The greatest transition in history of macOS has been made by Apple with all new 'macOS Big Sur' most advanced desktop operating system for Mac devices. At Worldwide Developer Conference 2020, the world has witnessed the major visual haul change in macOS and therefore Apple gave it a major boost in version number i.e. 'macOS 11' instead of calling it 'macOS 10.16' which people were expecting. Then click on the three dots to browse the macOS Catalina DMG and select it. Select DMG File. Choose the macOS Catalina DMG and click on OK. Ok Restore Disk Image to Drive. Hit Yes on the pop and it will start creating the USB so it will take a considerable time. After that, you’ll see the success message, and that’s now done. If you are in the process to install macOS Sierra 10.12 on your PC or Hackintosh, the first step is to create a bootable USB installer for macOS Sierra to install Mac OS from it on your PC, you can create bootable USB Installer with UniBeast, but still, you need a Macintosh to download and create macOS Sierra bootable USB Installer. Download the macOS high sierra DMG file from this link. Download Transmac from their official website or you can download it directly from here. In this tutorial, I am going to use the Transmac software to create the bootable USB drive from windows. DMG Editor gives you the option of creating macOS bootable USB drive for installation, and is the perfect tool for transporting your DMG files in their ISO avatar. Assuming you have a USB drive with enough capacity, it can hold several programs.
A DMG file is essentially Apple's format for mountable disk images in Mac OS X (macOS) computers. When opened, it mounts a virtual disk on the computer, and is normally used for installing new applications. DMG file is usually encrypted and compressed, unlike ISO, which is an uncompressed disk image format.
While DMG files are usually downloaded from the Mac App Store, they can also be burned to a USB disk when you want to install a utility on another machine. In such cases, you will need to create a bootable macOS disk or burn it to a USB flash drive so it can be used on another system for OS installation. This article shows you four different ways to burn .dmg file on Windows PC or Mac.
P.S if you did not download the macOS dmg file, here are a few useful links to download Big Sur, CatalinaMojave and High Serria.
Part 1: How to Burn DMG to USB on Mac for Free (Disk Utility)
The native disk image utility on Mac is ideal for burning a DMG to a USB drive. Once you burn the file to the drive, this drive can be used to install the associated application on any other Mac system. The process may vary slightly depending on which version of Mac OS X your computer is running, but the steps below will give you a fair idea of how the process should be carried out.
Step 1: Go to Applications >>Utilities >>Disk Utility and click on it to launch the program.
Step 2: On the left, you'll see all the available drives. Insert the USB drive and watch as it appears on that list.
Step 3: Now open a Finder window and locate your DMG file. Drag and drop it under the drive names in the Disk Utility app.
Step 4: Select the file, and then click on 'Burn' in the same window. In the popup that appears, select your destination drive, which is the USB flash drive you want to burn the DMG file to. Click 'Burn' in the popup window.
Once the process is complete, remove the USB stick and use it to install the application associated with that DMG on any other Mac computer.
Pros:
- Totally free.
- No need to install other apps.
Cons:
- Not available on newer macOS (Mojave and later).
- USB may not be bootable for certain dmg files.
Part 2: How to Burn DMG to USB on Windows PC & Mac (Bootable)
UUByte DMG Editor is a versatile application that can help you burn DMG files to a USB drive on Windows PC and Mac. The interface is very simple, and all you need to do is click a few times and the job is done for you. DMG Editor gives you the option of creating macOS bootable USB drive for installation, and is the perfect tool for transporting your DMG files in their ISO avatar. Assuming you have a USB drive with enough capacity, it can hold several programs.
DMG Editor doesn't require any technical expertise because it is specifically designed for new users who may not be comfortable handling disk images. All the hard work is done behind the scenes, and the layout is intuitive enough for any novice to figure out what to do. For first-time users, here's a small guide for using it to burn .dmg file to a USB drive.
Key Features of DMG Editor
- Make USB bootable after burning to USB.
- Able to edit DMG file and recreate it.
- Also support burning to CD or DVD disc.
- Easily extract files from DMG file.
Step 1: Install UUByte DMG Editor
Install DMG Editor after downloading it from the official site. Insert your USB drive into a free port.
Step 2: Insert USB Drive and Import DMG File
Launch DMG Editor and select the 'Burn' option, which will take you to a new window.
Step 3: Start Burning DMG to USB
Select the DMG file and specify the destination, which is your USB drive. Click on Burn. That's it! In a few moments your USB drive containing the DMG file will be ready.
