Mac OSX on USB

[Guest]

So i was given a mac from a friend to stuff around with it has no screen and i have had to put a spare hdd in. The problem i am having is that i can't seem to make a bootable USB drive from  windows to install the OS from. 

I am following this video here 

 and have had no luck and can't really find anything else. 

[Sn4tchBandicoot]

So what's the issue? You haven't given any insight as to what the issue is,just that you can't seem to make a bootable drive.

Is it not booting? is it giving an error? what's going on?

 

So i was given a mac from a friend to stuff around with it has no screen and i have had to put a spare hdd in. The problem i am having is that i can't seem to make a bootable USB drive from  windows to install the OS from. 

I am following this video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyyK_g4i6UI and have had no luck and can't really find anything else. 

[techguru]

So i was given a mac from a friend to stuff around with it has no screen and i have had to put a spare hdd in. The problem i am having is that i can't seem to make a bootable USB drive from  windows to install the OS from. 

I am following this video here 

 and have had no luck and can't really find anything else. 

you can't make a bootable usb for mac on a windows os

unless the image file is properly formated for windows

 

there is a tool you can use to give windows the ability to properly burn the img tho

[techguru]

how old is this mac?

whats the specs?

[Guest]

So what's the issue? You haven't given any insight as to what the issue is,just that you can't seem to make a bootable drive.

Is it not booting? is it giving an error? what's going on?

After following the video I take the USB down stairs to where the MAC is hooked up and plug the USB drive into it. When holding down the (option key I think) I press alt on windows keyboard, it launches the boot option but will not show the USB and will only show the hard drive that has only windows on it. (note: this windows was not imaged on a mac)

 

you can't make a bootable usb for mac on a windows os

unless the image file is properly formated for windows

 

there is a tool you can use to give windows the ability to properly burn the img tho

I used tansmac (i think that's what its called) check out the link as I followed that. I had also converted it to an .ISO and still had no luck.

 

how old is this mac?

whats the specs?

I am unsure of the year model of the MAC as there are no stickers any where stating what model it is. However, I will say it's most likely a 2010 model as that is the manufacture date on the optical drive in it unless it had been replace before.

Specs: I wouldn't have a clue, I was given this MAC the other day with no screen or hard drive installed and can't seem to get any OS to boot on it at the moment to check. 

[techguru]

After following the video I take the USB down stairs to where the MAC is hooked up and plug the USB drive into it. When holding down the (option key I think) I press alt on windows keyboard, it launches the boot option but will not show the USB and will only show the hard drive that has only windows on it. (note: this windows was not imaged on a mac)

 

I used tansmac (i think that's what its called) check out the link as I followed that. I had also converted it to an .ISO and still had no luck.

 

I am unsure of the year model of the MAC as there are no stickers any where stating what model it is. However, I will say it's most likely a 2010 model as that is the manufacture date on the optical drive in it unless it had been replace before.

Specs: I wouldn't have a clue, I was given this MAC the other day with no screen or hard drive installed and can't seem to get any OS to boot on it at the moment to check. 

burn a bootable version of linux

and boot that up on it

will give you an idea of what kinda mac it is

 

also all macs have a serial number or model number on them somewhere

you can look for that

and then google it

[Guest]

well I have been able to make a bootable USB through a virtual machine version of maverick but now when I go to boot off the actual Mac itself it will hang on half way of loading. I can run through the full setup in a virtual environment using the same boot USB.

burn a bootable version of linux

and boot that up on it

will give you an idea of what kinda mac it is

 

also all macs have a serial number or model number on them somewhere

you can look for that

and then google it

it's some i3 iMac 27". serial number sticker has been removed.

[TDP_Equinox]

So i was given a mac from a friend to stuff around with it has no screen and i have had to put a spare hdd in. The problem i am having is that i can't seem to make a bootable USB drive from  windows to install the OS from. 

I am following this video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyyK_g4i6UI and have had no luck and can't really find anything else. 

If you have access to a mac you can do it in the terminal. 

 

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Yosemite --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app

 

Substitute the "Yosemite.app" with whatever version you're using, and "--volume /Volumes/Yosemite" With the volume name of your USB drive. 

 

If you don't have access to a working mac, transmac should be able to do it, but i've never tried.  Rufus might be able to do it as well.

[Robin88]

So i was given a mac from a friend to stuff around with it has no screen and i have had to put a spare hdd in. The problem i am having is that i can't seem to make a bootable USB drive from  windows to install the OS from. 

I am following this video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyyK_g4i6UI and have had no luck and can't really find anything else. 

f you're following the guide correctly can you try booting the Mac up without the flash drive plugged in and hold down the Option/Alt key until you get the boot device screen, and then plug the flash drive into the Mac, sometimes Macs can be really odd about flash drives and will only detect a flash drive if it was plugged in after the Mac was switched on.

[ShadowCaptain]

So i was given a mac from a friend to stuff around with it has no screen and i have had to put a spare hdd in. The problem i am having is that i can't seem to make a bootable USB drive from  windows to install the OS from. 

I am following this video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyyK_g4i6UI and have had no luck and can't really find anything else. 

 

Can you not do an online recovery? OSX can download a copy of the OS

[TDP_Equinox]

Can you not do an online recovery? OSX can download a copy of the OS

Not if it can't reach apple/is end of life.

You can get around this by using Mac OS X Server, and downloading all the updates but that doesn't help OP..

[ShadowCaptain]

Not if it can't reach apple/is end of life.

You can get around this by using Mac OS X Server, and downloading all the updates but that doesn't help OP..

 

hmm but he just said all he was doing was installing a new drive, normally when you do that you can boot into apples bios sort of tihng and download OSX, I did it tons of times at work

 

but maybe the older ones didnt have that

 

so I might be wrong

[Guest]

just curious how many of you read the whole thread? I mentioned I was able to create a bootable USB with the latest OSX but it hangs during load up but works fine in a virtual environment.

[TDP_Equinox]

just curious how many of you read the whole thread? I mentioned I was able to create a bootable USB with the latest OSX but it hangs during load up but works fine in a virtual environment.

I read OP, and most of the thread (Including that). 

Does the friend that gifted it to you have another Mac? Try making the media from there.

[Guest]

I read OP, and most of the thread (Including that). 

Does the friend that gifted it to you have another Mac? Try making the media from there.

He does but he lives about 2 hours away and he can't just upload it to me as we have stupid Internet cap limits in Aus. I do have a  MAC at work that i will try from but i don't go back to work till Monday. At first i though maybe since these work fine in a virtual environment it might be the MAC it self being shit. However, I was able to load and install ubuntu on it with no issue.

 

This is the screen that its stuck on. The initial launch of the USB

[TDP_Equinox]

He does but he lives about 2 hours away and he can't just upload it to me as we have stupid Internet cap limits in Aus. I do have a  MAC at work that i will try from but i don't go back to work till Monday. At first i though maybe since these work fine in a virtual environment it might be the MAC it self being shit. However, I was able to load and install ubuntu on it with no issue.

Macs can be picky about their install media. 

I have to keep redoing my USB drives because they expire after 50-100 installs.

Go ahead and make the media on the mac at work, using the terminal command I posted above.

How much RAM does the system have? If it's 4GB or more, it can go to yosemite. 

 

EDIT: Keep in mind, you need to have the yosemite.app in the applications folder.

You can download it for free from the app store, on the front page.