As you may know, you can reinstall macOS on your computer via the internet recovery. But did you know that you can create a bootable USB drive to install macOS from? This will let you boot your Mac from a different source if it won’t work normally, and makes installs on multiple machines easy.
When it’s done, insert your USB drive into any Mac, then launch the installer by holding down the Option key when you boot up your computer. Download a macOS installer, such as macOS Mojave or macOS High Sierra. To download macOS Mojave or High Sierra for this purpose, download from a Mac that is using macOS Sierra 10.12.5 or later, or El Capitan 10.11.6.
Let’s see how to do this.
Choosing a USB Flash Drive for Installing Mac
USB flash drives are cheaper than ever, so you won’t have to spend much for this task. However, make sure to buy a name-brand flash drive (like SanDisk, Kingston, or PNY) from a reputable store. Stay away from super-cheap drives with suspiciously high storage on sites like eBay.
These drives have their firmware hacked to report a false size to your operating system. Not only will the transfer speeds be painfully slow, but using them may also result in loss of data or even a damaged USB port.
Also, check to see what ports you have on your Mac. The 12″ MacBook has a single USB-C port, while MacBook Pro models from 2016 and later feature USB-C ports exclusively. Fortunately, there are USB-C drives available, or you can use a USB-C to USB-A adapter.
It’s best to go with a USB 3.0 drive, with a minimum size of 16GB. The Samsung BAR Plus is good overall value for the money; we’ve highlighted the fastest USB 3.0 drives you can buy for more options.
Formatting Your USB Flash Drive
You can only create a bootable installer for macOS on a Mac. If you’re using a flash drive that already has data on it, make sure to back up any important files as you’re going to erase everything in a moment.
Open Finder. Navigate to Applications > Utilities, and open up Disk Utility. You should see your flash drive under the External section in the left pane. After selecting it, click on the Erase https://ilskyey117.weebly.com/network-management-tool-for-mac.html. button along the top.
Choose a friendly name (which you’ll use later), and make sure to choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for the format. Finally, click Erase and you’re done with this step.
Downloading the macOS Installer
To download the macOS installer, open the App Store and search for your version of macOS. Click on the Download button if you’re on High Sierra or earlier.
macOS Mojave is slightly different, as it opens up your System Preferences to download the installer. This is because one of the changes in Mojave is a new way of installing updates.
In either case, once the installer opens, quit it without continuing the installation.
Creating a Bootable USB Using Terminal
Terminal is the easiest way to create your bootable USB drive. Just replace the MyVolume portion of the command with the name you gave your drive in the Disk Utility step above.
Take note that the commands differ slightly for creating Mojave and High Sierra installers on older versions of macOS.
Mojave installer on Mojave or High Sierra:
Mojave installer on Sierra or earlier:
High Sierra installer on High Sierra:
High Sierra installer on Sierra or earlier:
El Capitan:
Copy and paste the command you need above into your Terminal window and press the Return key. After entering your password, confirm you want to erase the USB drive by typing Y followed by Return.
Terminal will now erase and create your bootable USB drive, ready for you to boot from.
Creating a Bootable USB Using DiskMaker X
If you’re not a fan of using Terminal, you can try a third-party app designed specifically for creating a bootable macOS USB drive. After downloading your macOS version of choice as detailed above, you can download and install DiskMaker X.
Due to its updated security, macOS Mojave has some additional steps required if you’d like to use DiskMaker X. The developers recommend reversing these changes after you’ve made your USB drive if you’re not planning on using the app in the future.
Navigate to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility. To make changes, click the lock icon at the bottom and enter your credentials.
Then click on the Plus button, navigate to the Applications folder, select DiskMaker X, and click open. DiskMaker X should now appear on the list.
As soon as you launch DiskMaker X, it will prompt you to confirm the macOS installer you’ve downloaded. Kent moore tool number for mac sc40.