Step 4: Install macOS from USB
When the burning process is completed, you will get to the following screen. Please open the foot link and take a full read, which tells you how to install macOS from external USB drive.
Using DMG Editor to create macOS bootable USB is an easy task because there is no command involved and the user interface is intuitive. That's why it is favored by thousands of users across the world.
Pros:
- Create bootable macOS installer from dmg file.
- Easy to use.
- Extract content from DMG file on PC.
- Support latest macOS Catalina.
Cons:
- Premium software.
- Lack support for old Mac OS X.
Part 3: Convert DMG to ISO and Burn ISO to USB
In certain instances, you may want to use a Windows computer instead of a Mac, which means you won't have the disk utility. Besides, Windows can't natively handle DMG files, so you will need to convert it into an ISO disk image that Windows can work with. Follow the steps below to do this.
Step 1: Download the DMG file and then convert it to ISO using a free online conversion service like YouConvertIt.
Step 2: Once you do this, you can use another utility like ISO Editor to burn the ISO file to a USB drive.
Remember, even if you convert the DMG to ISO, it's still Mac-compatible only, so you can't use it to install the program on a Windows system. However, it's helpful when your own system is a Windows PC and you want to burn the DMG file to a USB drive. In this case, you will need to convert it back to the DMG format for the installation.
Pros:
- Completely free.
- More options available for burning ISO image.
Cons:
- Take much more time.
- USB not bootable.
Part 4: How to Burn DMG to USB on Windows 10/8/7
If you're on a Windows PC, another way to burn a DMG file to a USB drive is to use TransMac. This is very useful if your Mac has become unbootable and you only have a Windows alternative. In such cases, you can use TransMac to burn the DMG file for Mac OS X (whatever version you want to install on your broken Mac) to a USB drive and do the installation that way.
To install Mac OS X, you're going to need a USB with at least 16 GB of free space. Also, it's better to take a backup of existing data so you don't lose it during the burn process. Follow the steps below to use TransMac:
Step 1: Download an original copy of TransMac to a Windows PC. The 14-day trial will let you execute the process we're going to describe, so go ahead and install it.
Step 2: Download the DMG file for the version of Mac OS X that you want to install. Now launch TransMac, but make sure to run it as the Administrator. Click on 'Run' once the application is launched, and insert the USB flash drive.
Step 3: The next step can be a little confusing because, normally, you would select the DMG or ISO file first before selecting the destination drive. Here, it's the other way around. In the main window, right-click on the USB drive in the left-side panel, then select 'Restore with Disk Image'.
Step 4: You'll get a warning popup. Select 'Yes' if you've backed up the contents of the USB drive, or else click 'No', backup the drive and then resume the process at Step 3.
Step 5: This is where you select the disk image, so go ahead and choose your Mac OS X .DMG file and click 'Ok'. The DMG file will now be burned to the drive you specified.
Pros:
Macos Dmg To Usb Bootable
- Make bootable USB installer from dmg image.
- Format disk to Mac compabile partition.
- Create new disk image.
Cons:
- Only 15 days of free trial.
- Costly price ($59).
Summary
All of these methods work well, so it's just a matter of preference and convenience, and depends on whether you have a Mac or a Windows PC. On a Mac, Disk Utility may show you some errors when burning a DMG file to a drive. Similarly, when you use a Windows system, converting DMG to ISO could corrupt the file, making it unusable once you convert it back to DMG. That's why we recommended YouConvertIt for that. Based on all these factors, choose the method that will work best for your specific situation.
In addition to macOS, Apple has released macOS high sierra. macOS High Sierra is the successor of macOS sierra. With it’s every release apple updates macOS with new features, new design, better security, more stability and better performance. As you know any of the macOS cannot be officially installed on any non-apple hardware, because of this reason installing macOS on PC was never an easy job. In this article, I will show how to create a bootable USB of macOS high sierra on windows 10.
Step 1. Downloading the required files.
Download the macOS high sierra DMG file from this link.
Download Transmac from their official website or you can download it directly from here.
In this tutorial, I am going to use the Transmac software to create the bootable USB drive from windows. Transmac is a paid software, however, it offers 15 days of trial which is enough for you to create the bootable USB.
Step 2. Installing Transmac.
After downloading the setup.exe double-click it to open and follow the procedure displayed in the setup to install.
See also: Beginner’s guide to patching DSDT in Hackintosh.
