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Microsoft Community Hub
techcommunity.microsoft.com › microsoft community hub › communities › products › windows › windows 11
How to Create macOS High Sierra Bootable USB for Reinstall | Microsoft Community Hub
You just need to download High Sierra bootable dmg and burn the dmg file to USB drive. That is all of it. This is the easiest way to make a bootable macOS USB on any PC or Mac without restrictions. P.S. I am following this useful guide and managed to create three bootable USB for macOS High ...
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iBoysoft
iboysoft.com › home › how to tips › how to create macos bootable usb from windows 10/11?(latest)
How to Create macOS Bootable USB from Windows 10/11?(Latest)
September 4, 2023 - Learn how to create a macOS bootable USB from Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 8, and 7, applicable for creating a High Sierra bootable USB from Windows or with another macOS version.
People also ask

Can I create a macOS bootable USB from Windows?
Yes, you can create a macOS bootable USB from Windows by following the steps in this article.
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iboysoft.com
iboysoft.com › home › how to tips › how to create macos bootable usb from windows 10/11?(latest)
How to Create macOS Bootable USB from Windows 10/11?(Latest)
Can Rufus make macOS bootable USB?
No, Rufus can't make a macOS bootable USB. It's only able to create a bootable installer for Windows. If you need to create a macOS bootable USB from a Windows computer, you would typically use tools like TransMac or similar software.
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iboysoft.com
iboysoft.com › home › how to tips › how to create macos bootable usb from windows 10/11?(latest)
How to Create macOS Bootable USB from Windows 10/11?(Latest)
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WinUSB
winusb.net › home › how to create a macos high sierra installer flash drive on windows 10/11
How to Create a macOS High Sierra Installer Flash Drive on Windows
March 19, 2024 - Learn step-by-step how to format and convert a flash drive into a macOS High Sierra installer using a Windows 10/11 computer. Follow this comprehensive guide to prepare your USB drive and boot your Mac for a seamless installation process.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/mac › install high sierra from usb
r/mac on Reddit: Install high Sierra from USB
December 30, 2023 -

Hi all! I was gifted a 21.5 late 2011 iMac and the hard drive has been wiped, since the online recovery doesn't work anymore and I need to reinstall everything before I start upgrading the hardware, so I can check if everything works as intended.

I only have a PC with Windows, how can I make a bootable USB, so I can reinstall high Sierra on this iMac?

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GitHub
gist.github.com › advixity › 16fb1e940ff8469f64cc944844af1375
A (relatively) simple guide to create a Bootable MacOS installer USB on Windows · GitHub
A (relatively) simple guide to create a Bootable MacOS installer USB on Windows - Create a MacOS installer USB (on Windows).md
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Apple Community
discussions.apple.com › thread › 255069067
make a macOS usb stick with windows - Apple Community
I used a software called UltraDMG to make a macOS bootable USB drive on my Windows 11.
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iBoysoft
iboysoft.com › home › how to tips › how to create usb bootable macos high sierra [full guide]
How to Create USB Bootable macOS High Sierra [Full Guide]
February 7, 2025 - This post tells how to create a USB bootable macOS High Sierra in detailed steps. Guide you to create acHigh Sierra bootable USB from Mac and Windows PC.
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YouTube
youtube.com › watch
How to Create macOS Bootable on Windows | 100% Working | Make Mac OS X bootable USB on Windows 11 - YouTube
First time ever you will learn how to create a 100% working Mac ( macOS ) bootable USB drive on Windows 11 by downloading the Mac operating system from Appl...
Published   September 18, 2023
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Top answer
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8

This can be done via console for Windows 10/11 iso images (Not sure about 8/7, but leave any comment if it worked for you).
Start connecting your usb drive and type diskutil list to display all connected drives.
You'll see something like:

/dev/disk0 (internal):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                         500.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     314.6 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         500.0 GB   disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +500.0 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            185.7 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 47.1 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                512.8 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      4.3 GB     disk1s4

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *15.6 GB    disk2
   1:                 DOS_FAT_32 LALA                    15.6 GB    disk2s1

For my case, the usb drive was /dev/disk2. Knowing this, format your usb drive with:

diskutil eraseDisk MS-DOS "WINDOWS10" MBR disk2

where disk2 is the usb drive id known in the prior command and "WINDOWS10" is the volume label (to be used later).
Please double check this step, or you could delete all data in another drive.
Then mount your image with:

hdiutil mount your_windows_10_image.iso

the command will return the location of the mounted iso

/dev/disk3                                      /Volumes/CPRA_X64FREV_ES-MX_DV5

so finally copy all the files from the mounted iso to your usb drive:

cp -rpv /Volumes/CPRA_X64FREV_ES-MX_DV5/* /Volumes/WINDOWS10

Update:

