Need to reinstall macOS Sonoma on MacBook Pro A1990 using only a Windows PC

[Nha Trang]

Hi All,
I have a MacBook Pro model A19xx. The existing macOS installation has crashed, and I do not have access to another Mac.
I currently have:

• A Windows 10 or 11 PC
• A 32GB USB flash drive
• Internet access
• No working macOS computer

ChatGPT recommends installing macOS Sonoma 14.8.7 for the MacBook so I would like to perform a clean installation of this macOS version from an USB and do not want to try Internet Recovery for the MacBook.

Can I reliably create the installer USB from Windows and use it?

I would prefer an original, unmodified Apple installer and do not want to use an unofficial customized macOS image.

Please explain steps I should use to create the installer USB and then use it to install Sonoma on the MacBook

Look towards to getting your instructions.

Thank you
N.T

 

[haralds]

You can boot into Recovery and install from there.

 

[iStorm]

It can be a lot of work to do it from Windows, and you can't do it "natively". You need to find a DMG that someone has extracted (who knows if they touched it) and use a third-party tool to make the USB installer. There are plenty of guides and videos online that show how to do this, such as this one. I'm sure ChatGPT could even tell you the steps.

Personally, I would just do an Internet Recovery and get a working (latest) version of macOS installed directly from Apple.

If you really want 14.8.7 (or any other version), then head over to Mr. Macintosh's site and find the link to download the PKG installer from Apple. Now you can make the bootable USB installer the official way and not worry about it being tampered with.