How to Create macOS Bootable USB Drive Using Terminal

Okay, to complete Hackintosh tutorials series, Digimanx will also write the article about how to create macOS bootable USB drive using Terminal command. It will be useful, both for real Mac users neither for ‘hackintosher.’

It’s very easy actually, you can also found this tutorial on the official Apple site. But here, we try to make it more specifics and ‘easy to follow guide’

Before we start, make sure you have download the macOS installer  App from official App Store. If you download it from other source make sure it still ‘untouched’

And you need a USB flash drive, 8GB is enough for creating a bootable USB installer for macOS Sierra and High Sierra.

[Note!] If you want to create the installer for El Capitan you will need a 16GB USB stick.

Okay, below is guide how to do it by yourself

Using Terminal to create macOS usb bootable drive

If there were no important files inside your USB flash drive, you now can safely plug it to your Mac (or hackintosh) and follow the tutorials below.

• Go to Application > Utilities and Open Terminal app
• It’s really important! make sure the macOS Installer App is in the Application folder. If you download it from other sources, move it to the Application folder.
• To make it easy copy and paste the code below to Terminal. Choose one that’s matching with what macOS version you want to make a USB bootable drive. In the code below, find and replace “MyVolume” with the name of your USB drives name.

Catalina:

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Catalina.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume

Mojave:

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume

High Sierra:

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app

Sierra:

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app

El Capitan:

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app

Yosemite:

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app

Mavericks:

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app

Simply press “Return” to execute.

Press ‘Enter’ if you are working on ‘Hackintosh computer’ and using the standard PC keyboard.

Next, you’ll be asked for th Administrator password, type your admin password and press ‘Return’ or ‘Enter’ again.

One more Tim, you’ll be asked to confirm the action, just type [Y] to confirm it.

The process will take a few minutes to complete. Press the ⌘ and Q in the same times to quit Terminal.

For a Hackintosh computer that using standard keyboard press Alt and Q in the same times to quit Terminal.

You now can move the macOS Installer app to other storage.

Using Usb bootable to install macOS for real Mac user and hackintosher

For Mac user:

For Mac user your USB bootable now ready for installing fresh macOS system. To use the bootable installer on Mac, connect the volume containing the bootable installer to your Mac. Use Startup Disk preferences or Startup Manager to select USB volume as the startup disk.

Your Mac will start from USB installer. Follow the onscreen instructions to install macOS. If your Mac won’t start from the USB bootable you can read the guide how to deal with it in the official Apple site here support.apple.com

For Hackintosher:

For hackintosher you don’t finish yet! to make the macOS USB bootable drive works you need to install a bootloader on it. You can read the tutorials about how to that here How to Make Mac OS Sierra Bootable Usb Drive With Disk Utility

If you wanna learn how to make USB bootable drive from Windows you can follow the guide here How to Make Hackintosh Bootable USB Drive From Windows

Okay! this it, I hope this post useful for you, a Mac user and Hackintosher 🙂