macOS Catalina 10.15 is the latest operating system that runs on Apple Mac laptops and desktops. However, it is still in beta test and only available for part of Mac computers with high profile or enrolled in Apple Beta Program. Is there any way to upgrade the macOS to Catalina manually or install Catalina on Mac from scratch? The answer is Yes. But you have to download macOS Cataina DMG or the installer app.
If you are looking for the easiest way to download macOS Catalina DMG on a Macand but don't know how? Well, there are three ways by which you can instantly get the latest macOS installer without a hassle.
Launch the VMware virtual machine, select macOS Catalina VM and click on Power on this virtual machine. Now, click on the Install macOS Catalina on the top right-hand corner and select Eject “Install macOS Catalina. ” If you don’t see Install macOS Catalina then skip to the third step.
Part 1. Get MacOS Catalina DMG Via Direct Download Link
Install macOS Catalina 10.15 on VirtualBox on Windows PC. MacOS Catalina is the next operating system after macOS Mojave. The new update of macOS Catalina is accepted by macOS users due to having well and comfortable features, performance. The macOS had the super credibility in using the latest OS in every update. MacOS Catalina (10.15) The sixteenth big update of macOS, Apple Inc.’s desktop operating system for Macintosh computers, is called Catalina.It is the successor to macOS Mojave and was unveiled on June 3, 2019, at WWDC 2019 and launched to the general public on October 7, 2019. Upgrade to macOS “Catalina” from Windows 10, or install the latest versions of macOS. At this point we can already use macOS from Windows 10 in the virtual machine as if we had a Mac. But surely what scares us most is to install any update, both at the level of security patches and new versions. It’s been a while that macOS Catalina 10.15 is released and this is the latest Apple Mac Operating system up to now. In this article, I’m going to show you step by step to install macOS Catalina on VirtualBox on Windows PC.
Many people prefer the direct download link of macOS Catalina as it is more flexible. You can unpack the DMG file and make a bootable Catalina installer USB, which can be used to install macOS on other computers. However, it is not easy to find the direct download link because Apple wants you to upgrade from Mac App Store. Fortunately, there are a few good websites that host the direct download link of macOS Catalina DMG. After that, you can burn the macOS dmg to USB to make it bootable for installation.
macOS Catalina 10.15 DMG Download Link 1: https://themacgo.com/macdownload/ (Wait a few seconds and the download starts automatically.)
macOS Catalina 10.15 DMG Download Link 2: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ELQXMuuVWddamLPG0RHjyvaNW4r628CM (Password: Geekrar.com)
macOS Catalina 10.15 DMG Download Link 3: http://www.mediafire.com/file/wazr84baudhi27h/macOS_Catalina_DMG_by_Geekrar.rar/file
macOS Catalina 10.15 DMG Download Link 4: https://sundryfiles.com/G54 (Premium account required for download!)
macOS Catalina 10.15 InstallESDDmg PKG Download Link : http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/61/56/041-83630-A_8RCIBB415Y/7jqh3nh97ood2mjej7hdgpx7fgh5c3fi9g/InstallESDDmg.pkg
macOS Catalina 10.15 VMware Image Download Link: https://www.mediafire.com/file/yrd1py7od5911zt/Catalina_Virtual_Disk_Image_by_Techsviewer.rar/file
macOS Catalina 10.15 VirtualBox Image Download Link: https://www.mediafire.com/file/yrd1py7od5911zt/Catalina_Virtual_Disk_Image_by_Techsviewer.rar/file
Tips: After downloading macOS Catalina .dmg file, it is time to make a macOS bootable USB from it. For this purpose, you can give a try on UUByte DMG Editor, one of the most popular software to create a Catalina USB installer on both Windows PC and Mac.
Part 2. Download macOS Catalina From Mac App Store
Apple always recommends its users downloading macOS install file from Mac App Store for security reasons. It is safe and easy. But the actual downloaded file is not an dmg file. Instead, it is an app called Install macOS Catalina, which is used to make the upgrade from current macOS to Catalina. For a clean install, it is better to download the dmg file and make an installer USB.
Note: Make sure to back up your Mac prior to installing macOS Catalina.
Step 1: Go to Mac App Store and search macOS Catalina. Then hit on 'Get' to download page.
