These advanced steps are primarily for system administrators and people 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 it on multiple computers without having to download the installer each time.
What you need to create a bootable installer
Note that by default, the Mac will start booting up directly to the external hard drive until you change it. The second method to install OS X is to restart the Mac and press and hold the COMMAND + R keys. This will load up OS X Recovery. The OS X Utilities screen will appear and here you want to click on Reinstall OS X.
- I was setting up a 2009 iMac, El Capitan was the best it could do. But the old OS-X did not have the app centre. I could only find.pkg download. In the end I got it to work as I had limited time, the next week I found some old Leopard disc that I could have used to make things a little easier.
- But before your Mac can run El Capitan it has to be updated to OS X 10.6.8. So, here are main steps you should take: 1. Install Snow Leopard from install DVD. Update to 10.6.8 using Software Update. Download El Capitan here. “I can’t download an old version of Mac OS X” Create Mac Os Install Usb.
- Using the DMG download of OSX 10.11 El Capitan (see above) and making a bootable USB-installer with Diskmaker X I finally managed to install 10.11 without installing 10.6.8 Snow Leopard first! I don't know if I was refused to do this before because I had either tried to install it on a partition on a drive or because I named the partition prior.
- Oct 04, 2015 Created a bootable USB with El Capitan installer. Booted from it, erased my MBP (mid 2009), clean install from USB installer. Decided to use migration assistant, most apps not working plus all the clutter from pre clean install. Decided to do another clean install but MBP won't boot from USB and uses the recovery version instead.
- A USB flash drive or other secondary volume formatted as Mac OS Extended, with at least 14 GB 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 will be downloaded to your Applications folder as an app called Install macOS [version name]. If the installer opens after download, quit it without continuing the 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. For enterprise administrators, please download from Apple, not a locally hosted software update server. - Download: OS X El Capitan
This will be downloaded as a disk image called InstallMacOSX.dmg. On a Mac that is compatible with El Capitan, open the disk image and run the installer within, which has the name 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
- Connect the USB flash drive or other volume that you're using for the bootable installer.
- Open Terminal, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
- 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:*
Os X El Capitan Update
Mojave:*
High Sierra:*
El Capitan:
Install Mac Os X El Capitan From Usb
* If your Mac is using macOS Sierra or earlier, include the --applicationpath
argument and installer path, similar to the way this was done in the command for El Capitan.
After typing the command:
- Press Return to enter the command.
- 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, then press Return. Terminal displays the progress as the volume is being erased. - After the volume has been erased, you may see an alert stating that Terminal would like to access files on a removable volume. Click OK to allow the copy to proceed.
- When Terminal says it's finished, 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.
Os X Yosemite
Use the bootable installer
Determine whether you're using a Mac with Apple silicon, then follow the appropriate steps:
Apple silicon
- Plug the bootable installer into a Mac that is connected to the Internet and compatible with the version of macOS you're installing.
- Turn on your Mac and continue to hold the power button until you see the startup options window, which shows your bootable volumes.
- Select the volume containing the bootable installer, then click Continue.
- When the macOS installer opens, follow the onscreen instructions.
Intel processor
- Plug the bootable installer into a Mac that is connected to the Internet and compatible with the version of macOS you're installing.
- Press and hold the Option (Alt) ⌥ key immediately after turning on or restarting your Mac.
- Release the Option key when you see a dark screen displaying your bootable volumes.
- Select the volume containing the bootable installer. Then click the up arrow or press Return.
If you can't start up from the bootable installer, make sure the External Boot setting in Startup Security Utility has been set to allow booting from external media. - Choose your language, if prompted.
- Select Install macOS (or Install OS X) from the Utilities window, then click Continue and follow the onscreen instructions.
Learn more
A bootable installer doesn't download macOS from the Internet, but it does require an Internet connection to get firmware and other information specific to the Mac model.
For information about the createinstallmedia
command and the arguments you can use with it, make sure the macOS installer is in your Applications folder, then enter the appropriate path in Terminal: