Bootcamp (Boot Camp Assistant) is essentially Apple's way of welcoming Microsoft into its walled garden in a roundabout way. In other words, it allows you to install Windows on a Mac computer by partitioning the disk and letting you dual-boot a laptop or desktop. You will need to specify the amount of disk space for Windows installation, as well as get all the drivers required to run Windows on your Mac OS X or macOS computer. Once installed, it will be exactly the same as working in Windows. A lot of users prefer this over switching between Mac and PC, so you can imagine why Boot Camp Assistant has been so popular for so many years.
#Making the installer in macOS. Supported version: 0.6.7; While you don't need a fresh install of macOS to use OpenCore, some users prefer having a fresh slate with their boot manager upgrades. Now type the name as “macOS Mojave“, type of OS as Mac OS X and the version of OS as Mac OS X (64-bit). And then Click on Next. Memory Size (RAM) Now select the amount of RAM to be allocated to the virtual machine. And to run macOS on Virtualbox, the minimum recommended RAM size is 2048Mb.
Hackintosh.com links to everything you need to build a Hackintosh and get macOS Big Sur (macOS 11) as well as many earlier versions of Mac OS X running on an unsupported computer - instructions, step-by-step 'how to' guides, and tutorials - in addition to installation videos, lists of compatible computers and parts, and communities for support. Therefore there are very few documentations regarding clean installation for Mac OS relative to Windows Reinstallation. In this tutorial, I would try to cover up as much detail I could to help you Reinstall a Clean Mac OS on to your Macbook or iMac. I recommend you to use 16GB or higher USB drive.
Part 1: Problems with Bootcamp Assistant on Mac
That being said, there are a lot of problems in using Bootcamp Assistant on latest macOS such as Mojave or High Serria. One of the errors is the 'Boot Camp installation failed' error. Apple suggests that you move to macOS Mojave and try installing Windows 10 again, but the issue doesn't always go away. Another common error is when trying to copy the Windows installation files. In still other cases, you'll notice that several Mac features don't work when running Windows, such as Apple Software Update stopping, no audio from built-in speakers, mic or webcam not recognized by Windows and so on.
To avoid such errors and issues, which can often take quite a lot of your time to figure out and fix, you can use alternative solutions to install Windows on a Mac from USB. Though you will still need to use Boot Camp Assistant for part of the process, but you're not likely to come across major installation errors when doing this. You can also use Terminal in Mac to help you install Windows. The next two sections describe these methods in detail.
Part 2: Make a Bootable Windows 10/8/7 USB Installer on Mac
Boot Camp Assistant is the official recommendation for creating bootable Windows USB. In case it does not work, we will suggest two alternative software in this section. Both are working fine on latest macOS and we tested three USB drives without running into any issue.
Method 1: Create Windows Bootable USB Using ISO Editor (without Bootcamp)
UUByte ISO Editor can work as a great alternative to Bootcamp for installing Windows OS on Mac. You can easily fetch all the required drivers using Bootcamp, but the installation process for putting Windows on your Mac is different from how Bootcamp does it. UUbyte is one of the most robust Windows 10 bootable USB creator for Mac that you'll ever find. It can do a lot more than just create bootable media, such as creating ISO files, editing them, copying from disc to ISO and so on. For this process, you will need to use the Burn module, which is explained below:
Step 1: Get the Windows 10 ISO from Microsoft's website and install the Mac version of UUbytes ISO Editor.
Step 2: Launch Boot Camp Assistant, go to Action and click on Download Windows Support Software. When the dialog appears, click Save and specify a location for the files.
Step 3: Open the UUbytes program and click on the module that says Burn. Insert a USB flash drive and burn ISO to USB drive. Select the ISO image and click on Burn. This will create a bootable USB drive for the Windows installation.
UUByte is the best alternative to BootCamp for creating bootable Windows USB installer. It is simple to use and has less errors.
Method 2: Create Windows Bootable USB Using Terminal App (without Bootcamp)
This method uses Terminal application to create the bootable media for Windows 10. You will still need Boot Camp Assistant for the support software, but if you're comfortable with command line work, you try this approach. You will first need to download the Windows 10 ISO file. You will also need to use Boot Camp Assistant to get the support files, for which you can follow Step 3 from Method 1.
