How do I create a bootable version of OS from one machine on and external disc that can be booted from

Question

How do I create a bootable version of OS from one machine on and external disc that can be booted from

I have one Macbook Pro with Yosemite installed. I have another Macbook pro with High Sierra

installed.

I want to copy the Yosemite system to an external drive so I can connect it to the machine

with High Sierra and be able to boot the Yosemite system using start up disc preferences.

First: hardware/software compatibility. Will these two systems run on the same hardware?

Second: how exactly would I do this?

I am thinking of creating a disc image of the Yosemite system and placing the disc image on an

external drive. But I don't understand what exactly is needed. Can another machine boot from

the disc image? Naturally, the external drive would be formatted for Mac; jurnaled extended

or what ever is appropriate.

Thank you for time and attention

JK

MacBook Pro

Posted on Oct 1, 2019 12:10 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 1, 2019 2:07 PM in response to anotherJeff273

Again without knowing the specific model of MacBook Pro that is currently running High Sierra we cannot check to see if it is compatible with Yosemite.

However if the High Sierra Mac previously at some point did run Yosemite then it will still be able to. As such connecting the drive externally as you describe should work.

I can now see that due to the hardware problem Target Disk Mode will not be possible.

An additional thing that would be possible if you chose to do it is the following.

Connect the Yosemite drive via a USB enclosure to the working Mac but do not boot from it yet
Run the High Sierra installer on the working Mac and tell it to install on to the external USB drive, this will upgrade the Yosemite on it to High Sierra but not change any data on it
It will then definitely be bootable on the working Mac

If you can tell us the specific model number of the working Mac we can check whether it is compatible with Yosemite.

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Oct 1, 2019 4:45 PM in response to anotherJeff273

MBP 8,2 can boot from Yosemite...

Pre-Installed MacOS:X 10.7.2 (11C74)Maximum MacOS:X 10.13.x*

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/specs/macbook-pro-core-i7-2.2-15-mid-2018-true-tone-display-touch-bar-specs.html

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Answer 3

Oct 1, 2019 10:33 AM in response to John Lockwood

The machine with Yosemite:

Macbook Pro 15" ca late 2008 - early 2009 (removable battery)

Purchased used from a private party with Yosemite installed

It originally had 10.6x

Model Name: MacBook Pro

Model Identifier: MacBookPro5,1

Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo

Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 2

L2 Cache: 3 MB

Memory: 4 GB

Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz

Boot ROM Version: MBP51.007E.B06

SMC Version (system): 1.33f8

The machine with High Sierra:

Macbook Pro 15" ca 2011 purchased used from Best Buy just this year.

It originally came (to me) with Sierra installed. I upgraded it to High Sierra.

My guess that new it had 10.8x (?)

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook Pro

Model Identifier: MacBookPro8,2

Processor Name: Intel Core i7

Processor Speed: 2.2 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 4

L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

L3 Cache: 6 MB

Memory: 8 GB

Boot ROM Version: 87.0.0.0.0

SMC Version (system): 1.69f3

I like the idea of "cloning" the Yosemite system and putting

it on an external disc. But I am assuming "cloning" just means

attaching an external disc and copying the system represented

by the hard disc icon I have showing on my desktop to the external

drive. I would first format the external drive for Mac: extended jurnaled

or ?

The reason for this is that the Macbook with Yosemite has developed

a serious display issue that I have attempted to correct in the past and

was successful. But the issue has recently reoccurred and the the fix

that was successful the first time is not working now. The system has

some software that I want to preserve and be able to use.

Thank you for all response to this point

JK

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Answer 4

Oct 1, 2019 1:50 PM in response to anotherJeff273

There is a new issue: the machine with Yosemite will not boot at all.

I have been posting to iFixit forums as well about this machine and

its issues and had been directed to how to start the machine by

shorting some power points on the logic board. But that did not

start the machine this time (it did once before).

So now my next step is to take the hard drive out and put it in

a USB adapter case and plug in into another Mac with the USB

cable from the case.

The question becomes: can I boot from that drive on the machine

that now has High Sierra?

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Answer 5

Oct 1, 2019 3:26 PM in response to John Lockwood

I posted the info for High Sierra Mac from About this mac in previous reply.

There is a specific reason why I want to preserve the Yosemite system.

But maybe my concern is not well enough informed:

The versions of iTunes after Yosemite are charging monthly subscription

fees for limited collections of links to radio station streams. I only listen to

listener supported radio stations, and a small group at that. But the stations

can be in different collections offered by iTunes. I don't appreciate having to

pay for radio stations that I also often contribute to.

So I am assuming that if I upgrade the Yosemite system to High Sierra,

I will have the newer version of iTunes to contend with.

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Answer 6

Oct 1, 2019 7:45 PM in response to BDAqua

Thank you. That is encouraging news. I just ordered a USB adapter case for the

hard drive.

I also have hundreds of bookmarks embedded in my browser, Firefox, which

I would like to export and import into another installation of Firefox.

Thank you for your time and attention

Jeff K

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Answer 7

Oct 4, 2019 12:22 PM in response to BDAqua

Success! I got the USB case I ordered for the Yosemite system hard drive

and mounted the drive in the case, hooked it up to the machine with

High Sierra. I initially had the High Sierra system boot. I could retrieve

some files and folders from the Yosemite system. Then I used System

Preferences to change the startup disc to the Yosemite drive. I restarted

but instead of restarting it just idled with a blank screen. So I used the power

button to shut it off. Then I pressed it again to start. This time it started and

booted with no complaints. I was able to run a few key applications; Firefox

to export bookmarks and iTunes.

Thank you for time and attention with this issue.

JK

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Answer 8

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Oct 2, 2019 8:23 AM in response to anotherJeff273

OK, good luck, do let us know the outcome. :)

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Answer 9

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Oct 4, 2019 1:35 PM in response to anotherJeff273

Good news, great work, thanks for the report. :)

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Answer 10

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,656 points

Oct 1, 2019 1:25 AM in response to anotherJeff273

First. thing to know is that a Mac that was bought new with a newer OS than Yosemite will not be able to boot a disk with Yosemite installed on it. So if your MacBook Pro that has High Sierra on it at the moment came preinstalled with El Capitan, Sierra or High Sierra it will not be able to boot your Yosemite installed external disk.

If your MacBook Pro is old enough to boot the Yosemite external drive then beware that any OS prior to macOS 10.12 Sierra cannot see an macOS that uses the APFS file system so you will not see your High Sierra disk in the System Preferences> Startup disk on the Yosemite external drive. To get around this you need to Restart your Mac and press and hold the option/ alt key until you see the Startup/ Boot Manager, this will display all the disks attached to your Mac, select the High Sierra disk and press the Return key to boot back to your High Sierra disk.

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Answer 11

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,656 points

Oct 1, 2019 1:46 AM in response to anotherJeff273

Sorry reposting again my addition to my first post could not be posted for some reason, so try again.

First thing to know is that a Mac that was bought new with a newer OS than Yosemite will not be able to boot a disk with Yosemite installed on it. So if your MacBook Pro that has High Sierra on it at the moment came preinstalled with El Capitan, Sierra or High Sierra it will not be able to boot your Yosemite installed external disk.

If your MacBook Pro is old enough to boot the Yosemite external drive then beware that any OS prior to macOS 10.12 Sierra cannot see an macOS that uses the APFS file system so you will not see your High Sierra disk in the System Preferences> Startup disk on the Yosemite external drive. To get around this you need to Restart your Mac and press and hold the option/ alt key until you see the Startup/ Boot Manager, this will display all the disks attached to your Mac, select the High Sierra disk and press the Return key to boot back to your High Sierra disk.

If you still want to install Yosemite on your external disk then open the App Store and sign in with your AppleID, open the Purchased section, is Yosemite there, is it available for download. If it is go ahead. Once downloaded it will be located in your Applications folder. Now you need to make a bootable USB using these instructions from Apple, How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support please make sure you follow the instructions for Yosemite.

After you have created the bootable USB restart your Mac to boot to the USB, you should be able to see it in System Preferences> Startup Disk or use the method above to invoke Startup Manager.

Now that the USB has booted up you should be able to install Yosemite on the external disk, just make sure to point the installer to your external disk when it asks you to. It should display the disks available for install or you may see 'Show All Disks'. When the install completes you will be asked if you want to use Migration Assistant to migrate settings and files to the internal disk. in your case I would allow Migration Assistant to migrate your Apps and files but not the System files (you have just installed a new system on it) or network settings (you can do that on you the MBP you want to use this external for).

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Answer 12

Oct 1, 2019 2:12 AM in response to anotherJeff273

We would need to know the exact models of MacBook each is to be able to correctly answer this. The easiest way to check this is to on each MacBook go to the Apple Menu, select 'About this Macintosh' and then click on 'System Report'.

The System Report program will then open and default to selecting the Hardware line and this will show details about each MacBook including the specific model number e.g. MacBookPro14,3

This will let us check the oldest and newest versions of Mac operating system each can run. It will also indicate what connections each has as well.

Assuming the MacBook you want to copy Yosemite to is also compatible with Yosemite there will be various ways we could do this.

If you have a copy of the Yosemite installer you could plug an external drive in to the original Mac and 'install' on to the external drive
You could 'clone' the entire contents of the original Mac on to the external drive
If you have the Yosemite installer you could create a bootable USB installer from it and run this on the second Mac - this is a technically better approach than option 1
You could use 'Target Disk Mode' to directly install on to the drive of the second Mac

If you don't have a copy of the Yosemite installer then you may be stuck as Apple do not seem to provide a copy of it anymore unlike High Sierra.

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How do I create a bootable version of OS from one machine on and external disc that can be booted from

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