To avoid any confusion, we’re naming the USB drive to “ElCapInstaller” (without the quotations), though you can name it whatever you want as long as you adjust the command line syntax to match. The next thing you’ll want to do is rename the target volume that you wish to turn into a bootable installer drive, in this case an external USB flash drive. 1: Rename the USB Flash Drive to Become the OS X El Capitan Bootable Installer When you’re ready, plug the USB / flash drive into the Mac with the OS X El Capitan installer application on it. Presumably you have already made the USB flash drive into a Mac compatible format with Disk Utility, if not you can follow the directions here to format a drive for Mac OS X compatibility HFS+. The OS X El Capitan installer application must be on the Mac and in the /Applications/ folder, download OS X El Capitan here if you haven’t done so yet (yes.An 8GB or larger USB Flash Drive like these, this will be formatted and turn into the OS X El Capitan bootable installer.We will walk through creating a bootable install flash drive from OS X El Capitan with the final public version.īefore getting started, know the requirements necessary to make a bootable OS X El Capitan installer drive are as follows:

Many Mac users like to make a bootable installer drive for installing OS X El Capitan, whether for performing a clean install, or for making it easier to install OS X 10.11 onto multiple Macs. Install El Capitan, and 'go from there'.How to Create a OS X El Capitan Boot Installer USB Flash Drive Now boot from the flash drive, and once more re-initialize the internal drive.Ĩ. If the OS wasn't El Capitan, NOW you can locate a copy of El Cap and create a bootable USB flash drive 'the right way' (i.e. Get the OS installed, get up-and-running again.Ħ. You're probably going to have to use Disk Utility to re-initialize (erase) the internal drive to HFS+, journaling enabled (so that you can install the Mac OS)Ĥ. This could take some time, depending on the speed of your connection.ģ. IMMEDIATELY hold down the command, option and 'R' keys and KEEP HOLDING THEM DOWN until the 'animated globe' appears. Put the SSD into the MacBook Pro if it's not already there.Ĭ. 'I don't have access to a Mac system, so I need to do this on a Windows system.'ġ.

Make a bootable usb el capitan