Create Mac Usb Installer
To create a bootable El Capitan installer drive, you need the El Capitan installer from the Mac App Store and a Mac-formatted drive that’s big enough to hold the installer and all its data. How to use the macOS Mojave USB installer. 1) Shut down your Mac with the USB drive inserted. 2) Start up the computer whilst holding the Option (⌥) key. 3) Select the drive called “Install macOS Mojave Beta” from the Startup Manager using the keyboard arrow keys. The computer will now boot from the selected drive. Easily create ISO image from files or folders. Cons: Non-native user interface. Lower success rate on new USB drives. Lack support for CD or DVD. Rufus for Mac Alternative 3: Etcher. Etcher is another great Rufus alternative for Mac. It has been designed to allow you to easily and comfortably burn ISO images to USB drives and SD cards. I tried the one (Create bootable USB installer if install.wim is greater than 4GB) but what I quit don't understand is, which file goes where? Just follow the instructions in that tutorial. In its step 4 you will copy your custom install.wim file to folder you created in its step 1.
Having a USB installer available can make installing a fresh copy of macOS even easier. For instance, you can boot directly from the USB drive by holding the Option (⌥) key on your Mac while.
Apple uses its App Store to distribute its software, like new Mac operating systems. It’s convenient, but sometimes it can take a while for a download to finish. And if you have multiple Macs, it’s inefficient to download the new OS to each and every Mac.
That’s why I like to make a bootable external drive for the sole purpose of installing the Mac operating system. When I need to tend to a bunch of Macs, it’s much faster to use a bootable drive instead of going to each Mac, launching the App Store, searching for the operating system, downloading it (after entering my Apple ID), and then running the installer.
You can create a bootable USB flash drive with the macOS Sierra installer that’s now available. The installer software will take up nearly 5GB of storage space. Here’s how to create a bootable macOS Sierra installer drive.
Download the macOS Sierra installer
Launch the App Store app, then look for macOS Sierra in the store. (Here’s a link.) Click on the Download button, and your Mac will download the installer to your Applications folder. If it automatically launches after download, quit the installer.
If you’ve already upgraded your Mac to Sierra, the installer is removed from the Applications folder. You can download it again if you go to Purchased in the App Store. Look for macOS Sierra in the list of apps that you’ve bought, and click on the Download button. Mac os x download virtualbox. If it automatically launches after download, quit the installer.
Get an external drive
You can use a USB flash drive or a hard drive with room for the installer software. I’ve used different drives with success, including a VisionTek 120GB USB 3.0 Pocket Solid State Drive ($83 on Amazon) and an old 8GB Iomega Micro Mini Hard Drive.
Don’t worry if the drive isn’t formatted for the Mac. The drive will be reformatted automatically as part of the process. Change the name of your drive to Untitled; you need to do this for the steps below.
The quick and easy way
The process detailed below involves the Terminal. If your really don’t want to use Terminal, there are a couple of free apps you can use.
- Install Disk Creator is a straightforward way to create a boot disk. I was able to make a macOS Sierra external USB boot disk in a few minutes, and the installation worked without a hitch. Also works with older versions of OS X.
- Diskmaker X is a popular app. It also supports older versions of OS X.
Use the Terminal to create a boot disk
So you have your external drive, and the Sierra beta installer is in place. Now you’re going to use Terminal to create a boot drive. If you’ve never used Terminal before, don’t worry. This is pretty easy.
Here are the steps to create a macOS Sierra beta boot disk. (Apple also has these instructions.)
- Connect the external drive to your Mac. (In the Terminal command you will use, I use
Untitled
to represent your external drive. If your drive is named something else, you need to changeUntitled
to the name of your drive.) - Launch Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app).
- Copy the following:
sudo /Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app
- Go back to Terminal and paste the copied code at the prompt.
- Terminal will ask for a password. This is your user password. Terminal doesn’t display characters when you type it in. Hit Return.
- Terminal will tell you that it will erase your drive. To confirm that you want to continue, type Y and hit Return.
- You’ll see that Terminal erases your drive. When that part is done, your Mac may ask you if you want to use the drive for Time Machine. Click Don’t Use.
- Terminal will copy the installer file to your drive. This will take a few minutes.
- After copying, Terminal is done. You should see Terminal display a “Copy complete” and Done notice. You can quit Terminal and your drive is ready for use.
How to boot from the installer drive
Create Macos Usb Installer
- Plug your external drive into your Mac.
- Power up (or restart) your Mac. Press down on the Option key while the Mac boots.
- After a few moments, your Mac should display the Startup Manager, which will show you the available boot drives. Click on the external drive and hit Return. (You don’t need to select a network to proceed.)
- Your Mac will display an OS X Utilites window. If you want to install Sierra and leave the data intact, select Install OS X. If you want to start over and wipe out the data, you need to go into Disk Utility to reformat the internal drive first, and then install macOS Sierra.