rockm4n

Q: Bootable USB drive with Yosemite

Hi there

 

I've just got myself a new Macbook Pro and since there is an update to the Captain availaible I wanted to know whether it is still possible to create a bootable USB drive with Yosemite, which I got preinstalled on the machine. I wanted to have it in case there was trouble with El Captain, because I've heard some users may struggle with it.
I know it was very easy when Yosemite was still possible to download from the App Store but now there's only the Captain.

 

I am a completely new Mac user and I hope that it's possible to do that.

If it is - How do I do that then?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Oct 16, 2015 10:04 AM

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Q: Bootable USB drive with Yosemite

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  • by FatMac>MacPro,Helpful

    FatMac>MacPro FatMac>MacPro Oct 16, 2015 3:57 PM in response to rockm4n
    Level 5 (4,883 points)
    Oct 16, 2015 3:57 PM in response to rockm4n

    First you need to give the USB drive a Mac compatible format since it's probably set up for Windows. Open Disk Utility (in the Utilities folder), select the USB drive, click the partitions tab and create one new partition. At the bottom of the window, click the Options button and select GUID as the partition table. Then format the USB drive Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Next, reboot with Cmd+R keys down at the chime. You'll be entering Recovery mode. One of the options is to install OS X (since you're using Yosemite now, that's what should be installed), and you can select the USB drive as the target. After the installation is complete the USB drive should be bootable. If you're referring to a USB Flash drive, pick one with sufficient space to allow adding other utilities and/or OS X installers.

  • by leroydouglas,

    leroydouglas leroydouglas Oct 16, 2015 11:16 AM in response to rockm4n
    Level 7 (24,093 points)
    Notebooks
    Oct 16, 2015 11:16 AM in response to rockm4n

    Your would be wise to have a bootable clone of your hd/ssd

     

    in this way you can easily fall back,  or boot off the external drive independent of having a Yosemite Installer. This would also allow you to sort through any problems with the El Cap install.

  • by rockm4n,

    rockm4n rockm4n Oct 16, 2015 4:05 PM in response to FatMac>MacPro
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 16, 2015 4:05 PM in response to FatMac>MacPro

    Thanks a lot.
    I knew about formatting the drive to Mac Os Extended (Journaled), because I've just made myself a drive with El Capitan but still I want do to this with Yosemite too.


    Would the flash drive be capable of installing Yosemite on my computer again? Because that's mainly what I want to archieve.

  • by FatMac>MacPro,Solvedanswer

    FatMac>MacPro FatMac>MacPro Oct 17, 2015 2:56 AM in response to rockm4n
    Level 5 (4,883 points)
    Oct 17, 2015 2:56 AM in response to rockm4n

    rockm4n wrote:

     

    ...Would the flash drive be capable of installing Yosemite on my computer again? Because that's mainly what I want to archieve.

    If you download the Yosemite installer again, you could save it on the Flash drive and make the internal drive the target. Done that way, the installer shouldn't delete itself when it's done. Indeed, that's one of the reasons I routinely create a bootable Flash drive because it not only makes troubleshooting a lot easier but allows a totally fresh installation on internal drives after it's completely wiped.

     

    However, you may not be able to download Yosemite since it came on your Mac rather than having been upgraded to it. Under those circumstances, you could boot into the Recovery partition on the Flash drive (Option key down at the chime and pick Recovery associated with the Flash drive, not the internal). The OS X  version you'd be able to install would be what's installed on the Flash drive.

  • by BobHarris,

    BobHarris BobHarris Oct 16, 2015 7:22 PM in response to rockm4n
    Level 6 (19,662 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 16, 2015 7:22 PM in response to rockm4n

    What I have done when getting a new system is, to get a USB Thumb drive that is large enough to hold all that code and data that is shipped with the Mac.

     

    I then use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to clone the Mac to the USB Thumb drive.  I now have everything that came with the Mac on a bootable USB Thumb drive.

     

    If I need go back to that OS, I can backup my disk, the restore the USB Thumb drive, and use Migration Assistant to move my data from the back to the restored original system (or I can just drag and drop select files).  Of course I have never actually needed to do that, but I've had the option.

     

    I also always download a copy of every Major release and keep the installer "Just In Case".  This way I can download it again from App Store -> Purchases or I can use the saved installer.

  • by rockm4n,

    rockm4n rockm4n Oct 17, 2015 3:04 AM in response to FatMac>MacPro
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 17, 2015 3:04 AM in response to FatMac>MacPro

    So how big flash drive should I get? Would 16 gigabytes be enough? I think I should fall for 32 GB one.

  • by rockm4n,

    rockm4n rockm4n Oct 17, 2015 5:06 AM in response to rockm4n
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 17, 2015 5:06 AM in response to rockm4n
  • by FatMac>MacPro,

    FatMac>MacPro FatMac>MacPro Oct 17, 2015 8:40 AM in response to rockm4n
    Level 5 (4,883 points)
    Oct 17, 2015 8:40 AM in response to rockm4n

    rockm4n wrote:

     

    I've came across How to install OS X on an external drive connected to your Mac - Apple Support
    They wrote that 8GB one will do.

    8GB would hold the OS but virtually nothing else. Consider that the El Cap installer is over 6GB and the final Yosemite installer is 5.73GB. Best Buy is selling 32GB USB 3.0 Flash drives (SKU 9211069) for $12.99 so I'd suggest going larger than 8GB.

  • by rockm4n,

    rockm4n rockm4n Oct 18, 2015 8:58 AM in response to rockm4n
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 18, 2015 8:58 AM in response to rockm4n

    Okay
    Thank You very much!