Installing Mac OS from a flash drive

According to many users, the OS, provided by Apple, is the most stable in the world. In terms of performance and protection against virus programs, it leaves far behind both Windows and Ubuntu. Statistics confirms this information, moreover, today you can upgrade to the latest version of OS X directly from the official Mac store. However, sometimes you have to perform a “clean” installation, and for this you need to navigate the issue of how to install Mac OS from a bootable USB flash drive. Let's look at this topic together!

First you need to download the installation image and prepare the USB-drive

Preparing a USB flash drive in Windows

The method is suitable for systems 8, 7, Vista and even XP. To perform all manipulations correctly, you need the following elements:

  • installed OS (one of the above is appropriate);
  • USB drive;
  • installation image (* .dmg format);
  • TransMac program (suitable for deploying systems up to 10.8.X).

First of all, you need to install TransMac. You can use this utility both for free and for a fee (the trial period is only two weeks).

After installation, run the application as admin, right-click on the flash drive that appeared in the program window, and select "Format disk - Format from image". Then you need to choose the correct path to the file with the .dmg extension, press the "OK" button, and wait until the system prepares a bootable USB flash drive from Mac OS.

The preparation time of the drive depends on the speed of your flash drive interface, the size of the OS image, and the system performance on the PC. At the end of the process on the drive will be presented a huge number of components that together make up the image.

Using a flash drive

If you have a proprietary device from Apple, then it will be easy to boot from it. You just need to press the "Alt" (Option) button when starting the PC. The key is responsible for launching the boot manager, in which you should select a USB flash drive. If you are planning to try the power of Mac, but do not want to buy it, and you want to install a fashionable system directly from under Windows, then we strongly recommend using one of the popular EFI downloaders. Today, PC-EFI, Clover, Chameleon are in great demand.

Preparing a USB flash drive for Mac

If you need to create a boot device directly from under Mac, prepare these elements:

  • “Machine” with a pre-installed Mac;
  • the installer (the official build can be obtained from the Mac App Store; you just need to go to the “Updates” item);
  • DiskMaker X application;
  • drive for 8 Gb and more (suitable product with USB 2.0 interface).

DiskMaker X was previously called Lion DiskMaker. It can be downloaded free of charge from the manufacturer’s website or the App Store. The utility works fine with different versions of the OS for Mac, has a convenient and intuitive interface, the creation of the drive is literally a few clicks.

Cooking is very simple. First of all, connect the device to the PC and format it, then run the utility to prepare the product.

The program requires you to select a system that you want to install in the future via USB, just click on "Select an install file". The installer is usually stored in the "Programs" folder, list the path to it.

In the next step, you need to confirm the desire to create a drive, select a USB flash drive and click on “Continue”.

The work is done, it remains only to wait until the system performs the "run" of files and make the necessary type of device. At the end of the procedure, you will see a message.

Mac users can also prepare the device through the terminal. For this option, you only need to connect the device to the USB port, rename it to “Untitled”, and then download the installer with the system.

Important point: The downloaded program also needs to be renamed (new name - Install).

Next, open the command line (the “Utilities” item in the “Programs” section) and enter the command to start the installation procedure. The process will take several minutes, after which you will receive a turnkey solution!

Results

There are many ways in which you can prepare a bootable USB flash drive from Mac OS. You can solve the problem in different ways: being in Windows and as an Apple user. The procedure is very similar, only the tools that help prepare the flash drive differ.