MacOS (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_
• A Mac (Hackintosh already or a genuine Mac) with a USB port
• A little bit of time and patience

1a. Download MacOS (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 hit InstallAssistant.pkg. This will copy the OS Installer to your Applications. 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 hit InstallAssistant.pkg. This will copy the OS Installer to your Applications. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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

Monterey (final):

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Monterey.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/USB —nointeraction —downloadassets

Monterey (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

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Ventura\ beta.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/USB —nointeraction —downloadassets

Ventura (final):

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Ventura.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/USB —nointeraction —downloadassets

Sonoma (beta):

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

Sonoma (final):

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sonoma.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.

4. 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.