Creating a bootable USB drive of OS X Yosemite 10.10 if you want to save it on a external drive for future usage or just want to install it on multiple Mac computers. To make OS X Yosemite bootable USB installer drive, there are few requirements. Lets see what are those.
Note: This guide to make installer USB drive is for OS X Yosemite Developer Preview
See also: Dual Boot OS X Yosemite and Mavericks
Below are instructions on how to create a bootable ISO image of OS X Yosemite 10.10. # Mount the installer image hdiutil attach /Applications/I. If you prefer to make a bootable dvd, you can do it this way: After downloading the full Yosemite installer app from the Mac App Store, run these 14 commands in Terminal to create a Yosemite.iso file and then burn it to a dual layer DVD with Disk Utility. You may then boot up from it by holding the option key down and then install Yosemite. Creating a bootable OS X 10.10 Yosemite USB drive is very easy. All you need is a Mac, as the tools provided for the process are only available in OS X, and a USB drive with a capacity of 8 GB (or. Jul 28, 2014 Step 1: Obtain the Yosemite Public Beta Installer If you're registered for the Yosemite beta program, download the OS X Yosemite Public Beta installer from the Mac App Store. This will put a file called Install OS X Yosemite Beta.app in your /Applications folder. It will also launch the Yosemite installer app when the download completes. Create OS X Yosemite Bootable USB Drive Step 1. Insert the USB drive or Disc on youir MAC and run the Disk Utility app from the Applications Utilities folder.
Make OS X Yosemite Bootable USB
Requirements
- You must have an external USB drive or storage media with capacity of at-least 8GB (Save data from it because we are going to format it).
- OS X Yosemite installer downloaded (You can join OS X Beta program)
Prepare USB drive for OS X Yosemite
Open Disk Utility from 'Applications' > 'Utilities' or press 'cmd+space' keys form keyboard to find 'Disk Utility'.
Plug the external USB drive into Mac (make sure you save your stuff from it). Once you attached the USB drive, it will shown on the left panel of Disk Utility.
Select the drive and then do the following steps to create a single partition that is required to make USB installer drive for OS X Yosemite 10.10.
Click on 'Partition Layout' drop-down menu and select '1 Partition' option from it.
Then enter the Partition information Name: 'osxyosemite', Format: 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)'.
Click the 'Options' button to select the partition scheme, so select 'GUID Partition Table' option and click OK button.
To complete the creating partition process hit the 'Apply' button and then 'Partition' button. This will take some time to format and making USB drive as a 1 partition. Once done, you will notice a new drive name will be displayed on the left side, the name that you given in the partition information. Now close the Disk Utility tool.
Show hidden files
Showing hidden files is required, because there are few hidden files in the OS X Yosemite installer package that you need to unhide first to write them on bootable USB drive.
Open Mac 'Terminal' command line: press cmd+space keys and type Terminal in the spotlight, click the Terminal from search results or just open the Terminal from Applications > Utilities > Terminal.
Type the following two commands one by one:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES
Killall Finder
First command is going to show hidden files and the second one is to restart the Finder so we can see the instant effect of first command. Close the Terminal.
Open Applications, here you will see your downloaded OS X Yosemite file 'Install OS X 10.10'. Cmd+click on it to view the menu, select 'Show Package Contents'.
Open 'Contents' > 'SharedSupport' folder and here you will see 'InstallESD.dmg' file, double click to open the file and OS X may starts verifying this file so let the verification process finished.
After that you will see a folder with the following content in it, 'BaseSystem.dmg' is the file that we need and it was hidden, so now you know that why we show the hidden files in above steps.
Open the Disk Utility again from 'Applications' > 'Utilities' > 'Disk Utility' or by using Spotlight search.
Load the 'BaseSystem.dmg' file into the Disk Utility, right-click on the file and choose 'Open With' > 'Disk Utility' option. After doing that open the Disk Utility and you will see the file 'BaseSystem.dmg' is loaded in the Disk Utility on the left side.
Restore Disk Image
Now we are going to restore 'BaseSystem.dmg' disk image on the USB drive.
Select your USB partition that we created in previous first steps, then click the Restore tab.
Under Restore tab there are two fields, Source and Destination.
Click and drag the 'BaseSystem.dmg' to Source field and 'osxyosemite' usb drive to Destination filed, see screenshot below to get more idea. When done hit the Restore button and you need to confirm 'Are you sure you want to replace the content on USB drive with the content of disk image' so click the Erase button to confirm, after that you may need to enter the administrator password. Restoring disk image is time taking process so be patient.
Once the restoring disk image process is finished you will see a folder like this. Here, open the 'System' > 'Installation' folders and move the Packages file to trash.
Copy the 'Packages' folder from the folder where the 'BaseSystem.dmg' exist. and paste it into the Installation folder that you just opened in previous step.
Hide the system files again using this commanddefaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO
How to Boot from USB Drive
You must know the system requirements of OS X Yosemite before installing it, If your system to capable to run this OS X version 10.10 then Shutdown your Mac, plug the OS X Yosemite Bootable USB into Mac. Press the power button again to turn it On and then hold the Alt or Option key from keyboard, when you see this screen release the button. Double click on the USB drive to boot from it.
Congratulations! you successfully perform all steps to make bootable USB drive to install OS X Yosemite on more that one Mac computers without worried of downloading it on each computer separately, you will saved lot of bandwidth and time as well. Thanks for reading if you have any problem we are here to help you just write your problem below in comments box.