Step 3. Making the bootable USB drive.
In order to make bootable USB of macOS high Sierra, you will need an 8gb or higher USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 drive.
Note: By using USB 3.0 you might face some issues while booting into the installer, in that case, please try using USB 2.0 drive.
1. Insert the USB drive into your computer and then right click on the transmac app and select “run as administrator”. Running as administrator is required as we will format the USB drive through the transmac app.
2. Now right click on the USB drive you inserted and click “Format for mac”.
Note: This action will format the drive and the data inside the drive will be lost, so before formatting the USB drive, please make sure that the drive you selected is your removable USB drive, not any other drive and also make sure that you backup all the data to a separate drive.
3. After the formatting is done again right click the USB drive and click “Restore with Disk Image”. Click “yes” on the warning about erasing data, then click on the select file button and select the macOS high sierra dmg file that you have downloaded earlier and click OK.
4. Now it’s time to sit back and relax as the process will take time to complete. After the progress bar is finished, your bootable USB of macOS high sierra is ready.
Note: After the USB drive is formatted as mac or the dmg is restored successfully windows will give you an alert to format the drive due to incompatible file-system, but don’t click format otherwise you have to start over again.
See also: How to dual boot MacOS sierra and windows 10 in Hackintosh.
Step 4. Configuring Clover Bootloader.
Clover Bootloader is the key to install macOS on PC. It fakes the macOS installer to think that it is going to install on a real Macintosh. Clover is already included in the above high sierra DMG file and is restored into the USB. However, we need to configure it according to our system’s configuration or importantly graphics configuration.
- First download clover configuration plist files from here as zip.
- Then navigate to EFI/efi/clover/
- Now delete the file named config.plist
- Extract the configuration files zip and select the file which contains your internal graphics card name. i.e: config_HD615_620_630_640_650.plist for Intel HD 630. Then copy it into EFI/efi/clover and rename it as config.plist
Note: The EFI drive is present in the USB drive. So it must be plugged in.
Now the configuration is done and you can proceed towards installation steps.
Step 5. Installing macOS high sierra.
Before we try to boot the macOS installer we need to make some changes to our BIOS settings. Just to spoof the macOS installer so it thinks that we are booting the installer from a real mac, else we will face a disabled boot screen or a message saying “macOS cannot be installed on this device”.
1. Reboot your PC and just after you see the manufacturer logo quickly press the “F2” button or press it several times until you see the BIOS menu. To boot into the BIOS settings menu.
2. Change the following settings:-
- SATA mode: AHCI
- CMS support: Enabled
- Secure Boot: Disabled
- Virtualization: Disabled (optional, I haven’t faced any issues keeping it enabled till now but might cause one in some hardware).
- DVMT Pre-allocated: 64 MB or Highest.
DVMT Pre-allocated option is to set the internal GPU memory. Most laptops come with 32mb fixed allocated memory, it causes an error while booting into macOS sierra or Higher versions on Intel skylake or higher architecture CPUs. It is not a common option and might not be available in your BIOS settings. Setting it to 64mb or higher eliminates the need of applying miniStolen patch.
Mac Os Dmg To Usb Windows
3. Now after changing the BIOS options, plug in the bootable USB drive and power on the machine.
4. Now again boot into BIOS by tapping “F2”, and open the “boot menu” and select your bootable USB drive from the “Boot drive” menu.
5. If you selected the correct drive in the above step, you should see the clover boot menu. In the clover boot menu select the “Install macOS high sierra” drive and tap “Spacebar” and check “verbose” option and click “Boot with selected option”. Booting verbose will allow you to see if any error occurs while booting.
Install Macos.dmg To Usb
6. After successfully booting into the installer, select your preferred language and click next and then from the macOS utilities screen select “Disk Utility” and click continue.
7. Here, select the partition in which you want to install macOS. As the partition will be formatted, make sure it is empty. And also make sure the size of the partition is at least 15GB, I prefer to make the partition of size 40Gb or higher so I don’t have to resize it later. Now click on erase and then name the partition as you like, then from the “Format” drop-down menu select “APFS” and click erase.
8. After formatting the partition, close the disk utility app and select “Install macOS” and click continue. Here you will be asked in which partition you want to install macOS High Sierra, select the partition you formatted in the above step and finally click on install.
Os X Dmg To Usb Bootable
Happy Hackintoshing 😉 if you get any trouble please feel free to post them in comments.