Create Macos El Capitan Bootable Usb

 

*Quick note from Save Apple Dollars - Older OS X Images can now be downloaded directly from Apple at https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683 please right click on the image link and select “save as”.

Banglazed said: For simplicity, download the El Capitan, rename flash drive to ElCapInstaller, enter that above into terminal and boom done. Don’t need to format the USB since the command used in the terminal will format and create the bootable USB. Use Terminal to Create the El Capitan Bootable USB Installer. Follow these steps to create a bootable USB installer of El Capitan in Terminal. 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. An 8GB or, larger USB flash drive, which will be formatted and turn into the OS X El Capitan bootable installer. Download the OS X El Capitan installer application from Apple. Then Right-click on that flash you want to create bootable USB for Mac OS El Capitan then select Restore with Disk Image.

By Roman Loyola at www.macworld.com

Senior Editor, Macworld | JUL 3, 2017 1:32 PM PDT

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.

Make bootable usb from iso

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.

Bootable El Capitan Installer

Capitan

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.

Macworld also has bootable-install-drive instructions for:

Lion (OS X 10.7)

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.

Keep the installer in the Applications folder.

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. 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

Bootable os x el capitan

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.)

Create Macos El Capitan Bootable Usb

  1. 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 change Untitled to the name of your drive.)

  2. Launch Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app).

  3. Copy the following:
    sudo /Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app

  4. Go back to Terminal and paste the copied code at the prompt.

  5. Terminal will ask for a password. This is your user password. Terminal doesn’t display characters when you type it in. Hit Return.

  6. Terminal will tell you that it will erase your drive. To confirm that you want to continue, type Y and hit Return.

  7. 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.

  8. Terminal will copy the installer file to your drive. This will take a few minutes.

  9. 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

  1. Plug your external drive into your Mac.

  2. Power up (or restart) your Mac. Press down on the Option key while the Mac boots.

  3. 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.)

  4. 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.

Full Credit for this article is given to Roman Loyola and www.macworld.com please visit their website for more helpful information about fixing Macs.


Macos

Macbooks or iMacs hardly require reinstallation of their Mac OS, but when they do then it’s a fairly difficult process especially if your secondary computer is Windows. Reinstalling Mac OS is a time-consuming process and requires a lot of patience that’s why recommend doing this process in your free time or weekends.

To get started with you require a USB drive with at least 8GB storage (16GB recommended). Then you need a working Mac OS ISO or DMG Installation Image. You can download it from the Apps Store or you can find Mac OS Image at ISORIVER.

There are 2 Methods to Create a Bootable USB drive of Mac OS on your Windows PC.

Method 1: Using TransMac

  1. Download TransMac’s latest version for Windows from this link.
  2. Connect your USB drive
  3. Right Click on your USB drive option in TransMac and select Format Disk for Mac
  4. After that, right-click the USB Drive and select Restore with Disk Image
  5. Point to your Mac OS .dmg or .iso file by clicking the add button.
  6. After that TransMac will create bootable Mac OS USB within few minutes.
  7. Then you can insert it into your Mac, hold down the option key while turn on and boot your system with this USB.

Method 2: Using PowerISO

Another disk image utility that you can use is PowerISO. It can be used for burning both ISO files and DMG files to USB to create a bootable drive. Follow the steps below to Create a Bootable Mac OS USB on Windows PC.

Create Macos El Capitan Boot Usb

Step 1: Firstly Download PowerISO and install it in your Windows PC. Launch the app and insert a USB drive into your computer.

Step 2: Import the DMG / ISO file directly by clicking on ‘Burn’ in the toolbar.

Step 3: In the Burn window, select the DMG / ISO file from the Source File section.

Step 4: You can modify the settings to adjust burn speed. The default will be set to the maximum, so you can reduce that.

Step 5: You can choose to finalize the disk and verify it. Any errors in the bootable USB will show up at that point.

Step 6: Now click on “Burn” and wait for the progress bar to reach 100%.

After the successful creation of Bootable Mac OS USB, boot your Macbook from this USB drive by clicking the option button during bootup and select this USB drive.

Watch this Video Tutorial

That’s it for the tutorial If you face any issues or had any query then please let us know in the comment section below. You can also send us an email via the contact us page for personalized support.