And while users historically would pop a boot media disk into their DVD or CD drive, many computers no longer come with optical disk drives. As a result, booting from USB media is becoming the standard.
How you start that rescue media can vary depending on the operating system you are using, but there are a few general guidelines that can help get your machine started, regardless of the OS you prefer.
So if your system is unstable, you need to run a diagnostic tool on the hard drive, or you just want to load a Linux desktop just to see what it’s all about, let’s look at how you start your machine using rescue USB boot media.
How to boot a Mac from USB media
Getting your Mac to load from a USB drive is fairly straightforward.
Apr 13, 2019 Part 1: How to Burn DMG to USB on Mac for Free (Disk Utility) The native disk image utility on Mac is ideal for burning a DMG to a USB drive. Once you burn the file to the drive, this drive can be used to install the associated application on any other Mac system. Mar 30, 2020 Starting with OS X Lion, Apple did away with DVDs and other media as a method of installing software and switched to a download model instead.Even so, it's still easy to create a USB installation disk for OS X Lion if you want to install Lion on a freshly formatted hard drive, if you're in an emergency booting situation, or if you need to repair your Mac's hard drive. See full list on anysoftwaretools.com.
- Insert the USB boot media into an open USB slot.
- Press the Power button to turn on your Mac (or Restart your Mac if it’s already on).
- When you hear the startup chime, press and hold the Option key. Holding that key gives you access to OS X’s Startup Manager. Once the Startup Manager screen appears, release the Option key. The utility will look for any available drives that include bootable content.
- Using either the pointer or arrow keys on the keyboard, select the USB drive you wish to boot from.
- Once selected, either hit the Return key or double-click your selection. The machine will start to boot from the USB drive.
If you’re using a Mac, follow Method 2 for steps on using the terminal to create a Live USB Drive. In the event that you’re already using Ubuntu but you’re looking to create a Live USB Drive for someone else to try, follow Method 3 for instructions on using the Startup Disk Creator to set up a Live USB Drive. This Insignia 6' USB-C to 4K HDMI Cable for Macbook, iPad and compatible USB-C Devices cable is compatible with Windows, Mac and Android OS devices for flexibility.Note: Your USB-C device must support HDMI Alt Mode for this cable to work properly.
NOTE: Have multiple USB devices connected to your Mac? Don’t worry. The Startup Manager only lists drives that include bootable content.
Boot from USB: Windows
Starting your PC using USB rescue media is not difficult, although it first requires an adjustment in the BIOS (Basic Input Output System). That’s because the BIOS settings include the boot sequence the machine follows when starting up. The boot order tells the machine which devices to search for the software needed to launch the computer and the priority each device in that search.
If you’re booting from USB media, you must change the BIOS boot order so the USB device is listed first. Otherwise the computer will load from the hard drive as normal.
Start by plugging the thumb drive into a USB port. Then to change the BIOS boot sequence:
- Press the Power button for your computer.
- During the initial startup screen, press ESC, F1, F2, F8 or F10. (Depending on the company that created your version of BIOS, a menu may appear.)
- When you choose to enter BIOS Setup, the setup utility page will appear.
- Using the arrow keys on your keyboard, select the BOOT tab. All of the available system devices will be displayed in order of their boot priority. You can reorder the devices here.
- Move USB to be first in the boot sequence.
NOTE: If you cannot find USB or Removable Devices among the device options, your BIOS may list it under Hard Drive Devices. In that case, you’ll need to:- Move Hard Drive Devices to the top
- Expand to show all hard drive device options
- Move USB device to the top of that hard drive list
- Save the change and then exit the BIOS Setup.
- The computer will restart using the new settings, booting from your USB drive.
- Stay alert! Depending on your BIOS, you may be prompted with a message to Press any key to boot from external device and you will only have a few seconds to respond. If you do nothing, your computer will go to the next device in the boot sequence list, which will likely be your hard drive.
In the future, your computer will first check the USB port for boot media when starting up. That won’t be a problem, since the BIOS will move to the next device in the boot sequence ... unless you keep the boot media in the USB port. Then the system will launch from that device every time.
Linux USB Boot Process
To boot Ubuntu from USB media, the process is very similar to the Windows instructions above.
- Confirm the BIOS boot sequence lists the USB drive first, or make that change as needed.
- After the USB flash drive is inserted into the USB port, press the Power button for your machine (or Restart if the computer is running).
- The installer boot menu will load, where you will select Run Ubuntu from this USB.
- Ubuntu will launch and you can begin to working in the system – setting preferences, reconfiguring the system as needed, or running any diagnostic tools.
Creating USB boot media
Regardless of the operating system you are using, booting your machine from USB media does not need to be difficult. A general understanding how your system loads can provide the basics needed to understand what is going on when you use boot media.
Creating USB boot media doesn’t need to be difficult either, although there are several options to consider.
For Mac users, we recommend visiting Apple’s support page on USB boot media. It provides guidance that is specific to the iteration of OS X you are running (i.e. Sierra, High Sierra, Yosemite, etc.) to help you get the boot version you need.
Windows and Linux users might consider Acronis Disk Director 12, which includes an intuitive Boot Media Builder that streamlines the process and offers tremendous flexibility for the type and kind of boot media you can create, including WinPE media.
