To create a bootable USB drive from a DMG file on Windows, you will need to have the right utility. That's because DMG is not native on Windows. It is the Mac equivalent of an ISO file that has been in use since Apple transitioned from the IMG format with Mac OS X. A DMG file, like ISO, can be used to install macOS operating system or Mac apps. If the Mac computer was broken or crashed and couln't get into the system, but you only have access to a Windows PC, there's still a way to make a bootable macOS install USB on Windows.

Mar 12, 2020 Use Startup Manager or Startup Disk preferences to select the bootable installer as the startup disk, then start up from it. Your Mac will start up to macOS Recovery. Learn about selecting a startup disk, including what to do if your Mac doesn't start up from it. Choose your language, if prompted.

This article looks at three applications that you can use to create a bootable USB drive from a DMG file in Windows. All of them have their advantages and disadvantages, which we have highlighted. You can make the best choice for you based on the information provided below. They are in no particular order of preference.

DMG Editor - Make Bootable USB from DMG File on Windows

It is not easy to find an user-friendly application when it comes to make bootable macOS Install USB. That's the reason why we spent months to develop such an app. Our latest product, DMG Editor, is a fairly robust application for creating bootable USB from a DMG file. And it works well on both Windows and Mac platforms.

It is packed with modern UI and the steps are very step to follow. After several mouse clicks and wait a couple of minutes, a bootable macOS USB is ready for OS installation or system repair. You won't find any other applications on Windows that is better than UUByte DMG Editor!

Step 1: Download UUByte DMG Editor setup.exe from this website and follow the prompt to install the software on a Windows PC. Currently, it works well on Windows 10, Windows 8 and Windows 7.

Step 2: After installation, UUByte DMG Editor will be opened automatically. And you will see three options on the main screen. At this time, click 'Burn' tab And you will be lead to a new window.

Step 3: Insert an USB drive to Windows PC and the name will show up at the right side of USB icon. If the drive name was wrong, you can click 'Change' button to pick up the right device. Next, click 'Browse' button to add the .dmg file into the program.

Step 4: When the dmg file is loaded from local hard drive, click 'Burn' button to start burning dmg to USB drive. This process will be finished in less than 10 minutes and you have to wait before you can do anything with the device.

You will be notified when the burning task is completed. Now follow the link listed on the screen to start installing macOS from USB drive

Convert DMG to ISO and Create macOS Boot USB from Windows

Since ISO is a better format for Windows, you can also convert the DMG to the ISO format and then use the ISO disk image to create the bootable USB. Please note that you can't boot your Mac from bootable USB made from an ISO file, which means you'll have to convert it back to DMG prior to that. Still, it's an effective way to create bootable media for a Mac computer. Here's how it works:

Step 1: Once you have the macOS install DMG file on a Windows PC, click on Windows + R to open the run dialog box, and type in CMD, then hit Enter. When the Command Prompt opens up, use the following command to convert the file to ISO:
hdiutil convert /path/sourceimagefile.dmg -format UDTO -o /path/targetmage.iso

Step 2: Download and install UUByte ISO Editor on your PC, insert the USB drive and launch the application.

Step 3: Click Burn button on the main screen and point to the converted ISO file. The drive will be automatically detected and click on Burn icon to burn the ISO to the USB drive.

Once the ISO is burned to the file, you can insert it into a Mac and convert it back into the DMG format. Since you're converting the file twice, there's a chance that the file could get corrupted in the process. If that happens repeatedly, then try this next method.

PowerISO: Make Bootable Mac Install USB on Windows 10/8/7

This Windows utility allows you do create bootable USB from DMG on a PC. You can also edit the DMG or extract the contents, and there's also an option to copy it to a disk. For this particular exercise, we'll show you how to use PowerISO to create a bootable USB drive on Windows without having to convert the disk image into another format like ISO.

Step 1: Download and install the application on your PC.

Step 2: Insert your USB drive and launch PowerISO.

Step 3: In the Tools menu, select 'Create Bootable USB Drive… '. You will need to give admin privileges to the software. Alternatively, you can run the program as admin when you launch it.

