How to make a bootable USB/SSD drive

Hi,

I am trying to make a bootable USB/SSD drive for a friend (Monterey). On Apple's web site it says to format the drive as "USB flash drive or other secondary volume with at least 14GB of available storage, formatted as Mac OS Extended".

When I open up my disk utilities I do not have this option. I only see APFS. I've downloaded the OS into my Applications folder(it's listed as Install macOS Monterey.app) and when I paste the code (Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support) into Terminal I get an error message that it is not a valid volume mount point.

What am I doing wrong? I've made bootable drives before but I am stuck.

Thanks!

Gary

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.12

Posted on Jul 17, 2023 11:45 AM

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Barney-15E

Level 10

124,866 points

Posted on Jul 17, 2023 12:57 PM

Select Show All Devices from the View popup menu. Select the device, then Erase. You should then be able to change to GUID partition map and Mac OS Extended.

Name it MyVolume as indicated in the examples so you can cut and paste the command. It will be renamed, so you making a different name is a waste of time.

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3 replies

Top-ranking reply

Barney-15E

Level 10

124,866 points

Jul 17, 2023 12:57 PM in response to Gary Goldblum

Select Show All Devices from the View popup menu. Select the device, then Erase. You should then be able to change to GUID partition map and Mac OS Extended.

Name it MyVolume as indicated in the examples so you can cut and paste the command. It will be renamed, so you making a different name is a waste of time.

Owl-53

Level 10

112,185 points

Jul 18, 2023 2:40 AM in response to Gary Goldblum

Erase and reformat a storage device in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support (CA)

File system formats available in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support (CA)

The devil is in the details as outline by @Barney15-E >> " Show ALL Devices " while in Disk Utilities

tbirdvet

Level 6

17,783 points

Jul 17, 2023 12:27 PM in response to Gary Goldblum

It should show but may only show "Mac OS" and set to GUID partition. The word "extended"may not be there. Does it give you a choice that also shows exFat, etc or is there only APFS? If only has APFS then something is not correct.

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How to make a bootable USB/SSD drive