How to Make Mac OS Sierra Bootable Usb Drive With Disk Utility

In this post I will try the best I can to guid you! how to create Mac OS Sierra bootable usb drive from your Mac or from any working hackintosh-PC using Disk Utilities.

Because since El Capitan the disk utility of macOS was change, if you running El Capitan and want to create bootable usb for Mac OS Sierra you can use Yosemite Disk utility for El Capitan just google it!

This method also work to create usb installer for El Capitan, Yosemite and Maverick and other previous version of Mac OS X as well.

First you need to download Mac OS-X Installer apps from App Store, torrent. If you already have it than its good so you can just start experiment with it.

Or to make it all process simple you can use terminal command to restore the installer app to usb drive, you can found the ‘sudo’ command at official apple support page for every version of macOS here https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

When you done create usb installer with terminal, for the final trick and to make it works go back here and skip this tutorial into Installing Clover boot loader (for Hackintosh) section.

For you guys who want to create usb installer with disk utility you can follow the tutorials starting from here;

Prepare a usb drive

You can use 8 GB USB stick except for El Capitan you will need 16 GB USB drive.

Important! Make sure you have no important data there because we gonna format it and will delete all your data and will be impossible to restore it back.

So back up your data and put it in a safe place before you do this!

Formating USB Drive

Plug usb drive and go to Application > Utilities > open Disk Utility and format your USB drive as GUID Partition Table. see pic below👇🏼

Show hidden file using terminal

Now we have to make hidden files show up using terminal command. You will understand what the purpose of doing it later.

Open terminal type or copy the command bellow, this command will show you the hidden files.

Later you will need to make it back to normal ..so you can use the command bellow to make all hidden files vanish again.

Find BaseSystem.dmg

Go to Mac OS Sierra apps > right click > show package contents.

Click Content > Shared Support and mount InstallESD.dmg with Disk Utility.

open InstallESD archive in finder and mount BaseSystem.dmg.

Now you know why we have to show the hidden files 😜

Restore BaseSystem to USB Drive

Select the USB drive from the list of disks, select Restore tab and pick select BaseSystem.dmg as a source and USB flash drive as the destination. When ready click on Restore button.

After the Restore process is finished, open Finder > open USB drive (OS X Base System) ► go to the System/Installation folder and select Packages file and delete it.

Moving Packages folder to USB drive

Open OS X Install ESD volume in Finder, select Packages folder and copy them to System/Installation folder on USB drive.

Also copy BaseSystem.chunklist and BaseSystem.dmg files from InstallESD.dmg volume to root of USB flash drive (OS X Base System).

NOTE: For using in real Mac computer your USB drive is ready to use.

But! for using it to install Mac OS-X in Hackintosh PC you need to install Clover boot loader on it!

Installing Clover boot loader (for Hackintosh)

Download the latest version of Clover boot loader  HERE

Install Clover and choose your USB drive for install destination. See picture below!

After install Clover finish, there will automatically EFI Partition mounted on your Finder-sidebar/Desktop.

Copy kext and config.plist to EFI

So! its time for The Tricks! Putting some essential kext like fakeSMC.kext etc.

For config.plist you can use pre edited one, along with additional kext I have uploaded.

Download config.plist, kext & driver here 👉🏻 DOWNLOAD

After you download the archive extract it then find and choose one of config.plist you desire inside the config.plist folder. Copy config,plist to mounted EFI partition in desktop/finder-sidebar click on EFI > Clover > EFI > CLOVER and replace existing config.plist there.

Then copy all kext from kext folder to  Clover > EFI > CLOVER > Kext > Other(for OS Sierra) 10.11(for El Capitan) and so on, to EFI partition.

And Done!

Now your Usb Drive is ready to install Mac OS (X) on your Hackintosh-PC.

Important! Before install Mac OS X on PC please backup all important data especially in drive you decide to dedicate for installing Mac.

Closing words

For conclusion and you to taking note that every Hackintosh thing is only for FUN and Educational purpose only.

I am not responsible for any damage caused by following this tutorial. Make sure you know exactly what you’re doing and understand for the risk as well.

If you really love Mac OS X system you should buy a Real Mac by Apple.

I hope this post could help you to make bootable usb drive for hackintosh and “Real Mac” as well. If  you want to discuss something please feel free to leave your comment bellow!

Good luck and  take care!

Hermansyah Filani

Site Admin

An independent blogger who love drawings and paintings. I am the author of this site. Don't forget to stay connect with me on Social media