El Capitan Usb Install

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All you need is an 8 GB (minimum) USB thumb drive, a USB, FireWire, or Thunderbolt drive or an SD-Card; the OS X 10.11 El Capitan Installer from the App Store (once the download is complete the installer file will appear in the Applications folder — do not move it); and the DiskMaker X installer. It should be noted that DiskMaker X erases the. How to create an El Capitan USB install disk. Step 1: Download El Capitan from the Mac App Store. If you’re a developer, you can redeem a download code to use via the Apple developer center. If you’re a part of Apple’s public beta program, you can likewise redeem a code for the El Capitan GM via Apple’s beta website. Once El Capitan is. How to Create Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 USB Installer for PC /LaptopIn this tutorial, I will show you how to create Mac OS X El capitan 10.11.6 bootable US. All you need to perform the installation is a spare 8GB or larger USB thumb drive, an external drive to back up all your data to (if you have any), and a copy of OS X 10.11 El Capitan. OS X 10.11 El Capitan can be downloaded from the Mac App Store. El Capitan Installer. Mac operating system’s twelfth major version is the El Capitan Installer (version 10.11). All the Mac computers which don’t have the privilege to upgrade to MacOS High Sierra or the computers that need to upgrade to El Capitan first, can download this twelfth version on the computer.

These advanced steps are primarily for system administrators and others who are familiar with the command line. You don't need a bootable installer to upgrade macOS or reinstall macOS, but it can be useful when you want to install on multiple computers without downloading the installer each time.

What you need to create a bootable installer

  • A USB flash drive or other secondary volume formatted as Mac OS Extended, with at least 14GB of available storage
  • A downloaded installer for macOS Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra, or El Capitan

Download macOS

  • Download: macOS Big Sur, macOS Catalina, macOS Mojave, or macOS High Sierra
    These download to your Applications folder as an app named Install macOS [version name]. If the installer opens after downloading, quit it without continuing installation. To get the correct installer, download from a Mac that is using macOS Sierra 10.12.5 or later, or El Capitan 10.11.6. Enterprise administrators, please download from Apple, not a locally hosted software-update server.
  • Download: OS X El Capitan
    This downloads as a disk image named InstallMacOSX.dmg. On a Mac that is compatible with El Capitan, open the disk image and run the installer within, named InstallMacOSX.pkg. It installs an app named Install OS X El Capitan into your Applications folder. You will create the bootable installer from this app, not from the disk image or .pkg installer.

Use the 'createinstallmedia' command in Terminal

El capitan usb installer
  1. Connect the USB flash drive or other volume that you're using for the bootable installer.
  2. Open Terminal, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
  3. Type or paste one of the following commands in Terminal. These assume that the installer is in your Applications folder, and MyVolume is the name of the USB flash drive or other volume you're using. If it has a different name, replace MyVolume in these commands with the name of your volume.
El capitan usb installer

Big Sur:*

Catalina:*

Mojave:*

High Sierra:*

El Capitan:

* If your Mac is using macOS Sierra or earlier, include the --applicationpath argument and installer path, similar to the way this is done in the command for El Capitan.


After typing the command:

  1. Press Return to enter the command.
  2. When prompted, type your administrator password and press Return again. Terminal doesn't show any characters as you type your password.
  3. When prompted, type Y to confirm that you want to erase the volume, then press Return. Terminal shows the progress as the volume is erased.
  4. After the volume is erased, you may see an alert that Terminal would like to access files on a removable volume. Click OK to allow the copy to proceed.
  5. When Terminal says that it's done, the volume will have the same name as the installer you downloaded, such as Install macOS Big Sur. You can now quit Terminal and eject the volume.

Use the bootable installer

Determine whether you're using a Mac with Apple silicon, then follow the appropriate steps:

Apple silicon

  1. Plug the bootable installer into a Mac that is connected to the internet and compatible with the version of macOS you're installing.
  2. Turn on your Mac and continue to hold the power button until you see the startup options window, which shows your bootable volumes.
  3. Select the volume containing the bootable installer, then click Continue.
  4. When the macOS installer opens, follow the onscreen instructions.
Create el capitan usb installer

Intel processor

  1. Plug the bootable installer into a Mac that is connected to the internet and compatible with the version of macOS you're installing.
  2. Press and hold the Option (Alt) ⌥ key immediately after turning on or restarting your Mac.
  3. Release the Option key when you see a dark screen showing your bootable volumes.
  4. Select the volume containing the bootable installer. Then click the up arrow or press Return.
    If you can't start up from the bootable installer, make sure that the External Boot setting in Startup Security Utility is set to allow booting from external media.
  5. Choose your language, if prompted.
  6. Select Install macOS (or Install OS X) from the Utilities window, then click Continue and follow the onscreen instructions.

Learn more

A bootable installer doesn't download macOS from the internet, but it does require an internet connection to get firmware and other information specific to the Mac model.

For information about the createinstallmedia command and the arguments you can use with it, make sure that the macOS installer is in your Applications folder, then enter the appropriate path in Terminal:

Bootable USB Installers for OS X Mavericks, Yosemite, El Capitan, and Sierra


First, review this introductory article: Create a bootable installer for macOS. Second, see this How To outline for creating a bootable El Capitan installer. Simply replace the Terminal command with the one from the preceding article by copying it into the Terminal window. You will need an 8GB or larger USB flash drive that has been partitioned and formatted for use with OS X.


Drive Partition and Format

  1. Open Disk Utility in the Utilities' folder.
  2. After Disk Utility loads select the drive (out-dented entry with the mfg.'s ID and size) from the side list.
  3. Click on the Erase tab in the Disk Utility toolbar. Name the drive, 'MyVolume'. <---- IMPORTANT!
  4. In the drop down panel set the partition scheme to GUID. Set the Format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)
  5. Click on the Apply button and wait for the Done button to activate. When it does click on it.
  6. Quit Disk Utility.


Create Installer

Open the Terminal in the Utilities' folder. Choose the appropriate command line (in red) depending upon what OS X installer you want. Paste that entire command line from below at the Terminal's prompt:


Command for macOS High Sierra:

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

El Capitan Usb Install

Command for macOS Sierra:

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

Command for El Capitan:

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

Os X El Capitan Usb Installer From Windows

Command for Yosemite:

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

Reinstall Mac Os El Capitan

Command for Mavericks:

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


Press RETURN. You will be asked for your admin password. It will not echo to the Terminal window. Then press RETURN again. Wait for the return of the Terminal prompt signifying the process has completed. It takes quite some time to finish. Be patient.

Sep 13, 2018 1:16 PM