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How to Make Hackintosh Bootable USB Drive From Windows

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Make Hackintosh Bootable USB Drive from Windows

Hello! in this post I’m gonna show you how to make Hackintosh Bootable USB Drive on Windows without Distro. Without distro means we gonna make a Hackintosh Bootable US Drive for Vanilla Installation method.

This method works on Mac OS X Yosemite, El Capitan, and Mac OS Sierra. As I’ve tried all that OS myself on my low budget Hackintosh PC.

Please take note that this method won’t work for High Sierra since Apple use different file structure in macOS High Sierra app installer. But you absolutely can update to High Sierra with this method with no problem.

You can read post on how to safely direct upgrade your Hackintosh to High Sierra here Hackintosh Direct Upgrade From macOS Sierra to High Sierra

Can you direct upgrade to macOS Mojave? or create usb bootable using terminal with this method?

Ya! if your graphics card is compatible for Metal display technology. For more info check this post: Want to Install macOS Mojave on Hackintosh Think Again!

Okay! My Hackintosh PC spec is :

  • Processor : Intel Core2 Duo e8500 3.17 Ghz 
  • Mobo : MSi G31 TM-P21 LGA 775 
  • Memory : 4 GB DDR 2
  • HDD SATA : SAMSUNG HD160JJ 160 GB
  • VGA : NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT 512 MB

You can check all that parts at Amazon in one page here: Amazon

And below are a short video of my low budget Hackintosh overview. Skip if you already watch it.

And before you start messing around with your PC. Make sure you know exactly what you are doing. And please do backup all your important data on your drive. And read the guide step by step carefully.

One more thing you need to consider before Hackintoshing your PC is. On some machines, it may have an issue with the ‘Full shutdown.’ So it’s better to plan to dual boot with Windows from the beginning.

For more info about this you can read the article here: How to Dual Boot Windows and Hackintosh With Clover

Okay! LETS GET START IT!

To make hackintosh bootable usb drive on Windows you’ll need a few tools

  • 7-Zip stable version Download Here
  • Boot Disk utility Download Here
  • TransMac Download Here
  • Paragon Hardisk Manager Free Edition Download Here
  • USB Flash Disk 8 Gb (For El Capitan need 16 GB)
  • Mac OS Installer retail Version of Yosemit, El Capitan or Mac OS Sierra, choose one you desire to make the bootable usb.

To get Mac OS X InstallerApps you can ask help from a friend who has “real Macintosh” to download it from the App Store. Or alternatively, you can download it through torrent.

Make sure you have a torrent client such as Transmission etc for downloading via torrent. Just search on google with the keywords something like e.g Download Mac OS (X) InstallerApps.

[Note!] In this article I use macOS Sierra for ‘example’

Work with 7-Zip

We start with creating a new folder on the desktop, name it “Mac OS” and work with 7-Zip to open Mac OS installer apps.dmg

Navigate to “Install macOS Sierra.apps > Contents > SharedSupport >Extract “InstallESD.dmg” to “Mac OS” folder that you have created on your desktop.

[Note!] Unless you have the original Installer App. This is important to extract ‘InstallESD.dmg’ file first if you work with DMG file. So you don’t have to deal with a ‘payload’ file inside the folder.

See screenshot, click to enlarge!

screenshot-44
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Now go to extracted file on “Mac OS Folder” right click “InstallESD.dmg” to open it with 7-Zip.

screenshot-6
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Next, extract these files to the folder that you create on your desktop earlier;
Packages folder, AppleDiagnostics.dmg & AppleDiagnostics.chunklist, BaseSystem.dmg & BaseSystem.chunklist. See the screen shot below 

screenshot-55

Go to “Mac OS folder” where all files extracted, and then find “BaseSystem.dmg” right click to open it with 7-Zip.

And you’ll see few files, find for ‘4.hfs’ or ‘5.hfs’ file, then extract it to ‘Mac OS Folder’ (See screenshot below)

screenshot-40
screenshot-39

Okay! now we have all files to work with Boot Disk Utility. Before open BDU plug your USB Flash drive. And make sure you have back up any important data inside your USB drive!

Format USB Drive and Install Clover with BDU

Run Boot Disk Utility As Admin Go to Option & Configuration thick on “Boot Partition Size (MB)” change size to 200.

Select your  USB flash disk that appear in BDU click ‘Format Disk.’ It will create two partition 200 MB for Clover & 7.8 GB blank “NO NAME”space. 

[Note!] Make sure your pc is connected to the internet to let BDU download and install the latest CLOVER boot loader.

See screenshot below

BDU hackintosh

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After finish formatting. Click USB Flash in BDU. It will expand into 2 partition select “NO NAME” partition and then click Restore Partition.

screenshot-42

A new window will appear, select “4.hfs” you have extract earlier. See screenshot

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Select the ‘4.hfs‘ or ‘5.hfs‘ file depends on which macOS you work with. Then click Open to restore it.

When the process complete, we continue to the next step.

Rezise USB Partition using Paragon Hardisk Manager

When restore process complete the size of <NONAME> partition was becoming smaller. This is because after restore ‘4.hsf’ file into it and BDU has formatted the partition into HFS Volume.

So, to make it back to full size we will use Paragon Hardisk Manager to get the job done. Because we still need to copy some file to the partition.

Run Paragon Hardisk Manager and find US Flash Disk in the Drive list.

You will see three partitions on USB Flash Disk ‘Clover-OS X Base System-Unlocated Space’ select OS X Base System resize it to full size.

See screenshot

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Working with TransMac

Now it’s time for TransMac to work with. Run TransMac as admin and select USB Flash Disk (mine is Toshiba Trans Memory)

Click on Hfs + volume > System Installation delete Packages slnk file

Then right click, select ‘Copy Here’ and find ‘Packages folder’ in ‘Mac OS Folder’ in your desktop, and copy it.

See screenshot below 👇

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Those files are pretty big in size. So, it will need some’ time to proceed, depend on your PC speed.

So, relax and grab a cup of coffee while you wait for the process complete. ☕

After done copying ‘Packages‘ folder, back to “Hfs + Volume” right click “Copy Here”

Copy and paste of this four files: AppleDiagnostics, BaseSystem and also the both chunklist files

This time copy and paste those files to ‘Hfs + Volume’ root folder.

[Important!] On the other version of macOS it’s named ‘OSX-Base System.’  And do not copy to System > Installation folder like when you copy ‘Packages’ files. Once again I remind you [Important!]

See screenshot

screenshot-28

So it should be placed outside along with ‘macOS Sierra app’ and other files in HFS+Volume root folder.

When you’re done no we go to next step.

Adding essential kext and pre edited config.plist to Clover EFI Partition

Now the final step to make it works. We need to add essential kext and edit the config.plist in Clover EFI.

By the way, you can use pre-edited config.plist and additional kext I have uploaded below.

Download config.plist that I use here: DOWNLOAD

Download kext and driver here: DOWNLOAD

Copy config plist to Usb flash > Clover > EFI > CLOVER replace existing config.plist there.

Next, copy all kext to  Clover > EFI > CLOVER > Kext > Other (for OS Sierra) 10.11(for El Capitan) and so on. See screenshot below

For driver32 (optional) put it on driver32 folder and for driver64 put it on driver64 folder.

[Note!] Apple PS2 Controller kext will work like a charm! 🙂

Done!

Now you have a bootable US drive and ready to install Mac OS (X) on your Hackintosh PC.

For post-installation and how to setting BIOS etc, you can read here: hackintosh post installation and bios setup

For creating bootable USB drive from Real Mac computers or from working Hackintosh machine, you can read here: How to Make Mac OS Bootable Drive With Disk Utility

For conclusion and you to Taking Note!

For me, every Hackintosh stuff 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 the Mac OS X system, then you should buy a real Mac by Apple.

However, if you still have a problem please don’t hesitate to hit me in the comment section below. Good Luck & Regards! 👽

[Special note!] The first idea of creating macOS bootable USB from Windows using BDU isn’t like this. But there’s another author who also has the same idea but use the different tools. What I mean is the idea of using 7-Zip and Paragon Hard disk Manager, the credit of reference source is goes to OSX Arena. But! the difference is, here I find the way how to make the USB bootable work even on a low budget PC (core2 duo). And even it will also work to use it on a real Macintosh computer as well to install macOS.

Post last update : 16/05/2019


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Comments

  2. I have the below spec
    Processor : Intel Core2 Duo e7500 3.17 Ghz
    Mobo : MSI G31 MS 7525
    Memory : 4 GB DDR 2
    HDD SATA : SEAGATE 250 GB
    VGA : NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 1GB

    Can you please tell me or write a tutorial on how to create bootable osx with Clover on mac for old legacy systems like mine.

