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A program for burning a bootable USB flash drive for mac os. Creating a bootable MAC OS flash drive: step-by-step instructions, setup tips

Apple's policy, according to which the company installs its own operating system on computers produced under its brand, makes them extremely stable. By purchasing a MacBook and regularly updating the OS, you may never have to reinstall it. If you have Internet access, the system can be easily reinstalled over the network. If circumstances require you to install macOS from a flash drive, you need to do it correctly.

Since 2013, Apple has stopped selling the operating system to users. By purchasing any Mac, be it a laptop or a mini version, you receive macOS for rent and are provided with free updates for the entire life of the device.

  1. Find the App Store icon in the Dock and open it.
  1. On the main page on the right side, under the account settings, there is a link that can take you to the site with the current OS. Currently the latest version is 10.3 High Sierra.

  1. Click on the “Download” button. The distribution weighs more than 5 GB, so the time it takes to receive it will depend on the speed of the connection used.

  1. When the download is complete, the installer will automatically launch.

  1. We don't need it at the moment. Since we are going to create an offline bootable media, we need to close it. Click on the program window so that the controls appear on the top panel. Select the marked item. A similar operation can be performed with the keyboard shortcut ⌘Q. In macOS, this is a standard shortcut that allows you to close any active window.

Old OS versions

If you want to install another, older version of the operating system, you can also find them in the App Store. El Capitan, Yosemite or Mountain Lion are placed in the purchase section, provided they have been used before. This is due to the company's licensing policy. The operating systems shown in the screenshot are considered purchased, and subsequent ones are rented by the user from Apple.

Creating a bootable USB flash drive

To create an installation disk on a MacBook, just use the terminal. macOS works perfectly with the Windows FS and does not require the installation of Transmac analogues. The NTFS format is supported out of the box in read mode, and FAT32 and exFAT are fully supported.

You will have to format the flash drive if it uses any Linux file system, for example, ext3. Before use, the removable disk must in any case be cleaned of the information on it.

Formatting

Formatting in macOS is done using Disk Utility. You can find it by opening Launchpad in the Others folder or using Finder. Let's choose the second option as it is more convenient. Traditionally, a flash drive for modern operating systems should be at least 8 GB.

  1. Open Finder and select “Applications” in the navigation area. Open the folder marked in the screenshot.

  1. Select the specified utility.

  1. We are looking for external drives. Select the name of the flash drive specified by the manufacturer, highlighting it. In the top control menu, the “Erase” button is activated. Click on it to open the next dialogue.

  1. The system will automatically offer us the format and layout of the sections. They should match those shown in the screenshot. To clean and format the flash drive with the selected parameters, press the marked button.

Now there is zero information left on the external media and you can write the distribution kit to it.

Recording a distribution

The file we downloaded from the App Store is not an ISO image. This is a full-fledged installation wizard with its own set of utilities. For this reason, the system places it in the programs folder and not in downloads. From there we will record it onto external media.

  1. We return to the “Utilities” folder and launch “Terminal”.

  1. Enter the following write command on behalf of the system administrator:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia —volume /Volumes/Kingstone

Quotes are not required, but instead of Kingstone we indicate the name of the flash drive used.

  1. Enter the password. The symbols will not be displayed. We complete the set by pressing the Enter button.
  1. The system will ask you for confirmation to clear the selected volume. Type “Y” and press the enter key.

  1. Before copying data, the system erases the flash drive.

  1. The recording ends with the appearance of information messages about the creation of bootable media and the transfer of the data required by the installer to it.

The write command syntax varies for each distribution. Therefore, if you are planning to make a flash drive to reinstall macOS other than High Sierra, please visit the Apple support page provided. The finished command from there can be immediately copied to the terminal.

Installing macOS

After connecting the media to the USB port, we reboot. Mac computers do not use the usual BIOS, so there is no additional configuration required.

  1. Our task is to prevent the computer from booting from the SSD and launching the initial volume selection menu. Therefore, immediately upon reboot, hold down the “Option” key. Hold it until the dialogue shown in the screenshot appears. The Windows volume will be present if it is installed on the Boot Camp partition. Here you will need to translate the specified arrow symbol from Macintosh HD to the installer icon.

