Forum Discussion
How can I create a macOS bootable usb on Windows 10?
I have encountered the same problem as you before, and I found many ways to solve it. In the end, I used UltraDMG. It can create a macOS bootable USB directly on Windows, and you don't need to do any complicated command line operations.
This tutorial helped me a lot:
https://www.softfixnow.com/create-mac-bootable-usb-on-windows
Just prepare your macOS DMG file, insert the USB, open UltraDMG, select your DMG file and USB, and click a button. The interface is simple and the steps are very simple. I think it should be helpful to you.
Actually, it’s a bit of a hassle to use the Command Prompt (CMD) to create a macOS bootable usb on Windows 10/11, but it’s doable. I’ve tried it before, and although it’s not the easiest way, it’s still quite rewarding once you get the hang of it. Here’s how it works:
- Preparation: Plug your USB into your computer and make sure it has at least 8GB of capacity. Then open CMD, search for “cmd” directly, and run it as an administrator.
- Format the USB drive: Type diskpart in CMD, which will open the Windows disk partitioning tool. Then type list disk to see which USB drive you have (you should be able to tell by size, like Disk 2 or something like that). Then type select disk X (where X is the number of your USB drive).
- Then type clean to clear the entire USB drive. Next, type create partition primary to create a primary partition, format fs=exfat quick to quickly format it to exFAT format, and finally type assign to assign it a drive letter.
- Copy the macOS image: After formatting the USB drive, you have to copy the macOS DMG file to the USB drive. However, CMD itself cannot directly process DMG files.
- You have to manually extract the DMG file into ISO (using some Windows built-in tools), and then use the command xcopy path_to_iso X: (X is the drive letter of your USB drive) to copy the extracted files.
- The last step: After the copy is completed, your USB drive cannot directly start macOS, so you still have to use a Mac to use the Mac's "Disk Utility" to convert this USB drive into a real boot disk.
To be honest, this process looks simple, but it is a bit cumbersome, especially to process macOS DMG files on Windows. However, if you don't have third-party tools and don't want to use other software, this is a reliable way, especially if you have a little hands-on ability.