Mac Bootable Recovery Usb

23-04-2021
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  1. A bootable disk drive utility. Go to prepare a USB flash drive and install a bootable OS X installer drive with it and then to fix Mac not working in recovery mode issue. Here is how to use bootable drive. Perform to remoot Mac. Tap on 'Option' till you hear the sound. Connect the bootable disk driver with Mac and select it from the.
  2. Method 1: Create Windows 10 Bootable USB on Mac Using UNetbottin. UNetbootin is a free, open source utility that allows you to create bootable USB drives on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. If you’ve downloaded Windows 10 ISO image, here is how you can create a bootable Windows installer USB on Mac using UNetbootin.
  3. Plug the bootable installer into a Mac that is connected to the internet and compatible with the version of macOS you're installing. Turn on your Mac and continue to hold the power button until you see the startup options window, which shows your bootable volumes and a gear icon labled Options.

To deal with bootable USB drive not showing up or recognized the issue in BIOS boot menu in Windows 10/8.1/8/7, a piece of USB bootable software could help. For example, EaseUS Todo Backup offers a feature to install Windows OS on a USB drive that ensures 100% bootable on any other computer. MiniTool Mac recovery software is designed for Mac users to recover deleted/lost files from all types of Mac computers and Mac-compatible devices. If you use a Mac, you can install this professional Mac data recovery tool to easily recover data from Mac, external HDD, SSD, USB, SD/memory card, etc. Corrupt/formatted drive is supported.

Summary :

In order to install the Windows operating system or fix a broken Windows, a bootable USB flash drive is needed. How to create bootable USB from ISO Windows 10? A Windows 10 USB tool or USB bootable software will be introduced. Besides, the best way to protect the PC against system issues is also told to you.

Quick Navigation :

It’s Necessary to Create Bootable USB from ISO Windows 10

As to Windows 10 OS, it has got more popularity due to its advantages, for example, reliability, better user experience, safety, etc. Therefore, most of you may have reserved a copy of the Windows 10 upgrade for your computers. But there may be some who may want to go for a clean install by using a Windows ISO image.

Besides, when there is something wrong with the operating system, you may also choose to reinstall Windows. Or, when getting a new PC without OS, you need to make a clean install. Additionally, to boot the non-working PC and perform a repair, you also need a Windows repair disc or USB drive.

To install the operating system or to create a rescue disc, it is a choice to burn the operating system into a CD or DVD disc. Though it is nothing hard, the method is clunky, expensive and no-so user-friendly when considering the CD/DVD writer and the cost of an actual CD/DVD disc. Thankfully, you can use a USB flash drive.

Tip: Sometimes your USB flash drive cannot be detected by Windows after connecting it to your computer. If so, refer to this article - Fix USB Flash Drive Not Recognized & Recover Data – How To Do to get the solutions.

In this post, we will show you how to download the ISO image, burn ISO to USB and create USB boot disk from ISO for Windows 10 installation.

How to Create Bootable USB from ISO Windows 10

When searching for “make bootable USB” on Google, you will find many ways. And here, we will show you 2 common ways for Windows bootable USB creation.

Way 1: Use Windows Media Creation Tool

Microsoft offers you a utility called Media Creation Tool, allowing you to download a Windows 10 ISO file compatible with your PC or directly create a bootable USB drive so as to install Windows 10. This is the easiest and reliable method. Just follow the step-by-step guide to make bootable USB from ISO.

Step 1: Go to Windows 10 download page and click Download tool now to get MediaCreationTool.exe.

Step 2: This is an independent executable file that doesn't need installation, so you can simply run the tool and create bootable USB from ISO. Just double-click on the .exe file and then accept the terms.

Step 3: Then, choose the Create installation media (USB flash drive, DVD or ISO file) for another PC option and click the Next button to continue.

Step 4: Then this tool will capture the language, Windows edition and architecture details from your Windows installation. Also, you can uncheck the option Use the recommendation for this PC and re-specify these details.

Step 5: In the following page, you can see two options: USB flash drive and ISO file. Here you can directly choose the former option and make bootable USB from ISO. Please ensure your USB has 8 GB capacity at least.

Tip: If you choose the option ISO file, it is also allowed. After clicking Next, you need to select a location to save the ISO file. And then, the tool will start to download Windows 10 and perform some operations. After that, you need to burn ISO file to USB drive and then create bootable USB from ISO.

Step 6: Select a USB flash drive and click Next to continue.

Note: The files on the USB drive will be deleted. Thus, you had better back up them to another safe location to keep these files. Here, the professional backup software, MiniTool ShadowMaker, will be helpful to back up files with ease.

Step 7: The tool is downloading Windows 10 to your selected USB. Please wait patiently.

Step 8: The tool is creating Windows 10 media, just be patient to wait.

Step 9: After a few minutes, your USB flash drive is ready. Click the Finish button at last.