Step 1: Launch an instance of Terminal. Type the following command and then Enter to list out your drives:
diskutil list external
Step 2: Scroll down the name of the USB drive listed in Terminal. You will be using this in the next command. For now, let's call it disk2. The next step is to format your USB drive for Windows 10. Use the following command, then hit Enter:
diskutil eraseDisk ExFat 'WINDOWS10' MBR disk2
Step 3: You will be able to see a mounted disk called Windows 10. Mount the downloaded Windows 10 ISO file by double-clicking it in Finder. The name will be CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9. You can also run the following command:
cp -rp /Volumes/CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9/* /Volumes/WINDOWS10/
Step 4: Unfortunately, there's no progress bar to indicate that the bootable media is being created. However, after a sufficient amount of time has passed, the USB drive will contain bootable media for a Windows 10 installation.
Part 3: Create a New Partition for Windows OS on Mac
Windows OS can be only installed on a FAT/ExFAT or NTFS partition. You have to create a new partition on Mac for storing Windows OS files as the default partition on Mac is HFS+ or APFS. This can be done with the help of built-in Disk Utility app. However, this is a highly risky task. Please backup your important data to iCloud or external drive with Time Machine.
To create a new partition for Windows OS, please open Disk Utility app on your Mac. Click the internal disk name on the left sidebar. Now, click the Partition tab on top menu. From the pop-up window, type a name for this new partition and select ExFAT for Windows 10 and MS-DOS (FAT) for Windows 7 from Format drop-down menu. At the end, set a size for the new partition. Finally, click Apply button to take this into effect.
Part 4: Boot Mac from Windows Installation USB
Mac will boot from internal hard drive or SSD in default. To install Windows OS on Mac without Boot Camp, you should let your Mac booting from USB drive to start the installation process. However, this is an easy task.
Make sure you disconnect all USB devices except a wired keyboard and the USB drive containing the Windows ISO files. Now restart your computer and hold down the Option (Alt) key at the same time. Wait for about 10 seconds, Apple logo shows up and you will be presented with several boot options. Pick up the drive you have set in Part 2. If you did not do that, the default name is EFI Boot.
Part 5: Start Installing Windows 10/8/7 on Mac without Bootcamp
When Mac boots from the bootable Windows 10 USB, wait about 30 seconds and Windows installation wizard appears. At this time, the window is much small because graphics driver are not installed yet. Now, you have to follow the screen prompt to choose language, region and most importantly the partition to install Windows OS files.
Part 6: Download and Install Windows Support Software (Drivers)
The Windows ISO image file only has the basic drivers for running Windows OS. Some of the hardware on Mac won't work in Windows, suchas Apple Mouse, trackpad or speaker. You have to install addition drivers to use Windows seamlessly as it is on a PC. To do this, you should download and install Windows Support Software with the help of Boot Camp Assistant.
As usual, launch Boot Camp Assistant app on your Mac and click Action tab on menu bar, where you can see an option named Download Windows Support Software. Now, choose your Windows Installer USB as the target location to store the driver files. It will take 5-10 minutes for the downloading task.
Now, boot your Mac into Windows partition. You will see a pop-up from Boot Camp installer. Just follow the prompt to install Windows Support Software. If it does not appear, then plug the USB drive and navigate to USB drive in File Explorer; then go to WindowsSupport -> BootCamp, and click setup.exe to start installing Windows drivers for this Mac.
Part 7: How to Switch Between Windows and macOS
Now, you have everything set up properly for both Windows and macOS. You may be wondering how can you switch OS between Windows and macOS? The trick is a bit different depending on which OS you are currentlt in.
If you are in macOS now and want to restart into Windows, then reboot your Mac and hold Option key untill you see the Startup Manager, where you can choose a booting device like we mentioned in Part 4, something like this:
You can also do this in Startup Disk from System Preferences. Choose th Windows partition and click Restart... button to boot Mac into Windows OS.
If you are in Windows OS and want to switch to Mac, click the Up Carat icon and select Restart in macOS. If this option does not show up, then reboot Windows as normal and press Option key to bring up Startup Manager and pick up Macintosh HD this time.
Conclusion
It is absolutely not an easy journey for installing Windows on Mac without BootCamp. Fortunately, we have put everything together to help you complete this task smoothly. The key part is how to partition the Mac internal drive and create bootable Windows USB. If you are not comfortable using Terminal, UUByte ISO Editor is the recommended way to install Windows on a Mac without Boot Camp Assistant. It's reliable, quick and doesn't require any special technical knowledge.
- Supported version: 0.6.7
While you don't need a fresh install of macOS to use OpenCore, some users prefer having a fresh slate with their boot manager upgrades.
To start we'll want to grab ourselves a copy of macOS. You can skip this and head to formatting the USB if you're just making a bootable OpenCore stick and not an installer. For everyone else, you can either download macOS from the App Store or with Munki's script.
# Downloading macOS: Modern OS
- This method allows you to download macOS 10.13 and newer, for 10.12 and older see Downloading macOS: Legacy OS
From a macOS machine that meets the requirements of the OS version you want to install, go directly to the App Store and download the desired OS release and continue to Setting up the installer.
For machines that need a specific OS release or can't download from the App Store, you can use the Munki's InstallInstallMacOS utility.
In order to run it, just copy and paste the below command in a terminal window:
As you can see, we get a nice list of macOS installers. If you need a particular versions of macOS, you can select it by typing the number next to it. For this example we'll choose 10:
- macOS 11, Big Sur Note: As this OS is quite new, there's still some issues with certain systems to resolve. For more information, see here: OpenCore and macOS 11: Big Sur
- For first time users, we recommend macOS 10.15, Catalina
- Nvidia GPU Note: Reminder to verify whether your hardware support newer OSes, see Hardware Limitations
This is going to take a while as we're downloading the entire 8GB+ macOS installer, so it's highly recommended to read the rest of the guide while you wait.
Once finished, you'll find in your ~/macOS-Installer/ folder a DMG containing the macOS Installer, called Install_macOS_11.1-20C69.dmg for example. Mount it and you'll find the installer application.
- Note: We recommend to move the Install macOS.app into the
/Applicationsfolder, as we'll be executing commands from there. - Note 2: Running Cmd+Shift+G in Finder will allow you to easily jump to
~/macOS-installer
From here, jump to Setting up the installer to finish your work.
# Downloading macOS: Legacy OS
This method allows you to download much older versions of OS X, currently supporting all Intel versions of OS X(10.4 to current)
- Legacy macOS: Offline method
- 10.10-10.12 Supported
- Legacy macOS: Online method(10.7-10.15 Supported)
- 10.7-11 Supported
- Legacy macOS: Disk Images
- 10.4-10.6 Supported
- Legacy macOS: Offline method
# Setting up the installer
Now we'll be formatting the USB to prep for both the macOS installer and OpenCore. We'll want to use macOS Extended (HFS+) with a GUID partition map. This will create two partitions: the main MyVolume and a second called EFI which is used as a boot partition where your firmware will check for boot files.
- Note: By default, Disk Utility only shows partitions – press Cmd/Win+2 to show all devices (alternatively you can press the View button)
- Note 2: Users following 'Legacy macOS: Online method' section can skip to Setting up OpenCore's EFI environment
Next run the createinstallmedia command provided by Apple(opens new window). Note that the command is made for USB's formatted with the name MyVolume:
This will take some time so you may want to grab a coffee or continue reading the guide (to be fair you really shouldn't be following this guide step by step without reading the whole thing first).
You can also replace the createinstallmedia path with that of where your installer's located (same idea with the drive name).
Pulled from Apple's own site: How to create a bootable installer for macOS(opens new window)
# Legacy Setup
For systems not supporting UEFI boot, see below:
To start, you need the following:
- BootInstall_IA32.tool or BootInstall_X64.tool
- This can be found in OpenCorePkg under
/Utilties/LegacyBoot/
- This can be found in OpenCorePkg under
- Install USB(Created above)
Install Mac Os Mojave From Usb 3.0
Within your OpenCore build folder, navigate to Utilities/LegacyBoot. Here you'll find a file called BootInstall_ARCH.tool. What this does is install DuetPkg to your desired drive.
Now run this tool in terminal with sudo(This tool will likely fail otherwise):
This will give you a list of available disks, choose yours and you will be prompted to write a new MBR. Choose yes[y] and you'll be finished.
This will provide you with an EFI partition with either a bootia32 or bootx64 file
# Setting up OpenCore's EFI environment
Install Macos Mojave From Usb Drive
Setting up OpenCore's EFI environment is simple – all you need to do is mount our EFI system partition. This is automatically made when we format with GUID but is unmounted by default, this is where our friend MountEFI(opens new window) comes in:
Install Macos Mojave Usb Stick
You'll notice that once we open the EFI partition, it's empty. This is where the fun begins.
Install Mac Os Mojave From Usb Bootable
# Now with all of this done, head to Setting up the EFI to finish up your work