Apple updates its macOS designed to run on Mac computers every year. Every year, a new major version of the macOS is released. As of April 2022, macOS Monterey is the latest version of the macOS.
Prepare macOS bootable USB from Windows 10/8/7 PC
The macOS bootable USB can be prepared on a Mac without the help of third-party tools, just like how Windows bootable USB can be prepared from Command Prompt on a computer running Windows operating system. However, if your Mac device is not bootable, you can prepare macOS bootable USB right from Windows PC as well.
In this guide, we will see how to create macOS bootable USB drive on a PC running Windows 11, Windows 10 or Windows 7.
What you will need:
# macOS DMG file
# A USB flash drive with at least 16 GB of storage
# A PC running Windows 11, Windows 10 or Windows 7
# Trial copy of TransMac (trial copy is enough to create the bootable USB)
Once you have all items mentioned above, you can make macOS bootable USB on a Windows PC. In this guide, we’re creating macOS bootable USB on Windows 10, but you can use the same procedure on Windows 11 and Windows 7 as well.
Guide to prepare macOS bootable install USB on Windows 11/10/7
Step 1: Connect a USB drive with at least 16 GB of storage space to your Windows PC and move all data from USB drive to a safe place as the drive will be erased while preparing macOS bootable USB.
Step 2: Visit this page of TransMac and download the latest version of TransMac software on your PC. TransMac is a paid software but the 15-day trial copy can be used to prepare bootable USB without any issues. That said, if you often need to prepare macOS bootable USB from Windows, you should go ahead and buy the software.
Once the TransMac is downloaded, double-click on the setup file to run the installer and get it installed on your PC.
Step 3: Run TransMac software as administrator. To do so, type TransMac in Start menu search box, right-click on TransMac entry in search results, and then click Run as administrator option. When you see the TransMac Trial dialog box, Click Run button.
Alternatively, you can navigate to TransMac entry in Start menu, right-click on it, and then click Run as administrator option.
Step 4: Once TransMac is launched, in the left pane of the program, you will see the connected USB drive that you want to use to prepare macOS bootable USB. Right-click on the USB drive and then click Format Disk for Mac option.
Click Yes button when you see the warning dialog box.
This is because, if you have been using a USB flash drive with Windows operating system, the USB drive is likely using MBR partition type. So we need to partition the USB drive with GPT partition first before transferring the DMG file to the USB drive.
Step 5: Clicking Yes button will open Format Drive for Mac dialog box where you need to type a name for the drive. We are naming it as Seirra install drive.
When you see the warning message again, click Yes button to continue and format the drive for Mac.
Step 6: Once the format is done, right-click on the USB drive again, and then click Restore with disc image option.
Click Yes button when you see the following warning dialog box.
Step 7: Clicking the Yes button will open Restore Disk Image to Drive dialog box. Under Disk image to restore section, click the small button with drive icon on it (refer to the picture below) to browse to macOS DMG file. Select the macOS DMG file and then click Open.
Finally, click OK button.
Step 8: When you see the warning dialog box, click the Yes button to begin preparing your macOS bootable USB. The bootable USB should be ready in about 30 minutes. In our test, the tool took close to 45 minutes, though.
Once the bootable USB of macOS ready, you can connect it to your Mac device and begin installing macOS from it. Good luck!
name says
not working I wasted whole day with this
joebunn123 says
I’ve heard that you also have to manually change macs time to that of close to release of the os. First reset pram and then go into recovery mode staying offline, open terminal under utilities menu and type date to see what it’s set to. Now if you type
date 0921131416 and then hit enter your time should be set to Sept 21 1:14 pm 2016. Restart Mac booting from boot installer drive staying offline. Should hopefully work now
sembre says
Didn’t work for me.
NaKTech says
I used Transmac once to create bootable usb on my
Dell Latitude E7440 and it worked correctly….
Karman shah says
Transmac works well but what u guys don’t realise is the downloaded dmg file itself corrupted and little technical error such converting flash drive to GPT and set it up to primary manually. Have u guys done that? Try to download from the official website and use the right method. Belive me, i’ve done clean install the el capitan and sierra using transmac.
Mil says
Please do not advertise Transmac as it does not work and cannot create bootable MacOS USB.
I tried 10 times and no usb was bootable, and the Transmac software itself is full of bugs, as well as not updated to support Windows 10!
Threfore, you and many other sites promote the tool that does not work, and it appears abandoned by its developers!
What else to say, everything is clear?
Gurjeet singh says
I found this very helpful for creating file. Thank you.
Really do you care? says
Hopefully nobody paid for this shitty piece of software!!!
colin says
I didn’t get this working. this is trying to waste your memory. I only got a rar file and a folder inside it, and more folders!
Fed Up Fred says
This is lame. It doesn’t work at all, all images are found corrupted or unsupported. And you don’t get back to comments, having a good vacation guys? Don’t bother answering, I’m not coming back. Have fun.
Victor says
it not working…i have tried it with 16gb and 8gb it keep saying the the disk or usb drive is damage or unsupported image ,,,,,,what would i do?
deuts says
I have downloaded a “Install macOS High Sierra.app” from the Mac app store. How do I use TransMac to make a bootable USB out of that it’s not a DMG file?
Abdulmk says
You guys are not replying comments.. so annoying
any update on how make bootable because dis doesn’t work… or it’s impossible to make siera bootable..
sam says
how to download mcOS sierra
Buhari Musa says
I did with 8GB usb stick and it doesn’t work, must it be 16GB to work?
Mukhtar says
Can we install macOS Sierra on PC by using this way?
I mean when I create Bootable USB for macOS Sierra using TransMac, does this work?
If it works, how?
frsmc says
@shakeel have found a solution please. As you said I’m not able to have a bootable sierra using transmac
shakeel says
you can not make it bootable usb with transmac and Sierra dmg file it can never boot but can be used to install within mac only. this is is useless for those who wants to make mac bootable usb for new installation
Galane says
Where do we get a Sierra DMG? All I’ve found are zip files of the installer app.
Amatol says
Didn’t work for me. However I can’t get hold of the dmg direct from apple
Shiggitay says
Okay sure.. this details how to get it working to install on a legit Mac… but what about how to get it working on a Hackintosh? Clover is needed as the bootloader. How would that be incorporated?