Make Bootable El Capitan Usb On Catalina

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Apple has released mac OS 10.15 Catalina to Mac users. You can now download mac OS Catalina by going to Mac App store. Before downloading, you must remember to Create mac OS catalina USB Bootable drive. A very important tip you should remember is, Once you started updating your mac, after the restart, you won’t be able to access the mac OS Catalina setup file.

To create a bootable Mac drive you need any disk with Mac OS X 10.11.0 El Capitan or newer (10.12 Sierra, 10.13 High Sierra, 10.14 Mojave, 10.15 Catalina) either running as your main system, or just being installed on a drive that's connected to your Mac at the moment.

So remember to take backup of the downloaded mac OS Catalina file before clicking on “Install Update” button.

A downloaded installer for macOS Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra, or El Capitan Turn on your Mac and continue to hold the power button until you see the startup options window, which shows your bootable volumes and a gear icon labled Options. Nov 24, 2019 I read through it though but what I needed was a way to make a bootable El Capitan USB (for use in an older Mac) while on a newer Mac running Catalina. The OS of the older Mac has been corrupted and cannot boot. Yes I have downloaded El Capitan (InstallMacOSX.dmg) and renamed it to Capitan.app in the Applications folder. Apr 27, 2021 Download: OS X El Capitan This downloads as a disk image named InstallMacOSX.dmg. On a Mac that is compatible with El Capitan, open the disk image and run the installer within, named InstallMacOSX.pkg. It installs an app named Install OS X El Capitan into your Applications folder. Create Bootable Usb Catalina Apple Plug the bootable installer into a Mac that is connected to the internet and compatible with the version of macOS you're installing. Turn on your Mac and continue to hold the power button until you see the startup options window, which shows your bootable volumes and a gear icon labled Options.

There are 100+ features coming to your mac computer through this update. After long waiting time, several developer beta’s and public beta’s, we now have our hands on mac OS 10.15 Catalina.

It is ok to update directly from your mac app store. However, if you encounter any issues after the update, then it is recommended to perform clean installation of mac OS Catalina.

Macbook, Macbook Pro, iMac and Mac mini computers across the world are getting ready to install the latest mac OS Catalina software update. It is not easy to download the setup file if something goes wrong.

Keeping a mac OS catalina bootable usb drive will help you to freshly install in your mac computer, whenever you want to. Alright, the steps to create are pretty simple.

Once you copied and pasted the mac OS Catalina install file somewhere safe (in Documents or Folder you created), follow the below steps to create bootable usb drive.

Step 1: Launch Terminal by pressing “CMD+Spacebar” and then type “Terminal“.

Step 2: Navigate to the directory you have your backup copy of “Install mac OS Catalina” file is located. Or, if you haven’t started the installation yet, then the following command should work without any changes.

Step 3: Insert a Flash Drive to your Mac’s USB Port and remember, this drive will be completely formatted before the files copying process.

Step 4: Now copy, paste the following code to your Terminal Window and press “Enter“.

Depending on the mac OS version you are in, the following piece of code changes,

Catalina:

sudo /Applications/Install macOS Catalina.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled

Mojave:

sudo /Applications/Install macOS Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled

High Sierra:

sudo /Applications/Install macOS High Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled

Sierra:

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

El Capitan:

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

Note: Rename “Untitled” in the above command to suit your Flash Drive name.

Step 5: Your Flash drive will be formatted now and installation files will be moved to your Flash Drive. Wait for few minutes and once done, you will see the 100% transfer complete in terminal window.

Make Bootable El Capitan Usb On Catalina Mac

Congratulations! You’ve created mac OS Catalina USB Bootable Drive.

Now proceed with the update and whenever you need a mac OS Catalina Flash drive for update or installation, you don’t have to depend on Internet connection. Simply use this flash drive to perform the installation.

I hope this simple tutorial to create mac OS Catalina Bootable USB Drive helped you. Now it’s your time to help more people. Share this post with your friends and followers at Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Have a productive day.

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These advanced steps are primarily for system administrators and others who are familiar with the command line. You don't need a bootable installer to upgrade macOS or reinstall macOS, but it can be useful when you want to install on multiple computers without downloading the installer each time.

What you need to create a bootable installer

  • A USB flash drive or other secondary volume formatted as Mac OS Extended, with at least 14GB of available storage
  • A downloaded installer for macOS Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra, or El Capitan
Make

Download macOS

  • Download: macOS Big Sur, macOS Catalina, macOS Mojave, or macOS High Sierra
    These download to your Applications folder as an app named Install macOS [version name]. If the installer opens after downloading, quit it without continuing installation. To get the correct installer, download from a Mac that is using macOS Sierra 10.12.5 or later, or El Capitan 10.11.6. Enterprise administrators, please download from Apple, not a locally hosted software-update server.
  • Download: OS X El Capitan
    This downloads as a disk image named InstallMacOSX.dmg. On a Mac that is compatible with El Capitan, open the disk image and run the installer within, named InstallMacOSX.pkg. It installs an app named Install OS X El Capitan into your Applications folder. You will create the bootable installer from this app, not from the disk image or .pkg installer.

Use the 'createinstallmedia' command in Terminal

  1. Connect the USB flash drive or other volume that you're using for the bootable installer.
  2. Open Terminal, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
  3. Type or paste one of the following commands in Terminal. These assume that the installer is in your Applications folder, and MyVolume is the name of the USB flash drive or other volume you're using. If it has a different name, replace MyVolume in these commands with the name of your volume.

Big Sur:*

Catalina:*

Mojave:*

High Sierra:*

El Capitan:

* If your Mac is using macOS Sierra or earlier, include the --applicationpath argument and installer path, similar to the way this is done in the command for El Capitan.


After typing the command:

  1. Press Return to enter the command.
  2. When prompted, type your administrator password and press Return again. Terminal doesn't show any characters as you type your password.
  3. When prompted, type Y to confirm that you want to erase the volume, then press Return. Terminal shows the progress as the volume is erased.
  4. After the volume is erased, you may see an alert that Terminal would like to access files on a removable volume. Click OK to allow the copy to proceed.
  5. When Terminal says that it's done, the volume will have the same name as the installer you downloaded, such as Install macOS Big Sur. You can now quit Terminal and eject the volume.

Use the bootable installer

Determine whether you're using a Mac with Apple silicon, then follow the appropriate steps:

Apple silicon

  1. Plug the bootable installer into a Mac that is connected to the internet and compatible with the version of macOS you're installing.
  2. Turn on your Mac and continue to hold the power button until you see the startup options window, which shows your bootable volumes.
  3. Select the volume containing the bootable installer, then click Continue.
  4. When the macOS installer opens, follow the onscreen instructions.

Intel processor

  1. Plug the bootable installer into a Mac that is connected to the internet and compatible with the version of macOS you're installing.
  2. Press and hold the Option (Alt) ⌥ key immediately after turning on or restarting your Mac.
  3. Release the Option key when you see a dark screen showing your bootable volumes.
  4. Select the volume containing the bootable installer. Then click the up arrow or press Return.
    If you can't start up from the bootable installer, make sure that the External Boot setting in Startup Security Utility is set to allow booting from external media.
  5. Choose your language, if prompted.
  6. Select Install macOS (or Install OS X) from the Utilities window, then click Continue and follow the onscreen instructions.

Make Bootable El Capitan Usb On Catalina Operating System

Learn more

A bootable installer doesn't download macOS from the internet, but it does require an internet connection to get firmware and other information specific to the Mac model.

El Capitan Usb Installer

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: