One of the most awaited Operating System of 2014 i.e. Mac Yosemite is now available for use. Apple has recently released the beta version of the latest Yosemite OS with new and advanced features. Who wouldn’t like to try this latest version? Every Mac user would love it! You can easily work with and get familiar with all features of this new Yosemite that too without disturbing the already running Mac installation in simple steps. Yes! you can achieve this by just creating a bootable USB flash drive with Yosemite and then connecting it to the Mac desktop or laptop to install Yosemite from USB securely.
An empty USB drive (8 GB or larger): In this guide, you will write Mac OS X Yosemite Installer onto a USB drive, and boot your computer from that drive to install OS X Yosemite. The USB drive must be at least 6 GB in size. Since you will need to erase all of the files on the USB drive, make sure to back up its contents first. Creating a bootable OS X installer isn’t as simple as it used to be, and things are a little bit more complex with the Developer Preview of OS X Yosemite.While there are multiple methods that will work, here’s the easiest way to create a bootable OS X 10.10 Yosemite USB Installer.
It’s just a few simple step procedure and within minutes you can create Yosemite bootable USB. The process involves two stages – creation of bootable USB flash drive and then installation procedure. Below is the complete step-by-step procedure to achieve this, just read on…
Stage 1: Create Bootable USB Flash Drive
- First connect your USB drive to the Mac computer and launch Disk Utility tool. Now select drive indicating USB flash drive (select the USB drive you want to make the bootable installer) from the available drives list
- Then just click on the “Erase” tab and format the drive as “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”
- Then just click on “Erase” and confirm the selection
- Go to “Partition” tab and under ‘Partition Layout’ section click on the pull-down menu and change the layout to “1 Partition” from “Current”
- Change the partition name from “Untitled 1” to “Untitled” and then click on “Options” button
- Choose the partition scheme as “GUID Partition Table” and select “OK”
- Once done click on “Apply” to confirm the creation of the partition
- After the partition is successfully created download the Macintosh OS X 10.10 Yosemite installer from Mac App Store, once done quit the installer and set the downloaded file's name to Install OS X Yosemite app.
After completion, launch the Terminal app (located in Applications/Utilities) and type or copy - paste the following command, and then hit Enter:
sudo /Applications/Install OS X Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install OS X Yosemite.app –nointeraction
Once done Quit the Disk Utility; With this your OS X Yosemite bootable USB flash drive will be ready for use and you can start the clean installation process.
Stage 2: Clean Install OS X Yosemite on Your Mac
- Now, connect the bootable USB flash drive into your Mac and restart the computer, once the start-up chime plays, just press the Option key (Alt).
- On the start-up drive selection screen choose the USB drive and hit Enter / Return on the keyboard.
- The process might take few minutes, just wait until the Yosemite installer appears on screen
- Once it appears, click on Disk Utility and then hit Continue.
- From the left hand-side pane of the Mac, find and click on Macintosh HD and then on the top-right portion hit Erase tab. Select default values for all options and then hit Erase button at the bottom right; by doing this all files stored on the startup hard drive will be wiped off.
- After completion of the erasing process just return to the first screen and click on Install OS X and then hit Continue.
- Now, select the Macintosh HD partition that was erased in step 5 and then click Install
By following all the above steps correctly, your computer will now boot into the newly installed OS X Yosemite, and you could just enjoy all its stunning new UI and advanced features. However, before performing the process make sure you have proper data backup, as there are chances of losing your data due to interruption or by selecting improper option. In such cases Remo Recover software could help you to perform Mac lost data recovery in just few minutes.
It can be quite easy making an update to the OSX 10.10 Yosemite from the Mac App store for one computer, but when it comes to making updates for several Macs, or even doing a fresh install, you might find it really stressful having to make those updates separately. One way to save yourself the hassle is grabbing the Mac update on a USB thumb drive and installing the update using same drive on all your Macs.
It is important to note that running the Yosemite update on your Mac before following the below procedures would erase the installer from your Applications folder. So it is necessary you firstly perform this tutorial using any of the below methods, unless you wish to download a fresh copy of the update again from the app store. Let’s move on to the tutorial.
- Must Read:MAC OS X vs PC Windows – Which Should I Choose / Buy?
Things You’ll Need
Os X Yosemite Download File
- A Mac
- An 8GB USB Flash Drive or larger where you would be burning the OSX Yosemite copy to.
- The OS X 10.10 Yosemite installer from the Mac App Store in your Applications folder
- An Administrator account on your Mac
Method 1: Using DiskMaker X
Os X Yosemite Usb Installer Download
Using Diskmaker X is the easiest way to burn or make a bootable USB Flash drive. Here is how to go about it.
1. You need to download the Yosemite installer as stated above from the Mac App Store and DiskMaker X .
2. Insert your 8GB (or larger) flash drive into your MAC. Make sure you must have backed up all important stuff, as you will loose them in this process from the flash drive.
3. Launch DiskMaker X. The app will offer to make installers for OS X 10.8, 10.9, and 10.10. Since we wish to install Yosemite, you will have to select 10.10 and let DiskMaker X handle the rest. DiskMaker X would find the Yosemite Installer and have it installed on your thumb drive. If it doesn’t find it, you can click on “Select an Install File” so you can easily navigate to the installer.
After the whole process must have been completed, you can now use this flash drive to install OSX Yosemite to any MAC. It’s actually that simple.
Method 2: Using Terminal
If for some reasons you couldn’t get DiskMaker X working for you, you might want to follow this geeky steps using Terminal to achieve same result.
1. Firstly Download the Yosemite installer.
2. Insert your 8GB (or larger) flash drive (make sure you assign a name to it – I’ll be using Untitled as my drive name for this tutorial). Make sure you format your USB flash drive in OS X Extended (Journaled) using Disk Utility.
3. Launch the Terminal application on your MAC. Then type (or copy and paste) the following command into your Terminal window. Make sure you replace Untitled with the name of your drive. Then hit Enter on your keyboard.
sudo /Applications/Install OS X Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install OS X Yosemite.app --nointeraction
Os X Yosemite Usb Installer Download
4. Now you would be prompted to type in your password, then press Enter again.
Allow terminal to complete the process (this could take close to half an hour). You can take out your USB Flash when you get the Done prompt. After it’s done, you should be able to use your USB Flash drive as a bootable disk to install OSX 10.10 Yosemite on any MAC computer.
Note: The Bootable USB Flash drive would not only be used to install Yosemite on Mac computers, but would also have utilities like Disk Utility and Time Machine recovery.
Download Mac Os Yosemite Iso
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Can You Still Download Os X Yosemite
To make use of this thumb drive to install the OSX 10.10 update, you can change the default Startup Disk in System Preferences or by holding down the Option key at boot and selecting the drive.
Os X Yosemite Usb Installer
I hope you find this useful.