Advertisement As you may know, you can reinstall macOS on your computer via the internet recovery. But did you know that you can create a bootable USB drive to install macOS from? This will let you boot your Mac from a different source if it won’t work normally, and makes installs on multiple machines easy. Let’s see how to do this. Choosing a USB Flash Drive for Installing Mac USB flash drives are cheaper than ever, so you won’t have to spend much for this task.
However, make sure to buy a name-brand flash drive (like SanDisk, Kingston, or PNY) from a reputable store. Stay away from super-cheap drives with suspiciously high storage on sites like eBay.
These drives have their firmware hacked to report a false size to your operating system. Not only will the transfer speeds be painfully slow, but using them may also result in loss of data or even a damaged USB port. Also, check to see what ports you have on your Mac. The 12″ MacBook has a single USB-C port, while MacBook Pro models from 2016 and later feature USB-C ports exclusively. Fortunately, there are USB-C drives available, or you can use a USB-C to USB-A adapter. It’s best to go with a USB 3.0 drive, with a minimum size of 16GB. The is good overall value for the money; we’ve highlighted for more options.
How To: Get the Public Beta Preview of Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan How To: Build a custom Windows recovery disk How To: Burn a DVD disc on an OS X Mac for free with Burn How To: Create a Bootable Install USB Drive of Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite.
$9.99 Formatting Your USB Flash Drive You can only create a bootable installer for macOS on a Mac. If you’re using a flash drive that already has data on it, make sure to back up any important files as you’re going to erase everything in a moment. Windows 10 image file for mac. Navigate to Applications > Utilities, and open up Disk Utility. You should see your flash drive under the External section in the left pane.
After selecting it, click on the Erase button along the top. Choose a friendly name (which you’ll use later), and make sure to choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for the format. Finally, click Erase and you’re done with this step.
Downloading the macOS Installer To download the macOS installer, open the App Store and search for your version of macOS. Click on the Download button if you’re on High Sierra or earlier. MacOS Mojave is slightly different, as it opens up your System Preferences to download the installer.
This is because one of is a new way of installing updates. The experience of building the USB with DiskMaker_X_7 was painless.
I am now able to boot to a screen with two icons like the one shown in this article. At this point, I select the USB drive that is named 'Install OS X High Sierra' and that takes me to the menu with 4 choices. When I go into Disk Utilities, I am able to re-format the 500GB HD in the iMac and it automatically creates a new volume. I named my volume 'Abyss'. Then I return to the 4-choice menu and select 'Install MacOS', and click the Continue button. The Continue button turns gray -- forever.
Yes, I have verified that this iMac is eligible to use High Sierra. What could be wrong? Is it possible that I need a newer OS X Base System? Can that be upgraded?
You have a failing hard drive, or the partition map is simply really messed up. If you didn't do anything that you are aware of, to 'lock' your drive, then maybe the hard drive is coincidentally close to failure. Boot to your older system - which would be the system restore DVD, or your previous OS X installer, whatever that is. When booted to your installer DVD, you'll likely still need to re-partition the hard drive.
You'll find Disk Utility in the Utilities menu. Do the same process that I listed to re-partition your hard drive, then reinstall OS X. You have a failing hard drive, or the partition map is simply really messed up. If you didn't do anything that you are aware of, to 'lock' your drive, then maybe the hard drive is coincidentally close to failure. Boot to your older system - which would be the system restore DVD, or your previous OS X installer, whatever that is. When booted to your installer DVD, you'll likely still need to re-partition the hard drive.