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How to create a bootable USB for High Sierra using a Mac with Monterey?

Hi,

I have an old Mac which is running High Sierra and I have completed a full erase, ready for sale. Unfortunately I changed the volume format during erase from macOS journaled to APFS and so now I get an error that it cannot create a bootable drive when I reinstall macOS. I understand the solution is to create a bootable USB and reinstall High Sierra using the USB. However I am unable to create the USB on my Monterey MacBook Air. The terminal command provided by Apple support will not allow me to download High Sierra on Monterey. I get this error:


sudo: /Applications/Install macOS High Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia: command not found


Is there a way I can create the bootable USB for High Sierra on my Monterey based MacBook Air?

iMac 27″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Jun 27, 2022 4:29 PM

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Posted on Jun 28, 2022 2:54 PM

Yes that's correct, however you can't do this if you've already formatted the drive for APFS. The other format options are removed from the list of options. To get around this you first have to "Delete APFS volume..." from the main menu.


I did this and was then able to reformat as macOS journalled. I tried to reinstall macOS at which point the computer thought I was installing Lion. The install failed, and when I tried it again it correctly selected High Sierra macOS.


High Sierra then installed successfully and the computer is now back to normal. :)


The video above shows the step by step process which I followed.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 28, 2022 2:54 PM in response to PRP_53

Yes that's correct, however you can't do this if you've already formatted the drive for APFS. The other format options are removed from the list of options. To get around this you first have to "Delete APFS volume..." from the main menu.


I did this and was then able to reformat as macOS journalled. I tried to reinstall macOS at which point the computer thought I was installing Lion. The install failed, and when I tried it again it correctly selected High Sierra macOS.


High Sierra then installed successfully and the computer is now back to normal. :)


The video above shows the step by step process which I followed.

Jun 27, 2022 8:04 PM in response to BDAqua

Yes but once you have formatted a disk as APFS you can't then install High Sierra, or go back and reformat it as MacOS Journaled. The options aren't there in Disk Utility.

However I may have just found the solution thanks to this guy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuGGWVT39-U


He describes the exact issue I've had, and I've been able to delete the APFS volume and then restore the container partition as Journaled format. So I'm now hoping that I can now reinstall Mac OS High Sierra directly without the USB installer.

Jun 28, 2022 7:10 AM in response to Jamie Crain

One may be able to Reboot to Internet Recovery Mode >>> Option + Command + r


If so, the Spinning Globe would appear connecting to the Apple Servers.


There after >>


It will present options >> Disk Utilities >> View >> View ALL attached Drives. 


4 - Choose the Upper Most Drive ( not the volumes indented and list below ).


5 - Formatting for macOS 10.13 High Sierra and below requires HFS Journaled with the GUID Partition Map

Jun 29, 2022 1:45 PM in response to Jamie Crain

Jamie Crain wrote:

Yes that's correct, however you can't do this if you've already formatted the drive for APFS. The other format options are removed from the list of options. To get around this you first have to "Delete APFS volume..." from the main menu.

If you follow @P. Phillips instructions to "Show All Devices" within Disk Utility and erase the whole physical drive, then it should just work. The physical drive will usually be identified by the make & model of the drive such as "Apple SSD SM128...", or "HT54xxxx....", etc. If you try to erase an APFS volume such as "Macintosh HD", then you are correct that it may fail.


I did this and was then able to reformat as macOS journalled. I tried to reinstall macOS at which point the computer thought I was installing Lion. The install failed, and when I tried it again it correctly selected High Sierra macOS.

If you are attempting to install macOS 10.6 to 10.10, then you need to first use Disk Utility from the 10.6 to 10.10 installer to partition & format the whole physical drive by following the instructions in this article:

https://www.owcdigital.com/assets/support/support-formatting-and-migration/Mac_Formatting_6-10.pdf


Sometimes a drive can have some type of odd partition information on it which may cause macOS & Disk Utility to be unable to work correctly and would possibly require more drastic measures, but that does not seem to the case for you if the instructions in that video worked since it only advises to first remove the APFS volume.


It is unfortunate Apple makes these things so confusing and keeps changing their documentation and eliminating the old instructions & information to focus only on the new operating systems.


Just keep the information provided in this thread by all the contributors in mind if you ever have to perform a clean install again on this Mac. Each contributor has included little bits of different information which is important to know.


Jun 29, 2022 6:53 PM in response to BDAqua

Once you have formatted to APFS, the only options presented in Disk Utility are APFS-related. Eg, encrypted, case sensitive etc.


The APFS volume has to be deleted first, then restart into recovery mode, go to disk utility, then you can choose new formats including ExFAT and so forth.


I did this and it finally worked without having to resort to a USB installer.

How to create a bootable USB for High Sierra using a Mac with Monterey?

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