How to Create an Emergency Mac OS Boot Device Using a USB Flash Drive GA S REGULAR Menu Lifewire Tech for Humans Newsletter! Search Close GO Computers, Laptops & Tablets > Apple

How to Create an Emergency Mac OS Boot Device Using a USB Flash Drive

Use this backup tool to reinstall your operating system

By Tom Nelson Tom Nelson Writer Tom Nelson is an engineer, programmer, network manager, and computer network and systems designer who has written for Other World Computing,and others. Tom is also president of Coyote Moon, Inc., a Macintosh and Windows consulting firm. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on February 9, 2021 Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email Apple Macs iPad

What to Know

Download Catalina, Mojave, or High Sierra and connect a formatted USB drive to your Mac. Go to Applications > Utilities > Terminal.Enter the command needed to put the installer on the USB drive. You can find it in the article below.Follow the on-screen prompts to finish the installation, then quit Terminal and eject the USB drive. This article explains how to create a bootable copy of OS X or macOS and put it on a USB flash drive. It's a great emergency backup tool to have on hand if anything happens to your existing startup drive. The information here covers creating emergency bootup USB drives for macOS Catalina, macOS Mojave, macOS High Sierra, and OS X El Capitan.

Choose and Format Your USB Flash Drive

Apple recommends using at least a 12 GB flash drive as a bootable installer, but a 16 GB flash drive might be worth the extra money. A 16 GB flash drive is big enough to install a complete copy of the macOS along with recovery utilities, such as Data Rescue, Drive Genius, and TechTool Pro, that you'd find helpful in an emergency bootup situation. If your budget allows, a flash drive larger than 16 GB certainly won't hurt.

How to Format Your USB Flash Drive

Make sure whatever USB drive you select is formatted as Mac OS Extended. If it's not already in the right format, here's how to format your USB flash drive: All data on your flash drive will be erased. With your USB drive plugged in, start up your Mac from macOS Recovery. Restart your Mac and immediately press and hold Command + R. When you see a startup screen, such as an Apple logo or spinning globe, release the keys. Enter a password if prompted. When you see the Utilities window, startup is complete. Select Disk Utility and then select Continue. From the list of drives attached to your Mac, select your USB flash drive and then select Erase. Type in a name for your flash drive. From the Format drop-down menu, select Mac OS X Extended (Journaled), and then select Erase. Disk Utility will format your flash drive. When it's finished, select Done and quit Disk Utility. Your USB flash drive is now prepared to become a bootable OS X or macOS installer.

Download macOS

The next step is to download the operating system for which you want to make a backup and move it to your USB drive. The process differs slightly for different versions.

Catalina Mojave and High Sierra

From the Mac App Store, download Catalina, Mojave, or High Sierra. Installers for each of these macOS versions download directly to your Applications folder. They'll be called Install macOS Catalina, Install macOS Mojave, or Install macOS High Sierra. The installer may try to open after it's been downloaded. If it does, quit it without continuing installation. Connect your USB flash drive to the Mac. Go to Applications > Utilities and open Terminal. Or, type Terminal into Spotlight Search to quickly open a Terminal window. In the Terminal window that opens, enter one of the following commands, depending on which macOS installer you're working with. Note that MyVolume is the name of your USB drive. For Catalina: sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Catalina.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume
For Mojave: sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume
For High Sierra: sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume
After you enter the command, press Return. 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 Return. Terminal will ask for permission to access files on a removable volume. Select OK to continue. Terminal will show its progress as it transfers macOS to the USB device. When Terminal is finished, the volume will have the same name as the installer you downloaded, such as Install macOS Catalina. Quit Terminal and eject the volume.

El Capitan

When downloading El Capitan, the process is much the same. The only difference is that El Capitan downloads as a disk image. After you download El Capitan, open the disk image and run its installer, which is called InstallMacOSX.pkg. This process installs an app named Install OS X El Capitan into your Applications folder. Create your bootable installer from this app, not from the disk image, and follow the instructions as stated above.

Use Your Emergency Boot Device

To use the bootable flash device as an installer: Make sure you're connected to the Internet during this process. Insert the USB flash drive into one of your Mac's USB ports. Use Startup Manager or Startup Disk preferences to select the bootable installer as your startup disk, then start up from it. Your Mac will start up to macOS Recovery. If prompted, choose your language. Select Install macOS (or Install OS X) from the Utilities window. Select Continue and follow the onscreen instructions to install OS X or macOS on your Mac. It's also possible to create bootable installers for earlier OS X versions, such as OS X Yosemite, OS X Mavericks, OS X Mountain Lion, and OS X Lion. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Subscribe Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit More from Lifewire How to Make a Bootable Flash Installer of OS X or macOS Make a Bootable USB Installer for OS X El Capitan How to Downgrade From Catalina to Mojave How to Find a Flash Drive That's Not Showing Up on a Mac How to Install Mac OS on PC How to Use Disk Utility in macOS How to Reinstall Mac OS How to Format a Mac Hard Drive With Disk Utility How to Update Your MacBook Pro How to Burn an ISO File to a USB Drive How to Boot From a USB Device How to Select the Right USB Flash Drive How to Partition a Drive in OS X El Capitan Using Disk Utility Perform a Clean Install of OS X Mavericks on a Startup Drive Create a Bootable macOS Sierra Installer on a USB Flash Drive How to Install Norton Antivirus Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. Cookies Settings Accept All Cookies