Bootable Usb Stick For Mac

| 20-04-2021
[RAND-1-100] Comments



MacOS Sierra bootable USB, DiskMaker X 6 is another Application which allows you to create bootable USB on a Mac. Diskmaker x 6 is an open source application which has built with AppleScript. Since it has created with AppleScript it can support many versions of OS X macOS to create a bootable USB Installer. Make Windows Bootable USB Mac with PassFab 4WinKey. Thinking about how do I create a. How to Create a Bootable Ubuntu USB Drive 1. Format a USB Drive. The first part of the process is to format a USB drive such that it is bootable on a Mac. Find a USB drive, of 2GB capacity or more, and plug it into the Mac. Launch the Disk Utility app which is located in Applications Utilities. Just about any type of USB external drive will work: thumb drive, hard drive, or SSD. The installer software will take up over 5GB. If you want to use a thumb drive, an 8GB drive works perfectly. Download Mac Lion Installer from App Store. Latest versions of Mac are only available through App.

With a bootable Ubuntu USB stick, you can:

Bootable Usb Drive Mac Os X El Capitan

  • Install or upgrade Ubuntu, even on a Mac
  • Test out the Ubuntu desktop experience without touching your PC configuration
  • Boot into Ubuntu on a borrowed machine or from an internet cafe
  • Use tools installed by default on the USB stick to repair or fix a broken configuration

Creating a bootable USB stick is very simple, especially if you’re going to use the USB stick with a generic Windows or Linux PC. We’re going to cover the process in the next few steps.

Apple hardware considerations

There are a few additional considerations when booting the USB stick on Apple hardware. This is because Apple’s ‘Startup Manager’, summoned by holding the Option/alt (⌥) key when booting, won’t detect the USB stick without a specific partition table and layout. We’ll cover this in a later step.

The last release of Mac OS doesn't have the option to create a bootable USB from Bootcamp like previous versions, and it is a problem because that require uses other tools.

I am updating this post today Dec 12, 2018. The reason is that I was only using UNetbootin to create the bootable USB, I will leave guide as a second method since it still working, and I will explain to you how you can create the bootable Windows USB without extra software.

The first step for both methods requires to format your USB device to NTFS, this is the default filesystem, alternative you can use ExFAT but the installation could fail.

Format USB to ExFAT (Under your own risk)

In order to boot from the USB, you need to format the USB to ExFAT, you can do it using Disk Utility (it comes with MacOS).

This step is the same for both methods. You need to show all the devices in Disk Utility' before to start the process.

Select your USB device in the list (not the partition), right click and then click on the Erase option:

In the next screen make sure you select these two options:

  • Format: ExFAT
  • Scheme: Master Boot Record

Click the Erase button.

If for some reason it fails, probably is because MacOS still using the USB, just repeat the steps, but if you see a screen similar to above screen is because the operation is successful.

Format USB with the terminal

You also can format the USB from the terminal, but you have to take care to use the correct device because, if you use the wrong name you will lose everything.

With this command you can list the device on MacOS:

This is an example, my USB is the disk2:

This command is to format the USB, the last parameter is the the USB:

Copy Windows files to USB - Method 1

This process is very easy doesn't require to install other software, and they are just a few steps:

Open Windows ISO

Just double click on the ISO image, MacOS mount the image automatically.

Copy files

Now you only need to copy the files and paste them to the USB.

  • Command + A Select all files.
  • Command + C Copy files.
  • Go to your USB Command + V paste the files.

This process could fail if you are using a USB with FAT32 because the file install.win is over 4GB, if this is the case try to open the terminal and copy paste the files from there (no always works. Try to follow the instructions to format the USB in ExFAT, NTFS works for some BIOS).

This is the command to copy the files from the ISO to the USB:

And that is all, now you can try boot from the USB.

BootableUsb boot drive for mac

Mac Bootable Usb Windows

UNetbootin - Method 2

I will show you how you can use UNetbootin to create a bootable USB, it can be used no only for Mac but for Windows and Linux distributions too.

Mac Bootable Usb Maker

UNetbootin is free software and it is also available for Windows and Linux.

Check the path name of your USB Disk.

Always in Disk Utility, select the new partition that we created in the previous step, and click on the information button, it will give you the information about the new partition.

You also can use the terminal and the command diskutil to see the list of drives:

Download UNetbootin:

Create Bootable Usb Mac

  • Download the dmg directly from the Website.
    And copy the app to the /Application folder.

  • I prefer to use homebrew to install applications, you can check this article for more information: Installing Applications on Mac with Homebrew:

Makes the USB booteable

Creating Bootable Usb On Mac

Open UNetbootin and you only need select 3 options:

Create Bootable Usb Stick For Mac

  • Diskimage and ISO
  • Now we need open the ISO Windows image that is on our computer.
  • Select your USB device on UNetbootin.
  • Click on the OK, button and wait to the process end it will take a time.

NOTES:

Bootable Usb Drive Mac Os X Lion

  • I tested other tools like dd and Etcher but they are not working because Windows requires extra steps, for the moment this is the only easy tool that I know that works if you are on Windows try Rufus.
  • Some users reported that UNetbootin is not working, if after to format the USB drive and change the block size is not working for you try another Drive with enough space.