Mac Boot Disk



The keyboard and mouse or trackpad that came with your Mac. If they aren’t available, use a USB keyboard and mouse. A full-installation, 64-bit version of Windows 10 on a disk image (ISO file) or other installation media. The entire process of setting your Mac to boot from USB should take around half an hour at most. Install it on a fast SSD and you've got a usable dual-boot system on your hands. Or you could install macOS on a flash drive, stick it in a drawer, and keep it for emergencies. It'll make your Mac boot from USB in just a few clicks. Starting with Disk Drill 3, anyone can create a bootable Mac OS X drive in a matter of minutes. Make sure you have an extra storage device, which is at least 2GB in size. Connect it to any Mac, run Disk Drill and use the 'Create Boot Drive' option on the main toolbar. CD/DVD drives are disappearing from computers, leaving USB storage as the only option when re-installing an operating system. The process is fairly painless and, if you have a bit of time and patience you can complete the task on a Mac.

Boot Camp Assistant User Guide

You can use Boot Camp Assistant to install Windows 10 on your Intel-based Mac.

Newer Mac computers use a streamlined method to install Windows on your Mac. To find out whether your Mac uses this method, see the “Learn more” section in the Apple Support article Install Windows 10 on your Mac with Boot Camp Assistant. If your Mac is an older model that requires an external USB drive, follow the instructions in Install Windows on your older Mac using Boot Camp instead.

Mac Boot Disk

What you need

  • The keyboard and mouse or trackpad that came with your Mac. If they aren’t available, use a USB keyboard and mouse.

  • A full-installation, 64-bit version of Windows 10 on a disk image (ISO file) or other installation media.

    You can download a Windows 10 Disc Image (ISO File) from Microsoft.

  • Sufficient free storage space on your startup drive. For information about the amount of free space needed, see the Apple Support Article Install Windows 10 on your Mac with Boot Camp Assistant.

Before you begin

Before you install Windows, make sure you back up important files.

You can use Time Machine or any other method to back up your files. For information about backing up files, see Back up your files with Time Machine and Ways to back up or protect your files.

Perform the installation

Mac Boot Disk Image Download

Disk

On your Mac, do the following steps in order.

Step 1: Check for software updates

Before you install Windows, install all macOS updates.

  1. On your Mac, log in as an administrator, quit all open apps, then log out any other users.

  2. Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Software Update, then install all available macOS updates.

    If your Mac restarts after installing an update, open Software Update again to install any additional updates.

Step 2: Prepare your Mac for Windows

Boot Camp Assistant prepares your Mac by creating a new partition for Windows named BOOTCAMP and downloading the Boot Camp support software.

Important: If you’re using a Mac notebook computer, connect it to a power source before continuing.

  1. On your Mac, open Boot Camp Assistant , located in /Applications/Utilities.

  2. At the Introduction screen, click Continue.

    The system is checked for total available disk space. Older Time Machine snapshots and cached iCloud files are removed to make space for Boot Camp. This process may take a long time to complete (you can click the Stop button to skip this process).

  3. If you have only one internal disk, choose the Windows ISO image, specify the partition size by dragging the divider between the macOS and Windows partitions, then click Install.

  4. If you have multiple internal disks, follow the onscreen instructions to select and format the disk you want to install Windows on and to choose the Windows ISO image.

    • If you select your startup disk: You can create an additional partition for Windows. Specify the partition size by dragging the divider between the macOS and Windows partitions.

    • If you select an APFS-formatted disk: You can either create an additional partition on the disk for Windows, or erase the entire disk and create a partition for Windows. If you choose to create an additional partition, specify the partition size by dragging the divider between the macOS and Windows partitions.

    • If you select a non-APFS-formatted disk: You can erase the entire disk and create a partition for Windows.

    If Boot Camp is already present on the disk you select, you also have the option to uninstall it.

    Important: You can’t resize the partition later.

When this step is complete, the Windows installer starts.

Step 3: Install Windows

  1. In the Windows installer, follow the onscreen instructions.

    When the installation is finished, your Mac automatically restarts using Windows.

  2. Follow the onscreen instructions to set up Windows.

Boot

Step 4: Install Boot Camp on Windows

After installing Windows, Boot Camp drivers that support your Mac hardware start installing.

Mac Boot Disk Option

Note: If the support software doesn’t install automatically, you need to install it manually. For instructions, see the Apple Support article If the Boot Camp installer doesn't open after using Boot Camp Assistant.

  1. In the Boot Camp installer in Windows, follow the onscreen instructions.

    Important: Do not click the Cancel button in any of the installer dialogs.

    If a message appears that says the software you’re installing has not passed Windows Logo testing, click Continue Anyway.

    You don’t need to respond to installer dialogs that appear only briefly during installation, but if a dialog asks you to install device software, click Install.

    If nothing appears to be happening, there may be a hidden window that you must respond to. Look behind open windows.

  2. When the installation is complete, click Finish.

  3. After your Mac restarts, follow the instructions for any other installers that appear.

Mac Boot Disks

See alsoGet started with Boot Camp on MacTroubleshoot Boot Camp Assistant problems on MacApple Support article: How to use Pro Display XDR with Boot CampApple Support website: Boot Camp Support