Create Mac Os Catalina Bootable Usb

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Creating macOS Catalina Bootable Installer. If you are using a Windows PC, you can use this guide- How To Create macOS Catalina Bootable USB on Windows: 4 Easy Steps (+Video Tutorial) How to Install macOS Catalina from Bootable Installer. Insert the Bootable Installer to your MAC. Restart your Mac. Question: Q: create Mac OS Catalina bootable USB from UNSUPPORTED Mac OS version I have two MacBook Pros One supports Catalina (A1398) - but the drive died and I have replaced with a new, empty drive.

  1. How To Create Macos Catalina Bootable Usb Hackintosh
  2. Create Mac Os Catalina Bootable Usb Disk

In previous tutorial, we wrote a post about creating macOS Catalina bootable USB on Mac, which is a simple tool and there are a couple of free tools to complete the task. You can even use the built-in tool Disk Utility and dd command to do it without installing any third-party apps. However, the situation is much different on Windows 10 because macOS install file (end with .dmg) is not supported by Windows OS. Unlike ISO image, there are few tools on Windows that can handle .dmg files. That's the most challenging part!

How to Create macOS Catalina Bootable USB Flash Drive Installer Using Terminal Here’s how to create macOS Catalina 10.15 bootable USB flash drive installer for a clean install on your Mac. With macOS Catalina being Apple’s latest software release, it stands to reason that there is going to be a big interest in it. The Mac is running OS X v10.6.8 or later (which includes any version of macOS). Below are the steps needed to create an USB flash drive El Capitan bootable installer. Download the InstallMacOSX.dmg file by clicking on the OS X El Capitan 10.11 link in the Apple document 'How to get old versions of macOS'. Make sure to create a macOS Catalina USB installer before you update your MacBook and start exploring Catalina features. While you don’t need a bootable installer to install macOS Catalina, it’s a good option for people with a limited or sporadic internet connection, multiple Macs, or who want a backup installer for emergencies.

So in this article, we will show you how to create macOS bootable USB on Windows 10 and targets macOS Catalina specifically, which is the latest version of Apple macOS and it is easy to download the install file. This will be a great help if there were something wrong with your Mac and a fresh install was demanded. Also if you were a Mac enthusiast and can not afford the price, then it is not a bad choice to build a hackintosh with Catalina.

Before heading to the details of each method, please make sure you have downloaded a copy of Catalina OS dmg file and a working USB drive with more than 12GB storage.

Method 1: Create macOS Catalina Bootable USB on Windows 10 via DMG Editor

There are more than one solutions to create macOS Catalina Bootable USB on Windows 10 and we will go with easy one first. DMG Editor, a popular app developed by UUByte, is a multi-functional and cross-platform image burning tool that works on Windows, Linux and macOS. It supports creating bootable USB from popular image files, including dmg, iso, zip, img. And it has full support for Linux distros and old versions of Windows OS. macOS support was not available in previous versions. But now, the latest version of DMG Editor adds better support for macOS dmg file. Let's get a try first.

Step 1.Go to UUByte official website and download Windows version of Etcher from there.

Mac

Step 2. Run the executable file and complete the installation process. After that, insert an USB drive in Windows 10.

Step 3. Open the installed UUByte DMG Editor by double-clicking on the icon shown on your home screen. Click on the 'Burn' option then. After that, add Catalina .dmg file to the software and click on 'Change' button to choose the inserted USB device.

Step 4. Finally, click on the 'Burn' button to start the dmg burning process. At this time, a progress bar is displayed on the screen and it gives you an estimated calculation for the time remaining.

Step 5. Wait about 10 minutes. It will show you a pop-up message after completing the task successfully.

The process is very quick and easy to execute. But you might have issues running Etcher app on old computers with low profile hardware. Etcher GUI is built primarily on a new Javascript framework called Electron , which consumes a lot of computing resources. So if you were going to use Etcher to create macOS Catalina bootable USB, make sure testing it on a high-profile Windows 10 PC or laptop.

