Make bootable usb drive

[mmcxiiad]

In case anyone is interested, here is how to make a bootable USB drive out of the beta download.

0. This assumes you downloaded 10.11 beta from the App Store. It puts the installed inside you main applications folder. If you got it from some other source you may have differs results.

1. Format a USB drive. It must be at least 8gb. You can format it in disk utility. I did it in the new partition tab, HFS+ Journaled. Also, under options make sure it is set as guid. For simplicity I set the drive name to beta.

2. Run this command in terminal:

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ 10.11\ Developer\ Beta.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/beta --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ 10.11\ Developer\ Beta.app --nointeraction

3. Put in your password. If you did it right, it should pop up this:

Erasing Disk: 0%... 10%... 20%... 30%...100%...
Copying installer files to disk...

4. Be patient. This WILL take a while. When the process is done, the terminal window will return to the prompt.

5. After this you can boot from the USB drive.

 

[tywebb13]

.

 

[mmcxiiad]

8GB worked fine.

 

[Lazeran]

can i use usb 3.0 flash drive?

 

[tywebb13]

.

 

[vickysud]

I'm getting an error saying "Install OS X 10.11 Developer Beta.app does not appear to be a valid OS installer application".

 

[tywebb13]

.

 

[outlawarth]

I have the beta .dmg file downloaded. Any ideas how to proceed?

 

[tywebb13]

.

 

[slide023]

I'm getting a kernel panic when I try to boot from usb installer. So I installed over Yosemite. How can I download El Capitan again from App store? the option is greyed out, or how can I restore Yosemite? I don't have it on usb. This on a early 2015 MBPr.

All is well, my 16gb stick was bad.

 

[xplora]

10.10.3 USB drive takes about 6 GB, leaving almost 2 GB free.

The process to create always wipes the drive being installed onto.

10.11 DP1 USB drive takes about 6.5 GB, leaving about 1.4 GB free.

It may be another couple of years before the USB stick will need to be larger than 8 GB.

 

[macintoshmac]

I have the beta .dmg file downloaded. Any ideas how to proceed?

Frankly, if you need ideas to proceed after getting the dmg, you really, really should not proceed with it, regardless of how much you may want to, for the safety of your own data. At best, ask someone you know who knows these things, and remind him to make sure everything is properly backed up so you can get the system restored if things head south.

 

[maflynn]

I'm getting an error saying "Install OS X 10.11 Developer Beta.app does not appear to be a valid OS installer application".

Did you try re-downloading the installer? Does the installer start up if you double click it? (you don't need to go through the process just see if it starts up)

 

[Apple_Robert]

I just used DiskMaker X 4b4 to create the bootable USB drive.

Change the name of the install file to "Install OS X Yosemite" and you should be good to go.

 

[mmcxiiad]

I'm getting a kernel panic when I try to boot from usb installer. So I installed over Yosemite. How can I download El Capitan again from App store? the option is greyed out, or how can I restore Yosemite? I don't have it on usb. This on a early 2015 MBPr.

You can try deleting the El Cap from your applications folder. you should only have to quit the app store and restart it and it should see that it isn't on your computer.

 

[mmcxiiad]

10.10.3 USB drive takes about 6 GB, leaving almost 2 GB free.... 10.11 DP1 USB drive takes about 7.5 GB, leaving about 1.4 GB free.

Slight error there. On an 8gb drive, you should see the following:
total capacity - 7.46GB
available - 1.32GB
used - 6.15GB

Assuming that you rounded up for simplicity, it looks like you accidentally switched used with total capacity.

 

[mmcxiiad]

can i use usb 3.0 flash drive?

I see no reason why you can't. Enjoy the faster read and write speeds.

 

[mmcxiiad]

That's great - for now.

But I wonder how long that'll last.

By the time 10.11 is released to the public it probably will be even bigger - and then it will get bigger and bigger by the time we get to 10.11.5 it might not fit on a 8gb anymore.

I think I will continue to put the el capitan ones onto 16gb usbs.

I have a tech keychain. Basically I purchase a whole bunch of usb drives and have them all on two Cable Key Ring chain linked together. On it I have every version of OS X from 10.6 - 10.11; Windows XP - 10; and the latest version of Ubuntu. Every OS fits nicely on an its own 8GB drive. I do have a couple of 16GB with apps. For example on the one for OS X, it has iLife 11, iWork 09, and Carbon Copy Cloner. Ever since I put all this on the keychain, it has really simplified setting up computers without having to spend a whole bunch of time looking for disks or remaking a CD/DVD/Bootable USB.

I don't think 16GB is really needed. If that is what you have and want to use, no worries. But without opening the whole can of worms, I would HIGHLY doubt the OS would grown more then a couple hundred MB.... let alone 1.3GB.

 

[mikeboss]

I have a tech keychain. Basically I purchase a whole bunch of usb drives and have them all on two Cable Key Ring chain linked together. On it I have every version of OS X from 10.6 - 10.11; Windows XP - 10; and the latest version of Ubuntu. Every OS fits nicely on an its own 8GB drive. I do have a couple of 16GB with apps. For example on the one for OS X, it has iLife 11, iWork 09, and Carbon Copy Cloner. Ever since I put all this on the keychain, it has really simplified setting up computers without having to spend a whole bunch of time looking for disks or remaking a CD/DVD/Bootable USB.

I don't think 16GB is really needed. If that is what you have and want to use, no worries. But without opening the whole can of worms, I would HIGHLY doubt the OS would grown more then a couple hundred MB.... let alone 1.3GB.

View attachment 559890

haha, funny! almost like mine...

 

[Fishrrman]

Question regarding OP's original post 1.

Assuming I have the flash drive initialized, mounted and ready-to-go, where must the "Install OS X 10.11 Developer Beta" be located in order to have the terminal command execute properly?

Can the installer file be on the desktop?
Or must it be somewhere else?
Or does it make no difference?

 

[Apple_Robert]

Question regarding OP's original post 1.

Assuming I have the flash drive initialized, mounted and ready-to-go, where must the "Install OS X 10.11 Developer Beta" be located in order to have the terminal command execute properly?

Can the installer file be on the desktop?
Or must it be somewhere else?
Or does it make no difference?

Usually, it is in the Applications folder. You can also use DiskMaker X to create the bootable USB.

 

[mmcxiiad]

Question regarding OP's original post 1....

Can the installer file be on the desktop?
Or must it be somewhere else?
Or does it make no difference?

I updated the first post to address this. Unless you alter the terminal command, the installer MUST BE IN THE MAIN APPLICATIONS FOLDER.

 

[nfl46]

I just used DiskMaker X 4b4 to create the bootable USB drive.

Change the name of the install file to "Install OS X Yosemite" and you should be good to go.

This is what I did.

 

[Fishrrman]

In re my post #20 above:

I placed my copy of the "Install OS X 10.11 Developer Beta" installer into the Applications folder, and then ran the terminal command in post 1.

Terminal puts up the following error message:
sudo: /Applications/Install OS X 10.11 Developer Beta.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia: command not found

Any ideas as to what I did wrong?

 

[dsemf]

In re my post #20 above:

I placed my copy of the "Install OS X 10.11 Developer Beta" installer into the Applications folder, and then ran the terminal command in post 1.

Terminal puts up the following error message:
sudo: /Applications/Install OS X 10.11 Developer Beta.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia: command not found

Any ideas as to what I did wrong?

Either put the command in quotes or escape the spaces using a back slash.

DS