  1. Select the language in which menus and dialogs will be displayed.

  1. For a “clean” installation, we need to open Disk Utility.

  1. We select the volume on which we are going to install the OS and erase the data. The steps are similar to what we did when formatting the flash drive.

  1. Close Disk Utility and select the marked item.

  1. The OS installation wizard starts.

  1. Select the Macintosh HD volume.

  1. Fill out the fields to log in with your Apple ID details.

  1. At this stage, you can transfer information from a backup copy, if one was made. For a “clean” installation, select the specified item.

Next, all we have to do is study the license agreement and configure regional settings. During the installation process, the computer will reboot itself several times, after which you will be taken to the fresh macOS desktop.

Finally

As you can see, installing the Apple operating system is quite simple. To create bootable media, no third-party programs or special knowledge are required, and ready-made commands can be found on the technical support site.

Video instructions

You can watch the entire system installation process in more detail in the video below.

The MacOS operating system is much less widespread than Windows, and when first getting acquainted with it, users may have trivial questions. Many standard procedures in Apple's desktop operating system are done differently than in the familiar Windows system, and even deleting information from external drives can cause problems. If you have a question about how to format a flash drive on a Mac, you should know that this can be done in several ways, which will be discussed below.

Where to format a flash drive on Mac

The MacOS operating system initially provides tools that are required to completely clean a removable drive from the information on it. This is done using Disk Utility, by running which you can select all the necessary formatting options for a flash drive or external hard drive.

  1. To launch Disk Utility on modern versions of MacOS, you need to do the following:
  2. Open Finder;
  3. Select “Programs” on the left side of the menu;
  4. Next, go to the “Utilities” category;
  5. Launch the Disk Utility application.

Another way to launch Disk Utility on a Mac is to use the Spotlight search bar. Enter the phrase “Disk Utility” in it, after which the best matches will be offered, among which the necessary program will be found.

How to format a flash drive on Mac

To begin the process of deleting information from a flash drive or external hard drive on MacOS, you need to launch Disk Utility and insert the drive into the USB connector of your computer. Next, the scenario of actions depends on the format in which the device is intended to be formatted.

Formatting on Mac with NTFS

The most common format for external storage is NTFS. Flash drives and hard drives formatted in NTFS format can write files larger than 4 GB, which is a limitation for FAT.

To format a flash drive to NTFS on a Mac, you will need to do the following:


Please note that you will not be able to format a flash drive on a MAC to NTFS without installing additional drivers.

Formatting on Mac in FAT

The storage format widely supported by various devices is FAT32. The FAT and ExFAT formats are almost identical to it.

The “FAT family” formats have some limitations compared to NTFS, but a number of devices (TVs, radios, external TV players) can only accept information recorded on a flash drive or hard drive in FAT format.

To format a USB flash drive in FAT format on a Mac, you only need standard tools:


Note: If necessary, you can select the "ExFAT" format, but it is less universal and many devices do not work with it. However, there will be no problems with it if you plan to connect the drive to a computer running Windows.

Formatting into a special format for MacOS

Apple has developed a special format for drives, data from which can be read by the MacOS operating system, but not by Windows. If in the future you plan to use the flash drive only on Apple computers running the original operating system, you can format the drive in a special format, which will reduce the risk of data loss.

To format a flash drive in a special format for MacOS, you must:

  1. Launch “Disk Utility”, and in its left part select the flash drive that you want to format;
  2. Next, select “Erase” from the top;
  3. A window will open in which you need to set a name and select a format. After that, click “Erase” to delete all information from the flash drive.

Please note that the standard utility for Mac allows you not only to format a flash drive or external hard drive, but also to split it into several partitions. If the drive has a large capacity, then this can be an interesting solution, since the user can format each partition in a separate format.

To Work with Mac- sheer pleasure... until you have to transfer movies, music or photos from a flash drive. It happens that external drives written on Windows do not display their contents on Mac computers - and vice versa, flash drives written on a Mac cannot be read under Windows.

In contact with

Why aren't the files copied?

