Create El Capitan Bootable Usb From Windows

If your Mac suddenly refuses to boot up properly, you might need a bootable macOS USB installer to make repairs. But how do you create such a disk if all you're left with is a Windows 10 computer? Fortunately, there's a great tool that you can use for free to create bootable macOS media on a USB drive in a Windows 10 environment. This article shows you how to download a macOS DMG file, format a USB drive using a GUID Partition Table, burn the DMG to the drive and boot your Mac from the USB. All the steps except the last one are done on a Windows 10 machine.

Create Windows 10 Bootable Usb
Bootable Os X El Capitan
Make El Capitan Install Usb
Create El Capitan Bootable Usb From Windows

Part 1: Download macOS or Mac OS X DMG File

Create a bootable USB drive for macOS X versions including El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks, Sierra, High Sierra, Mojave, Catalina and Big Sur.

The first step is to get the DMG disk image file for the version of macOS that you want. You can get a copy of the latest macOS version from Apple download portal or App Store here. There are also several other direct download sites that offer various versions of Mac OS X in DMG format rather than the standard APP format that runs on Mac. Since you're working in a Windows environment, you need the DMG rather than the APP file.

This tutorial will help you create a bootable USB flash drive for your Mac on a Windows computer using Transmac.In order for this to work you should have a U. Verify that the USB drive you will be writing to is plugged in. Uncheck the Install Windows 7 or later version and Download the latest Windows support software from Apple options. Check Create a Windows 7 or later install disk and click Continue. Your USB drive should be listed in the 'Destination disk' area.

macOS DMG Download Link:

Part 2: Easily Create a Bootable macOS USB from Windows 10/8/7 PC

You have now formatted the partition of USB drive. It's time to download UUByte DMG Editor for Windows. Although this is a premium software, you can use the initial free trial period to create a bootable macOS USB on Windows 10. After installing the application, follow the sequence of steps shown below:

Updates (Dec 8, 2020): The latest version of UUByte DMG Editor is able to format the USB automatically.

Step 1: Right-click the software icon on desktop and select 'Run as Administrator' from the contextual menu. Choose 'Run' when prompted.

Step 2: Insert your formatted USB drive, and click 'Burn' tab on the main screen.

Step 3: Click 'Browse' button to import macOS dmg file into the program. And select the USB drive name from the second row. You can also set a volume labe for that USB drive.

Step 4: Click 'Burn' button at the bottom to start the process. You will see a progress bar and wait around 10 minutes to get it done.

Step 5: Once the progress bar is at 100%, a bootable macOS USB is ready. After that, you can use that USB drive for installing macOS.

This is one of the easiest way to create a bootable macOS USB on a Windows PC. The steps are simple and instructions are pretty clear.

Part 3: Format USB Drive to GPT If Failed

If the USB drive created in above step was not seen as a bootable device on your Mac, then you need to take an addtional step before burning. That's formatting the USB to GPT.

Mostly, the USB drive was formmated to FAT32 in default when being shipped out from the factory. However, FAT32 can be only used for installing OS with legacy BISO, which doesn't work for macOS. So the next step is to format your USB drive in the GPT partition style in order to burn installation files to the desired USB drive. You can do this in Command Prompt as admin. In elevated Command Prompt (Ctrl+Shift+Enter), input the following series of commands followed by Enter after each line:
Diskpart
List disk
Select Disk X (X stands for the USB drive name that appears after the previous command)
Clean
Convert GPT
Create partition primary

Part 4: Boot Mac from macOS USB Drive for Installation

Now remove the USB drive and insert it into the Mac computer. To boot from the disk, you need to hold down the option key when you hear the boot chime. This will take you to the Startup Disk Manager, where you should be able to see the USB drive. It might have a different name, but as long as it is bootable, you'll be able to see it there. Once you select it, the computer will boot from the disk and the macOS installation will begin.

Troubleshooting

Flashing Error: You might receive a flashing error message at the end of burning process. Please don'y worry and ignore this error. The USB becomes a bootable disk and you can use it to install macOS even this error pops up.

About Official EI Capitan DMG: There has a serious bug in the official release of OS X El Capitan, which contains .pkg installer only. The burning process will fail for sure. Please use this modified EI Capitan DMG file instead, which was approved a good option.

Registration Failed: Please make sure the computer is connected to Internet and no proxy or VPB is running during registration. If the problem still exists, please send an email to support team asking for a new code.

Conclusion

The whole process might look a bit complicated if this is your first time, but just follow the instructions in this article and you should be fine. That being said, you need to be careful when downloading the DMG file and formatting your USB drive. If you don't do these two steps correctly, the output drive from the UUByte DMG Editor software won't be bootable, which means you can't install macOS from that USB drive, and you may need to do the whole thing over again.