Look closely the copied files, as if you see a message like:

cp: /Volumes/CPRA_X64FREV_ES-MX_DV5/sources/install.wim: File too large

that's because the install.wim file is larger than 4GB, too large for your just created FAT32 partition in your USB stick (back in the day I originally posted this answer, probably the file wasn't that big). In this case, you will need to slipt it and copy it with the Windows Imaging libraries. So, using Homebrew install them with:

brew install wimlib

then call after (clearly, replacing the volume folder names to yours):

wimlib-imagex split /Volumes/CPRA_X64FREV_ES-MX_DV5/sources/install.wim /Volumes/WINDOWS10/sources/install.swm 3000

and now you will have two or more files with a swm extension instead of wim, where they won't be larger than 3GB

-rwxrwxrwx  1 alter  staff   2.9G 26 Nov 01:03 /Volumes/WINDOWS10/sources/install.swm
-rwxrwxrwx  1 alter  staff   1.5G 26 Nov 01:08 /Volumes/WINDOWS10/sources/install2.swm
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For the future search, this solution works for me:

https://joshb.github.io/2017/11/23/making-a-bootable-windows-10-usb-drive-on-macos-high-sierra/

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GitHub
github.com › TechUnRestricted › WinDiskWriter
GitHub - TechUnRestricted/WinDiskWriter: 🖥 Windows Bootable USB creator for macOS. 🛠 Patches Windows 11 to bypass TPM and Secure Boot requirements. 👾 UEFI & Legacy Support
📀 Create Bootable USB Windows Installers WinDiskWriter knows how to make a bootable drive for each Windows Image type. 🛠 Patch Windows 11 Installer You can bypass TPM, Minimum RAM, Secure Boot and some other System Requirements set by Microsoft for Windows 11.
Starred by 3.6K users
Forked by 89 users
Languages   C 85.5% | Objective-C 14.3% | C++ 0.2%
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Joshbeam
joshbeam.com › 2017 › 11 › 23 › making-a-bootable-windows-10-usb-drive-on-macos-high-sierra
Making a Bootable Windows 10 USB Drive on macOS High Sierra - Josh Beam's Website
My first instinct was to use dd to copy the ISO to the USB drive (as one typically does when installing a Linux distribution, for example), but it turns out that this does not satisfy the UEFI boot process. After some research and a lot of trial and error, I found that the USB drive must be formatted with a FAT32 partition and the MBR partitioning scheme, after which you can simply mount the Windows 10 ISO in macOS and copy the files to the drive.
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InsanelyMac
insanelymac.com › forums › osx86 project › tutorials (the genius bar)
Making a bootable High Sierra USB Installer Entirely From Scratch in Windows or Linux Mint (without access to Mac or App Store Installer.app) - Tutorials (The Genius Bar) | InsanelyMac
September 28, 2020 - Making a High Sierra USB Installer Entirely From Scratch in Windows This is a proof of concept tutorial, to show it's possible to create a vanilla High Sierra installer, entirely from scratch, in Windows (even without App Store downloaded "Install macOS High Sierra.app" from a real Mac ). @PikeRA...
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Wondershare Recoverit
recoverit.wondershare.com › windows-pe › create-mac-bootable-usb-from-windows.html
Create macOS Bootable USB on Windows 11/10
Learn how to create macOS bootable USB from Windows with simple, easy-to-follow instructions and repair your Mac in no time.
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Into Windows
intowindows.com › home › mac › create macos bootable usb drive on windows 10/11
How To create macOS Bootable USB Drive On Windows 10/11
March 31, 2022 - A step-by-step guide to create macOS installation USB drive on Windows 11, Windows 10 or Windows 7 using the trial copy of TransMac software.
Top answer
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19

Note: Links to instructions for other versions of OS X/macOS can found here.

User Josué Mpindi posted a question, where this answer was confirmed to work for macOS Sierra in a comment. Note that where necessary, you would need to substitute Sierra references for El Capitan in the instructions.

Note: A version of this answer, which uses macOS to create the USB flash drive OS X El Capitan installer, can be found here.

Using Windows to create an USB flash drive OS X El Capitan installer requires third party software beyond just TransMac. The steps below outline one possible method for creating an USB flash drive OS X El Capitan installer using Windows and other free third party tools.

Note: These instructions will not work for Yosemite. For the correct Yosemite instructions, see this answer.

  1. Use Microsoft Edge (or some other web browser) to download the following installers to your Downloads folder. The file names are current as of September 22, 2022. If both 32 bit and 64 bit versions are available, the 64 bit version is given in the table.