Step 4: Select the USB drive in the section called Destination USB Drive.

Step 5: Leave all other default as they are and click on 'Start' to burn DMG to the USB drive.

You should be able to see the progress, and a new popup will appear when the bootable media is ready. You can now eject the media and use it to run the DMG on a Mac computer.

Conclusion:

All of these methods are workable, so select the right one for you based on your level of knowledge and your preference.

This guide deals with 3 ways of making a boot disk from OSX 10.9 Mavericks the first one is the fastest and is done via the Terminal from a new command already in OSX Mavericks called createinstallmedia , the other 2 are older ways when Mavericks was in development and are done with a mixture of finder using Disk Utility and command line.

Make Macos Boot Usb Windows

Quickest Way

Download Mac OSX 10.9Mavericks but don’t install.

Attach your USB stick/drive.

Launch the Terminal from /Applications/Utilities and enter the command below and then your password when prompted, be sure to change the ‘Untitled‘ name in the below command to your external disk name:

Let it do its thing and there you have it, one bootable Mac OSX 9 drive.

This really is a super simple way – however if using the Terminal fills you with fear and dread, there are some GUI apps that can get the job done namely DiskMakerX and a new imaging tool that can clone a new disk very quickly – AutoDMG.

Create A Bootable Macos Usb

Alternative Ways of building a Bootable Mavericks OSX Disk.

To make a boot disk of OSX 10.9 Mavericks, first of all get the app or download via the App store, if downloaded it will file in the folder Applications.

Control / Left click Options, Show in Finder to get to the app, don’t install at this stage.

Located in the Applications Folder

Finding the InstallESD.dmg

To find the actual InstallESD.dmg file, control/left click the ‘Install OS X Mavericks’ app and choose show contents – then navigate to Shared Support folder.

Control/Right click to show contents

Navigate to Shared Support folder to see the InstallESD.dmg file

Mount InstallESD.dmg

Double click to mount the image.

Make Invisible Files Visible

We need to see the BaseSystem.dmg inside the InstallESD.dmg

Crank open Terminal and run:

This will show all invisible files have a look inside the mounted InstallESD.dmg

Mount an External Disk

Attach a USB/external drive – this guide uses the external drive name calledBootDisk, you need to make sure the format is correct, it needs to be Mac OSX Extended Journaled – it its not you can format that in Disk Utility.

Launch Disk Utility

Launch Disk Utility as found in Applications/Utilities and go to the Restore tab.

Drag BaseSystem.dmg to the Source field and your external disk to the Destination and click Restore.

This will mount your new OSX 10.9 external disk and name it OSX Base System – but we need to add the packages.

Fix the Packages

Couple of things to fix in the newly created boot disk, remove the Packagealias at System/Installation/ folder

Now from the previously mounted InstallESD.dmg copy over the Packages folder to the same location where we just removed the alias above.

Will take a while as it holds all the install packages.

Job done now you can boot from the OSX 10.9 disk.

Make the Visible back to Invisible

If you want all to return back to normal and hide the system files run a couple more commands in the Terminal

How to create the OSX 10.9 Mavericks Bootable Drive just via Terminal

Just for the crazy ones……after Mavericks is downloaded….and again this assumes you external disk is named BootDisk

Mount the InstallESD.dmg buried deep in the app

Swap to the newly mounted image

This puts you back in the Finder in front of the newly mounted InstallESD.dmg, go back to Terminal and clone the BaseSystem.dmg to the remote USB drive

This will change ‘BootDisk‘ to ‘OS X Base System‘

Remove the existing Packages alias link from the newly restored image

Copy the full OSX Mavericks Packages over to the new image….takes a while

Create Usb Boot Disk For Mac Os Mavericks 10 9

And there it is! – to eject the new bootable USB OSX Mavericks 10.9 disk ‘cd’ to home and eject

Create Macos Boot Usb Windows

Now you can boot up from your newly bootable disk and either Install OSX10.9 on another device or use the Terminal/Disk Utility or Firmware Password Utilities on another device.