It's all about the different file systems (FS) that Windows and macOS use by default. On modern Windows computers the FS is called NTFS(on old ones it also occurs FAT32), on Mac - HFS+. NTFS and HFS+ (Mac OS Extended) are incompatible with each other, FAT32 works well on both Windows and macOS - but with one very unpleasant exception (more about it below).

How to copy files to a USB flash drive from Mac (macOS) or Windows if the drive is read-only

Let's consider several of the most likely life situations.

If you are a Mac user and want to do something (transfer files, write, delete or change) with a Windows user's flash drive, everything will depend on what file system is it formatted in?.

NTFS

The most likely option. The standard macOS driver supports only reading from such disks. To record files you will need special software - a program from Paragon Software. “Question price” is $19.95, there is a free trial period for 10 days. After installation, you won’t have to do anything else - just connect the flash drive and transfer files from it, just like always.

FAT32 (MS-DOS)

Back when FAT32 was introduced, Apple was less uncompromising than today - and therefore made support for this FS for Mac. If the flash drive is formatted in FAT32, any computer running OS X (macOS) can both read and write files to it. There is, however, one unpleasant exception. All the way back when FAT32 was introduced, no one would have thought that files larger than 4 GB would be written to an external drive. The restriction is still relevant today, so you won’t see a high-quality movie or any other file larger than 4 gigs on a flash drive with the FAT32 file system.

ExFAT

A relatively new format proposed by Microsoft Corporation. A flash drive formatted in this format will work perfectly. What is especially pleasing is that the FAT32 file size limitation has been removed. Let's say more - this option is optimal if the flash drive often “travels” between Windows and Mac computers. The only (and even then not very significant) minus is that it does not work on very old Macs (up to 10.6.5) and Windows PCs (up to Windows XP SP2).

Formatting a flash drive to ExFAT format (or any other of the above) on a Mac is very simple:

1 . Open the program on your Mac Disk Utility.
2 . Select the desired flash drive from the menu on the left.
3 . Select Erase(button in the top menu).
4 . In the drop-down menu to the right of the caption Format select file system ExFAT. If desired, you can also specify the name of the disk in the field Name.
5 . Click the button Erase at the bottom of the window.

Windows

If you are a Windows user, an inexperienced Mac owner can bring you a flash drive formatted in the native Mac format HFS+ (Mac OS Extended). As already noted, it is incompatible with file systems familiar to Windows. You can work with such a disk, but this will require a special intermediary program called MacDrive. The purpose and principle of operation here is the same as that of NTFS for Mac, but the trial is shorter (5 days) and the price is higher - $49.99.

On September 20, Apple finally presented the official release of macOS Sierra. Now all Mac owners can evaluate all the innovations of the operating system by downloading the distribution kit from the App Store.

But what if you have not one, but several poppies? Should I wait every time until 4 GB of OS is loaded onto the computer? But what if you don’t want to just upgrade, but install the system “from scratch” and thus not drag around various system garbage with you? Here, creating a bootable flash drive can be very helpful. Do it once and update at least a thousand Macs.

Compatible Mac Models

Keep in mind that you can install macOS Sierra on the following macs:

  • MacBook Pro and Air - models from 2010.
  • Mac mini and Mac Pro - also from 2010
  • MacBook - from 2009
  • iMac - from 2009.

Preparatory operations

There are two simple and reliable ways to create a bootable USB flash drive. But before we begin to consider them, we will do a number of preparatory actions that are necessary in both cases.

So, we need:
1. USB flash drive (at least 8 GB) Make sure in advance that it does not contain the information you need, since the media will be formatted.
2. Mac distribution. You can download from the link
3. The mac itself


Method No. 1 (standard) using the Terminal

Make sure the downloaded image is in the applications folder

  1. We connect the flash drive
  2. Open Terminal (programs>other. Or through Spotlight, control+spacebar)
    Attention! Follow the next steps very carefully!
  3. We write sudo and press space
  4. Now through Finder we go to the folder programs(Applications), then right-click on “install macOS Sierra” and then “show package contents”

  5. Open the folder Resources, find the file createinstallmedia and drag it into the Terminal window
  6. After the lines that appear we write --volume(required two dashes) and press space
  7. Now we transfer the flash drive icon from the desktop to the terminal window
  8. Add - applicationpath and again a space
  9. There's still a little bit left. Drag the “macOS Sierra installation” distribution kit into the Terminal from the program folder and click enter
  10. Enter the password and enter again
  11. If confirmation is required, please write y and enter again
  12. We wait 15-20 minutes and the macOS Sierra bootable flash drive is ready.