Step 2: Doing this will open System Preferences followed by the section of Software Update, where you will find MacOS Catalina ready to download. Hit the option saying 'Upgrade Now' and download MacOS Catalina on your Mac.
Step 3: Next, macOS Catalina upgrade will ask for system reboot. Complete the process and install macOS Catalina on that computer.
Downloading macOS Catalina Install app works fine on my of newly devices but it could be problems for old Macs even it is officially supported by Catalina. If this is the case, then you have to patch the OS and install Catalina again. However, you need find a third-party app to do the dirty work. We will talk about this in Part 3.
Part 3. Download macOS Catalina 10.15 Installer with macOS Catalina Patcher
Although it may appear easy to try out the conventional approach of downloading macOS update in Software Update, there are a few known issues on old Macs shipped in 2013 or earlier, meaning the download progress can not be completed successfully. That's why macOS Catalina Patcher tool comes into help. This patching tool makes the job even simpler for installing macOS Catalina on unsupported Mac models.
However, the file size of these updates differs depending on the Mac device you are using. That means the downloaded update might not necessarily be the full installer version. For instance, if you wish to keep the installer file as archive for further application, or use it to generate bootable flash drive, this file size won't be sufficient.
Fortunately, with macOS Catalina Patcher tool, you can simply download the entire update of macOS setup from Apple's servers. Let's check out the stepwise instructions of how to use this software tool to download the macOS Catalina DMG.
Step 1: Download a copy of macOS Catalina Patcher from this link.
Step 2: After downloading and attempting to install, an error notification will be prompted. It is due to the unavailability of developer verification credential for macOS. Now, go to System Preferences -> Security & Privacy. Then find the button saying 'Open Anyway' to let the app run.
Step 3: Open macOS Catalina Patcher app and from the main menu, navigate to Options to uncheck the box saying 'Auto-apply Post Install Patches'. As you are done with the previous step and move to the screen as in the link below, hit Download a Copy.
Step 4: The following screen will notify the file size of macOS Catalina you are to download. The resolution is around 7GB and after the download, it will automatically get stored in the Downloads folder. Then hit Continue to initiate the process of download.
Step 5: The download time of the file will depend upon the internet connection and its speed. So, you might have to wait for some while for the process to complete. Eventually, the entire macOS Catalina setup file will be available on your device.
Closing Words
Well, that is all for the day. Hopefully, the above methods were helpful in guiding you on how to download macOS Catalina for both supported and unsupported Macs. When the download is finished, the next step is to burn the DMG file to USB. Then boot macOS from USB and starts the installation wizard.
In previous tutorial, we wrote a post about creating macOS Catalina bootable USB on Mac, which is a simple tool and there are a couple of free tools to complete the task. You can even use the built-in tool Disk Utility and dd command to do it without installing any third-party apps. However, the situation is much different on Windows 10 because macOS install file (end with .dmg) is not supported by Windows OS. Unlike ISO image, there are few tools on Windows that can handle .dmg files. That's the most challenging part!
So in this article, we will show you how to create macOS bootable USB on Windows 10 and targets macOS Catalina specifically, which is the latest version of Apple macOS and it is easy to download the install file. This will be a great help if there were something wrong with your Mac and a fresh install was demanded. Also if you were a Mac enthusiast and can not afford the price, then it is not a bad choice to build a hackintosh with Catalina.
Before heading to the details of each method, please make sure you have downloaded a copy of Catalina OS dmg file and a working USB drive with more than 12GB storage.
Method 1: Create macOS Catalina Bootable USB on Windows 10 via DMG Editor
There are more than one solutions to create macOS Catalina Bootable USB on Windows 10 and we will go with easy one first. DMG Editor, a popular app developed by UUByte, is a multi-functional and cross-platform image burning tool that works on Windows, Linux and macOS. It supports creating bootable USB from popular image files, including dmg, iso, zip, img. And it has full support for Linux distros and old versions of Windows OS. macOS support was not available in previous versions. But now, the latest version of DMG Editor adds better support for macOS dmg file. Let's get a try first.
Step 1.Go to UUByte official website and download Windows version of Etcher from there.
Step 2. Run the executable file and complete the installation process. After that, insert an USB drive in Windows 10.
