Install Macos Yosemite From Usb

One of the most awaited Operating System of 2014 i.e. Mac Yosemite is now available for use. Apple has recently released the beta version of the latest Yosemite OS with new and advanced features. Who wouldn’t like to try this latest version? Every Mac user would love it! You can easily work with and get familiar with all features of this new Yosemite that too without disturbing the already running Mac installation in simple steps. Yes! you can achieve this by just creating a bootable USB flash drive with Yosemite and then connecting it to the Mac desktop or laptop to install Yosemite from USB securely.

Step 2: Make the Drive a Yosemite Boot Installer. In a single command you'll create the bootable install drive. To do this, launch Terminal and enter the following command. Note, this assumes that you haven't moved the installer out of your Applications folder. If you have, simply replace '/Applications' with the location of the. How To Clean Install OS X Yosemite. Step 1: First and foremost, download OS X Yosemite from the Mac App Store; it’s absolutely free. Download OS X 10.10 Yosemite Final For Free Right Now! Step 2: Once the download process is complete, you will now have to create a bootable OS X Yosemite USB drive, the steps for which are outlined here: Step 3. Aug 29, 2014 How to Install Mac OS X Yosemite on a USB Flash Drive By Jennifer Kyrnin and Mark Spoonauer 29 August 2014 You might want to try out Yosemite but not modify your primary Mac.

Install Os X Yosemite Download

It’s just a few simple step procedure and within minutes you can create Yosemite bootable USB. The process involves two stages – creation of bootable USB flash drive and then installation procedure. Below is the complete step-by-step procedure to achieve this, just read on…

Stage 1: Create Bootable USB Flash Drive

  • First connect your USB drive to the Mac computer and launch Disk Utility tool. Now select drive indicating USB flash drive (select the USB drive you want to make the bootable installer) from the available drives list
  • Then just click on the “Erase” tab and format the drive as “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”
  • Then just click on “Erase” and confirm the selection
  • Go to “Partition” tab and under ‘Partition Layout’ section click on the pull-down menu and change the layout to “1 Partition” from “Current
  • Change the partition name from “Untitled 1” to “Untitled” and then click on “Options” button
  • Choose the partition scheme as “GUID Partition Table” and select “OK”
  • Once done click on “Apply” to confirm the creation of the partition
  • After the partition is successfully created download the Macintosh OS X 10.10 Yosemite installer from Mac App Store, once done quit the installer and set the downloaded file's name to Install OS X Yosemite app.

After completion, launch the Terminal app (located in Applications/Utilities) and type or copy - paste the following command, and then hit Enter:

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

Once done Quit the Disk Utility; With this your OS X Yosemite bootable USB flash drive will be ready for use and you can start the clean installation process.

Stage 2: Clean Install OS X Yosemite on Your Mac

  • Now, connect the bootable USB flash drive into your Mac and restart the computer, once the start-up chime plays, just press the Option key (Alt).
  • On the start-up drive selection screen choose the USB drive and hit Enter / Return on the keyboard.
  • The process might take few minutes, just wait until the Yosemite installer appears on screen
  • Once it appears, click on Disk Utility and then hit Continue.
  • From the left hand-side pane of the Mac, find and click on Macintosh HD and then on the top-right portion hit Erase tab. Select default values for all options and then hit Erase button at the bottom right; by doing this all files stored on the startup hard drive will be wiped off.
  • After completion of the erasing process just return to the first screen and click on Install OS X and then hit Continue.
  • Now, select the Macintosh HD partition that was erased in step 5 and then click Install

By following all the above steps correctly, your computer will now boot into the newly installed OS X Yosemite, and you could just enjoy all its stunning new UI and advanced features. However, before performing the process make sure you have proper data backup, as there are chances of losing your data due to interruption or by selecting improper option. In such cases Remo Recover software could help you to perform Mac lost data recovery in just few minutes.

Update: Go to Install macOS Sierra Using Bootable USB Flash Drive if you want to install macOS 10.12 Sierra instead.

Update 2: The instructions below will work to manually create a Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan USB installation drive. I needed to upgrade my sister’s 2008 Macbook Pro and found that the existing Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard did not support the “createinstallmedia” tool; I got a “Failed to start erase of disk due to error (-9999, 0)” error. I followed the instructions below to successfully create a bootable installer for Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan, which is the last version to support the 2008 Core 2 Duo Macbook Pro.

In this post, I will go over instructions on how to create a bootable USB flash drive containing the Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite installer. These instructions will also work for Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks (excluding a Yosemite-specific step) and differ significantly from the instructions for creating a Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard installer. You will need an 8GB USB flash drive for Mac OS X Yosemite or Mavericks.

I tried several methods which failed to create a bootable USB flash drive before finding one that succeeded. The instructions I found that worked, using Disk Utility, were located at How to Make a Bootable OS X Mavericks USB Install Drive and How to Create a Bootable Install USB Drive of Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite.