    Reply

  4. Hello! I wanna try this on my PC, but I have an ATI Radeon HD 4600 series… What do you think?
    Processor : Intel Core2 Duo e5800 3.16 Ghz
    Mobo : Asus P5KPL-AM SE
    Memory : 4 GB DDR 2
    HDD SATA : SEAGATE 160 GB
    VGA : ATI Radeon HD 4600 series 1GB

    Reply

  8. Could you send me a email for the system please?I will be thankful and happy. :)I’ve got almost the same specs and I want to see MacOS by myself. 🙂

    Reply

  10. Hello will it work on my PC thanks
    MB – gigabyte g41m combo
    CPU – q9400 core 2 quad
    4 gb ddr3 ram
    gts 450

    also can i get the dmg file link
    thanks pm it to me

    Reply

  12. Kind time of the day, on my computer will work os x capitan
    CPU – Intel core 2 quad Q6600 2.4 ГГц
    Mobo – MSI G31TM-P21/P35 (MS-7529)
    VGA – ZOTAC NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT 1GB
    4 gb ddr2 RAM
    and you can throw off the working config.plist and kext to start osx
    and then I have no ahci harem in the bios
    Thank you so much!

    Reply

  16. i’ve tried to install on my Asus K401J laptop with Intel Core 2 Duo T6570, Intel GL40 Express Chipset Family, 320GB WD Blue SATA, Embeded Intel GMA X4500M Graphic Card and 4GB RAM.
    installation progress work well, till i faced the problem at the end.
    could you help me sir?
    PS : before this installation, i use OSX Mavericks 10.9.5 as a daily driver. the disk image file was Sierra Zone.dmg downloaded from hackintosh.zone

    nyuwun tulung dibantu atau dipandu dong mas.. sama-sama dari Jepara ini.. hehe ✌🏼

    Reply

  18. Is high sierra works with this tutorial too? please send me link the .dmg you’re using in this tutor if still available, still curious to install it to my Intel PC. Thanks before.

    Reply

  20. Hi Herman,
    I have downloaded your ‘config.plist & kext’.
    There are two folders: ‘__MACOSX’ and ‘My EFI’.
    What folder for this ‘fun’ hackintosh?
    Thanks in advance

    Reply

    • Of course ‘My EFI’ folder!

      ‘_MACOSX’ foder is how Apple system storing ‘Resource Forks’ when you create an archive using Mac OS built-in Zip file. You see this because you are using Windows, and this folder is empty.You won’t see this in Mac because this is hidden files.

      Please read and follow the guid carefully if you are new to this and always backup your data before do some ‘fun’ with your PC 🙂

      Reply

  22. Hi, I used your method to make a bootable sierra, but after I chose MacOS X in clover there are an error kernel panic, it says “Unable to find driver for this platform: \”ACPI\”.\n …” what should I do? Is something wrong with the installer if this is the problem can you give me the sierra os link to my email? or any possible solution for this like how to set GraphicsEnabler to No? thanks before.
    P.S. this is my PC spec
    MOBO: asrock h110m-hdv
    VGA: AMD RX 470
    RAM: 8GB
    Proc: Intel i5 6-500

    Reply

    • Hey, No problem!

      I don’t have my own link so its better you search on Google using this keywords: os sierra installer torrent download

      Actually I still looking for cloud service to store my files, but all I found their price still too expensive for small blog like ‘this blog’ .. you know!

      Good luck 🙂

      Reply

  28. Hii I Have zebronics 945g motherboard
    2gb ddr3 ram
    120gb harddrive
    nvidia 7300se
    core2duo 2.3ghz
    will it work for me or not
    pease reply

    Reply

    • Looks good!
      For your GPU can fully working or not you may need to do a research, I only have a limited resource here ..you know. But there is nothing to lose to found out by testing it right?
      And please let me know with your success 🙂

      And don’t forget to back up your data before hackintoshing your PC!

      Reply

  30. Hey, congrats for the nice tutorial, i download my macos Sierra(10.12.6) from apple store but my structure .dmg is different from this tutorial, can you send me the link?
    Your sierra is the 10.12.6 ???
    Tks

    Reply

  36. Hello,
    Thanks for your tutorial, butr I have a problem.

    When I boot I stuck on the Apple logo, after 1 minutes approximately my laptop restart.
    I’m on an Lenovo 500-14IBD

    Have you a solution for my issue ?

