How to Create a Bootable USB for Mac on Windows 11 PC

I have two different computers at home. The first is a Mac that I use for video editing as part of my YouTube channel, and the second is a Windows 11 PC that I use mostly for gaming.

A few days ago, while editing one of the videos for my YouTube channel, my Mac suddenly stopped working. It just sat there doing nothing with a blank screen and a bunch of cryptic error messages. I was confused because I had to finish editing the video by the next day, and therefore I had neither the time nor the opportunity to take the Mac to an Apple service center.

I decided to take matters into my own hands and wanted to create a bootable USB for my Mac. But without another Mac within my reach, this seemed impossible until I read about how you can create a bootable Mac USB on a Windows 11 computer using a utility called UUByte DMG Editor.

If you have ever faced such a situation or are in such a situation right now, you can follow this guide to create a bootable Mac USB on your Windows 11 PC and restore your Mac by installing a fresh copy of macOS. It becomes easier to create a bootable Mac USB if you have another Mac. However, this cannot be done without a third-party utility on a Windows 11 computer because the Windows operating system cannot recognize the DMG file used to create a bootable USB drive for Mac. This DMG file is somewhat similar to the Windows ISO files that you can download from the Microsoft website to create a bootable Windows 11 USB drive to install Windows 11 (or other versions of the Windows operating system).

Note. This trick also works on Windows 10, Windows 8 and Windows 7.

Prerequisites for creating a bootable Mac USB drive in Windows 11

There are three things you need to keep handy because you can start creating a bootable USB for Mac on your Windows 11 computer.

Blank USB stick (at least 16 GB in size): More recommended if you can get a USB 3.0 or higher USB stick. Fast USB saves time! Also, be sure to back up your USB drive because everything on the USB drive will be deleted anyway when you create a bootable macOS USB drive.

UUByte DMG Editor: This is a third-party utility that not only allows you to create bootable Mac USB devices on your Windows PC, but can also extract files and folders from a DMG image file on your Mac and Windows 11 computer. It is quite a nifty tool, which supports various versions of Windows (including the latest version of Windows 11), the Linux operating system, macOS, Android, and images of other operating systems. It has excellent speed compared to its competitors and can create multiple bootable USB drives at the same time. You can download it from their website and install it on your Windows 11 PC.

macOS DMG file – A DMG file is a disk image containing a copy of a bootable macOS. This is another type of macOS installation media. They can be downloaded from the Apple website. However, if you’re having trouble finding a working macOS dmg file, go to the UUByte website and download the right one.

Create a Bootable Mac USB Drive on Windows 11 with UUByte DMG Editor

Now you’ve gathered everything you need to create a bootable Mac USB drive on your Windows computer, so let’s get started with the process:

• Insert an empty USB stick into your Windows computer (I’m not writing specifically for Windows 11 since, as mentioned earlier, UUByte DMG Editor works on all versions of Windows).

• Launch the UUByte DMG Editor app by double-clicking the program icon on your desktop or Windows 11 Start Menu.

• The first window you will see is divided into two parts for the respective functions of this utility: “Burn”and “Extract”. Next to each of these parts there will be a “Next”button. Since you are creating a bootable USB drive from a DMG image file and you are not trying to browse the files and folders inside that DMG image file, click the first Next button.

• This should take you to the next window where you need to select the macOS DMG image file you downloaded earlier (macOS Monterey) and an empty USB drive. Click the Browse button to add the DMG image file and click the Edit button to select the USB drive. There should be a placeholder named Volume Label where you can enter a name to recognize your USB drive as a bootable Mac flash drive.

• After that, the “Record” button will appear in the same window. Click on it to start the operation of creating a bootable USB for Mac using UUByte DMG Editor.

• Once the operation starts, you will see a new window with a measurement bar to mark the completion of the bootable USB creation operation. This should take 5 to 10 minutes. You will be able to see the estimated completion time so you know how long you have to wait. Once the completion bar shows 100% complete, close the UUByte DMG Editor utility and remove the USB drive from your Windows 11 computer.

Booting a Mac from a bootable USB

Now that you have a bootable Mac USB drive, you need to boot your Mac using that USB drive in order to reinstall macOS.

The moment your Mac tries to boot, which you can tell by hearing the sound of your Mac trying to boot, you will need to press and hold the button labeled Option on your Mac’s keyboard. The Startup Disk Manager utility will open to recognize the bootable USB. In this example, the USB name is Install macOS Monterey.

Click on this USB drive and your Mac will boot from this USB drive. After a while, the macOS reinstallation process will start. Follow the onscreen instructions and you should have a working Mac in no time.

What to look for when creating a bootable USB for Mac

It would be better if you keep the following in mind when creating a bootable USB for Mac on your Windows 11 computer:

• For macOS X El Capitan, do not use the link provided by Apple. Since macOS X El Capitan is available in PKG format instead of the usual DMG format, this is usually confusing for the UUByte DMG editor.
• You may see an error popup (Write process ended unexpectedly) at the end of the write task. You don’t need to worry about this error.

• The USB drive will not be visible in Windows Explorer until the recording is complete. You can find out the name of the disk in the Disk Management utility.
• If you run into any issues while creating a bootable Mac USB using the DMG editor, you can always contact their tech support to resolve the issue you are currently experiencing.
• UUByte DMG Editor is a free utility. You need to pay for it in order to use all the functionality of the software; however, you can still use it during the free trial period to create a bootable Mac USB drive.

Creating a bootable Mac USB drive in Windows 11 is easy with UUByte DMG Editor software. This can be of great help when the Mac is facing weird issues and can’t get to the desktop.