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Make Bootable

Instructions for making bootable OS X and macOS installers.

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Bootable Lion or Mountain Lion from Install Application

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To create a bootable installer, you need an USB flash drive or other secondary volume with at least 8 GB of available storage. If using a entire flash drive, then use the Disk Utility application to erase a 8 GB or larger flash drive. When erasing, the choose the following.

  • Name: “MyVolume”
  • Format: “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”
  • Scheme: “GUID Partition Map”

Enter the command below to attach the “InstallESD.dmg” disk image file as a device. This will automatically mount the volume “Mac OS X Install ESD” stored in this disk image file. For OS X Mountain Lion, substitute “OS X Mountain Lion” for “Mac OS X Lion” when entering the command below.

hdiutil attach "/Applications/Install Mac OS X Lion.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg"
Enter the command below to clone the source volume “Mac OS X Install ESD”. This command assumes that “MyVolume” is the name of the USB flash drive or other volume you're using. If the volume has a different name, replace “MyVolume” in the command with the name of your volume. If prompted for a password, type your administrator password. Terminal doesn't show any characters as you type. Then press Return. When prompted to erase contents, type Y to confirm that you want to erase the volume, then press Return. The cloned volume should be named “Mac OS X Install ESD 1”.
sudo asr restore --source "/Volumes/Mac OS X Install ESD" --target "/Volumes/MyVolume" --erase

Enter the command below to unmount the source volume “Mac OS X Install ESD” and then eject the device containing this volume.

hdiutil detach "/Volumes/Mac OS X Install ESD"
Enter the command below to rename the cloned volume “Mac OS X Install ESD 1” to “Install OS X Lion”. For OS X Mountain Lion, substitute “Mountain Lion” for “Lion” when entering the command below.
diskutil rename "/Volumes/Mac OS X Install ESD 1" "Install OS X Lion"

If needed, enter the command below to unmount the cloned volume “Install OS X Lion” and then eject the device containing this volume. For example, if you need to remove a USB flash drive containing this volume. For OS X Mountain Lion, substitute “Mountain Lion” for “Lion” when entering the command below.

diskutil eject "/Volumes/Install OS X Lion"

Bootable Lion or Montain Lion  from the File Downloaded from Apple

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To create a bootable installer, you need an USB flash drive or other secondary volume with at least 8 GB of available storage. If using a entire flash drive, then use the Disk Utility application to erase a 8 GB or larger flash drive. When erasing, the choose the following.

  • Name: “MyVolume”
  • Format: “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”
  • Scheme: “GUID Partition Map”
Enter the command below to attach the “InstallMacOSX.dmg” disk image file as a device. This will automatically mount the volume “Install Mac OS X” stored in this disk image file.
hdiutil attach ~/Downloads/InstallMacOSX.dmg
Enter the command below to remove any existing “/tmp/MacOSX” folder.
rm -rf /tmp/MacOSX

Enter the command below to expand the Mac OS X Installer flat package file “InstallMacOSX.pkg” into the new folder “/tmp/MacOSX”.

pkgutil --expand "/Volumes/Install Mac OS X/InstallMacOSX.pkg" /tmp/MacOSX
Enter the command below to unmount the volume “Install Mac OS X” and then eject the device containing this volume.
hdiutil detach "/Volumes/Install Mac OS X"
Enter the command below to attach the “InstallESD.dmg” disk image file as a device. This will automatically mount the volume “Mac OS X Install ESD” stored in this disk image file.
hdiutil attach /tmp/MacOSX/InstallMacOSX.pkg/InstallESD.dmg
Enter the command below to clone the source volume “Mac OS X Install ESD”. This command assumes that “MyVolume” is the name of the USB flash drive or other volume you're using. If the volume has a different name, replace “MyVolume” in the command with the name of your volume. If prompted for a password, type your administrator password. Terminal doesn't show any characters as you type. Then press Return. When prompted to erase contents, type Y to confirm that you want to erase the volume, then press Return. The cloned volume should be named “Mac OS X Install ESD 1”.
sudo asr restore --source "/Volumes/Mac OS X Install ESD" --target "/Volumes/MyVolume" --erase
Enter the command below to unmount the source volume “Mac OS X Install ESD” and then eject the device containing this volume.
hdiutil detach "/Volumes/Mac OS X Install ESD"
Enter the command below to remove the “/tmp/MacOSX” folder.
rm -r /tmp/MacOSX
Enter the command below to rename the cloned volume “Mac OS X Install ESD 1” to “Install OS X Lion”. For OS X Mountain Lion, substitute “Mountain Lion” for “Lion” when entering the command below.
diskutil rename "/Volumes/Mac OS X Install ESD 1" "Install OS X Lion"
If needed, enter the command below to unmount the cloned volume “Install OS X Lion” and then eject the device containing this volume. For example, if you need to remove a USB flash drive containing this volume. For OS X Mountain Lion, substitute “Mountain Lion” for “Lion” when entering the command below.
diskutil eject "/Volumes/Install OS X Lion"

Bootable Mavericks through Sierra from Install Application

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Note: These instructions were were adapted from the Apple webpage Create a bootable installer for macOS. 

To create a bootable installer, you need an USB flash drive or other secondary volume with at least 14 GB of available storage, formatted as Mac OS Extended. The steps are given below

  1. Plug in the USB flash drive or other secondary volume that you're using for the bootable installer.
  2. Open Terminal, which is in the “Utilities” folder of the “Applications” folder.
  3. Type or paste the appropriate ‘Create Bootable Installer from the Install Application’ commands given on the Home page into Terminal, then press Return to enter the command. Each command assumes that the installer is in the “Applications” folder, and “MyVolume” is the name of the USB flash drive or other volume you're using. If the volume has a different name, replace “MyVolume” in the command with the name of your volume.
  4. When prompted, type your administrator password. Terminal doesn't show any characters as you type. Then press Return.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. When Terminal says that it's done, the volume will have the same name as the installer you downloaded, such as Install macOS Sierra. You can now quit Terminal and optionally eject the volume.

Bootable Yosemite through Sierra  from the File Downloaded from Apple

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Each link given below goes to a webpage with instructions for creating a bootable OS X or macOS installer from the corresponding disk image file (“.dmg”) downloaded from Apple.

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