Learning how to create a bootable macOS installation disk can be helpful in a variety of situations. Rather than download and install a new OS from Apple's servers each time, it can be used for multiple installations on different machines. It can also help in situations where the operating system is corrupted or installation from app store shows errors.
To create a bootable macOS installation disk, you have to burn the DMG file to a USB drive as CD/DVD is not available for Mac computers. Here's how to do it from text commands and using a purpose-built software called WizDMG. You will first need to download the DMG file for the macOS version you wish to install. For example, if you want to create a bootable macOS Mojave installer, you will need the DMG file for macOS Mojave. Once the file has been downloaded to your PC, you can proceed with one of the bootable disk creation methods shown below.
Method 1: How to Create Bootable USB Installer for Mac via Commands
macOS (formly named Mac OS X) is just a variant of popular Unix based operating system. This means a lot of daily and advanced tasks on Mac can be done via text commands such as creating bootable USB installer for Mac. However, this could be a lot of challenges if you had no clue about commands and I suggest taking a look at the other solutions in this post to avoid messing up the computer with the wrong commands.
How To Use A Usb For A Macbook Air
Step 1. Search macOS name in app store (Mojave, High Serria, EI Capitai). Click 'Get' button to download the installer image on your Mac. The downloaded file will be located in Application folder.
Step 2. When the download is completed, the installation windows opens automatically, just close the window and go to Application folder. You will find a file started Install, such as Install macOS Majave.
Step 3. Now connect an external flash drive with more than 16G free space. And backup the data in that USB drive as the installer erase all content from it. Open Disk Utility app and format the USB drive with APFS or Mac OS Extended.
Step 4. Open the Terminal app and copy-and-past the following commands to make a booatble USB installer from macOS image:
For Majove: sudo /Applications/Install macOS Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume
For High Serria: sudo /Applications/Install macOS High Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume
For EI Capitan: sudo /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app
Step 5. Input the admin password when being prompted. And wait for the booatable disk being created. When it is done successfully, you will receive a message shown in above screenshot.
Unconfortable with text commadns and prefer doing it in a simple way? The second suggestion is more user friendly!
Method 2: How to Make Bootable USB from macOS with WizDMG
WizDMG fills a huge gap in Windows not supporting DMG files. It is a desktop utility supporting Windows and Mac. It allows you to directly burn DMG files to disk in order to create a bootable macOS Mojave installer or a boot disk for any macOS version.
WizDMG offers an intuitive interface with no clutter and full functionality to handle DMG files. Apart from burning such disk image files to DVD/CD or USB, it also gives you edit options where you can add and remove files from within the DMG file, rename DMG files and even create DMGs from files and folders on your desktop. This software application has been created for novice users as well as experts. It is easy to use, has a very high burn success rate and will help you create a bootable macOS installer in no time. Follow the instructions below:
Step 1Install WizDMG
Download WizDMG from the official website and install it on your PC. Launch the program and select the 'Burn' option in the main interface.
Step 2Create Bootable USB from macOS Install Image
Click on Load DMG to import the macOS installation file into the application. Insert a USB (16G free space) and click on the 'Burn' button next to the appropriate media type.
The important thing to remember here is that you now know how to create a macOS installer in Windows. There aren't a lot of options out there because of the compatibility issues between Mac and Windows environments. That means converting DMG to ISO and back again to DMG leaves the door open for corrupted files and incorrectly burned bootable media, which defeats the whole purpose because it might not even work in the end.
Usb For Mac Air
Method 3: Create macOS High Serria/Mojave Bootable USB on Windows 10/7
Another way to create macoS bootable disk on Windows is using a tool called DMG2IMG along with Windows command prompt. It requires a bit of a workaround, but even novice users can learn to burn a DMG file to a disk to create bootable media for a macOS installation. Just make sure you follow the instructions below carefully.
Step 1. Download DMG2IMG and install it in your Windows PC. Open File Explorer and go to the folder containing the DMG2IMG program, then right-click and select 'Open command windows here.'
Step 2. Type the following command and hit Enter: dmg2img [sourcefile.dmg] [destinationfile.iso]
Step 3. Now that the DMG file has been converted to ISO format, you can use the following command to burn it to a disk. Before that, insert a disk into the optical drive: isoburn.exe /Q E: 'C:UsersUsernameDesktopdestinationfile.iso'
Step 4. This command utilizes the Windows native disk image burner to burn the ISO to the disk in your optical drive. The ISO file can't be used directly in macOS, but it can be mounted as a virtual drive. Once you do this, you can convert it back to DMG using Disk Utility in Mac. You can then use this as your bootable macOS installer.
As you can see, this is a bit of a workaround because DMG files aren't natively supported in Windows. Likewise, ISO files aren't fully supported in macOS. However, you can use this method to create a macOS installation disk in Windows. If you want a much simpler solution, then review the next method shown here.
Summary
If you ask us how to create a bootable macOS installation disk, this is the method we recommend. There's no confusing command line work involved, you don't need a bunch of additional software utilities to get the job done, and the high accuracy of the application ensures that you won't be wasting disk after disk trying to burn the installation media for macOS onto a disk. Use WizDMG as a quick and painless way to create a macOS installation disk in a very short time.
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