    Product Use Installer Type
    El Capitan 10.11 Free for use on Mac computers InstallMacOSX.dmg Mac Disk Image
    7-Zip Free 7z2201-x64.exe Application
    TransMac 15 day free trial tmsetup.zip Compressed (zipped) Folder
    Paragon Partition Manager Community Edition 64bit Free for personal and home use Paragon-1081-FRU_WinInstallDemo_x64_17.9.1_000.exe Application

    If you get the message “InstallMacOSX.dmg can't be download securely”, then select “Keep”, as shown below.

  2. Install all downloads except “El Capitan 10.11”. If you wish, the installed downloads can be uninstalled from the Windows Control Panel after use.

  3. Use a 7-Zip File Manager application window to extract the OS X Install ESD folder and the InstallAssistant.icns file to your Downloads folder. From a File Explorer window, start by navigating to your Downloads folder. In this window, right click on the InstallMacOSX.dmg Mac disk image file, then select "7-Zip" > "Open archive". This should open a 7-Zip File Manager application window. In this window, right click on each file or folder in the order given in the table below, then select the corresponding action. When finished, close the 7-Zip File Manager application window.

    File or Folder Action Type Comment
    Install OS X Open Folder
    InstallMacOSX.pkg Open Inside * Package File
    InstallMacOSX.pkg Open Folder
    InstallESD.dmg Open Mac Disk Image File
    OS X Install ESD Copy To… Folder See footnote ‡
    OS X Install ESD Open Folder
    BaseSystem.dmg Open Mac Disk Image File
    OS X Base System Open Folder
    Install OS X El Capitan.app Open Folder
    Contents Open Folder
    Resources Open Folder
    InstallAssistant.icns Copy To… Apple Icon Image File See footnote ‡

    The destination should be your Downloads folder. If this Downloads folder exists on a volume that is not NTFS formatted, then see this answer.

  4. Insert a 16 GB or larger flash drive into an USB port. If prompted, you do not need to initialize the flash drive.

  5. Open the TransMac application with Administrator privileges. (In other words, right click on the TransMac icon, then choose "Run as administrator" or "More" > "Run as administrator".) In the TranMac application window, take the following actions.

    • Select "Tools" > "Settings" from the pulldown menu. In the "General" tab of the "Settings" popup, select the same copy options as shown below.

      Select OK when finished.

    • Right click on the USB flash drive icon in the treeview pane, then select "Restore with Disk Image". In the "Restore Disk Image to Drive" popup , choose to "Open" the OS X Install ESD\BaseSystem.dmg Mac disk image file in your Downloads folder as the Disk Image to restore, then select the OK button. Next, select Yes in the "Last Warning!" popup.

  6. Open the Paragon Partition Manager 17 CE application. Select to resize the partition with the Apple HFS volume on the USB flash drive to maximum size, as shown below. Next, select the "Change now" button. When finished, select the "Close" button.

    Next, select to change the volume label on this Apple HFS volume from "OS X Base System" to "Install El Capitan", as shown below. Next, select the "Change now" button. When finished, select the "Close" button.

    When finished, close the Paragon Partition Manager 17 CE application window.

  7. In the existing TranMac window, take the following actions.

    • Select "Tools" > "Refresh Drive List" from the pulldown menu.

    • Navigate to root folder on the USB flash drive volume labeled Install El Capitan, as shown below.

    • In the listview pane, right click, then select "Copy Here", as shown below.

      Select to copy the OS X Install ESD\BaseSystem.chunklist and OS X Install ESD\BaseSystem.dmg files in your Downloads folder. Repeat to copy the InstallAssistant.icns file in your Downloads folder.

    • In the listview pane, right click on the InstallAssistant.icns file, then select "Rename". Change the name to .VolumeIcon.icns. When finished, the treeview and listview panes should appear as shown below.

    • Navigate to System\Installation folder on the USB flash drive labeled Install El Capitan, as shown below.

    • In the listview pane, right click on the Packages file, then select "Delete". When prompted, select the Yes button in the popup to confirm.

    • In the listview pane, right click, then select "Copy Here", as shown below.

      Select to copy the OS X Install ESD\Packages folder in your Downloads folder. (This may take a while to complete.) When finished, the treeview and listview panes should appear as shown below.

    • Close the TransMac window.

  8. Use the File Explorer to delete the OS X Install ESD folder and InstallAssistant.icns file in your Downloads folder. If you wish, you can also delete the downloaded files. When finished, close the File Explorer window, then empty the Recycle Bin.

