10.6.