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 U Drive for the Vanilla Installation method.
This method works on Mac OS X Yosemite, El Capitan, 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 different file structures in the macOS High Sierra app installer. But you absolutely can update to High Sierra with this method with no problem.
You can read posts 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 with 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: https://amzn.to/2YdfnYQ
- Mobo: MSI G31 TM-P21 LGA 775: https://amzn.to/2J5DAtD
- Memory : 4 GB DDR 2: https://amzn.to/2Y9uUcb
- HDD SATA: SAMSUNG HD160JJ 160 GB: https://amzn.to/2Y8KXXB
- VGA: NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT 512 MB: https://amzn.to/2YduaTw
And below are a short video of my low-budget ackintosh 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! LET’S GET STARTED ON 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 Drive 8Gb Get one on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/2uUyzAW (For El Capitan need a 16GB USB Stick)
- Mac OS Installer retail Version of Yosemite, 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 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 Installer App. This is important to extract the ‘InstallESD.dmg’ file first if you work with a DMG file. So you don’t have to deal with a ‘payload’ file inside the folder.
See screenshot, click to enlarge!
Now go to the extracted file on “Mac OS Folder” right-click “InstallESD.dmg” to open it with 7-Zip.
Next, extract these files to the folder that you create on your desktop earlier;
Packages folder, AppleDiagnostics.dmg & AppleDiagnostics., BaseSystem.dmg & BaseSystem.chunklist. See the below
Go to the “Mac OS folder” where all files are extracted, and then find “BaseSystem.dmg” right-click to open it with 7-Zip.
And you’ll see a few files, find for ‘4.hfs’ or ‘5.hfs’ file, then extract it to ‘Mac OS Folder’ (See screenshot below)
Okay! now we have all files to work with Boot Disk Utility. Before opening BDU plug in your USB Flash drive. And make sure you have backup any important data inside your SB 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 US flash disk that 200 MB for Clover & a 7.8 GB blank “NO NAME”space.
[Note!] Make sure your pc is connected to the to let BDU download and install the latest CLOVER boot loader.
See screenshot below
After finishing formatting. Click USB Flash in BDU. It will expand into 2 partitions select “NO NAME” partition and then click Restore Partition.
A ew window will appear, select “4.hfs” you have extracted earlier. See screenshot
Select the ‘4.hfs‘ or ‘5.hfs‘ file depending on wich macOS you work with. Then click Open to restore it.
When the process completes, we continue to the next step.
Resize USB Partition using Paragon Hardisk Manager
When the restore process completes the size of the <NONAME> partition was becoming smaller. This is because after restoring the ‘4.hsf’ file into it and BDU has formated 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 files to the partition.
Run Paragon Manager and find U Flash Disk in the Drive list.
You will see three partitions on US Flash Disk ‘Clover-OS X Base System-Unlocated Space’ select OS X Base System resize it to full size.
See screenshot
Working with TransMac
Now it’s time for TransMac to work with. Run TransMac as admin and select US 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’ on your desktop, and copy it.
See screenshot below?
Those files are pretty big in size. So, it will need some time to proceed, depending on your PC speed.
So, relax and grab a cup of coffee while you for the process to complete. ☕
After done copying the ‘Packages‘ folder, back to “Hfs + Volume” right-click “Copy Here”
Copy and paste these four files: AppleDiagnostics, BaseSystem, and also both chunklist files
This time copy and paste those files to the ‘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
So it should be placed outside along with the ‘macOS Sierra app’ and other files in the HFS+Volume root folder.
When you’re done no we go to the next step.
Adding essential kext and pre edited config.plist to Clover EFI Partition
Now the final step is 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 I have ed 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 the driver32 folder and for driver64 put it on the driver64 folder.
[Note!] Apple PS2 Controller will work like a charm! 🙂
Done!
Now you have a bootable U drive and are ready to install Mac OS (X) on your Hackintosh PC.
For post-installation and how to set BIOS etc, you can read here: Hackintosh post installation and bios setup
For creating a bootable USB drive from Real Mac computers or from a working ackintosh machine, you can read here: How to Make Mac OS Bootable Drive With Disk Utility
For the conclusion and you to Taking Note!
For me, every Hackintosh stuff is only for FUN and educational purposes only. I am not responsible for any damage caused by following this tutorial.
Make sure you know exactly what you’re doing and understand 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. Or share your experience on the Forum website and let’s help each other.
[Special note!] The first idea of creating a macOS bootable USB from Windows using BDU isn’t like this. But there’s another author who also has the same idea but uses 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 updated: 04/11/2019