Image via Before You Start The obvious first step here is to. But before you do anything else, a word of caution: once you've used the OS X installer, it will automatically delete the file you need to make the backup disk, so you'll want to either make a copy of the installer or create your disk before you upgrade. You can use a USB flash drive, external hard drive, or DVD-R disc, but the USB drive is quicker.
If you're using a USB drive, it has to be formatted as 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)' and set to partition type 'GUID Partition Table' in order to work. Image via Once inside, browse to the ' Contents SharedSupport' folder where there will be a file called ' InstallESD.dmg.' This is the image file that contains the information you need to create the backup disk. Step 2: Open Disk Utility (located in your Applications Utilities folder). Step 3: Drag and drop the ' InstallESD.dmg' into the list of drives on the left and select it. This should make it appear in the Source box on the right. If not, you may have to click the ' Restore' tab as seen below.
OS X El Capitan Compatible Macs. If you’re interested in growing a bootable USB flash drive containing Apple’s OS X El Capitan then it’s logical to count on that it’s because you ultimately need to install a sparkling reproduction of the platform onto certainly one of your Mac computers. Before we are able to proceed with creating an OS X 10.11 El Capitan bootable USB drive, there are a few essentials that need to be taken care of. First and foremost, you’ll need to have a spare USB flash drive that offers a minimum 8 GB capacity.
At this year's WWDC, Apple announced the next iteration of OS X, version 10.11. Dubbed ' after the famous landmass in Yosemite National Park, this version of OS X builds upon the roots established in 10.10 'Yosemite' to bring about.
A week ago, El Capitan was made available in a public beta for those wishing to try out Cupertino's latest and greatest OS simply by signing up for Appleseed,. The update is free to use and, just like previously released OS X versions, straightforward to install. However, being in beta means that it's still not quite ready for primetime and will likely not play nice with a host of untested (and, in some cases, unsupported) applications. Though your mileage may vary, it's not recommended at all to install this on a production or mission-critical system.
With that warning out of the way, let's check out the requirements necessary to build a bootable installer drive for installing OS X El Capitan:. Apple computer with OS X 10.9+. Administrative credentials. 8 GB USB flash drive or SD card minimum. OS X El Capitan Public Beta Installer (Mac App Store) Now, here are the steps:. Mount the USB drive or SD card on the computer and take note of the volume name assigned.
Launch Terminal.app from the Applications Utilities folder and enter the following command ( Figure A): sudo /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan Public Beta.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia —volume /Volumes/DRIVELABEL —applicationpath /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan Public Beta.app —nointeraction Figure A. When prompted, enter the admin password to execute the process ( Figure B). Figure B. The partition is erased and the installer files are copied to the drive ( Figure C).
Figure C. The drive will be made bootable and the boot files transferred over as well ( Figure D).
Figure D. Upon completion (and barring any fatal errors), the drive will be ready to. It's best to verify that the files were written to the drive by opening the partition and checking ( Figure E). Figure E That's it! Installing El Capitan for testing purposes is a great way to get the experience of what changes the new OS brings, see how that impacts existing applications and settings, and discover how well it plays in the enterprise. Another word of warning, being a beta product means that the software will not play nice in some instances, particularly when flagging errors. Some turn out to be false positives, while others are the fault of non-optimized code.
Either way, your mileage may vary. Also see. Related Topics.