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How to Make a Bootable OS X El Capitan USB Install Key

How to Make a Bootable OS X El Capitan USB Install Key

Posted October 10, 2015 at 6:34am by iClarified
These are instructions on how to make a bootable OS X El Capitan USB key.

Step One
Connect a 8GB or larger USB key to your computer then launch the Mac App Store from your dock.
How to Make a Bootable OS X El Capitan USB Install Key

Step Two
Navigate to the OS X El Capitan application page and click the Get button. If you are already on, or have already downloaded El Capitan, you may need to click the Download button.
How to Make a Bootable OS X El Capitan USB Install Key


How to Make a Bootable OS X El Capitan USB Install Key

Step Three
Launch Disk Utility from the Applications:Utilities folder.
How to Make a Bootable OS X El Capitan USB Install Key

Step Four
Select your USB thumb drive from the list on the left and click the Partition tab.
How to Make a Bootable OS X El Capitan USB Install Key

Step Five
Set the Partition Layout to 1 Partition, set the Name to 'El Capitan', and set the Format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
How to Make a Bootable OS X El Capitan USB Install Key

Step Six
Click the Options button then choose GUID Partition Table from the popup window then click the OK button.
How to Make a Bootable OS X El Capitan USB Install Key

Step Seven
Next click the Apply button to save your changes. When asked to confirm click the Partition button.
How to Make a Bootable OS X El Capitan USB Install Key

Step Eight
Launch Terminal from the Applications:Utilities folder.
How to Make a Bootable OS X El Capitan USB Install Key

Step Nine
Make sure your empty USB key is still inserted. Additionally, make sure you do not have any other volumes named 'El Capitan' except for the one we just created in Step Five.

Execute the following command in the Terminal window to create your OS X El Capitan Install key.

sudo '/Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia' --volume '/Volumes/El Capitan' --applicationpath '/Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app' --nointeraction
How to Make a Bootable OS X El Capitan USB Install Key

You will be asked to enter your Administrative account password.
How to Make a Bootable OS X El Capitan USB Install Key

Step Ten
After about 30 minutes the creation of your USB Install Key for OS X El Capitan will be complete.
How to Make a Bootable OS X El Capitan USB Install Key

Step Eleven
You may now restart your Mac and hold down the Option key after hearing the boot sound. You'll be presented with a list of bootable drives. Select the USB install key.
How to Make a Bootable OS X El Capitan USB Install Key

How to Make a Bootable OS X El Capitan USB Install Key

How to Make a Bootable OS X El Capitan USB Install Key
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Comments (12)
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Amged Zaki
Amged Zaki - August 16, 2016 at 10:39am
can do this steps after download El Capitan from App Store without istalling it on my Mac ??
kimbakat
kimbakat - November 21, 2015 at 7:41pm
For YOSEMITE Installer use" sudo '/Applications/Install OS X Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia' --volume '/Volumes/YosemiteInstaller' --applicationpath '/Applications/Install OS X Yosemite.app' --nointeraction For those that need to downgrade from the El Capitan mess!
kimbakat
kimbakat - November 21, 2015 at 7:42pm
sudo '/Applications/Install OS X Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia' --volume '/Volumes/YosemiteInstaller' --applicationpath '/Applications/Install OS X Yosemite.app' --nointeraction
Jacek
Jacek - October 11, 2015 at 12:24pm
What's the purpose of such disk?
kimbakat
kimbakat - November 21, 2015 at 7:44pm
For when your system goes kablooey and you need to run a check....it's like performing surgery on yourself.....the drive can't perform surgery on itself while it's running so it requires a bootable drive to run full diagnostics and fix!
bosuil
bosuil - October 11, 2015 at 6:34am
It's a little bit childish to remove my comment
AppleGuy299
AppleGuy299 - October 12, 2015 at 3:48pm
What was your comment about?
tom brand
tom brand - October 11, 2015 at 5:56am
because most of us will update to el capitan using an older system version – and therefore of course the old disk utility – it's obvious, that iclarified's tutorial does not refers to the new disk utility…
LTV
LTV - October 10, 2015 at 8:56pm
Excellent!
AverageReviewer
AverageReviewer - October 10, 2015 at 2:44pm
Please update to reflect the new disk utility in El Capitan
PaladinLV
PaladinLV - October 10, 2015 at 2:08pm
It's a shame that iClarified could not use El Capitan in creating the Tutorial and had to use and older system that does NOT REFLECT the NEW Disk Utility!!!
AppleGuy299
AppleGuy299 - October 10, 2015 at 1:44pm
Yes, much easier.
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