I want to install OSX 10.9 Mavericks onto an external drive so I can use the old iMovie HD. I have tried from the downloaded installer that I saved, but I have tried 2 different copies of the installer on 3 different machines and every time, just after it starts the install, it says it "can't verify" the installer, it might be corrupt.
Is there something I'm missing here?
iMac with Retina 5K display, 10.14
An Apple signing certificate expired a while back, so you may want to re-download the Mavericks install kit from your previous purchases in the Mac App Store. if you’ve not already tried that. If you have downloaded a new kit and that (also) fails to install, then check the system time is correct, and disable any anti-virus, anti-malware, network-monitoring, xleaners, optimizers or related add-in packages, and—if all that fails—see whether a different system can install macOS.
An Apple signing certificate expired a while back, so you may want to re-download the Mavericks install kit from your previous purchases in the Mac App Store. if you’ve not already tried that. If you have downloaded a new kit and that (also) fails to install, then check the system time is correct, and disable any anti-virus, anti-malware, network-monitoring, xleaners, optimizers or related add-in packages, and—if all that fails—see whether a different system can install macOS.
I did try to download a new copy of the installer, but it seem to be no longer available.
I tried it on 3 different iMacs, all running different OSes, and got the same error message every time.
Any other ideas?
I have a machine currently running 10.9, is there a way to create a bootable external drive from that?
Yes. Clone the disk and boot it. Carbon CopymCloner is the nicest and most flexible approach to that end, but using Disk Utility for disk-to-disk copying from a bootable USB device, or using Disk Urility from the Recovery partition, or using Target Disk Mode from another Mac can also get you a complete copy. Having wrestled with DU here a few times, CCC is easier. There was a free CCC trial available too, when last I checked.
Poking around, it appears that Apple has removed the Mavericks download, which means most folks will be using High Sierra.
iMovie HD support apparently officially topped out at OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, according to the always-and-ever-correct Wikipedia article.
Thanks, I'll give CCC a try.
iMovie HD can run up to OSX 10.10
I keep 10.9 on a partition on my previous iMac, just so I can open old iMovie HD projects, or if I need to create a movie with chapter markers, which the newer iMovie can't do.
No, it's not corrupt. It's that the Mavericks installer only worked for a limited time and now fails at the "verify" stage.
The clone idea is a good one and should work fine. The alternative is more complicated and involves making a new version of the installer using the InstallESD.dmg file (which is the actual OS within the installer) which is within your original installer.
I found out the hard way. I installed Mavericks successfully on an external drive using the original installer. However, a couple of years later I tried to upgrade Snow Leopard to 10.9 "in place" on my iMac and it wouldn't then work. I had to use the original installer's InstallESD.dmg to create a new installer on a USB stick, and since have used that successfully a few times, to install Mavericks.
One workaround for Mavericks installers is to temporarily set your Date & Time System Preference to an earlier date, like January 2015. You should be able to run the installer.
Thanks for the help everyone.
I went to the App Store on an older iMac, running an older OS, and it let me download a current Mavericks installer that works!
install OSX 10.9 onto external drive?
