- How to Install Mac OS X El Capitan, create a Boot Disk Flash Drive. Installing MacOS X from a bootable Pen Drive and Maintain all your Data.
- 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 Connect the USB flash drive or other volume that you're using for the bootable installer.
- How to create a bootable MacOS USB.
To install macOS or OS X from USB, you need to create a bootable install USB drive for Mac operating system. This tutorial will introduce you three ways to create bootable USB drive for macOS High Sierra, macOS Sierra, Mac OS X El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks and more.
Use 'createinstallmedia' Command in Terminal
The most recommendable way to create a bootable install USB drive for Mac OS is using 'createinstallmedia' Command with Terminal application.
Step 1: Download macOS or OS X
The first thing to do is to download the Mac operating system that you need. To install the latest Mac OS, for example, macOS High Sierra, you can search and download the installer from App Store.
How to Create a OS X El Capitan Boot Installer USB Flash Drive.
To download the older Mac OS X version, you can go to App Store > Purchases to download the Mac OS X El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks that has been previously downloaded.
However, Apple has decided that macOS Sierra and later will no longer be listed in Mac App Store's Purchased. To download the installer of macOS Sierra, go to Apple Support.
Note: After downloading the Mac OS installer, do not install the OS but quit the installer.
Bootable Usb Drive Creator Tool
Step 2 Get A USB Drive with Sufficient Storage
You should have a USB drive with at least 8 GB of storage and insert the USB drive into your Mac. If you need to create a bootable USB drive of macOS High Sierra, 16 GB USB flash drive is suggested. In fact, USB drives with larger storage, like 32 GB to 64 GB, tend to show better performance.
IMPORTANT: The contents of the drive will be erased after creating a bootable installer drive. Therefore, make sure there is nothing important on your flash drive before you continue with the following steps.
Step 3 Check the Name of Your Flash Drive
The following command is to create a bootable copy of Mac OS installer on a USB drive named FlashInstaller. If your USB drive has a different name, replace FlashInstaller in the command with the name of your USB drive. If you don't want to modify the command, change the name of your flash drive into FlashInstaller.
Step 4 Create A Bootable USB Drive of macOS/OS X
Launch Terminal enter the following command according to the version of Mac operating system that you are dealing with.
Create El Capitan Bootable Usb
macOS High Sierra Installer
sudo /Applications/Install macOS High Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/FlashInstaller --applicationpath /Applications/Install macOS High Sierra.app --nointeraction
macOS Sierra Installer
sudo /Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/FlashInstaller --applicationpath /Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app --nointeraction
OS X El Capitan Installer
sudo /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/FlashInstaller --applicationpath /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app –nointeraction
OS X Yosemite Installer
sudo /Applications/Install OS X Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/FlashInstaller --applicationpath /Applications/Install OS X Yosemite.app –nointeraction
OS X Mavericks Installer
sudo /Applications/Install OS X Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/FlashInstaller --applicationpath /Applications/Install OS X Mavericks.app –nointeraction
Tip: If you didn't download the installer from Mac App Store, you must modify the file path after 'applicationpath'.
After pasting the command on the Terminal, hit Enter key. You'll be asked to enter your Mac's password. Enter the password and hit Enter.
Then you need to check the name and path of your USB drive. If it is correct, press 'y' then hit 'Enter'. The Mac will begin to create a bootable install drive for macOS High Sierra, macOS Sierra, Mac OS X El Capitan/Yosemite/Mavericks. When it is done, Terminal will shows 'Done'.
To install macOS or OS X from the USB flash drive, check how to clean install Mac OS from USB(opens new window).
Make A Bootable Installer for macOS via DiskMaker X or Install Disk Creator
If you think it is too much trouble to use Terminal to make a bootable installer on a USB drive, you can use tools like DiskMaker X, Install Disk Creator. Both the tools can make an install drive for macOS Sierra, OS X El Capitan, OS X Yosemite and more.
DiskMaker X: When you launch the application, it will try to find the downloaded macOS or OS X installers program on your Mac. And you just need to follow its on-screen instructions to create a bootable USB drive by clicking a few buttons.