The next prompt shows one of the advantages of DiskMaker X in that you can create a multi-installation disk. This means that you can create a few partitions on your USB drive and have a different macOS installer on each partition.
If you would rather create a single install disk, select Erase All Disk. Lastly, confirm that you’d like to erase everything on the USB drive.
DiskMaker will continue to create your disk in the background and update you on its progress. After a few minutes, DiskMaker X will notify you that your boot disk is ready and give you some instructions on how to use it.
Booting Your Mac From a USB Drive
Now if you find yourself in a sticky situation where your Mac isn’t booting, or you want to do a fresh install of macOS, you have a solution. You can boot from your USB drive and not have to download the macOS installer again.
Simply plug your created USB drive into an open USB port on your Mac. Power on the system, or restart it if it’s already on. Immediately press and hold the Option (Alt) key on your keyboard when it starts booting.
You should now see an option to select your USB drive as a startup disk. After selecting it, your system will boot off your USB drive and you’ll be taken to the macOS Utilities screen.
Some wireless keyboards may not work at this point. If you’re having difficulty, plug in a wired keyboard instead. If you don’t see your USB drive as one of the startup options, try a different USB port.
Using Your Bootable macOS USB
From the macOS Utilities screen, you can perform a fresh install of macOS, restore from a Time Machine backup, or access tools like Disk Utility. You can also use your USB drive to upgrade macOS to the latest version. If you need to troubleshoot your Mac without a network connection, this USB drive could be a lifesaver.
Did you know you could also install operating systems on a USB stickHow to Install Multiple Bootable Operating Systems on a USB StickHow to Install Multiple Bootable Operating Systems on a USB Stick https://ilskyey117.weebly.com/ip-search-tool-for-mac.html. Want to install and/or run multiple operating systems from a single bootable USB stick? You can with these tools.Read More? We show you how:
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Explore more about: Install Software, macOS High Sierra, macOS Mojave, USB Drive.
- The experience of building the USB with DiskMaker_X_7 was painless. I am now able to boot to a screen with two icons like the one shown in this article. At this point, I select the USB drive that is named 'Install OS X High Sierra' and that takes me to the menu with 4 choices. When I go into Disk Utilities, I am able to re-format the 500GB HD in the iMac and it automatically creates a new volume. I named my volume 'Abyss'.Then I return to the 4-choice menu and select 'Install MacOS', and click the Continue button. The Continue button turns gray -- forever.Yes, I have verified that this iMac is eligible to use High Sierra.What could be wrong? Is it possible that I need a newer OS X Base System? Can that be upgraded?
- Cant boot my iMac, only in recovery mode..and reinstalling OS X from the web is a headache since my internet connection is slow and unstable..Creating USB bootable right now, fingers crossed! thanks for the help
- Nazy,I have the same problem which is why i search and get to here. Seem that USB bootable os can help. Anyone can help to answer Nazy.
- My mac is not working and I cant log in, and i have low storage to reinstall osx using recovery system.and i have tried others way but it didnt help. so I want to know if I download El capitan using another computer, which is not a mac,and also from the sites that have a link for downloading, what else should i do, to be able use it as a start up disk on my mac ?pleeeeease help!
- wow
Active4 years, 1 month ago
I'm trying to install OS X Mavericks in VirtualBox on Windows 8.1. I have VirtualBox installed and the VM set up, but I need an ISO file to install the operating system.
I've searched around and found one result one a website I hadn't heard of, but Google Chrome flagged it as malware. I found a file on CNet, but it's an upgrade file for machines that are running an earlier version of OS X.
Is there an official source for downloading OS X ISO files? If not, is it possible to get the required ISO file without already having access to OS X?
BrianBrian52411 gold badge66 silver badges1212 bronze badges
4 Answers
Does not work on Mavericks and Yosemite
There is no way to legitimately get the file without having access to a Mac, and a licensed copy of the OS via a purchase (unless you are a member of the Developer Program, for which you can expect to pay far more than the cost of the OS, what with it being free).