Method 2: Convert .dmg to .iso and Create macOS Catalina Bootable USB

macOS Catalina install image is distributed in .dmg format and Windows 10 has no support. Hen it is almost impossible to read such files in conventional ways. So in this part, we will convert macOS Catalina dmg file into ISO and create a bootable installer by burning the ISO file to USB. This can be done with the help of third-party software.

To execute the method, you need two software. First, you need a special software to convert dmg to ISO. Second, an ISO to USB burning software to make bootable USB from ISO file. To demonstrate, we have used 7 PowerISO & UUByte ISO Editor to create macOS Catalina bootable USB from Windows 10.

Step 1: Download and install PowerISO on Windows 10.

Step 2: Insert your USB drive. Right-click on this peripheral device and choose the option to format it. After a few seconds, you will get the notification of completing the format process.

Step 3: Now, open PowerISO and navigate to Tool menu. From the pop-up list, please click the 'Convert' option.

Step 4: In a pop-up window, click the folder icon to add macOS Catalina dmg file in Source file field. And set an output file name under Destination file section. Next. choose Standard ISO Images (.ISO) from Output image file format.

Step 5: When the ISO file is created successfully. Download and install UUByte ISO Editor. Then click Burn button to open ISO burning Window. Next, add ISO file to the program and select the USB name. Wait for 7 minutes, and a bootable USB is ready!

Step 6: After getting a task completion message on screen, eject the USB and then start installing macOS Catalina from the USB drive.

The solution is simple but may need to purchase a couple of tools for executing the steps. But if you will search smartly on the internet, chances are there that you can get the required tools without paying any cost. However, if you want to bypass using any of the third-party tools, you can create the Catalina OS bootable USB by accessing macOS in a virtual machine.

Method 3: Use TransMac to Create macOS Catalina Bootable USB in Windows 10

TransMac is a single-purpose utility to open Mac disk image from a Windows PC. It's one of the quickest methods to create macOS bootable USB drive from dmg file. However, the support for Catalina is not good as Mojave and High Serrira. Plus, you have to pay for 59 USD to use the burn feature. That's why we mention this app at the end of this post.

Step 1: Download TransMac from the official site and run the .exe file to complete the installation process.

Step 2: Now plug in a USB device into the port. Now right-click on TransMac icon shown on the home screen and then choose to Run as administrator.

Step 3: After landing inside the tool's window, all disk drives will be displayed on the left side automatically. Click File -> Open Disk Image to load macOS Catalina dmf file into the program.

How To Create Macos Catalina Bootable Usb Hackintosh

Step 4: Before proceeding further, you need to format your USB device to make it compatible with Mac HFS or APS partition. For doing the same, click on the 'Format Diks for Mac' option. Wait for 30 seconds to complete the process.

Step 5: Right-click on the selected USB disk. From the shown list, click on 'Restore with Disk Image'. If it shows any warning message, just click on the OK button to accept.

Step 6: After that, select the location of saved Mac OS Catalina DMG file and then click on the OK button. Now stay back and look after 20 minutes. You will get ready with a bootable Catalina USB.

TransMac is one of the easiest method to create a bootable macOS Installer USB on a Windows PC. You can use this application to burn any version of macOS operating system file to USB.

Conclusion

Bootable

To conclude, we would recommend going with either the first or the second method to create bootable macOS Catalina USB. Both are super easy to follow because you don't need to install multiple tools and go through a multi-layer process to meet your requirement.

macOS Catalina is a hugely exciting upgrade for the Mac. In some ways, it’s like having a completely new computer. You may have already taken the plunge and installed it, or maybe you’re waiting to see how it settles down before you install it. But whichever camp you’re in, it’s a good idea to create a bootable installer for macOS Catalina. That way, if anything goes badly wrong with your Mac, you’ll be able to boot from the installer and get going again quickly.

Why do I need a bootable installer for macOS Catalina?

There are a number of reasons for creating a bootable USB Mac installer.

  1. If you have more than one Mac, it allows you to install Catalina on all your other Macs without having to download it from the App Store each time.
  2. You may want to clean install Catalina, in which case you’ll completely wipe your startup disk and will need to boot from an external drive to do that.
  3. It’s good protection against a catastrophe striking your Mac’s startup disk, especially if you don’t have a stable internet connection. Normally, if you need to reinstall macOS, you can just boot from the recovery partition and do it from there. However, that means re-downloading the installer. So, if you don’t have an internet connection or it’s very slow, you need an alternative.

What should I use as a bootable installer?

You can use an external hard drive, an SSD or a USB stick. Anything that has at least 16 GB of free space. You’ll need to create a new partition (or container if it’s formatted as AFPS) for the installer so if you have data on it you need, you should copy it to another drive first.

How to create a bootable USB drive for macOS Catalina

Whoa! Not so fast. There’s one more thing you should do before you create the installer: clear out the junk on your Mac. Before you undertake any major task on your Mac, and especially before you install a new version of the operating system, you should clear out junk and old files you no longer need. I don’t normally recommend software tools, but in this case, the nest way to clear out the clutter is to use CleanMyMac X. It can scan your Mac at the press of a button, identify all the files you don’t need, and allow you to get rid of them with one more click. Here’s how to use it:

  1. Install, and launch CleanMyMac X — download a free edition here
  2. Choose Smart Scan from the list of utilities in the sidebar.
  3. Press Scan.
  4. When it’s finished, press Run to delete files immediately, or Review Details to see what it has found.

Once you’ve cleared out the clutter, you can go ahead and create your bootable installer. Here’s how:

  1. Launch the App Store app and search for macOS Catalina. (If you’re reading this before Catalina has been launched, you’ll need to use the public beta. You can sign up for Apple’s public beta program and download it here Apple Beta Software Program)
  2. When the results appear, click on Catalina, then click ‘Get’.
  3. Wait for it to download. When it’s finished, the installer will launch. Quit it immediately.

The installer has now been saved in your Applications folder. You can go ahead and check, if you like. You now have two options for creating the installer. If you’re comfortable with using Terminal, you can go ahead and jump to the instructions for that, below. If you’d rather not use Terminal, there’s a neat utility called Diskmaker X that will do it for you. All you need to do is download and install it and then, when you run it, point it to the macOS Catalina installer you just downloaded. There are full instructions on the download page.

How to create a bootable installer using Terminal

  1. Plug the USB stick, hard drive or SSD into your Mac.
  2. Go to Applications>Utilities and double-click Disk Utility to launch it.
  3. Select the disk you want to use for the installer and choose the Erase tab.
  4. Choose APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the format and choose GUID partition map from the options, if it’s available.
  5. Give the disk a name and press Erase.
  6. When it’s finished, quit Disk Utility.
  7. Go to Applications>Utilities and double-click Terminal to launch it.
  8. Type:

    sudo /Applications/Install macOS Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia —volume /Volumes/Untitled

    where ‘Untitled’ is the name of your USB stick or external hard drive

  9. Press Return and wait for the word Done to appear in Terminal.
  10. Quit Terminal

You now have a macOS Catalina installer on an external disk or USB stick. Eject it, unplug it and keep it safe. You can use it to install Catalina on any Mac that supports it.

One more step: update applications

Create Mac Os Catalina Bootable Usb Disk

Once you’ve used tour new installer to install Catalina on a Mac, it’s a good idea to update all your applications so that that are Catalina compatible. You can do this manually, from the App Store and by launching non-App Store apps and choosing check for updates, but that’s a long and tedious process. It’s much quicker and easier to use the updates in CleanMyMac X. Here’s how you do it.

  1. Launch CleanMyMac X.
  2. Select the Updater tool in the Applications section.
  3. Press Select All.
  4. Press Update.

And that’s it. You’re done. CleanMyMac X checks all your installed apps for updates and then updates them all.

Creating a bootable installer for macOS Catalina isn’t difficult. If you have a spare disk or USB stick and are comfortable using Terminal, you can do it right away. If you’d rather not use Terminal, use the Diskmaker X tool described above. Whichever method you use, make sure you use CleanMyMac X to clear out the junk on your Mac before you start, and use it again to update your applications when you’ve finished.