    Reply

  38. Thanks for the reply,

    On my laptop BIOS, I don’t have many option (secure boot, UEFI/Legacy startup).
    I’m sure the issue come because my BIOS have not the good settings.
    If it’s possible, I can mail you some pictures of my BIOS.

    Thanks,

    Reply

  40. you are so helping and kind i want the download link for macosx sierra installer kindly mail it to me and please tell me will it work good on intel core 2 duo e7500 @2.93ghs
    with nvidia gtx220 1 gb
    4gb ddr2 and motherboard is asus p5kpl-am/ps

    Reply

  42. Brother a small query you extracted installESD.dmg on desktop in a folder named MAC OS but in half of your tutorial you started extracting things to folder named OS SIERRA I want to just know if bootESD.dmg,OSinstall.mpkg, packages and all base system,chuncklist files need to be in same folder or not kindly help

    Reply

  44. Hi, thats great tutorial! My way is using createinstallmedia from apple osx installer. Jus grab a running OSX with dloaded installer, open Terminal app and navigate to installerfile.app/Contents/Resources/
    There you will find a couple of binaries. Run the ./createinstallmedia with –volume /path/to/your/hfs/formated/thumbdrive –applicationpath /path/to/appleinstaller/app and –no interaction if you wish an automated process.
    This will format the drive, copy all the files and make efi partition at begining of drive. Takes a while but is much easier than running trough several programs to make installer USB
    After above is done
    diskutil list to check where the usb efi partition is
    diskutil mount efilocation
    and proceed to installing clover with few tweaks aiming to installation on this partition (install to ESP and set the 0af boot bits something). Remaining options are a guess game and they depend on the hardware.
    Finally you may copy config.plist and kexts to newly created Clover bootloader folders

    BUT

    I struggle to start the installer on lenovo laptop with core2quad and nvidia grapics. It panics with your config.plist and kexts (unable to find driver for this platform). If I use my usb stick with plain clover installation and just the essential kexts and modules (FakeSMC NullCPUPowerManager OsxAptioFixDrvr) it loads to Unable to locate bluetooth transport and then hangs. Any idea?

    Thumbs up!

    Reply

  48. Sir can you please help me. I have been trying to install os x 10.8 on my PC. Intel dg41rq motherboard, Intel e5200 processor, 2x2GB ddr2 RAM. I have been trying various other methods on internet. I used boot disk utility to create a clover bootable disk and i flashed a untouched os x 10.8 untouched dmg on a other USBusing dmg . I booted on the clover usb and selected the disk with the osx on it in verbose mode. I am struck on still waiting for root device. I tried everything on internet USBBusFix=Yes USBInjectAll.kext, tried many forums.
    I found your webpage and tried to follow it but the problem is when I try to open the dmg it says Archive not readable. Would you like to use a password. As far as I know my dmg file is not corrupt. And I can’t download another 5GB file. Can’t I do it without opening the dmg i.e. if you cangive me the ‘4.hsf’ file.
    Thanks in advance. Hoping for a positive response.

    Reply

      • OK Thanks for the reply. I reinstalled 7zip from their official website. When I reached to 0.hfs and clicked open inside nothing would happen. I even pressed enter it would then run the whole process and when ti completes nothing shows up. I extracted 0.hfs to other folder using 7zip. I tcreated a folde named 0 UDF Package. And if I try to open it it shows a error can’t open.
        What are the chances that my dmg is corrupt. Or is it because my dmg is untouched.

        Reply

  50. Sir I know I have been asking you for a lot but I don’t want to download a wrong file again and run into all that hassle again. can you please provide a link of mavericks or el capitan which one would run smoother (if that is not a issue of you).

    Reply

  52. Hi, thank-you for your (so far) help. I’m having an issue with the ‘packages’ folder – there’s none. Whenever I try to open the .hfs folder where it is supposed to be located at, 7zip does not do anything and if I open it via extraction, it spits an error at 99%. I thought it could have been a damaged file, however, I downloaded 3 different high sierra’s, 1 sierra and all of them seem to have the same issue. please HELP?

    Reply

  54. Matur nuwun mas tutorialnya. Mas boleh emailin file sierra dmg nya? Susah banget cari di google yg bisa buka 5.hfs nya

    Reply

  56. Good evening,
    I updated Clover last night. Now the computer will not go past the black screen with text lines. The computer was running Mac OSX Yosemite. I unfortunately do not have a Clover boot USB. I also don’t have another Mac. I do have a working Windows 10 computer. I was wondering if you know of a way I can get the Mac working again without losing all of my files. Thanks for your help in advance.