But if you can blag some access time on a Mac, then you can download the OS from the Mac App Store (You may need to Option+Click the
Purchased
section to force it to reshow them if you have downloaded them at least once already). Once you have the installer downloaded and sat in your dock, you can simply pick it apart and get to the image file that is inside it.This is the official way to get the file direct from Apple, but there is still work to do to make it into an ISO:
- Once you’ve downloaded Mavericks, find the installer on your Mac. It’s called
Install OS X Mavericks.app
and it should have been downloaded to your main Applications folder or be sat in your Dock. - Right-click (or Control+click) the installer, and choose Show Package Contents from the resulting contextual menu.
- In the folder that appears, open
Contents > Shared Support
; you’ll see a disk image file calledInstallESD.dmg
This dmg file is in essence an ISO file in s slightly different format. We'll need to convert it. Open upDisk Utility
and: - From the menu bar, select
Images > Convert
and point it to your.dmg
file - In the Save As dialog that follows, select DVD/CD master. Disk Utility will insist on saving the new ISO as a
.cdr
file, but it is really an ISO. - When complete, you can rename it to
.iso
in Finder. - Use an external HD or thumb drive which is in ExFAT format (Compared to FAT format, this allows for single files larger than 4GB). Copy the
.iso
file and access it on the other system.
For clarity, you can do the above on any version of OS X from 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) onwards, so you can use an old image to get hold of a new image for example, if you have access to a different OS version than Mavericks.
user104610
stuffestuffe23.2k1515 gold badges7373 silver badges128128 bronze badges
The answer above by @stuffe won't work on Mavericks. Apparently Apple has changed the format of the ESD image and it's no longer bootable.
Looking around I've found a couple of pointers on how to do the necessary conversions to get the result as something you can boot a VM off.
Depending on what's the purpose of the ISO file, if it's to reinstall a computer, it might be more useful to use a Bootable USB- For that, check How to: Create a bootable installation for OS X Mavericks 10.9 and above.
For the ISO file itself, I've mostly used the information found on this post on the InsanelyMac site, augmented with the information/tip on creating a Recovery Partition found on the Apple Support Communities.
Basically the process is to get the ESD image, and rebuild it to include some info that is now packaged as symlinks, and get that out as a ISO file. The author of the InsanelyMac post has automated the process into a bash script, that I'm pasting here for convenience/reference:
I can confirm that the resulting image is indeed bootable within Fusion; it's in the process of being installed so I'm yet to see whether other 'tricks' are needed to make it work (for example, if the result is lacking a Recovery Partition as stated in some of the threads).
UPDATE: The resulting VM boots, and appears to work 'well'. I have used the method described to create a recovery partition, but even though Carbon Copy 'sees' a Recovery Partition on the (virtual) HD, it doesn't appear to work all that well, as booting the VM with Option key pressed doesn't do anything. Will look into it if I have time, but for the time being it appears that the .iso file I got is working.
JJaravaJJarava80822 gold badges1212 silver badges2323 bronze badges
There is no official way to run OS X on a virtual machine in Windows. The Apple EULA clearly states under section 2 B that you're allowed to:
(iii) to install, use and run up to two (2) additional copies or instances of the Apple Software within virtual operating system environments on each Mac Computer you own or control that is already running the Apple Software, for purposes of: (a) software development; (b) testing during software development; (c) using OS X Server; or (d) personal, non-commercial use.
Source: Apple Inc. Software License Agreement for OS X Maverics
This means that you can virtualize OS X only inside OS X on Mac hardware. Anything else breaks the license.
onikonik1,43811 gold badge1010 silver badges2525 bronze badges
The same as given by stuffe.
You can format your flash drive to ExFAT format which allows for access both on Windows and Mac. The file size restriction of FAT is not present on ExFAT.
ganesh737ganesh737
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