Create bootable flash drive mac os

How to create a bootable installer for macOS

You can use an external drive or secondary volume as a startup disk from which to install the Mac operating system.

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.

What you need to create a bootable installer

• A USB flash drive or other secondary volume formatted as Mac OS Extended, with at least 14GB of available storage
• A downloaded installer for macOS Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra, or El Capitan

Download macOS

• Download: macOS Big Sur, macOS Catalina, macOS Mojave, or macOS High Sierra
  These download to your Applications folder as an app named Install macOS [ version name ]. If the installer opens after downloading, quit it without continuing installation. 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.
• Download: OS X El Capitan
  This downloads as a disk image named InstallMacOSX.dmg. 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.

Use the ‘createinstallmedia’ command in Terminal

1. Connect the USB flash drive or other volume that you’re using for the bootable installer.
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 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.

Big Sur:*

Catalina:*

Mojave:*

High Sierra:*

El Capitan:

* If your Mac is using macOS Sierra or earlier, include the —applicationpath argument and installer path, similar to the way this is done in the command for El Capitan.

After typing the command:

1. Press Return to enter the command.
2. When prompted, type your administrator password and press Return again. Terminal doesn’t show any characters as you type your password.
3. When prompted, type Y to confirm that you want to erase the volume, then press Return. Terminal shows the progress as the volume is erased.
4. After the volume is erased, you may see an alert that Terminal would like to access files on a removable volume. Click OK to allow the copy to proceed.
5. When Terminal says that it’s done, the volume will have the same name as the installer you downloaded, such as Install macOS Big Sur. You can now quit Terminal and eject the volume.
   

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How to Make a Bootable Flash Installer of OS X or macOS

A simple Terminal command makes the process easy

With the arrival of OS X Lion in 2011, Apple changed its software-delivery method to a download model with the Mac App Store instead of using physical DVDs and other media. While downloading an OS X or macOS version offers instant gratification, it means you’re left without an installer. This is problematic if you need to reinstall OS X or macOS on a newly formatted hard drive, if you’re in an emergency booting situation, or if you need to repair your Mac’s hard drive.

Fortunately, it’s easy to create a bootable USB flash drive with OS X or macOS. You do this using Terminal, the command-line utility included with all copies of OS X and macOS.

This article addresses the creation of a bootable USB drive for OS X Mavericks and later as well as macOS. macOS refers to Apple operating systems starting with version numbers 10.12 and later. OS X describes version numbers 10.8 through 10.11.

What You Need

First, you need the OS X or macOS installer on your Mac. Ideally, download the installer, but don’t use it. When you download and use the OS X or macOS installer, the installer deletes itself as part of the installation process. If you’ve already installed OS X or macOS, redownload the installer.

If you download the installer and find that it starts up on its own, quit the installer the way you would any other Mac app.

After it is downloaded, the installer resides in the Applications folder. It is called «Install OS X [your version]» or «Install macOS [your version].»

You’ll also need a USB flash drive. Make sure that it has at least 12 GB of available storage and is formatted as Mac OS Extended.

It’s also important that your Mac meets the minimum requirements for the OS you’re installing. Apple’s website offers the exact system requirements for each version.

How to Use the Createinstallmedia Terminal Command

From OS X Mavericks forward, in the installer packages is a hidden command that you can enter into Terminal to create a bootable copy of the installer.

This Terminal command, called createinstallmedia, creates a bootable copy of the installer using any drive connected to your Mac. This example uses a USB flash drive. Here’s how to do it:

The createinstallmedia command erases the content of the USB drive, so back up any data on the drive if it’s important.

Locate the Mac OS installer file in the Applications folder.

Plug the USB flash drive into your Mac.

Change the flash drive’s name. This example calls it FlashInstaller. Double-click the drive’s name to select it and then type in the new name.

Rapid double-clicking the name of a drive can open that drive in a window on Finder, so if this step isn’t working for you, try clicking once on the file name, pausing for a second, and then clicking a second time.

Launch Terminal, located in Applications/Utilities.

Alternatively, enter Terminal into Spotlight Search to quickly start up the utility.

In the Terminal window that opens, enter one of the following commands, depending on which OS X or macOS installer you’re working with. Note that they use the example name FlashInstaller for our USB drive, so if you named your drive something else, use that name.

For macOS Catalina:

For macOS Mojave:

For macOS High Sierra:

For OS X El Capitan

For OS X Yosemite:

For OS X Mavericks:

After you enter the command, press Return.

When prompted, type your administrator password and press Return again. Terminal doesn’t show any characters as you type your password.

When prompted, type Y to confirm that you want to erase the volume and then press Return. Terminal shows the progress as the bootable installer is created.

When Terminal is finished, the volume has the same name as the installer you downloaded, such as Install macOS Catalina. Quit Terminal and eject the volume.

You now have a bootable installer for your OS X or macOS version.

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How to Make a Bootable macOS Sierra USB Install Drive

If you want to do a clean install of macOS Sierra , or you have multiple Macs to install it on, then a bootable flash drive for is your best bet for easy installation. Here’s how to make one.

