Paste that entire command line from below at the Terminal's prompt. Choose the appropriate command line in red depending upon what OS X installer you want. Open the Terminal in the Utilities' folder. Simply replace the Terminal command with the one from the preceding article by copying it into the Terminal window.
Second, see this How To outline for creating a bootable El Capitan installer. First, review this introductory article: Create a bootable installer for macOS. How do I get the installer into Applications? Opening the dmg places what looks like an installer on my desktop which I cannot move into Applications and upon clicking it opens a finder window with a. Many sites say I have to go into Applications and find the installer, which is not there. I'm trying to create a bootable drive from the El Capitan disk image I was able to download, I've found many articles on how to do so but the instructions are not compatible with what I have on my computer. More from Lifewire.To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question. You can also use it as a bootable troubleshooting tool that includes an assortment of apps, including Disk Utility and Terminal.
You can use this bootable installer to perform any of the supported installation types, including an upgrade install or a clean install. Once Terminal completes the command, it will display the line Doneand then show the Terminal prompt waiting for a new command to be entered. How to Create a OS X El Capitan Boot Installer USB Flash Drive You may want to consider taking a break and stretching your legs. The terminal will execute the createinstallmedia command and display the status as the process unfolds. Enter the password, and press return or enter. You'll be asked to provide an administrator password. The following command will completely erase the flash drive named elcapitaninstaller. If you used the drive name suggested above, you can triple-click on one of the words in the command to select the entire line of text. The command is a single line of text, though your web browser may show it displayed over several lines. In the Terminal window that opens, enter the following command. If you do select a different name, you'll need to modify the Terminal command we outline below with the flash drive name you selected. You can use any name you wish, but it shouldn't have any spaces or special characters. We suggest calling the drive elcapitaninstaller. Give the flash drive an appropriate name. If it isn't, flip back to of this guide for details about re-downloading the app from the store. Still, it's the easiest way to create the bootable installer, so let's get started.
It's not much of a secret, especially since we have used this method in the past to create bootable installers for previous versions of OS X.īut since it involves using Terminaland entering a long command with quite a few arguments that need to be provided, it remains mostly unused, if not completely ignored, by many day-to-day Mac users. The process of creating the bootable OS X El Capitan installer causes the USB flash drive you're using as the destination for the installer to be erased. We assume you're using a USB flash drive, but any bootable device will work, including an external drive or internal drive. These instructions will also work for other suitable bootable devices. If you have already installed OS X El Capitan, and wish to now create a bootable installer, you can force the Mac App Store to re-download the installer. If you allow the installer to actually perform an installation, the installer will delete itself at the end of the process.
When it does, be sure to quit the installer.
Once the download is complete, the installer will start automatically. There's also a second method, and it's the method we prefer because it's less involved, has fewer places where things can go wrong, and only involves using a single app: Terminal.ĭownload the installer from the Mac App Store. The older process outlined in the Yosemite document will work for El Capitan you need only be aware of file name changes, such as El Capitan instead of Yosemite in the instructions. There are two methods of creating the bootable installer one involves using Disk Utilitythe Finder, hidden filesand a great deal of effort and time. But even if this is your goal, it's not too likely that you're actually ready to start the install process. This would be fine if all you wanted to do was quickly install El Capitan as an upgrade install over your existing version of OS X. Like previous versions of OS X, El Capitan has the annoying habit of automatically starting the installation process once the download is complete.