Introduction of Bootable CD

Bootable CD is a kind of special disc, which contains a bootable operating system. This operation system generally is a compact version of Linux or Windows PE. A disc which has been installed a compact operating system is called Bootable CD.

If the Windows operating system installed on hard disk, such as, Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10, can not boot or suffers a system crash, we can restore the operating system through a bootable CD so as to make the operating system on the disc work normally again.

It is always recommended to backup Windows drivers so as to restore them and insure a working computer after recovering system. Or you may download the magic tool Driver Talent for Network Card which is able to download and install network drivers without internet connection in case of no internet after system recovery.

Create bootable disc will help you boot your computer successfully. The bootable CD maker AOMEI Backupper supports creating two kinds of bootable CD or USB Flash Drive. One is Linux boot disc, and another is Windows PE boot disc. The former one can be created straightway, while the latter one may require installing Windows AIK kit in your operating system in advance. Linux boot disc has several drawbacks. For example, some hardware does not support it, such as, hardware RAID; and some functions of the software can not be used. Therefore, we strongly recommend creating Windows PE bootable CD first. The comparison of the available functions between these two types of disc is as follows.

Features	Windows PE bootable CD	Linux bootable CD
File, Folder, Disk and partition backup
System Backup
System Restore
File, Folder, Disk and partition Restore
Disk and partition clone
Explore image file
Support hardware RAID

Making Windows PE Bootable CD

When making a Windows PE bootable CD, the free backup software - AOMEI Backupper will check out whether your operating system meets the corresponding requirements. For instance, is it necessary to install Windows AIK? If it does, this software will provide corresponding notices. If your operating system is Vista or higher version of OS, such as, Windows 7/8/2008 R2/2011/2012, usually you can directly create a bootable CD without installing Windows AIK.

Here come the steps of how to create bootable disc with AOMEI Backupper.

Tip: Download this software, install and launch it.

Step 1. Under the 'Tools' tab, select 'Create Bootable Media' option.

Step 2. In the pop-up window, choose 'Windows PE-create bootable disc based on Windows PE' option, and then click 'Next'.

Step 3. In the pop-up window, select 'Burn to CD/DVD' option, and then click 'Next'. (Notes: you need a CD-burning program, and also you need to insert the CD/DVD into the CD-ROM, or the 'Burn to CD/DVD' option will not be available).

Step 4. When the operation is done, just click 'Finish' to exit the interface.
Here you have already made a bootable CD. Then, you can reboot your computer, and set the CD-ROM as the first boot device in BIOS settings and test if your computer can boot from the disc. Then, when something bad happens, you can perform windows 10 system image restore to different computer, even with dissimilar hardware.

Making Bootable USB Flash Drive or USB Disk

If you do not have a CD/DVD, but a USB flash drive, you can use a USB drive to replace CD/DVD, to create a bootable USB drive. The making way is the same as creating a bootable CD. You just need to see the following screenshot, select 'USB Boot Device' and click Next.

Making Linux Bootable CD

The way to create Linux bootable CD is just the same as those steps of creating Windows PE bootable CD/USB Drive. The only difference is that you can create this kind of CD at any time without meeting any requirement, or need a Windows AIK installation. Just like what has been said before, the compatibility of Linux bootable CD might be a little bit poorer.
The operating process of making Linux bootable disc is just similar to that of making Windows PE bootable disc. You can just refer to the steps above. Here is is screenshot:

Create Windows 10 Bootable Usb

During the process of making Linux CD, if you do not possess a CD, AOMEI Backupper allows you create a bootable USB drive. The only requirement is that, when choosing the bootable media type, select the USB Boot Device. Then you can boot the operating system from the USB disk to do the recovery operations.

Bootable Os X El Capitan

Note: Linux bootable media does not support for EFI/UEFI boot, if your computer boot mode is UEFI mode, you need to enter into BOIS to change the BIOS boot mode from UEFI to Legacy Boot Mode like the following snapshot (you may also learn how to change the setting by referring to the manual of your motherboard).

Making Bootable ISO File

If you do not have CD or USB disk, or if there is a problem when making the bootable CD, you could create a bootable ISO file first, and then employ some burning software, like Nero to burn ISO file to a CD or USB disk.
Here come the operating steps of creating bootable ISO file.

First, select 'Create Bootable Media' option under the 'Utilities' item. Then, select the 'Export ISO file' option, and then click 'Next'.

At last, click 'Finish' when the operation has been done.

Make El Capitan Install Usb

Now, after creating the ISO file, you can easily burn ISO to CD or USB with burning tool and follow the tutorial how to burn ISO file to CD/USB to burn this ISO file. Also, you can complete this task with the Windows 7 integrates built-in burning utility by right clicking this ISO file > Open With > Windows Disc Image Burner.