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Create bootable USB with Yosemite

Oy!

Both I and may daughter are running El Capitan on our Macs. However, she wants to play Sims3 on her laptop. Regretfully, the developers of the game have failed to make it work under El Capitan and later. And their option to download updated versions also fails.

So I thought I'd create a bootable USB stick with Yosemite, as the game worked just fine for her when she used that OS version. And I've hit a brick wall.

I have duly downloaded the "Install OS X Yosemite.app" from App store. When trying to launch it, I get error message that it's too old to be opened on my OS X version (El Capitan). Fair enough.

So I have tried every method I have found online: the Terminal, the Disc Utility and Disk Drill.app. In all cases, all required files seems to be copied over to the flash drive (16 Gb, USB 3).

But neither the disk utility nor booting with options key down shows the disc. It's invisible.

Can someone shed some light on this?

Thanks in advance,

Dab

Mac Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)

Posted on Apr 20, 2018 9:13 AM

Best reply

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Posted on Apr 20, 2018 1:04 PM

Bootable USB Installers for OS X Mavericks, Yosemite, El Capitan, and Sierra

First, review this introductory article: Create a bootable installer for macOS. 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 mfg.'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 High Sierra:

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app

Command for macOS Sierra:

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --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.

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Create bootable USB with Yosemite

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