Way 2: Download ISO File and Burn Windows ISO to USB

In addition, you can choose to download an ISO file of Windows 10 first of all and then use USB bootable software to burn the file to your drive.

Move 1: Download Windows 10 ISO File

To do this, you can also use Media Creation Tool. But note that this tool can only help you to download the ISO file of the latest Windows 10 version (now is 1809). In Choose which media to use page, please choose ISO file. Then, save the ISO file to a location. Next, continue the operations by following the wizard.

If you don’t want to install the latest Windows 10, you can search for the ISO file you need on the internet and then download it.

Move 2: Burn Windows 10 to USB Drive

To create bootable USB from ISO, some of you may choose to use USB bootable software like Rufus. It is thought as one of best, free, open-source and easy-to-use Windows 10 USB tool since it can create bootable USB for different kinds of operating systems.

Step 1: Start USB bootable software, free download for all Windows. Here, go to get Rufus from its official website.

Step 2: Run this ISO to USB burning tool, and then plug your USB flash drive to your PC.

Step 3: This tool will detect your USB flash drive. You need to click the SELECT button to choose the ISO file you have downloaded, specify the partition scheme and volume label. Then, click the START button to create bootable USB from ISO.

Tip: Target system, file system, and cluster size will be changed once you change the partition scheme. Besides, the burning process will also destroy all data of your flash drive, so please back up them in advance.

Step 4: Later, the tool will start to burn ISO to USB flash drive, which will take a few minutes. When the Status is ready (in green), just click the CLOSE button to exit the tool.

After you complete USB bootable drive creation, you can boot your PC from the drive and start to install Windows 10 operating system or enter PC repair environment for a fix from the repair drive.

Further reading:

In addition to making bootable USB from ISO in Windows 10, some of you may be interested in the topic: create bootable USB Windows 7. To do this work, you need to use bootable USB Windows 7 software, Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool. After getting the tool, follow its instructions to create a bootable USB drive.

Besides, some of you may want to know how to create bootable USB from ISO ubuntu or Mac. Here, we won’t show you steps but you can search for the corresponding methods on Google and there are some articles are about the topic.

Tip: After learning so much information about how to create USB boot disk from ISO in Windows 10, you may think it is troublesome. And it is also an annoying thing to install a new OS or perform PC repair. Thus, in the following part, we will walk you through an easy way to deploy a new OS without Windows installation or fix PC without a repair USB drive.

Suggestion: Back up Windows & Restore System

If you have created a system image, you can restore it to the PC where you need to install OS or solve system issues. By this way, you won’t deploy a new OS and you can easily restore the PC to a previous state, enjoying the previous system settings, applications, and everything.

How can you back up your Windows 10? Here, we highly recommend using a piece of professional backup software for Windows 10, MiniTool ShadowMaker.

This backup software is designed to back up the Windows operating system, files, the entire disk or partitions. During the backup, the selected backup source is compressed to an image. Above all, it offers a feature called Media Builder to create a bootable USB drive or CD/DVD disc to boot the crashed PC and perform a system recovery.

Before starting a backup, now you need to free download MiniTool ShadowMaker from the button below. Note that its Trial Edition only gives you 30-day free trial.

Tip: In addition to the third-party software, some of you may choose the Windows built-in tool for creating system image. For more information, go to Create Windows 10 Repair Disk/Recovery Drive/System Image to Repair Win 10.

Move 1: Back up OS

Step 1: Run MiniTool ShadowMaker Trial Edition.

Step 2: Go to the Backup interface, you see system related partitions are selected by default. To back up Windows OS, here you can go to the Destination section to specify a path like an external hard drive, USB flash drive, or NAS.

Step 3: Finally, click the Back up Now button to run the system image backup.

Move 2: Create Bootable USB from ISO

After finishing the system image backup, you can go to create a bootable USB drive. Just go to the Tools page, click Media Builder, choose your USB flash disk and create USB boot disk from ISO.

After that, you can boot the PC that needs to install an OS from the bootable USB flash drive and then start system recovery.

Related article: How to Boot from Burned MiniTool Bootable CD/DVD and USB Flash Drive/Hard Disk?

Move 3: System Image Recovery

In MiniTool Recovery Environment, you can run MiniTool ShadowMaker and then restore the system image to a hard drive which can be the system disk that has system issues or the hard drive where you want to deploy a system.

Step 1: Go to the Restore interface, find the system image file and click Restore to continue.

Mac bootable recovery usb flash drive

Step 2: Select a backup version.

Step 3: Choose the system related partitions to restore. Here, mbr and Track 0 should be selected, otherwise, Windows won’t boot normally.

Step 4: Decide which disk you want to restore the image to.

Step 5: The backup software is performing a recovery. This will take a few minutes, so wait patiently.

With MiniTool ShadowMaker, you can easily restore the PC to a previous state without reinstalling OS or easily deploy the system to a computer without OS. Compared to the above part - create bootable USB from ISO for OS installation, this way is worth recommending.

