10-05-2021

Installing Mac Os From Usb Flash Drive

These advanced steps are primarily for system administrators and others who are familiar with the command line. You don't need a bootable installer to upgrade macOS or reinstall macOS, but it can be useful when you want to install on multiple computers without downloading the installer each time.

Oct 29, 2019  Simply connect the USB drive you created to an open USB port on your Mac. Turn on the system or restart it if it is already on. Immediately press and hold the Option (Alt)key on the keyboard when it starts. You should now see an option to select the USB drive as a boot disk. Mar 12, 2020  Use the bootable installer. Plug the bootable installer into a compatible Mac. Use Startup Manager or Startup Disk preferences to select the bootable installer as the startup disk, then start up from it. Your Mac will start. Choose your language, if prompted. A bootable installer doesn't.

Sep 14, 2015  How to start up your Mac from an external USB storage device If your USB thumb drive, USB-based external disk or flash storage contains a usable operating system or an OS X installer, you can select it at boot time using OS X’S built-in feature called Startup Manager, which can be invoked via a simple keystroke. May 15, 2020  Use Terminal to Create the El Capitan Bootable USB Installer Connect the USB flash drive to your Mac. Give the flash drive an appropriate name. You can do this by double-clicking the device’s name on the desktop and then typing a new name.

  1. Mar 06, 2017  This will walk you through how to install macOS on a USB drive in three steps. The flash drive must be at least 8GB+ in size in order to fit the macOS installer on it. To make a flash drive installer you need a Mac or a Windows/Linux machine running Mac OS in a virtual machine. Intel: Sierra VM Ryzen: Sierra VM STEP 1: Downloading macOS Open App Store Click Store then Login from the menu bar.
  2. Aug 31, 2009  How to Clean Install Mac OS X Lion Using a USB Flash Drive - Duration: 13:32. CPU 189,624 views. The Upgrade from Mac OS X Tiger to Mac OS X Snow Leopard - Duration: 2:01.
  3. Dec 24, 2012  Format USB drive To create the bootable disk image, your UBS drive has to have at least 8GB of storage. Nowadays USB Flash drive are really cheap and can be purchased at almost any electronics store (the Flash drive I use is 16GB and only cost $15). Plug it into your Mac, and launch Disk Utility (located in Applications/Utilities).

Download macOS

Find the appropriate download link in the upgrade instructions for each macOS version:

macOS Catalina, macOS Mojave, ormacOS High Sierra
Installers for each of these macOS versions download directly to your Applications folder as an app named Install macOS Catalina, Install macOS Mojave, or Install macOS High Sierra. If the installer opens after downloading, quit it without continuing installation. Important: To get the correct installer, download from a Mac that is using macOS Sierra 10.12.5 or later, or El Capitan 10.11.6. Enterprise administrators, please download from Apple, not a locally hosted software-update server.

Install Mac Os With Usb

OS X El Capitan
El Capitan downloads as a disk image. On a Mac that is compatible with El Capitan, open the disk image and run the installer within, named InstallMacOSX.pkg. It installs an app named Install OS X El Capitan into your Applications folder. You will create the bootable installer from this app, not from the disk image or .pkg installer.

Installing Mac Os From Flash Drive

Use the 'createinstallmedia' command in Terminal

  1. Connect the USB flash drive or other volume that you're using for the bootable installer. Make sure that it has at least 12GB of available storage and is formatted as Mac OS Extended.
  2. Open Terminal, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
  3. Type or paste one of the following commands in Terminal. These assume that the installer is still in your Applications folder, and MyVolume is the name of the USB flash drive or other volume you're using. If it has a different name, replace MyVolume in these commands with the name of your volume.
    Catalina:*
    Mojave:*

    High Sierra:*
    El Capitan:
  4. Press Return after typing the command.
  5. When prompted, type your administrator password and press Return again. Terminal doesn't show any characters as you type your password.
  6. When prompted, type Y to confirm that you want to erase the volume, then press Return. Terminal shows the progress as the bootable installer is created.
  7. When Terminal says that it's done, the volume will have the same name as the installer you downloaded, such as Install macOS Catalina. You can now quit Terminal and eject the volume.

* If your Mac is using macOS Sierra or earlier, include the --applicationpath argument, similar to the way this argument is used in the command for El Capitan.

Use the bootable installer

After creating the bootable installer, follow these steps to use it:

Installing Macos On Usb Drive

Installing Mac Os From Usb Flash Drive
  1. Plug the bootable installer into a compatible Mac.
  2. Use Startup Manager or Startup Disk preferences to select the bootable installer as the startup disk, then start up from it. Your Mac will start up to macOS Recovery.
    Learn about selecting a startup disk, including what to do if your Mac doesn't start up from it.
  3. Choose your language, if prompted.
  4. A bootable installer doesn't download macOS from the Internet, but it does require the Internet to get information specific to your Mac model, such as firmware updates. If you need to connect to a Wi-Fi network, use the Wi-Fi menu in the menu bar.
  5. Select Install macOS (or Install OS X) from the Utilities window, then click Continue and follow the onscreen instructions.

Learn more

For more information about the createinstallmedia command and the arguments that you can use with it, make sure that the macOS installer is in your Applications folder, then enter this path in Terminal:

Catalina:

Mojave:

High Sierra:

Install Mac Os From Bootable Usb

Install mac os from usb flash drive

Installing Macos From Usb Flash Drive

El Capitan: