Awesome
MacOS (Sequoia / Sonoma / Ventura / Monterey / Big Sur) USB Installer
This is a small how-to showing how to create a MacOS USB Installer and why you should do this.
Why creating a USB installer:
There are mainly 3 reasons I can think of to have a USB installer prepared:
- Have a USB-stick ready (with your pre-made EFI) to install MacOS on a fresh system.
- Have a USB-stick ready (with your pre-made EFI) to boot your current Hackintosh from, in case your Hackintosh EFI is messed-up somehow, and/or to perform recovery tasks if required.
- Have a USB-stick ready (with your pre-made EFI) to boot your current genuine Mac and/or to perform recovery tasks if required.
How to Create the USB Installer:
You need:
- 1 USB stick. I recommend a 32GB stick. You can get them very cheap over here: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000495003631.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.4aa64b6akYvBql&algo_pvid=0d8314eb-bf69-4d98-ab9f-6c4cd2230651&algo_expid=0d8314eb-bf69-4d98-ab9f-6c4cd2230651-1&btsid=2100bdd716170225997251459e7502&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_
- I recommend to use a USB-C stick or even better NVM-e storage, or use a USB-A stick (which supports;) on a USB 3.0 port. This saves time.
- A Mac (Hackintosh already or a genuine Mac) with a USB port
- A little bit of time and patience
1a. Download MacOS (Sequoia / Sonoma / Ventura / Monterey / Big Sur) in the AppStore on your current Mac: Download it and wait. It’s approx. 13 GB so it can take a while depending on your internet connection.
1b. Alternatively you can use Mist. This tool downloads the desired OS straight from Apple's server. https://github.com/ninxsoft/Mist
1c. Alternatively you can use GibMacOS. This tool downloads the desired OS straight from Apple's server. https://github.com/corpnewt/gibMacOS
- Download the files from Github.
- On a Mac, use
gibMacOS.command
- Download the desired OS.
- Go to folder
macOS Downloads
and hitInstallAssistant.pkg
. This will copy the OS Installer to yourApplications
. folder.
1d. Alternatively you can download the latest macOS version here. It will be downloaded straight from Apple's server. https://mrmacintosh.com/macos-sonoma-full-installer-database-download-directly-from-apple/
- Go to folder
macOS Downloads
and hitInstallAssistant.pkg
. This will copy the OS Installer to yourApplications
. folder.
After it’s been downloaded you will see the following screen, but you need to close it. Don’t worry, your download can still be found in your Applications
folder as Install MacOS XXXXX.app
.
- Format your USB stick, using the
Disk Utility
app, as follows:
- 2a. Name it
USB
- 2b. Format as
Mac OS Extended (journaled)
- 2c. Choose
GUID Partition Map
scheme
Your USB should now appear as USB
in Finder.
- Open the
Terminal
app and copy and paste one of the following in the Terminal window, depending on which MacOS version you will install:
Big Sur (final):
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Big\ Sur.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/USB --nointeraction --downloadassets
Monterey:
Beta:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Monterey\ beta.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/USB —nointeraction —downloadassets
Final:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Monterey.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/USB —nointeraction —downloadassets
Ventura:
Beta:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ 13\ beta.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/USB —nointeraction —downloadassets
or
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Ventura\ beta.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/USB —nointeraction —downloadassets
Final:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Ventura.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/USB —nointeraction —downloadassets
Sonoma:
Beta 1:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ 14\ beta.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/USB —nointeraction —downloadassets
Beta 2:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sonoma\ beta.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/USB —nointeraction —downloadassets
Final:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sonoma.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/USB —nointeraction —downloadassets
Sequoia:
Beta:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sequoia\ Beta.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/USB —nointeraction —downloadassets
Final:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sequoia.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/USB —nointeraction —downloadassets
You will then see the percentages for formatting, installing it on the USB, etc. Wait till it’s finished. This can take some time! It usually takes an hour and a bit more on my system.
If it fails at a certain point, keep trying by starting from step 2 again.
- Now, the only remaining thing is to copy your pre-made EFI folder to the EFI partition of your USB stick. So, mount the EFI partition with e.g. OpenCore Configurator (go to Tools -> Mount EFI) and then copy your pre-made EFI folder to the empty EFI partition.
Enjoy!
Once you boot your system, and start-up from the USB stick (using F12 or Del key), you'll have a way to boot your system from or install a new Hackintosh system with.