Related Content
Want to learn how to create a bootable USB installer for OS X Yosemite?. Here is the complete step by step guide which you can follow on your MAC create the bootable USB disc. We all know that Yosemite OS X is the latest operating system form Apple, which comes with lots of new features and improvement. If you are interested in new OS and want to try it then sign up for the OS X Beta Program here, which will allow them to test the new OS, if selected.
Once you have the installation app for Yosemite (Install OS X 10.10 Developer Preview), don't install it directly, other wise you will lose the file and can't make the USB disc. To get started all you nee a *GB or above USB drive, Apple computer with Mac App Store (10.6.8+) and OS X Yosemite installer.
Create OS X Yosemite Bootable USB Drive
Step 1. Insert the USB drive or Disc on youir MAC and run the Disk Utility app from the Applications > Utilities folder.
Step 2. Now in the app select the USB drive and Selct the Partition Tab.
Step 3. Under Partition Layout, select 1 Partition from the drop-down menu. And enter the Partition information Name: 'yosemite', Format: 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)'.
Step 4. Click the Options.. button and Select GUID Partition Table. After that hit the 'Ok' button then 'Partition' button.
Step 5. Now the partition process will start and this will take some time to format and making USB drive as a 1 partition
Now the USB part is over and lets move to the OS X Yosemite installer package.
Step 6. Go to Applications again and find the Install OS X 10.10 Developer Preview app that you downloaded.
Step 7. Right-click the installer and select Show Package Contents from the context menu. See the Screenshot below:-
Step 8. Now navigate to Contents -> SharedSupport and open InstallESD.dmg
Step 9. This will start the verify process on your MAC. Wait for some time…….
Step 10. Once the verify process is done you will see the Package Folder.
Step 11. Don't do anything with this Packages folder just yet. First, we need to unhide the files located in this newly mounted OS X Install ESD image.
Step 12. Launch Terminal.app to enter a command to unhide the file and folder on your MAC.
Step 13. Enter the below mention two commands one by one:-
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
Hide the system files again using this commanddefaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO
How to Boot from USB Drive
You must know the system requirements of OS X Yosemite before installing it, If your system to capable to run this OS X version 10.10 then Shutdown your Mac, plug the OS X Yosemite Bootable USB into Mac. Press the power button again to turn it On and then hold the Alt or Option key from keyboard, when you see this screen release the button. Double click on the USB drive to boot from it.
Congratulations! you successfully perform all steps to make bootable USB drive to install OS X Yosemite on more that one Mac computers without worried of downloading it on each computer separately, you will saved lot of bandwidth and time as well. Thanks for reading if you have any problem we are here to help you just write your problem below in comments box.
Related Content
Want to learn how to create a bootable USB installer for OS X Yosemite?. Here is the complete step by step guide which you can follow on your MAC create the bootable USB disc. We all know that Yosemite OS X is the latest operating system form Apple, which comes with lots of new features and improvement. If you are interested in new OS and want to try it then sign up for the OS X Beta Program here, which will allow them to test the new OS, if selected.
Once you have the installation app for Yosemite (Install OS X 10.10 Developer Preview), don't install it directly, other wise you will lose the file and can't make the USB disc. To get started all you nee a *GB or above USB drive, Apple computer with Mac App Store (10.6.8+) and OS X Yosemite installer.
Create OS X Yosemite Bootable USB Drive
Step 1. Insert the USB drive or Disc on youir MAC and run the Disk Utility app from the Applications > Utilities folder.
Step 2. Now in the app select the USB drive and Selct the Partition Tab.
Step 3. Under Partition Layout, select 1 Partition from the drop-down menu. And enter the Partition information Name: 'yosemite', Format: 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)'.
Step 4. Click the Options.. button and Select GUID Partition Table. After that hit the 'Ok' button then 'Partition' button.
Step 5. Now the partition process will start and this will take some time to format and making USB drive as a 1 partition
Now the USB part is over and lets move to the OS X Yosemite installer package.
Step 6. Go to Applications again and find the Install OS X 10.10 Developer Preview app that you downloaded.
Step 7. Right-click the installer and select Show Package Contents from the context menu. See the Screenshot below:-
Step 8. Now navigate to Contents -> SharedSupport and open InstallESD.dmg
Step 9. This will start the verify process on your MAC. Wait for some time…….
Step 10. Once the verify process is done you will see the Package Folder.
Step 11. Don't do anything with this Packages folder just yet. First, we need to unhide the files located in this newly mounted OS X Install ESD image.
Step 12. Launch Terminal.app to enter a command to unhide the file and folder on your MAC.
Step 13. Enter the below mention two commands one by one:-
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder
Step 14. Now you will see three more files next to the Package folder (Step 10)
Step 15. Switch back to Disk Utility.app to select the partition name created in step 3.
Step 16. Now drag the partition from the device list to the Destination box. Also, drag the BaseSystem.dmg to the Source path
Hit the Restore button.
Step 17. Now a new popup screen appears. From here click on Erase to start the restore process, then enter in your admin password and hit OK to proceed.
Step 18. Once the restore process is done, you will see a new window son your screen. Like the screen below:-
Step 19. Here, open the 'System' > 'Installation' folders and move the Packages Halostation outdoor wifi usb. file to trash.
Step 20. Now copy the Packages folder from Step 10 and paste it into the Installation folder that you just opened in previous step.
Step 21. Now Hide the system files again using this command on terminal window
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO
How To Make Bootable Os X Yosemite To El Capitan
That's it!. To perform a clean install on your MAC, simply insert the USB drive that you created, power on the computer, and hold down the [option] key to access the boot selection menu. From there, select the USB drive partition, and follow the prompts to install OSX 10.10 on your Mac.
