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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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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?

Discussions

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
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... More on insanelymac.com
🌐 insanelymac.com
September 28, 2020
bootcamp - macOS High Sierra: Create Windows bootable Usb - Ask Different
I just install macOS High Sierra and Windows 10 through BootCamp Assistant. The problem is that, Windows have a strange issue and I need a bootable USB to go to the recovery mode. I tried to make one from BootCamp Assistant but in the latest macOS the process is different and there is nowhere ... More on apple.stackexchange.com
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September 30, 2017
How can I use Windows to create an OS X El Capitan or macOS Sierra USB flash drive installer from the disk image (.dmg) file downloaded from Apple? - Ask Different
The reputation requirement helps protect this question from spam and non-answer activity. ... Find the answer to your question by asking. Ask question ... See similar questions with these tags. ... 57 High Sierra - The path /System/Installation/Packages/OSInstall.mpkg appears to be missing or damaged · 73 How can I download an older version of OS X/macOS? 42 How do I create bootable USB ... More on apple.stackexchange.com
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September 24, 2022
Trying to make bootable usb flash drive with Mac OS high sierra 10.13.6. I have some questions
This guide from Apple has everything you need to build a bootable installer including a link to download needed OS images More on reddit.com
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1
October 6, 2023
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
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How to Create macOS Bootable USB from Windows 10/11?(Latest)
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Apple Community
discussions.apple.com › thread › 255069067
make a macOS usb stick with windows - Apple Community
Boot Camp Assistant (If you're on macOS): Now, since you’re diving into this from a Mac perspective, Apple has this neat tool called Boot Camp Assistant that's baked right into macOS. It's essentially your golden ticket for getting Windows up and running on your Mac. Open it up, and it'll guide you through the process of creating a bootable USB drive with the Windows ISO you downloaded.
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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)
1 month ago - 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.
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Apple Support
support.apple.com › en-us › 101578
Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support
October 15, 2025 - You can use a USB flash drive or other secondary volume as a startup disk from which to install the Mac operating system. These steps are primarily for system administrators and other experienced users. ... You don't need a bootable installer to upgrade macOS or reinstall macOS.
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GitHub
gist.github.com › advixity › 16fb1e940ff8469f64cc944844af1375
A (relatively) simple guide to create a Bootable MacOS installer USB on Windows · GitHub
October 16, 2025 - 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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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 - In this guide, I’ll outline the steps to create a macOS bootable USB installation on Windows 10 (or 11), which you can use to reinstall or upgrade the Apple OS. ... Broken Mac computer running macOS (optional). A trial copy of the TransMac software. One high-quality USB flash drive with 16GB of storage.
Find elsewhere
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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
You can use this app to create bootable universal USB Windows installers that supports both UEFI and Legacy BIOS modes.
Starred by 3.6K users
Forked by 89 users
Languages   C 85.5% | Objective-C 14.3% | C++ 0.2%
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UUByte
uubyte.com › create-mac-os-high-sierra-bootable-usb.html
How to Create macOS High Sierra Bootable USB on Any PC or Mac
July 2, 2024 - Step 2: Download a copy of DMG Editor and follow the guidance to install this app on Windows 10. You will see the following screen once the installation is completed. Step 3: Please click the Browse button located at the top to import macOS High Sierra dmg file into the program.
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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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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...
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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6

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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Macworld
macworld.com › home › software › how-to
How to create a bootable USB macOS installer | Macworld
May 20, 2022 - Launch Disk Utility (press Command + spacebar and start to type Disk Utility). Before this next step, note: if you are running High Sierra or later you will need to click on the View dropdown below the close minimize buttons.
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MacKeeper
mackeeper.com › blog › mac tutorials › how to create a macos high sierra bootable usb
How to Create a macOS High Sierra Bootable USB
April 30, 2025 - To create a bootable macOS High Sierra USB installer: Connect the HighSierra USB drive to your Mac. Launch Terminal (navigate to Applications → Utilities and open the Terminal app) Copy and paste the following command into the Terminal window:
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UNetbootin
unetbootin.github.io
UNetbootin - Homepage and Downloads
UNetbootin allows you to create bootable Live USB drives for Ubuntu, Fedora, and other Linux distributions without burning a CD. It runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.
🌐
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
This was my first time installing ... through Microsoft’s website and transfer it to a USB drive on my Mac running macOS High Sierra. Microsoft provides a tool for creating a bootable Windows 10 installation drive from an existing Windows system, but not for macOS, and there ...
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Quora
quora.com › How-can-you-create-a-bootable-USB-drive-on-macOS-High-Sierra-and-later-without-using-any-third-party-apps-or-utilities
How to create a bootable USB drive on macOS High Sierra and later without using any third-party apps or utilities - Quora
Answer (1 of 2): Before creating a bootable USB drive with a High Sierra, there are some preparations you need to do: * A blank USB drive with at least 16 GB of available storage space. * Good internet connection. * Back up your data to save your important files with an external hard drive to...
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Microsoft Community Hub
techcommunity.microsoft.com › microsoft community hub › communities › products › windows › windows 10
How can I create a macOS bootable usb on Windows 10? | Microsoft Community Hub
Can anyone guide me through the steps or recommend reliable tools or methods tailored for Windows 10 users that can help achieve this without needing extensive Terminal knowledge? Your guidance would be invaluable. ... I have encountered the same problem as you before, and I found many ways to solve it. In the end, I used UltraDMG. It can create a macOS bootable USB directly on Windows, and you don't need to do any complicated command line operations.
Top answer
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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.