Bootable Installer Catalina

 admin

In previous tutorial, we wrote a post about creating macOS Catalina bootable USB on Mac, which is a simple tool and there are a couple of free tools to complete the task. You can even use the built-in tool Disk Utility and dd command to do it without installing any third-party apps. However, the situation is much different on Windows 10 because macOS install file (end with .dmg) is not supported by Windows OS. Unlike ISO image, there are few tools on Windows that can handle .dmg files. That's the most challenging part!

Installer

Presumably because quite reasonably it would not make sense to install on top of a later version of the OS. However in this case I want to create a boot USB drive for an installation on another Mac. I am stuck in a chicken and egg situation where I need another machine running El Capitan or earlier to create and El Capitan boot installer.

So in this article, we will show you how to create macOS bootable USB on Windows 10 and targets macOS Catalina specifically, which is the latest version of Apple macOS and it is easy to download the install file. This will be a great help if there were something wrong with your Mac and a fresh install was demanded. Also if you were a Mac enthusiast and can not afford the price, then it is not a bad choice to build a hackintosh with Catalina.

Before heading to the details of each method, please make sure you have downloaded a copy of Catalina OS dmg file and a working USB drive with more than 12GB storage.

  • Download macOS Catalina 10.15 Installer with macOS Catalina Patcher Although it may appear easy to try out the conventional approach of downloading macOS update in Software Update, there are a few known issues on old Macs shipped in 2013 or earlier, meaning the download progress can not be completed successfully.
  • Currently, you can only create a bootable installer for macOS Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra, or El Capitan. If you want to go back to your previous macOS, here's how to downgrade macOS.
  • Create a macOS Catalina bootable USB drive using this handy guide. The USB drive can be used to upgrade a Mac, clean install macOS or for recovery purposes.
  • Make a macOS Catalina boot disk! With Apple no longer supplying a bootable USB Flash Drive with latest OS X releases learn how to create your own.Learn how t.

Method 1: Create macOS Catalina Bootable USB on Windows 10 via DMG Editor

There are more than one solutions to create macOS Catalina Bootable USB on Windows 10 and we will go with easy one first. DMG Editor, a popular app developed by UUByte, is a multi-functional and cross-platform image burning tool that works on Windows, Linux and macOS. It supports creating bootable USB from popular image files, including dmg, iso, zip, img. And it has full support for Linux distros and old versions of Windows OS. macOS support was not available in previous versions. But now, the latest version of DMG Editor adds better support for macOS dmg file. Let's get a try first.

Step 1.Go to UUByte official website and download Windows version of Etcher from there.

Step 2. Run the executable file and complete the installation process. After that, insert an USB drive in Windows 10.

Step 3. Open the installed UUByte DMG Editor by double-clicking on the icon shown on your home screen. Click on the 'Burn' option then. After that, add Catalina .dmg file to the software and click on 'Change' button to choose the inserted USB device.

Step 4. Finally, click on the 'Burn' button to start the dmg burning process. At this time, a progress bar is displayed on the screen and it gives you an estimated calculation for the time remaining.

Step 5. Wait about 10 minutes. It will show you a pop-up message after completing the task successfully.

The process is very quick and easy to execute. But you might have issues running Etcher app on old computers with low profile hardware. Etcher GUI is built primarily on a new Javascript framework called Electron , which consumes a lot of computing resources. So if you were going to use Etcher to create macOS Catalina bootable USB, make sure testing it on a high-profile Windows 10 PC or laptop.

Method 2: Convert .dmg to .iso and Create macOS Catalina Bootable USB

macOS Catalina install image is distributed in .dmg format and Windows 10 has no support. Hen it is almost impossible to read such files in conventional ways. So in this part, we will convert macOS Catalina dmg file into ISO and create a bootable installer by burning the ISO file to USB. This can be done with the help of third-party software.

To execute the method, you need two software. First, you need a special software to convert dmg to ISO. Second, an ISO to USB burning software to make bootable USB from ISO file. To demonstrate, we have used 7 PowerISO & UUByte ISO Editor to create macOS Catalina bootable USB from Windows 10.

Step 1: Download and install PowerISO on Windows 10.

Step 2: Insert your USB drive. Right-click on this peripheral device and choose the option to format it. After a few seconds, you will get the notification of completing the format process.

Step 3: Now, open PowerISO and navigate to Tool menu. From the pop-up list, please click the 'Convert' option.

Step 4: In a pop-up window, click the folder icon to add macOS Catalina dmg file in Source file field. And set an output file name under Destination file section. Next. choose Standard ISO Images (.ISO) from Output image file format.

Step 5: When the ISO file is created successfully. Download and install UUByte ISO Editor. Then click Burn button to open ISO burning Window. Next, add ISO file to the program and select the USB name. Wait for 7 minutes, and a bootable USB is ready!

Step 6: After getting a task completion message on screen, eject the USB and then start installing macOS Catalina from the USB drive.

The solution is simple but may need to purchase a couple of tools for executing the steps. But if you will search smartly on the internet, chances are there that you can get the required tools without paying any cost. However, if you want to bypass using any of the third-party tools, you can create the Catalina OS bootable USB by accessing macOS in a virtual machine.

Method 3: Use TransMac to Create macOS Catalina Bootable USB in Windows 10

TransMac is a single-purpose utility to open Mac disk image from a Windows PC. It's one of the quickest methods to create macOS bootable USB drive from dmg file. However, the support for Catalina is not good as Mojave and High Serrira. Plus, you have to pay for 59 USD to use the burn feature. That's why we mention this app at the end of this post.

