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Create a bootable virtual disk image (VMDK) for installing macOS (Monterey, Ventura) on VMware workstation
How to create a bootable virtual disk image (VMDK) for installing macOS (12 Monterey, 13 Ventura) on VMware workstation. Including Google drive links to download the VMware VMDK virtual disk images.
- This guide is for creating a bootable virtual disk installer for macOS Monterey that can be used to install macOS on VMware workstation.
- The same steps should also work for macOS Ventura.
- The installer is the full macOS installation image, not the smaller recovery image.
- Download links to the VDMK files on Google Drive are also listed below if you just want to get the disk image files.
- This guide was created using a macOS Catalina virtual machine.
Table of Contents
1 Create a new virtual hard disk
Attach a new 14GB virtual hard disk to your macOS virtual machine. The new VMDK will be used to create a bootable Monterey installer.
2 Erase the disk using Disk Utility
Open Disk Utility
Show all devices
Select the 14GB virtual disk - Erase
Name: macos
Format: mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Scheme: GUID Partition Map
Click Erase
3 Download macOS installer using the softwareupdate command
# Download macOS Monterey 12.5.1 softwareupdate --download --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 12.5.1 # Download macOS Ventura 13.0 softwareupdate --download --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 13.0
softwareupdate command options
| --help | Show the help |
| --download | Download only |
| --fetch-full-installer | Get the latest macOS installer |
| --full-installer-version | Get a specific macOS version |
macOS version numbers
| macOS 12 Monterey | macOS 13 Ventura |
| macOS 12.5 | macOS 13.0 |
| macOS 12.5.1 | |
| macOS 12.6 | |
| macOS 12.6.1 |
Install macOS Monterey.app has been downloaded to Applications
4 Create a bootable disk using the createinstallmedia command
Now we have downloaded the macOS installer.app, we can use the createinstallmedia command to make the "macos" virtual disk into a bootable Monterey installer
# Monterey sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Monterey.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/macos # Ventura sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Ventura.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/macos
Bootable media has been created successfully.
You can now remove the 14GB macos virtual disk from the VM (rename it to macos-monterey.vmdk) and use it for installing Monterey.
5 Download macOS VMware VMDK disk images from Google Drive
You can download macOS VMware disk images by becoming a TechLabs member. Or, you can create the disk images yourself following the other guides on this site.
Download macOS VMware VMDK disk image files
https://techlabs.blog/categories/guides/download-macos-vmware-vmdk-disk-image-files
Create a VMware VMDK disk image file for installing macOS (High Sierra, Mojave, Catalina) on VMware Workstation on Windows
https://techlabs.blog/categories/guides/create-a-vmware-vmdk-disk-image-file-for-installing-macos-high-sierra-mojave-catalina-on-vmware-workstation-on-windows
Download macOS VMware VMDK disk image files
https://techlabs.blog/categories/guides/download-macos-vmware-vmdk-disk-image-files
Create a VMware VMDK disk image file for installing macOS (High Sierra, Mojave, Catalina) on VMware Workstation on Windows
https://techlabs.blog/categories/guides/create-a-vmware-vmdk-disk-image-file-for-installing-macos-high-sierra-mojave-catalina-on-vmware-workstation-on-windows
Comments 2
Question, why do you have two downloads:
macos-monterey.vmdk
macos-monterey-vmws15.vmdk
What's the difference. I fig the 2nd one is specific for VMWare Workstation 15, but then whats the first one used for? Shouldnt both work in VMWare Workstation? Is the first for VMWS16+ or Fusion or...
Would really help in the future to include just a few words differentiating such mysteries.
Thanks for the good article tho.
Hi, I had some feedback from people that the new VMDKs created using VMware Workstation 17 didn’t work. So I added links to VMDKs that are compatible with older versions of VMware workstation. I will update the article so this is a bit clearer. Thanks!