References

  • How do I create El Capitan installer on a Catalina (or post-El Capitan) installed Mac for use on USB boot installer?
  • TransMac Help
  • Paragon Hard Disk Manager Version 17 User Manual
  • Apple Disk Image Utilities
  • HFSExplorer
  • DMGExtractor
  • dmg2img
  • HFS+ for Windows
  • Tar and Curl Come to Windows
  • dd for Windows
  • SuperDuper
  • HOW TO QUICKLY CREATE A MACOS BOOTABLE USB ON WINDOWS 10
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The instructions for using Windows to create an USB flash drive OS X El Capitan installer are given in my first answer. This answer addresses concerns posted by user Fred - with respect to my first answer.

My first answer used the "Copy To…" action to extract the OS X Install ESD folder to the users Downloads folder. Here, this Downloads folder is assumed to be in a NTFS formatted volume. However in a now deleted post†, Fred - stated the following.

And yes, my Downloads folder is NOT on the system drive and NOT NTFS but ExFAT. One reason for changing the Downloads directory is that my system drive is way too small for all the smaller or bigger downloads. I am convinced, quite a lot of people use non‑default system setups, for instance do not install programs on the system drive but on another partition (as I do whenever possible). ExFAT comes in handy for various reasons, of course not for program installations and things that require NTFS permissions, but for downloads and shared drives this is very good.

BTW, I believe the "system drive", that Fred - referred to, is actually called the "Windows partition" in Microsoft documentation.

In this answer, I used the "Copy To…" action to extract the OS X Install ESD folder to a dma\downloads folder I created on an exFAT formatted drive E:. I received the following popup with a single error message.

This message is repeated below.

Cannot open output file : The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect. : E:\dma\Downloads\OS X Installer ESD\BaseSystem.dmg:com.apple.diskimages.recentcksum

By examining the string BaseSystem.dmg:com.apple.diskimages.recentcksum, one can determine this string is referring to an alternate data stream. Since exFAT does not support alternate data streams, an error message was generated. After further testing, I can state the following.

This answer and my original answer do not require any alternate data streams which can or can not be copied from the InstallMacOSX.dmg file downloaded from Apple.

So, if this is the only error message in the popup, then you can ignore the message and proceed with creating the USB flash drive OS X El Capitan installer.


†Actually, Fred - originally posted an answer which was edited by Fred -, then me and finally a moderator. At the time of this posting, the moderator converted the answer to a comment, then deleted the answer.

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Pureinfotech
pureinfotech.com › home › how to quickly create a macos bootable usb on windows 10
How to quickly create a macOS bootable USB on Windows 10 - Pureinfotech
June 11, 2025 - Here are the steps to create a macOS bootable USB media (Ventura) with GPT partition support on Windows 10 and 11 to rescue your Mac.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/mac › trying to make bootable usb flash drive with mac os high sierra 10.13.6. i have some questions
r/mac on Reddit: Trying to make bootable usb flash drive with Mac OS high sierra 10.13.6. I have some questions
October 6, 2023 -

I followed a link from this article:

https://mackeeper.com/blog/how-to-make-a-bootable-high-sierra-installer/

The link within the article is this:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/macos-high-sierra/id1246284741?ls=1&mt=12

Background info: I’m trying to use my working Mac desktop to download a Mac OS install bootable usb for my other Mac desktop.

-1st question: the App Store says it’s 4.8 GB. After I downloaded it, it says it’s 5.23 GB (for all the files associated with it I assume). But when I look up how much space it should take, I keep seeing figures from 12 to 20 GB. Why the discrepancy?

-2nd question: I wasn’t signed in to my Apple ID when I downloaded the installation files from the App Store. The link I posted above let me get around it. This is legit right?

P.s….Any further input or advice would be appreciated. I’ve never done anything like this before. So if anyone has any instructions or advice on how to use this to install Mac OS, that would be helpful.

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YouTube
youtube.com › watch
How to Create Mac (macOS) Bootable USB Drive on Windows PC | 🤯 🤯 2025 New Method 🤯 🤯 | Works 100% - YouTube
First time ever you will learn how to create a 100% working Mac ( macOS ) bootable USB drive on Windows 11 by downloading the Mac operating system from Appl...
Published   October 24, 2024
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/osx › where to download macos high sierra for creating bootable disk on windows 11?
r/osx on Reddit: Where to Download MacOS High Sierra for creating bootable disk on Windows 11?
September 22, 2025 -

The recovery on my MacBook Air 2017 is causing one error after the another so I am trying to create a bootable USB and use that. However a major issue is that I do not have access to any other Mac. After looking around the internet it seems there are some tools (not 100% sure if they will work or not) that can create one with the dmg file for the OS. However I am not able to find it in Apple Support and do not know any reputable website to download it from. Any suggestions will be highly appreciated!