Step 1: Download TransMac from the official site and run the .exe file to complete the installation process.

Step 2: Now plug in a USB device into the port. Now right-click on TransMac icon shown on the home screen and then choose to Run as administrator.

Macos Catalina Bootable Installer

Step 3: After landing inside the tool's window, all disk drives will be displayed on the left side automatically. Click File -> Open Disk Image to load macOS Catalina dmf file into the program.

Step 4: Before proceeding further, you need to format your USB device to make it compatible with Mac HFS or APS partition. For doing the same, click on the 'Format Diks for Mac' option. Wait for 30 seconds to complete the process.

Catalina

Step 5: Right-click on the selected USB disk. From the shown list, click on 'Restore with Disk Image'. If it shows any warning message, just click on the OK button to accept.

Step 6: After that, select the location of saved Mac OS Catalina DMG file and then click on the OK button. Now stay back and look after 20 minutes. You will get ready with a bootable Catalina USB.

Bootable Installer Catalina

TransMac is one of the easiest method to create a bootable macOS Installer USB on a Windows PC. You can use this application to burn any version of macOS operating system file to USB.

Conclusion

To conclude, we would recommend going with either the first or the second method to create bootable macOS Catalina USB. Both are super easy to follow because you don't need to install multiple tools and go through a multi-layer process to meet your requirement.


An external drive that you can use as an installer for macOS Catalina is a handy thing to have. If you have multple Macs to upgrade, it’s a lot more efficient to plug in the USB installer drive and run the installer than to log into the App Store, download the 8.09GB OS installer, and then run it.

In this article I’ll go over the different ways you can create a bootable macOS Catalina installation drive. But before I give instructions on how to create the drive, I’ll go over the items you’ll need and how to get them.

Get an external drive and maybe an adapter

The macOS Catalina installer software is over 8GB, so you need a USB external drive that can hold that much data. The drive can be a thumb drive, hard drive, or SSD.

If you have a 2015 or newer MacBook or a 2016 or newer MacBook Pro, you may need Apple’s $19 USB to USB-C adapter. This will allow you to connect a storage device that uses a USB type-A connector. If you don’t have an external drive and you have a USB-C Mac laptop, you could buy the SanDisk Ultra USB Type-C Flash Drive, which has a USB-C connector. You can get model number SDCZ450-016G-G46.

How to create a bootable macOS Catalina installer drive Put the macOS Catalina installer on an external USB thumb drive or hard drive and use it to install the operating system on a Mac. Turn on your Mac and continue to hold the power button until you see the startup options window, which shows your bootable volumes and a gear icon labled Options. Select the volume containing the bootable installer, then click Continue. When the macOS installer opens, follow the onscreen instructions. MacOS Catalina Patcher lets you install macOS Catalina on Mac computers that are no longer officially supported. It can help you create a bootable USB drive that can be used to install macOS Catalina on Mac computers older than mid 2012. Point to your Mac OS.dmg or.iso file by clicking the add button. After that TransMac will create bootable Mac OS USB within few minutes. Then you can insert it into your Mac, hold down the option key while turn on and boot your system with this USB. If you’re unable to use Internet Recovery Mode or create a bootable USB installer, you can still use a Mac OS X installation disc. These discs are available for OS X Snow Leopard, OS X Lion, and OS X Mountain Lion. If your Mac is from 2012 or earlier, there was an installation disc in the original box.

When creating the boot drive, the storage device is reformatted, so there’s no need to format the drive beforehand.

Get the macOS Catalina installer software

Create Bootable Installer Mac Catalina

The macOS Catalina installer is available in the App Store. If you launch the App Store app, do a search for “Catalina.” Or, if you click this Catalina App Store link, it will take you to the Catalina App Store webpage, then click on the “View in the Mac App Store” button.

Make bootable installer catalina

You can read the information to learn more about Catalina. When you’re ready to download the software, click the Download button. (If you’ve already downloaded the installer, the button will say Install instead of Get.)

Once the download is complete, the installer will launch automatically. But don’t continue with the installation. Instead, press Command-Q on your keyboard to quit the installer.

The Catalina installer app will be in your Applications folder, so you can go there and launch it later to upgrade your Mac to the new operating system.

Make a bootable installer drive: The quick way

Catalina

I used a free app called Install Disk Creator to make the installation drive. Download Install Disk Creator by clicking on the link. When the download is done, you can move it over to your Applications folder. Then follow these steps to create your bootable macOS Catalina drive.

1. Connect your drive to your Mac.

Create Bootable Catalina Installer

2. Launch Install Disk Creator.

Bootable Usb Installer Catalina

3. In the main window, you’ll see a pop-up menu under Select the volume to become the installer. Click on the menu and select your drive.

4. Under the pop-up menu, you’ll see Select the OS X installer. (macOS used to be called OS X.) If you have only the Catalina installer on your Mac, Install Disk Creator will automatically select it. If you have other macOS installers, you need to click on Select the OS X installer and select the Catalina installer.

Bootable Installer Catalina

5. When you’re ready, click Create installer. Your Mac may tell you that Install Disk Creator wants to make changes, and you need to enter your user name and password. After you do this, the app will take a few minutes to create the boot drive. A progress bar. appears at the bottom of the Install Disk Create window.

If you try to start the process and you get a failure message saying that the drive couldn’t be unmounted, try reformatting the drive first as ExFAT using Disk Utility. Then start the process over again.

Create Bootable Usb Mac Catalina

When the app is done, the installer is ready to use.