Install Disk Creator: Once you run the application, select a USB drive, choose a Mac OS installer, and click Create Installer to begin to create an install USB drive.
Disk Utility to Create a Bootable macOS/OS X Installer
Before using createinstallmedia command, people used to use Disk Utility to create a bootable installer drive manually. But the process is much more complicated than the Terminal method. So Apple also suggests you make a bootable install drive via Terminal.
Just in case that you don't want to use Terminal, you may follow these steps to build a USB drive for Mac OS X or macOS.
- Mount the Mac OS installer to get .DS_Store, BaseSystem.chunklist, and BaseSystem.dmg. Files from InstallESD.dmg file.
- Use Disk Utility's Restore feature to create a copy of the OS Install ESD image.
- Modify the copy of the OS Install ESD image to make it boot successfully.
Do you have other question about making a bootable USB drive for macOS or Mac OS X? Leave your comment below.
Whenever new OS X release comes to Mac users, it is important to create a Bootable USB as a backup option to clean install. Most of the time upgrade works well, but there are chances your battery performance go poor or OS X corrupt due to apps installed on the computer. That is when we need to perform Clean Installation of OS X as the final troubleshooting method.
Download OS X El Capitan only from Mac App Store which is available right now. Simply launch App Store on your mac computer and you will see El Capitan already featured with free download button.
OS X El Capitan featured with tons of new features and improvements to existing features. I have installed it on my iMac and Macbook Pro, and so far it is great. As i mostly use my macbook pro at desk, didn’t notice any battery performance problems. There are reports from Macbook Pro and Macbook Air users who have upgraded to El Capitan regarding battery issues.
Another important step to do after downloading the OS X El Capitan is taking backup of the installation file. By default the location of the file set to /Applications folder and the file automatically deleted after completing the OS X upgrade. So it is very important for you to take a backup of the file named “Install OS X El Capitan” from “Applications” folder to create bootable USB or use it later.
Create El Capitan Bootable Usb From Dmg
Go to Applications folder by opening Finder once the download completed and OS X El Capitan installation wizard pop up comes on your desktop screen.
At this point, copy the file “Install OS X El Capitan” and paste it any folder on your hard disk drive. Now you have the copy of latest OS X released by Apple and you can use it whenever you want and share it with your friends saving 6 gigabytes of bandwidth for them.
Create OS X El Capitan Bootable USB
We are now ready to create the bootable usb disk drive of OS X El Capitan. All you have do is, follow the couple of steps suggested here and you are ready to install El Capitan on any mac computers.
Step 1: Connect USB Disk Drive to your mac computer and Open “Disk Utility” by typing it on Spotlight (CMD + Space Bar) or by going to “Applications – Utilities – Disk Utility”.
Step 2: Select the USB Drive from the list and on the Right side, select “Erase” tab and rename the USB drive as “Untitled” and click on Erase to perform the operation.
Step 3: Now the USB Drive is ready for OS X El Capitan installation. Make sure the copy of “Install OS X El Capitan” is there on /Applications folder.
Step 4: Launch “Terminal” and copy, paste the following command in Terminal then press Enter.
Make Bootable Usb From Iso
Step 5: Terminal will prompt for Root password, enter the root password and press enter. USB Disk formatting will start now followed by the copying of files required to create bootable os x el capitan usb drive.
Create El Capitan Bootable Usb Terminal
It will take 5 to 10 minutes maximum and the Bootable USB Disk of OS X El Capitan will be ready for use.
If you don’t want to follow these steps and looking for an app to automate all these tasks and get the USB ready with OS X El Capitan then consider using, DiskMaker X which is compatible with OS X El Capitan as well. Download DiskMaker X 5 which comes around 7 MB and create the bootable usb drive easily.
Make El Capitan Install Usb
Create El Capitan Bootable Usb From Pkg
Thanks for reading, and feel free comment below if you have any queries. Have a wonderful day, and don’t forget to share this post with your friends and followers across Twitter, Facebook and Google+.