    "Erasing Disk: 0%... 10%... 20%... 30%...100%...
    Copying installer files to disk…
    Copy complete.
    Making disk bootable...
    Copying boot files...
    Copy complete.
    Done."

By the way, you could simply copy and paste this entire block of commands into the Terminal at once, but practice shows that rarely does anyone get by without syntax errors in this case. So it’s better not a couple of minutes longer, but it’s reliable.

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia –volume /Volumes/Untitled –applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app –nointeraction &&say Done

Method No. 2. Bootable macOS Sierra USB flash drive using the utility DiskMaker X

Read on topic: — preparing Mac for the transition to macOS Sierra

This method is also very reliable, and also quite simple.

  1. Insert the flash drive
  2. Download the DiskMaker X utility
  3. Launch and press the button macOS Sierra (10.12)
  4. The utility informs you that it has found the installer in the program folder. Click Use this copy
  5. At this stage, DiskMaker warns that all data on the flash drive will be erased. Click An 8 GB USB thumb drive
  6. Select a flash drive from the list and click Choose this disk
  7. Another warning that data from the flash drive will be deleted, click Erase then create the disk

The network is now full of copy-pastes, essentially the same article about installing MacOS X on a Hackintosh with approximately the same title. I’ll tell you how to install Mac OS X from a flash drive on a mac.

There is nothing complicated here, however, not everyone is a pro, and reinstalling the system on a Mac is quite a rare thing, this is not Windows. When is this necessary? In my case, I needed to upgrade from an old version of Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) to the next Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6).

The question arises: why write about such old stuff when OS X 10.9 is on the way, but today we’ll leave the topic of novelty alone, the essence of the question doesn’t change. Disk image OS X Snow Leopard Install DVD 10.6.3 Retail I took it from the inmac.org torrent.

In general, you can install both OS X Lion (10.7) and Mountain Lion (10.8) from a flash drive. You can legally purchase OS X Mountain Lion in the App Store (issue price is only 625 rubles).
Once the download is complete, a utility will appear in the Applications folder. installing Mac OS X Mountain Lion.
Right-click on the installer and select “Show package contents.” Next, copy the OS image from the “SharedSupport” folder to any convenient location InstallESD.dmg.

Creating a bootable USB flash drive or Mac OS X disk

To record an image of Mac OS X Snow Leopard, a double-density DVD is required (6.3 GB will not fit on a regular disc), and there was no drive for recording this either. I wasn't upset. At a time when spaceships are roaming... use CDs is bad manners.

We plug a suitable flash drive into the computer and launch Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.

  1. First of all, we format our flash drive. In the “Erase” tab, specify a new name (for example MAC_OS_X) and file system Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
  2. We mount the image of the future system by double-clicking on the image file. In my case it's Mac.OS.X.10.6.3.Retail.dmg(or InstallESD.dmg as described above). The image will appear in the left pane of Disk Utility.
  3. Go to the “Restore” tab. From the sidebar of Disk Utility, in the “Source” field, drag (Mac OS X Install ESD). In the “Destination” field, drag the created partition on the flash drive (MAC_OS_X).
  4. Click the “Restore” button. This process is not fast, so you will have to wait a little.

Booting Mac from USB flash drive

We boot the system by holding the Alt key (aka Option) until a selection of boot options appears. Well, then all you have to do is follow the installer’s instructions.

By the way, all user data, even the desktop screensaver, remained untouched when moving from one version of Mac OS X to another. Although at the time of installation, a lonely cold ant ran down the spine when it suddenly became clear that the user did not store some of the documents on the server and did not make backup copies. So, I recommend not to be lazy and, just in case, create a backup copy of important documents in advance.