How To Create OS X El Capitan Bootable USB Flash Driveīefore we begin, make sure that you have a 16GB (at least) USB flash drive at hand, although 8GB will do as well. In this guide, we'll walk you through the entire process on how you can create a bootable OS X El Capitan USB flash drive in no time. OS X El Capitan is finally here, and if you're looking to install Apple's new desktop OS fresh from the ground up, then you'll be needing a bootable USB flash drive to get started with the process.

You can format the drive and then go back to the Recovery menu and install macOS Monterey.Here's how you can create a Mac OS X El Capitan bootable USB flash drive. If you want to erase your disk first, to do a clean install, quit the installer and run Disk Utility from the Recovery menu. After selecting it, your system will boot off your USB drive and enter macOS Recovery with the macOS Monterey installer appearing on your screen. You should now see an option to select your USB drive as a startup disk. To boot an M1 or M2 Apple silicon Mac using a bootable USB disk, power on the system or restart it if it’s already on, and keep the Power button pressed down. Power on the system, or restart it if it’s already on, and immediately press and hold the Option key when it starts booting.

Simply plug your created USB drive into an open USB port on your Mac. There are two different methods to boot your Mac from a bootable USB, depending on which processor your Mac has. You can use Time Machine to easily back up the data on your Mac. This almost always results in a Mac running faster after a clean install, since macOS has started over with a clean slate.īefore you reinstall macOS on your Mac, make sure you’ve backed up all your important data! This is crucial when you do a fresh installation, as it will wipe your hard drive. A clean installation allows you to get rid of junk apps and files that may have accumulated over time. These issues include when your Mac refuses to boot or when you need to recover system files that seem to be lost.Īnother benefit of using a bootable disk for a macOS installation is that you can perform a clean installation. You can also use the built-in recovery tools that come with the macOS installer to troubleshoot and fix different kinds of issues.

This can save quite a bit of time, considering the most recent versions of macOS have an installer size of 12GB. Why Would You Need to Install macOS From a USB?Ĭreating a bootable USB drive and using it to reinstall macOS is a bit of a lengthier process compared to simply updating macOS from the Software Update section of the System Preferences, but it has its benefits.īut creating a bootable USB disk allows you to install or update macOS on multiple systems without having to download the installer on each Mac.

Create bootable usb mac os x el capitan