Making a trimmed copy of Yosemite

I have backed up my Yosemite as a clone to two hard drives, and have space on both on separate partitions to make a trimmed copy of Yosemite that I can use to run software that won't run on El Capitan. Is there a special software to trim the Library or System back to factory settings for Yosemite?


I no longer have a working coly of the original installer, and don't have a Mac that came with Yosemite.

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.2), * I may get paid from macmaps links

Posted on Jun 28, 2016 6:28 AM

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3 replies

Jun 28, 2016 7:56 AM in response to a brody

As long as you downloaded it from the App Store when it was available, you should be able to use the AppleID used to download it and re-download the installer from App Store / Purchases tab.


For any Mac that came preinstalled with Yosemite, a factory reset using Internet Recovery will download/install version 10.10.5 and NOT the original version that shipped (e.g. 10.10-10.10.4).


So that I don't have to go through the install process, I have a partition on an external drive (30GB) that contains a 10.10.5 install without going through Setup. So, whenever I want to install "clean", I boot to that external drive's Recovery HD, erase the drive I want to install to and use Disk Utility / Restore to block-copy from the external to where ever. This "resets back to factory" without having to download/reinstall the OS.


Once you redownload 10.10.5 from the App Store, you can run the installer from /Applications against an external drive (30GB) and Shutdown when you get to the Setup screen. Disconnect the external drive and you have what I mentioned in the above paragraph.

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Making a trimmed copy of Yosemite

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