Sometimes situations arise when it is necessary to install an operating system from scratch. If you have a CD, everything is easy and simple, but in most cases it is more convenient to install from a flash drive. It’s very easy to create a bootable USB flash drive, and I’ll tell you about it later.


You have a Mountain Lion installation image.


Double click with the mouse and the image is mounted in the Finder.


Right-click and select “Show package contents”


Go to the Contents folder, then to the SharedSupport folder and find the installESD.dmg file in it.


Copy it to the desktop


We connect any flash drive to the computer and turn on disk utility. On the left, select our flash drive, then go to the “Erase” menu, select the Mac OS Extended format and press the “erase” button.


After erasing the flash drive, go to the “Recover” tab. In the “source” field we indicate the path to our image, which we saved to the desktop installESD.dmg




And in the destination field, drag our flash drive from the left panel with the mouse and click the “restore” button. The process of copying files from the image to the flash drive will begin, you can safely wait half an hour. After the copying process is completed, we can check the result (optional).


Let's go to " System Settings"to the "Boot volume" section and see our flash drive next to the boot disk.


That's it, now we can safely reboot, while loading the computer, hold down the key alt, select our flash drive and begin the process of reinstalling the system.

Like previous versions Mac OS, a new operating system distributed through App Store Apple. On this moment There is no option to download from the App Store, but you can still find a pure upstor image of OS X Mavericks on the World Wide Web without any difficulties. There are various versions posted online, but in my opinion it’s better to take the version below, say 10.9.3 or 10.9.4, and after installation, update via the app store.

If you have Mac version OS is lower than 10.9, then you can simply update the system without any problems. To do this, you should transfer the OS X installation image to the programs and run it, after which the system update will begin.

If you, like me, prefer a clean installation, you should prepare yourself a bootable USB flash drive with OS X Mavericks. This will make the installation process more flexible.

The procedure for creating a bootable drive with OS X Mavericks is different from previous systems, although it is not much more complicated.

Creating a bootable OS X flash drive using Disk Utility

Step 1: Download the OS X Mavericks installation image. The version doesn't really matter, since after installation you will be updated to the latest 10.9.5. The main thing you should pay attention to is that the image is original from the App Store, so that it is suitable for a clean installation on Apple computers. You should not download backup systems, both installation ones and those that work after expanding them to a separate partition hard drive- in this case, you may encounter system errors and incorrect operation of OS X, you must admit, we don’t know what we did before preparing the backup, what files or rights were changed, etc.

Step 2: Connect the USB drive to your computer and run Disk Utility.

Step 3: Select the USB flash drive in the left panel, click the “Disk Partition” tab and then “Partition 1” from the drop-down menu. Now click on Options at the bottom and select “ GUID partition scheme" Click OK and Apply.

Step 4: Launch Terminal to enable hidden files and restart Finder with the following command:

Defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE;\killall Finder;\say Files Revealed

Step 5: Go to the Programs folder, in which find the file “Install OS X 10.9.app”. (Version of your image)

Step 6: Right click on it, then “Show package contents”.

Step 7: Open the “Contents” folder and find “Shared Support” inside, then the InstallESD.dmg file.

Step 8: Double click on the InstallESD.dmg file to mount the image.

Step 9: Go to “OS X Install ESD” and right-click on the BaseSystem.dmg file, select Open.

Step 10: Go back to Disk Utility, click on BaseSystem.dmg in the sidebar and go to the Recover tab.

Step 11: In the source field, select the BaseSystem.dmg file, in the destination line - USB flash drive. Click the Recover button and enter your administrator password.

Step 12: Once completed, open your USB drive in Finder and go to the System -> Installation folder and delete the file (link) called Packages. Leave this window open.

Step 13: Go back to the "OS X Install ESD" image and move the Packages folder from here to the /System/Installation/ directory from which you removed the link in step 12.

Step 14: Once completed, you can begin installing OS X Mavericks on your Apple computers. To do this, restart your computer while holding Option (Alt) and select the “OS X Base System 1” drive in the boot menu. To install on a PC, we need the Clover bootloader; we will look at installing it in the second method of creating a bootable flash drive using the terminal.

Previously, this method was not available for the El Capitan and Sierra versions, since the functionality of the new disk utility is, frankly, limited. But now in El Capitan and Sierra you can also use the old disk utility, read how to do this.

Creating a bootable OS X Mavericks flash drive through the terminal

Creation bootable flash drive Mac OS X Mavericks with Clover bootloader can be roughly divided into four stages. To install on Apple computers, you only need to complete the first two steps; the steps associated with Clover are not performed. Let's get started...

Step one is preparing the flash drive.

