For bootable Sierra installer, what's the required minimum size USB stick?
When making a bootable Sierra installer drive, what's the minimum size of USB stick that is required?
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014), macOS Sierra (10.12)
8 or 16GBs.
Bootable USB Installers for OS X Mavericks to Sierra
First, review this introductory article: Create a bootable installer for OS X Mavericks or Yosemite - Apple Support. Second, see this How To outline for creating a bootable El Capitan installer. Simply replace the Terminal command with the one from the preceding article by copying it into the Terminal window.
You will need an 8GB or larger USB flash drive that has been partitioned and formatted for use with OS X.
Drive Partition and Format
- Open Disk Utility in the Utilities folder.
- After Disk Utility loads select the drive (out-dented entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the side list.
- Click on the Erase tab in the Disk Utility toolbar. Name the drive, "MyVolume". <---- IMPORTANT!
- In the drop down panel set the partition scheme to GUID. Set the Format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)
- Click on the Apply button and wait for the Done button to activate. When it does click on it.
- Quit Disk Utility.
Create Installer
Open the Terminal in the Utilities folder. Choose the appropriate command line (in red) depending upon what OS X installer you want. Paste that entire command line from below at the Terminal's prompt:
Command for macOS Sierra:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyV --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app
Command 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
Command for Yosemite:
sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app
Command for Mavericks:
sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app
Press RETURN. You will be asked for your admin password. It will not echo to the Terminal window. Then press RETURN again. Wait for the return of the Terminal prompt signifying the process has completed. It takes quite some time to finish. Be patient.