    Reply

    • Hi Michael! Good evening,

      Okay, your case may cause by you update the clover but using different setting than previous installation type.

      So hope this can resolve the problem;

      1.) Try to find a usb stick and format it from your working Windows 10 using the ”Format USB Drive with BDU” above in this article. You only need to install clover on it so 1 GB USB stick can be use here. Then try to remember what kext you are using on your hackintosh, find those kext and put it on Clover > EFI > CLOVER Kext > 10.10 (Folder) You can see the example from this article in “Adding essential kext and pre edited config.plist to Clover Partition” above. (Note! This method is may not work if you install hackintosh using Distro method)

      2.) If the method above doesn’t work, the only way to save your data is by put your disk that have hackintosh on it into your working Windows 10 computer as (Other disk) and copy and save all your important files to your Windows computer using TransMac. And put back again your hackintosh disk to your hackintosh computer again and reinstall macOS from scratch. I know it’s suck but at least your important data is safe.

      If you still have a question please reply me from Contact page, so we can chat privately via email 🙂

      Reply

    • To download files at Dropbox, click on right top ‘Download’ button (or ‘Three dot’ on smartphones). Choose ‘Direct download’

      To download file individually, right click on the file you want to download or press & hold on smartphone and click/tap on ‘Save Link As ..’

      Warning! Please make sure to backup your data before do anything with your computers bro. Ok!

      Reply

  66. Hi Hermansyah, Thanks for nice hackintosh tutorial. i have almost similar PC spec, could you send me link for sierra.dmg please. i want to try it. thanks in advance.

    Reply

  68. Hello Hermansyah, thanks for share hackintosh tutorial on low budget pc rig. But, could you send me link sierra or high sierra.dmg? i can’t find it, and i don’t have real mac
    My PC
    Motherboard : NEXT Group G31-M7 TE
    Intel Core 2 Duo E7500
    VGA Radeon HD 6450
    Thanks a lot

    Reply

  70. I am having the same issue as a previous person. hfs throws an error at 99% and I have no packages files or any of the multiple files you did. Can you email me a good link for sierra. You have my permission, and anything helpful would be appreciated.

    Reply

  72. Sir i have two pc one is ASUS X540SA Intel Celeron Dual Core Laptop and AMD pc and want to install hackintosh i both of this soo I need Download link for sierra. You have my permission, and anything helpful would be appreciated. Plz Help me out

    Reply

      • Hello Sir,
        I am very much impressed by your article and surprising thing is that i ahave also the same specs pc that you use to do the processing of installing the mac os .
        I am want to try my self to make an low spec hackintosh machine.
        I have read your article you have provided all the necessary and detailed steps that are required.
        Thank You Sir;
        But the Problem i am facing the MAC OS X file .
        I have downloaded the file from many sites but they are fake or unusable
        Sir It would my pleasure if you could send me the LINK OF MAC OS X file that you used in the tutorial. PLEASE SEND ME THAT TO MY EMAIL,
        I AM GIVING THE PREMIT TO SEND ME THE LINK OF THE FILE.

        At Last,
        THANK YOU SIR….

        Reply

  74. Processor : Intel Core2 Duo q6600
    Mobo : MSi G31 TM-P21 LGA 775
    Memory : 4 GB DDR 2
    HDD : 120 gb
    VGA : on board
    I got el capitan to install but i cant figure out how to get the realtek audio and networking to work. Also im using ps2 connecting keyboard and mouse but they are not found by el capitan. Did you get them working on yours since its not mentioned in your posting. If you do know can you post how to add them. Thank you for any help

    Reply

  76. I have a Lenovo thinkpad laptop.
    16G ram
    intel core i5-3230 @2.6ghz x4
    64 bit
    500 gig hard drive

    Which OS version should I try? I have tried several different methods to do hackintosh on this machine and have not had one work yet. Also, do you have a link to download the OS I should try?

    Reply

  78. [ASK] Maaf masih newbie , Nyuwun tulung banget mas tutorial nya dgn spek dibawah, pingin banget nyicip hackintosh di PC jadul.
    Processor : Intel® Core™2 Quad Processor Q8200 2.33 GHz
    Mobo : Asus P5KPL-AM
    Memory : 2 x 2 GB DDR 2
    SSD : 120 GB
    VGA : XFX GT 610 1GB DDR3 64 bit

    Reply

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