Step two is copying the installation files.

Step three - install the Clover bootloader on the flash drive.

Step four - setting up the bootloader and configuration file (working with the EFI partition of the flash drive).

So, let's proceed to the first step, launch Disk Utility. On the flash drive “Partition Scheme” - “Section: 1”, you can specify any name, in my case I specified 12345 - this name will be written in the terminal command. "Format" - "Mac OS Extended (zhunalny)".

Click on the “Options” button. In the window that opens, select the “GUID” partition scheme, click “OK”, and then “Apply”.

The system will ask you to confirm the correctness of the actions performed. Let me remind you that as a result of this operation, all information on the flash drive will be destroyed. Let's start copying the installation files. The Mac OS Mavericks installer should be located in your Applications folder. When downloading from the App Store, the installer is placed in “Programs” (as in my case), and if you download the installer from other resources, then you need to place it in the appropriate folder yourself.

Copy setup files to the flash drive by typing the following in the terminal:

sudo "/Applications/Install OS X Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia" --volume "/Volumes/12345" --applicationpath "/Applications/Install OS X Mavericks.app" --nointeraction

Do not forget that the name of the partition on the flash drive is entered in quotes; in my case, “12345”, you will have to replace it with your own.

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.

To continue the installation, enter “Y” and press “Enter”.

The process of cleaning the disk and copying files will begin. Copying files can take up to 15 minutes, depending on the speed of the flash drive and computer performance. When copying, there will be no progress indicators, such as percentages, flashing dots and filling rows and columns - this should be taken into account. We started copying and are waiting for complete completion.

After the operation is completed successfully, we will see the following window:

After this step, the flash drive is ready to install OS X Mavericks on Apple computers. For installation on PC we continue preparing...

I created a telegram group “Hackintosh in Russian”, where I try to the best of my ability to help beginners install Hackintoshes on PCs and was faced with 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 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 editors of the site 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 the Mac OS operating system, then 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:
  1. Launch the utility
  2. Destination disk → select our flash drive
  3. Format disk
Now we wait. The flash drive will be formatted in Apple HFS and split into two partitions, one of which will have the bootloader installed (CLOVER), and the second will remain blank so that the installer can be deployed there. On emerging Windows windows We refuse the offer to format the disk. It is assumed that you already have an image of the system you want to install, but if not, you can download the OS version you need from the nnm torrent tracker.
  1. Extract from the archive HFS Partition File (HFS+), a file with the extension .hfs.
  2. In the BDU “Destination disk” utility window, select Part 2 of our broken flash drive.
  3. Click “Restore partiton”.
  4. We search and select our *.hfs file. Please note that it must be no larger than PART 2 partition.
If everything went well, then after unpacking you become the owner of a flash drive with the CLOVER bootloader and Mac OS X installer installed.

2. Creating a bootable Mac OS USB flash drive in Windows using BDU

Download the image of High Sierra for example or Sierra
  1. Mount the ISO image
  2. We use a flash drive of at least 8 or more.
  3. Insert into a USB flash drive, call diskpart, write
list disk determine the flash drive number
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 under Mac control OS or virtual machine with this operating system, 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)
  1. We connect your flash drive with a capacity of 8 gigabytes or more
  2. Open Disk Utility
  3. Select your flash drive in the left column and click “Erase”
  4. Select the following settings:
    • Name: tehnojam
    • Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
    • Schema: GUID Partition Map
  5. 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
Do not remove USB device until the end of the recording process.
After finishing recording, we have two options:
  1. Use this flash drive to install on a real Apple device.
  2. Install Clover on it, edit its config.plist to suit your needs and use a USB flash drive for installation on a PC.
Those who have the same motherboard on the B250 chipset, how can they take my clover for Mojave in

Apple's policy, according to which the company installs its own operating system on computers produced under its brand, makes them extremely stable. By purchasing a MacBook and regularly updating the OS, you may never have to reinstall it. If you have Internet access, the system can be easily reinstalled over the network. If circumstances require you to install macOS from a flash drive, you need to do it correctly.

Since 2013, Apple has stopped selling the operating system to users. By purchasing any Mac, be it a laptop or a mini version, you get macOS for rent and are provided with free updates for the entire period of use of the device.

  1. Find the App Store icon in the Dock and open it.
  1. On home page V right side, under parameters account, there is a link where you can go to the site with the current OS. At this moment latest version– 10.3 High Sierra.
  1. Click on the “Download” button. The distribution weighs more than 5 GB, so the time it takes to receive it will depend on the speed of the connection used.
  1. When the download is complete, the installer will automatically launch.
  1. We don't need it at the moment. Since we are going to create an offline bootable media, we need to close it. Click on the program window so that the controls appear on the top panel. Select the marked item. A similar operation can be performed with the keyboard shortcut ⌘Q. In macOS, this is a standard shortcut that allows you to close any active window.

