Use the 'createinstallmedia' command in Terminal. 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. Aug 25, 2021 USB Flash Drive 8Gb Get one on Amazon here: (For El Capitan need a 16GB USB Stick) Mac OS Installer retail Version of Yosemite, El Capitan or Mac OS Sierra, choose one you desire to make the bootable USB. Apr 26, 2021 Use Terminal to Create the El Capitan Bootable USB Installer. Follow these steps to create a bootable USB installer of El Capitan in Terminal. Connect the USB flash drive to your Mac. Give the flash drive an appropriate name. You can do this by double-clicking the device's name on the desktop and then typing a new name. All you need is an 8 GB (minimum) USB thumb drive, a USB, FireWire, or Thunderbolt drive or an SD-Card; the OS X 10.11 El Capitan Installer from the App Store (once the download is complete the installer file will appear in the Applications folder — do not move it); and the DiskMaker X installer. It should be noted that DiskMaker X erases the volume or the drive you chose, according to the options you chose.

DiskMaker X (formerly Lion DiskMaker) is an application built with AppleScript that you can use with many versions of OS X to build a bootable drive from OS X installer program (the one you download from the App Store). As soon as you launch the application, it tries to find the OS X Install program with Spotlight. Then, it proposes to build a bootable install disk and make it look as nice as possible. It’s the easiest way to build an OS X Installer in a few clicks ! Then you can use the Install drive to fully re-install the OS on a freshly formated drive, or install it on your many Macs without re-downloading the full installer.

Jump over the break to learn how to use DiskMaker X…

1. Get an an empty flash drive with at least 8GB of storage

2. Download OS X El Capitan

3. Download DiskMaker X

4. Double-click on the .dmg file to open it and drag-and-drop the DiskMaker X app into the Applications folder

5. Now load DIskMaker X. When you load the app, it will ask you which version of OS X do you want to make a boot disk of. You can choose Mavericks, Yosemite and of course, El Capitan. We’ll choose El Capitan

6. Now, the app will search for a copy of OS X El Capitan. Once it found your El Capitan copy, it will ask you if you want to use the copy that it found or you want to use another copy. If you downloaded it from the app store ( step 2 ), choose ‘Use this copy’

7. Now the app will ask you about your thumb drive, and it will tell you that will be completely erased before copying OS X El Capitan onto it…

8. Now the app will format your flash drive and ask you for your admin password. Once you enter your admin password, DiskMaker X will start copying the necessary El Capitan files onto your flash drive.

NOTE: this process will take a while. Be patient….

9. When you’re done, the app will tell you that the boot disk is ready, you’ll see that your flash drive has been renamed as OS X 10.11 Install Disk and it will be opened. Now all you have to do is restart your Mac and and after you here the chime sound, press the Option ( Alt ) key until you see the option to choose the flash drive to boot from.

To install macOS or OS X from USB, you need to create a bootable install USB drive for Mac operating system. This tutorial will introduce you three ways to create bootable USB drive for macOS High Sierra, macOS Sierra, Mac OS X El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks and more.

Use 'createinstallmedia' Command in Terminal

The most recommendable way to create a bootable install USB drive for Mac OS is using 'createinstallmedia' Command with Terminal application.

Step 1: Download macOS or OS X

The first thing to do is to download the Mac operating system that you need. To install the latest Mac OS, for example, macOS High Sierra, you can search and download the installer from App Store.

To download the older Mac OS X version, you can go to App Store > Purchases to download the Mac OS X El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks that has been previously downloaded.

However, Apple has decided that macOS Sierra and later will no longer be listed in Mac App Store's Purchased. To download the installer of macOS Sierra, go to Apple Support.

Note: After downloading the Mac OS installer, do not install the OS but quit the installer.

Step 2 Get A USB Drive with Sufficient Storage

Create A Bootable El Capitan Usb

You should have a USB drive with at least 8 GB of storage and insert the USB drive into your Mac. If you need to create a bootable USB drive of macOS High Sierra, 16 GB USB flash drive is suggested. In fact, USB drives with larger storage, like 32 GB to 64 GB, tend to show better performance.

IMPORTANT: The contents of the drive will be erased after creating a bootable installer drive. Therefore, make sure there is nothing important on your flash drive before you continue with the following steps.

Step 3 Check the Name of Your Flash Drive

The following command is to create a bootable copy of Mac OS installer on a USB drive named FlashInstaller. If your USB drive has a different name, replace FlashInstaller in the command with the name of your USB drive. If you don't want to modify the command, change the name of your flash drive into FlashInstaller.

Step 4 Create A Bootable USB Drive of macOS/OS X

Launch Terminal enter the following command according to the version of Mac operating system that you are dealing with.

macOS High Sierra Installer

sudo /Applications/Install macOS High Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/FlashInstaller --applicationpath /Applications/Install macOS High Sierra.app --nointeraction

macOS Sierra Installer

sudo /Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/FlashInstaller --applicationpath /Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app --nointeraction

OS X El Capitan Installer

sudo /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/FlashInstaller --applicationpath /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app –nointeraction

OS X Yosemite Installer

sudo /Applications/Install OS X Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/FlashInstaller --applicationpath /Applications/Install OS X Yosemite.app –nointeraction

How To Create A Bootable El Capitan Usb Drive

OS X Mavericks Installer

sudo /Applications/Install OS X Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/FlashInstaller --applicationpath /Applications/Install OS X Mavericks.app –nointeraction

Tip: If you didn't download the installer from Mac App Store, you must modify the file path after 'applicationpath'.

After pasting the command on the Terminal, hit Enter key. You'll be asked to enter your Mac's password. Enter the password and hit Enter.

Then you need to check the name and path of your USB drive. If it is correct, press 'y' then hit 'Enter'. The Mac will begin to create a bootable install drive for macOS High Sierra, macOS Sierra, Mac OS X El Capitan/Yosemite/Mavericks. When it is done, Terminal will shows 'Done'.

To install macOS or OS X from the USB flash drive, check how to clean install Mac OS from USB(opens new window).

Make A Bootable Installer for macOS via DiskMaker X or Install Disk Creator

If you think it is too much trouble to use Terminal to make a bootable installer on a USB drive, you can use tools like DiskMaker X, Install Disk Creator. Both the tools can make an install drive for macOS Sierra, OS X El Capitan, OS X Yosemite and more.

DiskMaker X: When you launch the application, it will try to find the downloaded macOS or OS X installers program on your Mac. And you just need to follow its on-screen instructions to create a bootable USB drive by clicking a few buttons.

Install Disk Creator: Once you run the application, select a USB drive, choose a Mac OS installer, and click Create Installer to begin to create an install USB drive.

Disk Utility to Create a Bootable macOS/OS X Installer

Before using createinstallmedia command, people used to use Disk Utility to create a bootable installer drive manually. But the process is much more complicated than the Terminal method. So Apple also suggests you make a bootable install drive via Terminal.

Make Bootable El Capitan Usb On High Sierra

Just in case that you don't want to use Terminal, you may follow these steps to build a USB drive for Mac OS X or macOS.

How To Create A Bootable El Capitan Usb Drive

• Mount the Mac OS installer to get .DS_Store, BaseSystem.chunklist, and BaseSystem.dmg. Files from InstallESD.dmg file.
• Use Disk Utility's Restore feature to create a copy of the OS Install ESD image.
• Modify the copy of the OS Install ESD image to make it boot successfully.

Do you have other question about making a bootable USB drive for macOS or Mac OS X? Leave your comment below.