Download Os X Yosemite Without App Store

Download the Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite

First, download the latest Mac OS X version, which is 10.10 Yosemite. It is the version currently available for download from the “App Store”. (If you want an earlier version like Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks, you’ll need to get it from elsewhere.)

Launch “App Store” and search for “OS X Yosemite”. Download it. (It is 5.16GB in size.)

Note: If you run the Yosemite installer to upgrade your Mac, the downloaded installer file will be deleted automatically after the upgrade is completed. To keep that file, you will want to move it out of the Applications folder so it won’t be deleted after an upgrade. Launch the “Terminal” app and run this command to move the downloaded installer app to your user’s “Downloads” folder:

sudomv/Applications/Install OS Yosemite.app/ ~/Downloads/

Create Bootable USB Flash Drive Installer

By default, the Finder will hide system files which we will need to see. Run these commands in the “Terminal” app to expose the hidden files:

Mac
# Configure Finder to show hidden system files.
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
# Close all Finder instances (and re-launch so settings take effect).
killall Finder

Prepare the USB flash drive:

  1. Plug in a USB flash drive of size 8GB or larger.
  2. Launch the “Disk Utility” to format the USB Flash drive.
  3. On the left-hand pane, select the USB drive (not the partition under it, if any).
  4. Click on the “Erase” tab, select “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” for “Format” and input a name like “Install Yosemite” (or anything because this name will be overwritten later).
  5. Click the “Erase…” button at the bottom and then the “Erase” button in the popup dialog. This format operation should take less than a minute to complete.

Restore the Yosemite installation image to the USB flash drive:

  1. Launch the Finder and locate the “Install OS Yosemite.app” file. Right-click (hold the “control” key and click) on it and select “Show Package Contents”.
  2. Open Contents, then SharedSupport, and double-click on the InstallESD.dmg (disk image) file to mount it. A volume called “OS X Install ESD” will show up on the desktop and under DEVICES in the Finder.
  3. In the “OS X Install ESD” volume, right-click on the “BaseSystem.dmg” file and select “Open” to mount it. (Double-click won’t perform any action because it is a hidden file.)
  4. Use Disk Utility to clone the “BaseSystem.dmg” to the USB flash drive:
    1. Select the “BaseSystem.dmg” in the left-hand pane and click on the “Restore” tab. The “Source” field will be populated with “BaseSystem.dmg”.
    2. Drag the “Install Yosemite” partition under the USB flash drive to the “Destination” field.
    3. Click the Restore button and then the Erase button.
    4. The USB flash drive will be written with the contents of “BaseSystem.dmg” file. Depending on the speed of your USB flash drive, it may take several minutes or longer to complete this operation.
    5. Once complete, the “Install Yosemite” partition will be renamed to “OS X Base System”.
  5. Use the Finder to navigate to the USB flash drive. You will see two “OS X Base System” volumes in the Finder’s left-hand pane. The USB flash drive is the last one.
  6. Under the USB flash drive’s “OS X Base System” partition, open the “System/Installation” folder. You will see an alias file named “Packages”. Delete it because we will replace it with a “Packages” folder below.
  7. Use a second Finder window to open the “OS X Install ESD” volume. (To open a second Finder window, you can use the Finder menu’s “File/New Finder Window” command.)
  8. Copy the “Packages” folder from the “OS X Install ESD” volume to the USB flash drive’s “System/Installation” folder.
  9. Required for Yosemite (not required for Mavericks): Copy the “BaseSystem.chunklist” and “BaseSystem.dmg” files from the “OS X Install ESD” volume to the USB flash drive’s root “/” folder. If you don’t do this, you will get an “undefined error 0” when attempting to install Yosemite.
  10. The USB flash drive is now complete. You can use it to boot a Mac to install Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite.
  11. Unmount all the Yosemite installer volumes by ejecting them; you must eject “OS X Base System” before “OS X Install ESD”.

Re-configure the Finder to hide system files. Run these commands in the “Terminal” app:

Mac Os Yosemite Vs Sierra

# Configure Finder to not show hidden system files.
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
# Close all Finder instances (and re-launch so settings take effect).
killall Finder

How To Install Mac Os Yosemite From Usb

Boot With USB Flash Drive

Mac Os X Yosemite Installer

To boot a Mac with the USB flash drive:

  1. Insert the USB flash drive.
  2. While holding the “option/alt” key down, turn on the Mac to display the boot Startup Manager.
  3. You should see one or two icons, one for the internal hard drive and/or another called “OS X Base System” for the USB flash drive. (The internal hard drive may not be visible if it does not have a bootable partition installed.)
    • Note: If you don’t see the USB flash drive’s “OS X Base System”, try removing and re-inserting the USB flash drive while viewing the Startup Manager screen. The USB flash drive should then appear after a few seconds.
  4. Select the “OS X Base System” and hit the “return/enter” key to boot from the USB flash drive.

Hopefully, this post will help you to create your own bootable USB flash drive installer for Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite or Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks.