Bootable Usb For Mac Os X
Editor’s note: We've updated this guide for the release version of El Capitan (OS X 10.11), which was released on September 30, 2015. When OS X shipped on a DVD a good number of years ago, you always had the convenience of a bootable installer—an OS X installer that could be used to boot your Mac if its own drive was having problems. But to install or reinstall a recent version of OS X, you must either download a non-bootable installer from the Mac App Store or (via OS X’s invisible, bootable ) download 6GB of installer data from Apple’s servers during the installation process.
In other words, you no longer have the same safety net or convenience. Because of this, I recommend creating your own bootable El Capitan (OS X 10.11) installer drive on an external hard drive or USB thumb drive. If you need to install El Capitan on multiple Macs, using a bootable installer drive is faster and more convenient than downloading or copying the entire installer to each computer.
SMS Requires an iPhone with iOS 8.1 or later and an activated carrier plan. AirDrop AirDrop between Mac computers and iOS devices is supported by the following Mac models: • MacBook (Early 2015 or newer) • MacBook Pro (2012 or newer) • MacBook Air (2012 or newer) • Mac mini (2012 or newer) • iMac (2012 or newer) • iMac Pro (2017) • Mac Pro (Late 2013) AirDrop to iOS devices requires an iPhone or iPad with a Lightning connector and iOS 7 or later. Phone Calling Requires an iPhone with iOS 8 or later and an activated carrier plan. Download instant on for osx 10.12. Home Requires iPhone with iOS 12 or later and a configured Home app. Apple Pay on the Web Supported by the following Mac models: • MacBook (Early 2015 or newer) • MacBook Pro (2012 or newer) • MacBook Air (2012 or newer) • Mac mini (2012 or newer) • iMac (2012 or newer) • iMac Pro (2017) • Mac Pro (Late 2013) Requires MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, iPhone 6 or later with iOS 10 or later, or an Apple Watch with watchOS 3 or later.
If you want to erase the drive on a Mac before installing El Capitan, or start over at any time, you can use a dedicated installer drive to boot that Mac, erase its drive, and then install the OS (and subsequently restore whatever data you need from your backups). And if your Mac is experiencing problems, a bootable installer drive makes a handy emergency disk. ( lets you repair your drive and reinstall OS X, but to perform the latter task, you must wait—each time you use it—for the entire 6GB of installer data to download. At best, that’s a hassle; at worst, it’s hours of waiting before you can get started.) As with previous versions of OS X, it’s not difficult to create a bootable installer drive, but it’s not obvious, either. I show you how, below. Macworld also has bootable-install-drive instructions for,,,.
Keep the installer safe Like all recent versions of OS X, El Capitan is distributed through the Mac App Store: You download an installer app (called Install OS X El Capitan.app) to your Applications folder. In this respect, the OS X installer is just like any other app you buy from the Mac App Store. However, unlike any other app, if you run the OS X installer from that default location, the app deletes itself after it's done installing OS X. If you plan to use the OS X installer on other Macs, or—in this case—to create a bootable installer drive, be sure to copy the installer to another drive, or at least move it out of the Applications folder, before you use it to install the OS on your Mac.
Aug 22, 2018 - A bootable copy of OS X or macOS on a USB flash drive is a great emergency backup tool. Add a few troubleshooting apps, and your ready to.
If you don't, you'll have to redownload the installer from the Mac App Store before you can use the instructions below. What you need 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. This can be a hard drive, a solid-state drive (SSD), a thumb drive, or a USB stick—an 8GB thumb drive is perfect.