Bootable installer

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Bootable installer

Before I install Catalina I want to make a bootable installer on a USB drive. I have a 32 GB drive with High Sierra and Mojave installers. The drive is about equally split between the two installers, although each one is about 6 or 7 GB in size. So there is plenty of room for the third installer. The terminal command to make the installer will erase the drive. Can I use Disk Utility to partition the drive into thirds, without erasing either of the bootable installers? And then will the terminal command point to the empty partition?

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Catalina.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled -- /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Catalina.app

Or should Untitled be named something else?

Posted on Oct 17, 2019 4:42 PM

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Answer 1

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babowa

Level 9

78,441 points

Oct 17, 2019 5:58 PM in response to DesertRatR

This is not my preferred area of expertise, but I can pretty much assure you that it will not work the way it shows because the Catalina installer is more then 8 GB. and you can only resize/add/change the last partition at the end (i think) which means you cannot connect the two empty partitions without having to erase the whole thing. Better get some confirmation on that.

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Answer 2

DesertRatR Author

Level 2

182 points

Oct 17, 2019 5:24 PM in response to DesertRatR

I've got it partitioned as shown below. Is there any way to move the data in Install macOS High Sierra to one of the untitled partitions, delete it from where it was, and then combine what is left into a single third partition?

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Answer 3

DesertRatR Author

Level 2

182 points

Oct 17, 2019 9:49 PM in response to babowa

I have a bootable clone of my entire Mojave system. Once Catalina is up and stable I'll do the same.

I the mean time I've got my three bootable installers.

Need to put a faster USB drive on my wish list. Kids always want to get dad something.

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Answer 4

DonH49

Level 6

16,710 points

Oct 17, 2019 5:11 PM in response to DesertRatR

it should only point to untitled

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Answer 5

DesertRatR Author

Level 2

182 points

Oct 17, 2019 7:59 PM in response to babowa

Yes installer can not span two two partitions. I've got all three installers, so the easiest thing to do is format the drive and partition into thirds. Then use creatienstallmedia three times.

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Answer 6

babowa

Level 9

78,441 points

Oct 17, 2019 8:12 PM in response to DesertRatR

Personally, I prefer a combination of bootable clones on externals along with copies of the actual installer app.

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Bootable installer

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