Oct 24, 2011  Click on the USB Drive on the left. On the right pane, go to the Restore tab. Click on the Browse button and locate the.dmg installer for OS X Lion. (ie macosx10711a390.dmg) 4. Once you have it chosen, click and drag your USB Thumbdrive from the left pane to the Destination box. (ie THUMBDRIVE in the screenshot) and then click Restore.

To install macOS or OS X from USB, you need to create a bootable install USB drive for Mac operating system. This tutorial will introduce you three ways to create bootable USB drive for macOS High Sierra, macOS Sierra, Mac OS X El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks and more.

Use 'createinstallmedia' Command in Terminal

The most recommendable way to create a bootable install USB drive for Mac OS is using 'createinstallmedia' Command with Terminal application.

Step 1: Download macOS or OS X

The first thing to do is to download the Mac operating system that you need. To install the latest Mac OS, for example, macOS High Sierra, you can search and download the installer from App Store.

To download the older Mac OS X version, you can go to App Store > Purchases to download the Mac OS X El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks that has been previously downloaded.

However, Apple has decided that macOS Sierra and later will no longer be listed in Mac App Store's Purchased. To download the installer of macOS Sierra, go to Apple Support.

Note: After downloading the Mac OS installer, do not install the OS but quit the installer.

Step 2 Get A USB Drive with Sufficient Storage

You should have a USB drive with at least 8 GB of storage and insert the USB drive into your Mac. If you need to create a bootable USB drive of macOS High Sierra, 16 GB USB flash drive is suggested. In fact, USB drives with larger storage, like 32 GB to 64 GB, tend to show better performance.

IMPORTANT: The contents of the drive will be erased after creating a bootable installer drive. Therefore, make sure there is nothing important on your flash drive before you continue with the following steps.

Step 3 Check the Name of Your Flash Drive

The following command is to create a bootable copy of Mac OS installer on a USB drive named FlashInstaller. If your USB drive has a different name, replace FlashInstaller in the command with the name of your USB drive. If you don't want to modify the command, change the name of your flash drive into FlashInstaller.

Step 4 Create A Bootable USB Drive of macOS/OS X

Launch Terminal enter the following command according to the version of Mac operating system that you are dealing with.

macOS High Sierra Installer

sudo /Applications/Install macOS High Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/FlashInstaller --applicationpath /Applications/Install macOS High Sierra.app --nointeraction

macOS Sierra Installer

sudo /Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/FlashInstaller --applicationpath /Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app --nointeraction

OS X El Capitan Installer

sudo /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/FlashInstaller --applicationpath /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app –nointeraction

OS X Yosemite Installer

sudo /Applications/Install OS X Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/FlashInstaller --applicationpath /Applications/Install OS X Yosemite.app –nointeraction

OS X Mavericks Installer

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

Tip: If you didn't download the installer from Mac App Store, you must modify the file path after 'applicationpath'.

After pasting the command on the Terminal, hit Enter key. You'll be asked to enter your Mac's password. Enter the password and hit Enter.

Then you need to check the name and path of your USB drive. If it is correct, press 'y' then hit 'Enter'. The Mac will begin to create a bootable install drive for macOS High Sierra, macOS Sierra, Mac OS X El Capitan/Yosemite/Mavericks. When it is done, Terminal will shows 'Done'.

To install macOS or OS X from the USB flash drive, check how to clean install Mac OS from USB.

Make A Bootable Installer for macOS via DiskMaker X or Install Disk Creator

If you think it is too much trouble to use Terminal to make a bootable installer on a USB drive, you can use tools like DiskMaker X, Install Disk Creator. Both the tools can make an install drive for macOS Sierra, OS X El Capitan, OS X Yosemite and more.

DiskMaker X: When you launch the application, it will try to find the downloaded macOS or OS X installers program on your Mac. And you just need to follow its on-screen instructions to create a bootable USB drive by clicking a few buttons.

Install Disk Creator: Once you run the application, select a USB drive, choose a Mac OS installer, and click Create Installer to begin to create an install USB drive.

Disk Utility to Create a Bootable macOS/OS X Installer

Before using createinstallmedia command, people used to use Disk Utility to create a bootable installer drive manually. But the process is much more complicated than the Terminal method. So Apple also suggests you make a bootable install drive via Terminal.

Just in case that you don't want to use Terminal, you may follow these steps to build a USB drive for Mac OS X or macOS.

