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To create a bootable El Capitan installer drive, you need the El Capitan installer from the Mac App Store and a Mac-formatted drive that’s big enough to hold the installer and all its data. Jul 06, 2020 Use your Mac's arrow keys to select the OS X El Capitan installer on the USB flash drive, then press Enter or Return on your keyboard. Your Mac will start up from the USB flash drive that contains the installer. This can take some time, depending on the speed of the flash drive as well as the speed of your USB ports.
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
How To Burn OS X El Capitan To A USB Flash Drive
- A USB flash drive or other secondary volume, formatted as Mac OS Extended, with at least 12GB 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
- 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:*
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:
- 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 shows the progress as the volume is erased. - 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.
- 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.
Use the bootable installer
Determine whether you're using a Mac with Apple silicon, then follow the appropriate steps:
Apple silicon
See Full List On Wikihow.com
- 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 and a gear icon labled Options.
- 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 showing 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 that the External Boot setting in Startup Security Utility is 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
For more information about the
createinstallmedia
command and the arguments that you can use with it, make sure that the macOS installer is in your Applications folder, then enter the appropriate path in Terminal:- Big Sur: /Applications/Install macOS Big Sur.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia
- Catalina: /Applications/Install macOS Catalina.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia
- Mojave: /Applications/Install macOS Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia
- High Sierra: /Applications/Install macOS High Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia
- El Capitan: /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia
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.
In order for you to upgrade to El Capitan with a clean installation of macOS, You need to create a bootable macOS El Capitan USB drive. A bootable installer drive is much more convenient when you’re upgrading a Mac. You can then use an External drive or the secondary volume (USB) to install the macOS using it as a startup disk.
The command-line installation of macOS would come as savvy mainly for the system administrators. You really do not require a bootable installer to upgrade macOS or reinstalling the operating system, It only will be useful when you have multiple computers lying around and you need to download and use the installer each time.
You must also require a USB 3.0 Drive with at least 16 GB of storage and please ensure you have taken a backup of all the files in your USB 3.0 flash drive as this installation will erase and remove all the files from your flash drive.
You can get USB 3.0 from Here
Download macOS XEl Capitan
You can download macOS El Capitan From Here
OR
if you have downloaded already macOS El Capitan directly, then the downloaded macOS itself to the applications folder as an individual app called as “Install macOS El Capitan”. Sometimes it is also possible that the installer opens itself right after downloading it, You need to ensure quitting it without proceeding to go with the installation directly. Also, it is important for you to download the correct version of macOS as per your mac.
How to create a bootable installer for macOS El Capitan
Step 1: Download macOS El Capitan.
Step 2: Once El Capitan is downloaded, You should make sure that you close the installer and Open the finder.
Step 3: In Finder, You need to head over to Application→Install macOS El Capitan right click on install macOS El Capitan and click Show package contents.
Or
If You have downloaded from the link then go to Download→ macOS El Capitan.
Step 4: Head over to open Content→Resources
Step 5: Using Finder another window and Go to Applications and Select Utilities→Terminal
Step 6: Type sudo followed by space
Step 7: Now from the original finder window opened in step 4, drag and drop the createinstallmedia to terminal
Step 8: Type --volume along with space
Step 9: Open Finder and click Go at the top followed by Goto folder menu or by pressing command + shift + g at the same time.
Step 10: Type /Volumes and click go to navigate to the volumes that are connected to your mac
Step 11: You should probably find your connected USB 3.0 Flash drive on your Mac in the Finder window
Step 12: Now Drag the USB 3.0 Flash drive volume to the Terminal window
Step 13: Now press Enter / Return on keyboard
Step 14: Type y so you can continue the progress and Press Enter / Return on the keyboard again.
After the above process, You can also use the USB 3.0 drive to boot into macOS El Capitan installer Once you connect your USB 3.0 flash drive, Then restart your Mac by pressing the Option (⌥) button modestly. Then you may select the macOS El Capitan Installer to get started with the installation.