Create USB Boot drive for MacAir M2

see this link:

How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

there are directions included for Silicon Macs

the failsafe is name your USB "MyVolume" and just copy and paste the code into terminal.

ejbpesca wrote:

Revive, restore, recovery. I am not sure which one of these I am after to have standing by on a USB drive in case I would like to take my MacBook Air Monterey 12.5 back to a state as if it were out of the box, install the OS and then install my files. Which of these does that by erasing the OS and my files so I may begin again with a virus free, uncorrupted file, computer?

There's several methods for erasing an Apple silicon Mac. I've listed them below.

For context, in macOS Big Sur and later (the earliest version that supports Apple silicon), macOS uses a System volume and a Data volume. The vast majority of macOS is stored in the System volume as a sealed, immutable snapshot. Everything else, including all of your files, settings, and third-party apps, are stored in the Data volume.

Additionally, Apple silicon Macs use a different system infrastructure than Intel-based Macs. Apple silicon Macs require two system partitions to always be present; otherwise the boot process will fail. The first partition (of type Apple_APFS_ISC) holds Secure Boot policies, system activation data, and the Secure Enclave storage. The second partition (last on the map, of type Apple_APFS_Recovery) holds a backup copy of macOS Recovery.

• Erase All Content and Settings (inside System Preferences): This method destroys the existing Data volume and creates a new one. All other volumes and partitions (except the two system partitions) are removed. The existing System volume (and thus macOS) survive the erase, but the Mac is nonetheless now in a factory state. Apple recommends this method above all others.

• Recovery Assistant in macOS Recovery: If your Mac has FileVault or Find My Mac enabled, Recovery Assistant will appear when you start up in macOS Recovery. You can also invoke it by running "resetpassword" in macOS Recovery's Terminal. Although it mainly requests authentication and deals with system activation, it also has a hidden option to erase your Mac (in the top menu bar, if you click on Recovery Assistant -> Erase Mac). This method destroys all partitions, except for the two system partitions, and creates a new APFS container with an empty volume. You must reinstall macOS after the erase.

• Disk Utility in macOS Recovery: This method only destroys what you choose to destroy. I usually discourage this method on newer Macs since it is easy to miss some important steps if you want to completely erase the Mac. To completely erase the Mac (except for the two system partitions), open Disk Utility, select View -> Show All Devices, select the top level of the internal drive and click Erase. Name it "Macintosh HD", format as APFS, and choose the GUID Partition Map for the scheme. Then, follow the onscreen instructions. (This might not work in early versions of macOS Big Sur's Recovery.) You must reinstall macOS afterwards.

• Firmware restore: This method is the most comprehensive out of all of them, but it requires another Mac running Apple Configurator. All data, including the system partitions, is destroyed. Then, system firmware is reinstalled, and the internal drive is reimaged using the firmware restore file delivered by the other Mac. When done, you'll need to activate your Mac, and then it will boot into a fresh copy of macOS. Given the right cables and Internet, this is guaranteed to succeed every time. (This behaviour is only for Apple silicon Macs, including yours.)

NOTE: In regards to a firmware revive, that reinstalls the firmware and the backup copy of macOS Recovery, but it doesn't erase any data.

Out of all of these methods, none of them can actually be put onto a USB drive. Yes, you can create a bootable installer (which contains macOS Recovery), but your Mac won't actually start up from it. Instead, it will start up from an internal copy of macOS Recovery, and only leverage your bootable installer when you choose to reinstall macOS. Basically, it will speed up installing macOS, but nothing else.

TL;DR: None of them can be used on a USB drive, but Erase All Content and Settings is the best option. Second best is a firmware restore, or Recovery Assistant.

If you decide to create a boot drive, JimmyCMPIT’s info is correct. You just follow the instructions in that article by creating a volume on the USB drive formatted Mac OS Extended and name the volume MyVolume.

It can be confusing or intimidating to use the terminal if you haven’t before or aren’t used to it.

After preparing the drive, download the installer. Then, with the USB drive inserted, open Terminal and type or copy/paste exactly the command for the version that matches the OS. Press enter. Let it do its thing, follow the remaining instructions, and eject. Voilà.

I’ll break down that command. `sudo` is a Unix app/command that is named (in short) for “super user do”. It runs what follows as a super user or admin. The next part is the path to the actual app/command you want to run. The forward slashes represent path delimiters and the backslashes are escape characters, because there are spaces in the path.

It's all to get to `createinstallmedia` (the actual app/command). Then you have flags or parameters, in this case just one, the `--volume` part. That tells `createinstallmedia` where to put the OS install and boot record.

Cheers

A Little more than 1/2 down the bottom of the page of the link I posted earlier:

Apple silicon

1. Plug the bootable installer into a Mac that is connected to the internet and compatible with the version of macOS you're installing. 

• • The macOS version that came with the Mac is the earliest version it can use. 
  • A bootable installer doesn't download macOS from the internet, but it does require an internet connection to get firmware and other information specific to the Mac model.

1. Turn on the Mac and continue to hold the power button until you see the startup options window, which shows your bootable volumes.
2. Select the volume containing the bootable installer, then click Continue.
3. When the macOS installer opens, follow the onscreen instructions.

ejbpesca wrote:

Okay, I did not know about that method of recovery for Macs. I will investigate. I want a boot drive due to what happened with my Dell PC once. It became very slow with none of the usual tricks to revive.....

macOS does not suffer from many issues that Windows has that created that situation on your PC. So, generally you will never need to do that as macOS does its own optimization in the background. It also does not suffer from fragmentation issues that Windows machines tend to get.

If things do tend to slow down due to "accumulated crud" in caches, a boot into safe mode where one of the first things it does is flush all caches. In many cases just a reboot resets most caches.

Also note, when using terminal with createinstallmedia command, you can simply drag and drop the target drive into terminal and its full path will be pasted into the command, eliminating a typing error.

Yes we do understand the Windows 10 to macOS Monterey on an Apple Silicon ARMS based computer issue.

It is ok to make a USB Installer of Monterey 12.5 but it can not be used to Wipe the Drive, then Format the Drive and then Reinstall the Operating System

This could be done on an Intel Based Apple Computer running Monterey 12.5 much like you have described for the MS Windows 10 computer

If it every comes to having to Start Over on the Apple Silicon computer - there is a way to Remove All Content and Settings via a Built-in Feature of Monterey and it will also allow Reinstalling the Operating System - all this without the requirements or need of a Bootable USB Installer.

refer below image

System Preference

The best solution is to dump the idea of the USB installer and get a good external drive and run Time Machine to make backups.

Then do the previous "Erase content..." and then restore your data from the Time Machine backup.

Also, you should be doing a backup anyway as most anything can happen from a borked update (app or system) or user mistakenly deleting files or folders.

Also, when all else fails, the Mac can do an Internet recovery. Similar to the built in recovery but done over the internet.

Caution about a Bootable Installer and Apple Silicon M1 / M2 Computers.

The bootable Installer can not be used to Wipe the Entire Drive and then Reinstall the Operating System.

Reason - Reformatting an M1 / M2 computer will probably Bork the EFI Boot ROM on the computer rendering the machine in a worse stated.

Then the user will have to use this method to Revive the computer

Revive or restore a Mac with Apple silicon using Apple Configurator

I'm presently on an older MacBook Air (2017 w/o a T2 chip) so you won't see the Erase Content but the location is the same indicated.

Sorry. One sec. Need to edit that image. :/

Ok. This one is good.