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Bootable USB key on Apple MAC: Tips and tricks for a successful installation



You don't need a bootable installer to upgrade macOS or reinstall macOS, but it can be useful if you want to install macOS on multiple computers without downloading the installer each time, or you're unable to install a compatible macOS from the Finder or macOS Recovery.


For information about the createinstallmedia command and the arguments you can use with it, make sure that the macOS installer is in your Applications folder, then enter the appropriate path in Terminal:




How to create a bootable USB key on Apple MAC




A bootable macOS (previously, OS X) install disk is a portable device containing all the necessary installation files for a selected version of macOS. Why would you want to create an external boot drive for your Mac?


You can create a bootable installer for any operating system if you have the right installer. In older versions of macOS, you could find all the previous installers in the list of purchased apps in your App Store account.


This is one of the main reasons you should consider making a macOS bootable USB when your device works properly. However, if none of your devices (MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac Pro, or Mac Mini) are not working when you need them the most, you can use a Windows computer to rescue your Apple device. You can use a Windows 11, 10, 8.1, or 7 computer to quickly create a USB bootable installation media to reinstall macOS Ventura, Monterey, Big Sur, or Catalina on your Mac.


If the USB flash drive is not working with TransMac, it could still be a partition problem. In this case, you may need to redo the entire process again. However, this time, you should use the following steps to use the Diskpart command-line utility on Windows 10 to create the appropriate GPT partition, and then follow the above instructions.


Once you have formatted the USB flash drive with a GPT partition, you can use the instructions mentioned above to use TransMac to create a bootable media, but this time skip steps 5 through 10 and continue on step 11.


Whether a computer is brand new or becomes unusable from a compromised OS, you can use a bootable USB to install an operating system. You can run an OS installer like Windows, OSX, Mac, or specific versions of Linux from a bootable USB drive.


I'm going to upgrade to Mavericks when 10.9.1 is released and want to make a bootable USB disk for Mavericks to have on hand as a backup. I'm currently running Snow Leopard in my mid 2010 MacBook Pro. I have all the steps written down as how to make the bootable USB disk, but I'm unsure if I should make the disk with the Snow Leopard Disk Utility before installing Mavericks or install Mavericks, then re download the Mavericks installer from the App Store and make the drive using the Mavericks Disk Utility. I think the procedures I viewed on youtube assumed Mavericks was the operating system for the bootable disk creation.


If you want to create the bootable USB disk for the Mavericks installer from within Snow Leopard you can't do it with the createinstallmedia tool from Apple ( ). You need an alternate way as Kappy wrote.


Which in my experience is not possible. Using the createinstallmedia to create the bootable installer after I had upgraded to Mavericks (from SL) worked perfectly. I used a HFS+ partition on an external USB hard drive (GUID partition table).


I'm a computer novice and i wanna reinstall my windows 10 for my HP laptop since it was crashed, but i have a macbook pro, so I was wonder if it's possible to create a windows 10 bootable installer USB on macOS without terminal?


****EDIT**** The ExFAT formatted drive with Windows ISO did not work as a bootable drive. I had to create a Windows partition on my hard drive and boot into that to make a functioning boot drive.


This trick does not work at all! Only a small portion of computers recognize exFAT USB as bootable device. It failed on my Dell desktop. FAT32 is more recommended. In addition, a single copy-and-paste of Windows 10 ISO file is not going to make the drive bootable.


Otherwise, try UUByte ISO Editor app instead, it is more suitable for beginners. It only took me 7 minutes to make a bootable Windows 10 USB on my MacBook Air (Big Sur with M1 chip) . No commands and hassle free. You can refer to this step-by-step guide (Method 2):


If you are using a newer Windows 10 ISO (after version 201809), then UUByte ISO Editor is the best app for creating a bootable USB on Mac. It automatically splits the large ISO file into small parts so the Windows installation files can be sit on a FAT32 partition, which is the only working file system supported by Mac for Windows install. Also, this app works on latest Big Sur and M1 Mac as just tested it on a M1 MacBook Air with macOS Big Sur 11.5.


If you are using an old version of Windows 10 ISO, then Boot Camp Assistant can help you get this done easily. It is a built-in free app shipped with macOS by default. However, this feature is removed from Boot Camp app on macOS Big Sur. You can still use this app for creating bootable Windows USB on Catalina and Mojave as far as I know.


Share the tools and methods I know: How about the boot camp Assistant? Although it does not work sometimes, as a multi-boot creation utility, it can create a Windows 10 bootable USB on your Mac. If you are good at CMD, it is possible to use CMD to create Windows 10 bootable USB on a Mac in a virtual machine. But if you are a computer novice or are not know much about CMD, please find another way. If you have installed Windows iSO files on your Mac, try UNetbottin, plug in the USB on Mac, and launch the Disk Utility option. Open the Windows .iso file in UNetbottin and burn it to the USB flash drive. Generally speaking, the task is OK completed in 15 minutes. Suppose you are not interested in the above software. I think UUbyte iSO Editor is enough. Just download and install this software on your Mac and run it. Next, you can burn iSO files to USB. The whole process won't take a long time. UUbyte iSO Editor is a good choice for computer novices. And can quickly complete tasks without any technical requirements.


For the fewest issues or problems with a bootable windows 10 iso the best option is to find a windows computer or ask a friend, neighbor, relative, or local computer store to make the iso on a computer with Windows.


I have a Mac Air gifted by son. I am almost a dummy, with only very limited proficiency in mac. Son upgraded the OS to Lion free as it was allowed. It is running OK. Do I still have to spend USD 30/- to make a bootable USB stick. Is there any other method to make Boot USB key or MicroSD via USB reader for a dummy like me.


If you open App Store and click Updates, you can update your Lion installer to version 1.0.16. It replaces your copy if you allowed it to self-erase at installation. But using the InstallESD.dmg from inside this installer (SHA1 = 8ef208772f878698e9dd92b3632e25b23ffc9ca7) creates a bootable 10.7.3 (11D50) USB stick. That is cool.


Is this bootable Lion image something that you can use as an emergency repair disk by adding things like DiskWarrior and TechTools Pro (when they are lion certified)? Or is this bootable image only capable of booting and installing Lion?


after lion is installed the lion app will disappear from yourapps folder you basically have to extract the installesd.dmgbefore you or the Mac restarts to complete the lion installationalternatively you can purchase lion 10.7.0 on USB rom drivefrom the apple site or apple store for 75 aud yes is a littlemore costly but it gives the security that no one can formatthe drive on you making it a good alternative


There are many ways that you can create a bootable Mavericks USB Drive but this seems to me the far easiest way to do so. In this article I will assume that you already have a reasonable grasp of the OSX system and cut out the lengthy text:


sudo /Applications/InstallOSXYosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/YosemiteInstaller --applicationpath /Applications/InstallOSXYosemite.app --nointeraction


Step 15: The install process will begin by purging the contents of the connected USB drive, making the drive bootable, and copying the installer files to the drive. Because this process takes a few minutes to complete, please be patient.


Creating a bootable USB drive and using it to reinstall macOS is a bit of a lengthier process compared to simply updating macOS from the Software Update section of the System Preferences, but it has its benefits.


But creating a bootable USB disk allows you to install or update macOS on multiple systems without having to download the installer on each Mac. This can save quite a bit of time, considering the most recent versions of macOS have an installer size of 12GB.


Another benefit of using a bootable disk for a macOS installation is that you can perform a clean installation. A clean installation allows you to get rid of junk apps and files that may have accumulated over time. This almost always results in a Mac running faster after a clean install, since macOS has started over with a clean slate. 2ff7e9595c


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