Forum Discussion
How Can I Create Bootable USB for Mac OS X Mountain Lion?
My dad's old iMac 2007 was broken and replaced with a new hard drive. This Mac comes with Mac OS X Mountain Lion when it was shipped. How can I create a bootable Mountain Lion USB on a Windows PC so I can reinstall OS X Mountain Lion on this Mac.
Here are the steps I've taken so far:
- Downloaded the Mac OS X Mountain Lion installer from the Mac App Store.
- Prepared a USB drive (at least 8GB) and formatted it using Disk Utility with Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.
- Tried using the terminal command 'createinstallmedia' but it seems to be unsupported for Mountain Lion.
I would appreciate detailed steps or any tools you recommend for creating a Mac OS X bootable USB drive on a Windows PC or Mac.
I have encountered similar problems before, and I want to install the system on an old Mac. To create a Mountain Lion boot disk on Windows, UltraMDG is a good choice. You just need to download this tool, plug in the Mountain Lion installation package and 8GB USB drive you have prepared, and then use UltraMDG to write the boot disk.
I followed this guide and succeeded!
https://www.howtogeeker.com/make-macos-bootable-usb-on-windows
Compared with other complicated methods, this tool saves a lot of trouble, I recommend you to try it!
9 Replies
- If you are going to create Bootable USB for Mac OS X Mountain Lion, the "dd" command or createinstallmedia in Terminal is your friend here. If you're not entering the commands correctly (like having typos or wrong paths), it's just not gonna work. Spend some time getting comfy with that Terminal—trust me, it's a lifesaver! After you've done all this and made your bootable USB, always double-check it works before you actually need it. Boot your Mac from the USB and see if it takes you to the install screen. Better to discover issues now rather than in a crisis!
- This method sounds very practical, but to be honest, I am still a little unfamiliar with using Terminal, especially when using the dd command or createinstallmedia, I am always worried that I will accidentally make the wrong path or spell the wrong command. I wonder if you have encountered similar problems? In addition, after making this bootable USB drive, how can I check whether it can really be used? I feel that it will save a lot of trouble if I can find the problem in advance.
Aengusom Creating a bootable USB for OS X Mountain Lion can be challenging today due to several reasons:
Apple’s Legacy Support: Apple has shifted focus to newer versions of macOS, which means that OS X Mountain Lion is no longer officially available for download from the App Store. Finding a legitimate copy can be difficult, as it's considered a legacy OS, and Apple's support for it has diminished over the years.
Compatibility with Modern Hardware: Many modern Mac devices, especially those using Apple’s M1/M2 chips, no longer support older OS versions like Mountain Lion. As a result, the tools and hardware needed to create and use a bootable USB for Mountain Lion may not be compatible with current Mac models.
Because of these reasons, making a bootable OS X Mountain Lion USB today often requires older hardware and workarounds not needed for newer macOS versions.
So, what are the disadvantages of this process? Well, here are a few:
- You'll need to have some experience with command-line interfaces and file systems to navigate this process.
- You'll need to install dmg2img and Cygwin on your Windows PC, which can be a bit of a hassle.
- There's always a risk of data loss if something goes wrong during the process.
- The process can take a while, so be patient!
Overall, creating a bootable USB installer for Mac OS X Mountain Lion on a Windows PC is definitely possible, but it requires some technical know-how and patience. If you're comfortable with command-line interfaces and are willing to take on the challenge, then go for it!
Aengusom Mountain Lion is a very popular OS X version for legacy Mac computers and I can see many people are looking for a simple way to make bootable USB for Mountain Lion as new Mac does not support this old OS any more.
To create a Mountain Lion bootable USB on Windows PC, the first step is to download the dmg file of Mountain Lion from Apple website. After that, burn the dmg file to USB. This will extract all content from the disk image and make the USB bootable for Mountain Lion installation.
OS X Mountain Lion is the ninth major release of Apple's OS X (now macOS) operating system for Mac computers. Released in July 2012, it introduced various features that bridged the gap between OS X and iOS. It was also notable for increasing security through features like Gatekeeper, which helped prevent malicious apps from being installed by restricting software installation to verified sources.
Aengusom You can use the built-in command prompt utility to help you make Mountain Lion bootable USB installer on a Windows PC.
Once you have the Mountain Lion DMG file, the first step is to convert it to a format that is readable by the PC. You can do this by using a tool like dmg2img, which is available on most Linux distributions and can be installed on Windows via Cygwin.
dmg2img -i /path/to/MountainLion.dmg -o /path/to/output.img
After converting the DMG file to an IMG file, the next step is to write the IMG file to your USB drive. This can be done using the dd command, which is a powerful disk copying tool available on Linux, macOS, and via various utilities on Windows.
sudo dd if=/path/to/output.img of=/dev/sdX bs=1m
Once the process is complete, your USB drive will be bootable and can be used to install Mac OS X Mountain Lion on a compatible Mac. You can verify the USB drive by attempting to boot from it on a Mac. To do this, insert the USB drive, power on the Mac, and hold down the Option key to select the bootable USB drive. If all steps were followed correctly, you should see the Mac OS X Mountain Lion installation screen.
Yes, that's a reasonable approach if you can't borrow a legacy Mac that supports create a bootable USB for Mac OS X Mountain Lion. Downloading the Mountain Lion DMG file and using dedicated disk imaging software to burn it to a USB drive is a viable alternative.
I have encountered similar problems before, and I want to install the system on an old Mac. To create a Mountain Lion boot disk on Windows, UltraMDG is a good choice. You just need to download this tool, plug in the Mountain Lion installation package and 8GB USB drive you have prepared, and then use UltraMDG to write the boot disk.
I followed this guide and succeeded!
https://www.howtogeeker.com/make-macos-bootable-usb-on-windows
Compared with other complicated methods, this tool saves a lot of trouble, I recommend you to try it!
Kareemiy wrote:The old Mac OS X Mountain Lion installer app won't run on a modern Mac. In fact, you can create a Mountain Lion bootable USB on any Windows PC by creating a El Capitan virtual machine.
First, download El Capitan ISO image and the free VirtualB0x software. After installing you'll create a new virtual machine, selecting "Mac OS X" as the type and "El Capitan" as the version. Allocate the appropriate amount of RAM and disk space based on your system's resources and the requirements of El Capitan. Typically, 4GB of RAM and 40GB of disk space should suffice. When prompted, use the ISO file of El Capitan as the startup disk.
Finally, there are some additional configurations required to get macOS running smoothly This includes modifying the settings via command prompt to ensure compatibility. These settings might involve enabling EFI and adjusting the CPU configuration.
This sounds interesting. I didn't expect that you can create a bootable USB for Mac OS X Mountain Lion in a virtual machine on Windows. But you mentioned that you need to use the command prompt to modify the settings to make macOS run smoothly. Is this a bit complicated? For example, how to adjust the EFI and CPU configuration? I'm a little afraid of making mistakes. Are there any other details that need special attention?