Old OS versions

If you want to install another, more old version operating system You can also find them in the App Store. El Capitan, Yosemite or Mountain Lion are placed in the purchase section, provided they have been used before. This is due to the company's licensing policy. The operating systems shown in the screenshot are considered purchased, and subsequent ones are rented by the user from Apple.

Creating a bootable USB flash drive

To create installation disk on a MacBook, just use the terminal. macOS works perfectly with the Windows FS and does not require the installation of Transmac analogues. The NTFS format is supported out of the box in read mode, and FAT32 and exFAT are fully supported.

You will have to format the flash drive if it uses any Linux file system, for example, ext3. Before use, the removable disk must in any case be cleaned of the information on it.

Formatting

Formatting in macOS is done using Disk Utility. You can find it by opening Launchpad in the Others folder or using Finder. Let's choose the second option as it is more convenient. Traditionally, a flash drive for modern operating systems should be at least 8 GB.

  1. Open Finder and select “Applications” in the navigation area. Open the folder marked in the screenshot.
  1. Select the specified utility.
  1. Are looking for external drives. Select the name of the flash drive specified by the manufacturer, highlighting it. In the top control menu, the “Erase” button is activated. Click on it to open the next dialogue.
  1. The system will automatically offer us the format and layout of the sections. They should match those shown in the screenshot. To clean and format the flash drive with the selected parameters, press the marked button.

Now there is zero information left on the external media and you can write the distribution kit to it.

Recording a distribution

The file we downloaded from the App Store is not ISO way. This is a full-fledged installation wizard with its own set of utilities. For this reason, the system places it in the programs folder and not in downloads. From there we will record it onto external media.

  1. We return to the “Utilities” folder and launch “Terminal”.
  1. Enter the following write command on behalf of the system administrator:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia –volume /Volumes/Kingstone

Quotes are not required, but instead of Kingstone we indicate the name of the flash drive used.

  1. Enter the password. The symbols will not be displayed. We complete the set by pressing the Enter button.
  1. The system will ask you for confirmation to clear the selected volume. Type “Y” and press the enter key.
  1. Before copying data, the system erases the flash drive.
  1. The recording ends with the appearance information messages about creating bootable media and transferring the data required by the installer to it.

The write command syntax varies for each distribution. Therefore, if you are planning to make a flash drive to reinstall macOS other than High Sierra, please visit the Apple support page provided. The finished command from there can be immediately copied to the terminal.

Installing macOS

By connecting the media to USB port, perform a reboot. IN Mac computers The usual BIOS is not used, so nothing additional needs to be configured.

  1. Our task is to prevent the computer from booting from the SSD and launching the initial volume selection menu. Therefore, immediately upon reboot, hold down the “Option” key. Hold it until the dialogue shown in the screenshot appears. The Windows volume will be present if it is installed on the Boot Camp partition. Here you will need to translate the specified arrow symbol from Macintosh HD to the installer icon.
  1. Select the language in which menus and dialogs will be displayed.
  1. For a “clean” installation, we need to open Disk Utility.


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We received the following question:

Good afternoon friends.
I have a question about the Terminal.
Lately I've often been asked how to create a bootable USB flash drive with Windows. I always answered that I don’t know and that I need to Google it. But everything turned out the other way around, the other day I needed a flash drive, but I couldn’t find anything useful on the Internet. I found several commands to load a flash drive, but I didn’t get the result I was hoping for. Please tell me if there is a way to burn a bootable flash drive from Windows using Terminal or any third-party applications
Thank you in advance

Good afternoon

Neither Terminal nor any third party applications not needed here, because create a bootable Windows flash drive from under Mac OS X possible using the built-in system Boot Camp Assistant. At all, Boot Assistant Camp is probably the most mysterious utility in OS X for newcomers, around which there are many rumors. In fact, Boot Camp Assistant does not change anything in OS X, much less in the Mac's EFI firmware. This utility can only do three things:

  • prepare bootable media with Windows
  • download Boot Camp drivers to ensure Mac hardware works in Windows
  • create an additional partition for Windows on your Mac hard drive

To create a bootable USB flash drive with Windows from an image, launch Boot Camp Assistant, click the continue button on start screen, then check the box “Create disk Windows installations 7 or later":

On next step you will be asked to connect a flash drive to your computer and will be warned that all content on it will be erased. Here you will need to specify the path to the Windows image:

Then the deployment of the image to the flash drive will begin, which will take about five minutes.