Step 3. Open the installed UUByte DMG Editor by double-clicking on the icon shown on your home screen. Click on the 'Burn' option then. After that, add Catalina .dmg file to the software and click on 'Change' button to choose the inserted USB device.
Step 4. Finally, click on the 'Burn' button to start the dmg burning process. At this time, a progress bar is displayed on the screen and it gives you an estimated calculation for the time remaining.
Step 5. Wait about 10 minutes. It will show you a pop-up message after completing the task successfully.
The process is very quick and easy to execute. But you might have issues running Etcher app on old computers with low profile hardware. Etcher GUI is built primarily on a new Javascript framework called Electron , which consumes a lot of computing resources. So if you were going to use Etcher to create macOS Catalina bootable USB, make sure testing it on a high-profile Windows 10 PC or laptop.
Method 2: Convert .dmg to .iso and Create macOS Catalina Bootable USB
macOS Catalina install image is distributed in .dmg format and Windows 10 has no support. Hen it is almost impossible to read such files in conventional ways. So in this part, we will convert macOS Catalina dmg file into ISO and create a bootable installer by burning the ISO file to USB. This can be done with the help of third-party software.
To execute the method, you need two software. First, you need a special software to convert dmg to ISO. Second, an ISO to USB burning software to make bootable USB from ISO file. To demonstrate, we have used 7 PowerISO & UUByte ISO Editor to create macOS Catalina bootable USB from Windows 10.
Step 1: Download and install PowerISO on Windows 10.
Step 2: Insert your USB drive. Right-click on this peripheral device and choose the option to format it. After a few seconds, you will get the notification of completing the format process.
Step 3: Now, open PowerISO and navigate to Tool menu. From the pop-up list, please click the 'Convert' option.
Step 4: In a pop-up window, click the folder icon to add macOS Catalina dmg file in Source file field. And set an output file name under Destination file section. Next. choose Standard ISO Images (.ISO) from Output image file format.
Step 5: When the ISO file is created successfully. Download and install UUByte ISO Editor. Then click Burn button to open ISO burning Window. Next, add ISO file to the program and select the USB name. Wait for 7 minutes, and a bootable USB is ready!
Step 6: After getting a task completion message on screen, eject the USB and then start installing macOS Catalina from the USB drive.
The solution is simple but may need to purchase a couple of tools for executing the steps. But if you will search smartly on the internet, chances are there that you can get the required tools without paying any cost. However, if you want to bypass using any of the third-party tools, you can create the Catalina OS bootable USB by accessing macOS in a virtual machine.
Method 3: Use TransMac to Create macOS Catalina Bootable USB in Windows 10
TransMac is a single-purpose utility to open Mac disk image from a Windows PC. It's one of the quickest methods to create macOS bootable USB drive from dmg file. However, the support for Catalina is not good as Mojave and High Serrira. Plus, you have to pay for 59 USD to use the burn feature. That's why we mention this app at the end of this post.
Step 1: Download TransMac from the official site and run the .exe file to complete the installation process.
Install Macos Catalina On Windows 10 Vmware
Step 2: Now plug in a USB device into the port. Now right-click on TransMac icon shown on the home screen and then choose to Run as administrator.
Step 3: After landing inside the tool's window, all disk drives will be displayed on the left side automatically. Click File -> Open Disk Image to load macOS Catalina dmf file into the program.
Step 4: Before proceeding further, you need to format your USB device to make it compatible with Mac HFS or APS partition. For doing the same, click on the 'Format Diks for Mac' option. Wait for 30 seconds to complete the process.
Step 5: Right-click on the selected USB disk. From the shown list, click on 'Restore with Disk Image'. If it shows any warning message, just click on the OK button to accept.
How To Install Macos Catalina On Windows 10 Pc
Step 6: After that, select the location of saved Mac OS Catalina DMG file and then click on the OK button. Now stay back and look after 20 minutes. You will get ready with a bootable Catalina USB.
TransMac is one of the easiest method to create a bootable macOS Installer USB on a Windows PC. You can use this application to burn any version of macOS operating system file to USB.
Conclusion
To conclude, we would recommend going with either the first or the second method to create bootable macOS Catalina USB. Both are super easy to follow because you don't need to install multiple tools and go through a multi-layer process to meet your requirement.