The Easy Option: Disk Creator

The easiest way to create a USB flash installer is with the free program, Disk Creator.

1. Download the macOS Sierra installer and Disk Creator .
2. Insert an 8GB (or larger) flash drive. If you have any other data on that flash drive, back it up now, because the installer will delete everything on it.
3. Open Disc Creator and click the “Select the OS X Installer” button.
4. Find the Sierra installer file. This is should be located in your Applications folder.
5. Select your flash drive from the drop-down menu.
6. Click “Create Installer.”

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.

The DIY Option: Terminal

If you don’t want to download an extra bit of software, you can make your own installer USB drive using Terminal.

1. Download the macOS Sierra installer .
2. Insert an 8GB (or larger) flash drive and give it a name. For this tutorial, we’ll use the name Untitled . Make sure the drive is formatted for OS X Extended (Journaled). If it isn’t, open up Disk Utility and format is so it is. Before you do so, back up any important data on that drive. It’s best to disconnect any other external hard drives or flash drives so you don’t mix them up.
3. Open up Terminal (Applications > Utilities).
4. Type (or copy and paste) this command into Terminal, replacing Untitled with the name of your drive, then press Enter: sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia —volume /Volumes/Untitled —applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app —nointeraction &&say Done
5. Type in your password when prompted and press Enter.
6. Let the command line do its work and don’t interrupt it until you see the final line that says Done . This can take a while, so be patient.

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.

DISCUSSION

Curious about using a thumb drive to upgrade. Is that possible? Somehow lately I can’t seem to upgrade w/ a USB without it saying to download it from the Apple Store instead. Why can’t I just use an OSX installation disc/drive? It’s not like they are concerned about piracy as it is free. Really sucks as a technician to have to get people’s Apple ID account info to upgrade it. Sometimes I even have to get the entire credit card information if they haven’t purchased anything in a long time.

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How to create a bootable Windows 10 USB on Mac

The last release of Mac OS doesn’t have the option to create a bootable USB from Bootcamp like previous versions, and it is a problem because that require uses other tools.

I am updating this post today Dec 12, 2018. The reason is that I was only using UNetbootin to create the bootable USB, I will leave guide as a second method since it still working, and I will explain to you how you can create the bootable Windows USB without extra software.

The first step for both methods requires to format your USB device to NTFS, this is the default filesystem, alternative you can use ExFAT but the installation could fail.

Format USB to ExFAT (Under your own risk)

In order to boot from the USB, you need to format the USB to ExFAT, you can do it using Disk Utility (it comes with MacOS).

This step is the same for both methods. You need to show all the devices in Disk Utility» before to start the process.

Select your USB device in the list (not the partition), right click and then click on the Erase option:

In the next screen make sure you select these two options:

• Format: ExFAT
• Scheme: Master Boot Record

Click the Erase button.

If for some reason it fails, probably is because MacOS still using the USB, just repeat the steps, but if you see a screen similar to above screen is because the operation is successful.

Format USB with the terminal

You also can format the USB from the terminal, but you have to take care to use the correct device because, if you use the wrong name you will lose everything.

With this command you can list the device on MacOS:

This is an example, my USB is the disk2:

This command is to format the USB, the last parameter is the the USB:

Copy Windows files to USB — Method 1

This process is very easy doesn’t require to install other software, and they are just a few steps:

Open Windows ISO

Just double click on the ISO image, MacOS mount the image automatically.

Copy files

Now you only need to copy the files and paste them to the USB.

• Command + A Select all files.
• Command + C Copy files.
• Go to your USB Command + V paste the files.

This process could fail if you are using a USB with FAT32 because the file install.win is over 4GB, if this is the case try to open the terminal and copy paste the files from there (no always works. Try to follow the instructions to format the USB in ExFAT, NTFS works for some BIOS).

This is the command to copy the files from the ISO to the USB:

And that is all, now you can try boot from the USB.

UNetbootin — Method 2

I will show you how you can use UNetbootin to create a bootable USB, it can be used no only for Mac but for Windows and Linux distributions too.

UNetbootin is free software and it is also available for Windows and Linux.

Check the path name of your USB Disk.

Always in Disk Utility, select the new partition that we created in the previous step, and click on the information button, it will give you the information about the new partition.

You also can use the terminal and the command diskutil to see the list of drives:

Download UNetbootin:

Download the dmg directly from the Website.
And copy the app to the /Application folder.

I prefer to use homebrew to install applications, you can check this article for more information: Installing Applications on Mac with Homebrew:

Makes the USB booteable

Open UNetbootin and you only need select 3 options:

• Diskimage and ISO
• Now we need open the ISO Windows image that is on our computer.
• Select your USB device on UNetbootin.
• Click on the OK, button and wait to the process end it will take a time.

NOTES:

• I tested other tools like dd and Etcher but they are not working because Windows requires extra steps, for the moment this is the only easy tool that I know that works if you are on Windows try Rufus.
• Some users reported that UNetbootin is not working, if after to format the USB drive and change the block size is not working for you try another Drive with enough space.

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