• Mount the Mac OS installer to get .DS_Store, BaseSystem.chunklist, and BaseSystem.dmg. Files from InstallESD.dmg file.

• Use Disk Utility's Restore feature to create a copy of the OS Install ESD image.

• Modify the copy of the OS Install ESD image to make it boot successfully.

Do you have other question about making a bootable USB drive for macOS or Mac OS X? Leave your comment below.

To create a bootable USB drive from a DMG file on Windows, you will need to have the right utility. That's because DMG is not native on Windows. It is the Mac equivalent of an ISO file that has been in use since Apple transitioned from the IMG format with Mac OS X. A DMG file, like ISO, can be used to install macOS operating system or Mac apps. If the Mac computer was broken or crashed and couln't get into the system, but you only have access to a Windows PC, there's still a way to make a bootable macOS install USB on Windows.

This article looks at three applications that you can use to create a bootable USB drive from a DMG file in Windows. All of them have their advantages and disadvantages, which we have highlighted. You can make the best choice for you based on the information provided below. They are in no particular order of preference.

TransMac - Make DMG File Bootable USB on Windows

This is a fairly robust application for creating bootable USB on Windows from a DMG file. However, there's a preparatory step to be executed before you can create the bootable USB drive. The typical disk partition used is MBR, but you will need to do a partition with GPT for this to work. You can do so by executing the diskpart command in Windows CMD. Alternatively, you can do it from within TransMac, as shown in the instructions shown below the next paragraph.

Once this is done, you can download TransMac and use the two-week free trial period to get the job done free of cost. You can always upgrade if you like the utility and want to keep using it after the trial period has ended. Once you download and install the application, insert your formatted USB drive and follow the instructions below:

Step 1: If you haven't formatted the USB, right-click on your USB drive in the left panel and select Format Disk for Mac from the contextual menu.

Step 2: Right-click again on the drive in the left panel and this time select Restore with Disk Image.

Step 3 : Select the DMG file and click on Open. Once the process is complete, you can eject the drive and use it on a Mac. To boot from this media, hold down the Option key and fire up your Mac.

Convert DMG to ISO and Create macOS Boot USB from Windows

Since ISO is a better format for Windows, you can also convert the DMG to the ISO format and then use the ISO disk image to create the bootable USB. Please note that you can't boot your Mac from bootable USB made from an ISO file, which means you'll have to convert it back to DMG prior to that. Still, it's an effective way to create bootable media for a Mac computer. Here's how it works:

Step 1: Once you have the macOS install DMG file on a Windows PC, click on Windows + R to open the run dialog box, and type in CMD, then hit Enter. When the Command Prompt opens up, use the following command to convert the file to ISO:
hdiutil convert /path/sourceimagefile.dmg -format UDTO -o /path/targetmage.iso

Install Mac Os X Dmg From Usb

Step 2: Download and install UUByte ISO Editor on your PC, insert the USB drive and launch the application.

Step 3: Click Burn button on the main screen and point to the converted ISO file. The drive will be automatically detected and click on Burn icon to burn the ISO to the USB drive.

Once the ISO is burned to the file, you can insert it into a Mac and convert it back into the DMG format. Since you're converting the file twice, there's a chance that the file could get corrupted in the process. If that happens repeatedly, then try this next method.

PowerISO: Make Bootable Mac Install USB on Windows 10/8/7

This Windows utility allows you do create bootable USB from DMG on a PC. You can also edit the DMG or extract the contents, and there's also an option to copy it to a disk. For this particular exercise, we'll show you how to use PowerISO to create a bootable USB drive on Windows without having to convert the disk image into another format like ISO.

Step 1: Download and install the application on your PC.

Step 2: Insert your USB drive and launch PowerISO.

Step 3: In the Tools menu, select 'Create Bootable USB Drive… '. You will need to give admin privileges to the software. Alternatively, you can run the program as admin when you launch it.

Step 4: Select the USB drive in the section called Destination USB Drive.

Step 5: Leave all other default as they are and click on 'Start' to burn DMG to the USB drive.

You should be able to see the progress, and a new popup will appear when the bootable media is ready. You can now eject the media and use it to run the DMG on a Mac computer.

Conclusion:

Install Os X Dmg From Usb Drive

All of these methods are workable, so select the right one for you based on your level of knowledge and your preference.