Here, you can free download MiniTool ShadowMaker for a trial or share it with your friends on Twitter to let more persons know.

Tip: Additionally, this software can help you to clone your hard drive to another disk and you can directly boot your computer from the cloned disk without reinstalling the system. Read this post - How to Clone a Hard Drive to SSD in Windows 10/8/7 to do this job.

Bottom Line

Want to make bootable USB Windows 10? Just try the above ways to create bootable USB from ISO and then you can install an operating system. To restore your computer easily to an earlier state (in case of system breakdown) or deploy a system, without installing the system, you can use MiniTool ShadowMaker to back up OS and restore it.

On the other hand, if you have any suggestion for bootable USB flash drive creation, or if you meet some questions when using MiniTool software, please leave a comment or contact [email protected].

These advanced steps are primarily for system administrators and others who are familiar with the command line. You don't need a bootable installer to upgrade macOS or reinstall macOS, but it can be useful when you want to install on multiple computers without downloading the installer each time.

What you need to create a bootable installer

  • A USB flash drive or other secondary volume formatted as Mac OS Extended, with at least 14GB of available storage
  • A downloaded installer for macOS Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra, or El Capitan

Download macOS

  • Download: macOS Big Sur, macOS Catalina, macOS Mojave, or macOS High Sierra
    These download to your Applications folder as an app named Install macOS [version name]. If the installer opens after downloading, quit it without continuing installation. To get the correct installer, download from a Mac that is using macOS Sierra 10.12.5 or later, or El Capitan 10.11.6. Enterprise administrators, please download from Apple, not a locally hosted software-update server.
  • Download: OS X El Capitan
    This downloads as a disk image named InstallMacOSX.dmg. On a Mac that is compatible with El Capitan, open the disk image and run the installer within, named InstallMacOSX.pkg. It installs an app named Install OS X El Capitan into your Applications folder. You will create the bootable installer from this app, not from the disk image or .pkg installer.

Use the 'createinstallmedia' command in Terminal

  1. Connect the USB flash drive or other volume that you're using for the bootable installer.
  2. Open Terminal, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
  3. Type or paste one of the following commands in Terminal. These assume that the installer is in your Applications folder, and MyVolume is the name of the USB flash drive or other volume you're using. If it has a different name, replace MyVolume in these commands with the name of your volume.

Big Sur:*

Catalina:*

Mojave:*

High Sierra:*

El Capitan:

* If your Mac is using macOS Sierra or earlier, include the --applicationpath argument and installer path, similar to the way this is done in the command for El Capitan.


After typing the command:

  1. Press Return to enter the command.
  2. When prompted, type your administrator password and press Return again. Terminal doesn't show any characters as you type your password.
  3. When prompted, type Y to confirm that you want to erase the volume, then press Return. Terminal shows the progress as the volume is erased.
  4. After the volume is erased, you may see an alert that Terminal would like to access files on a removable volume. Click OK to allow the copy to proceed.
  5. When Terminal says that it's done, the volume will have the same name as the installer you downloaded, such as Install macOS Big Sur. You can now quit Terminal and eject the volume.

Bootable Recovery Usb Mac

Use the bootable installer

Determine whether you're using a Mac with Apple silicon, then follow the appropriate steps:

Apple silicon

  1. Plug the bootable installer into a Mac that is connected to the internet and compatible with the version of macOS you're installing.
  2. Turn on your Mac and continue to hold the power button until you see the startup options window, which shows your bootable volumes and a gear icon labled Options.
  3. Select the volume containing the bootable installer, then click Continue.
  4. When the macOS installer opens, follow the onscreen instructions.

Intel processor

  1. Plug the bootable installer into a Mac that is connected to the internet and compatible with the version of macOS you're installing.
  2. Press and hold the Option (Alt) ⌥ key immediately after turning on or restarting your Mac.
  3. Release the Option key when you see a dark screen showing your bootable volumes.
  4. Select the volume containing the bootable installer. Then click the up arrow or press Return.
    If you can't start up from the bootable installer, make sure that the External Boot setting in Startup Security Utility is set to allow booting from external media.
  5. Choose your language, if prompted.
  6. Select Install macOS (or Install OS X) from the Utilities window, then click Continue and follow the onscreen instructions.

Learn more

For more information about the createinstallmedia command and the arguments that you can use with it, make sure that the macOS installer is in your Applications folder, then enter the appropriate path in Terminal:

Create Bootable Recovery Usb Mac Osx

  • Big Sur: /Applications/Install macOS Big Sur.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia
  • Catalina: /Applications/Install macOS Catalina.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia
  • Mojave: /Applications/Install macOS Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia
  • High Sierra: /Applications/Install macOS High Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia
  • El Capitan: /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia

Mac Boot Recovery Usb

A bootable installer doesn't download macOS from the internet, but it does require an internet connection to get firmware and other information specific to the Mac model.