Guoxuan

Q: How to create a bootable usb for EI captain?

When I was making the boot usb, I found articles with google, yet they are all so obsolete.

many even say using a 8G usb... which obviously is not allowed now, as the minimum requirement is 16G.

 

I am using the terminal way to make the usb.

 

what is the most updated process? And what is the sudo code for this please?

i tried the sudo code from some website, it turns out saying there is no 'createinstallmedia' function. 

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)

Posted on Jan 28, 2016 6:39 PM

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Q: How to create a bootable usb for EI captain?

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  • by Nubz N.,Solvedanswer

    Nubz N. Nubz N. Jan 30, 2016 6:43 AM in response to Guoxuan
    Community Hosts
    Jan 30, 2016 6:43 AM in response to Guoxuan

    Howdy Guoxuan,

     

    When you mention "createinstallmedia" it sounds like you would like to create a bootable installer for El Capitan.

     

    Note "createinstallmedia" is not a built in function but is part of the installer package as shown in this article.

    Create a bootable installer for OS X - Apple Support

    Use the 'createinstallmedia' command in Terminal

    1. Download the OS X installer from the Mac App Store. Quit the installer if it opens automatically after downloading. The installer will be in your Applications folder.
    2. Mount your USB flash drive or other volume. You could also use a secondary internal partition.
    3. Open the Terminal app, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
    4. Use the createinstallmedia command in Terminal to create the bootable installer. Examples of this command are in the next section. For detailed usage instructions, make sure that the appropriate Install OS X app is in your Applications folder, then enter one of the following paths in Terminal:

    Path for El Capitan:

    /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia

     

    Note in step 4. the appropriate installer is expected to be in the Applications folder so you can get to it.

    The article further gives a more complete example of the command.

    The following examples assume that the OS X installer is in your Applications folder and the name of your USB flash drive or other volume is MyVolume:

    Example for El Capitan:

    sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app

    If instead you are just trying to create a bootable USB drive, then you would just install El Capitan on that drive as normal, selecting the USB drive as the destination.

    Upgrade to OS X El Capitan - Apple Support

     

    Best regards.

  • by keg55,

    keg55 keg55 Jan 30, 2016 7:36 AM in response to Guoxuan
    Level 6 (8,514 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 30, 2016 7:36 AM in response to Guoxuan

    Nubz N provided the Apple link for the instructions and Terminal command that's used.

     

    Make sure the Install OS X El Capitan.app file is in your /Applications folder. And you have an 8GB or greater USB thumb drive that is formatted as OS X Extended (Journaled) with the GUID partition table. When using the command below, replace MyVolume with the volume name of your USB thumb drive (e.g. Untitled). Run the command below from an account that has administrator rights and post your results here so we can see what may have gone wrong.

     

     

    Open Terminal and copy/paste the following replacing MyVolume with your USB thumb drive volume name:

    sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app 

     

    Here are my results. It take awhile to run:

     

    administrator$ sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Captian.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Captian.app

    Password:

    Ready to start.

    To continue we need to erase the disk at /Volumes/Untitled.

    If you wish to continue type (Y) then press return: y

    Erasing Disk: 0%... 10%... 20%... 30%...100%...

    Copying installer files to disk...

    Making disk bootable...

    Copying boot files...

    Copy complete.

    Done.

  • by Guoxuan,

    Guoxuan Guoxuan Jan 30, 2016 8:10 AM in response to keg55
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 30, 2016 8:10 AM in response to keg55

    Thank you! 100% correct!!

  • by Nubz N.,

    Nubz N. Nubz N. Jan 30, 2016 9:09 AM in response to Guoxuan
    Community Hosts
    Jan 30, 2016 9:09 AM in response to Guoxuan

    You are welcome.  Thanks for the update.