Create A Bootable Macos Catalina Usb

macOS Catalina is a hugely exciting upgrade for the Mac. In some ways, it’s like having a completely new computer. You may have already taken the plunge and installed it, or maybe you’re waiting to see how it settles down before you install it. But whichever camp you’re in, it’s a good idea to create a bootable installer for macOS Catalina. That way, if anything goes badly wrong with your Mac, you’ll be able to boot from the installer and get going again quickly.

  1. Within the Applications folder, you will find the installer for macOS Catalina. It will have a name similar to “Install macOS Catalina Beta” or “Install macOS Catalina,” depending on whether you’re using the beta or the release version. Once you locate the installer, right-click on it and select Show Package Contents from the popup menu.
  2. You will create the bootable installer from this app, not from the disk image or.pkg installer. Use the 'createinstallmedia' command in Terminal Connect the USB flash drive or other volume that you're using for the bootable installer. Open Terminal, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
  3. Now that we’re done partitioning our USB, let us proceed to set it as bootable. Create a bootable installer. Download Mojave and Catalina — after downloading both, you should have Install macOs Catalina and Install macOs Mojave inside your /Applications folder.
  4. Question: Q: Failed to create bootable USB MacOS Catalina on a OS X Yosemite macbook More Less Apple Footer This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only.

Why do I need a bootable installer for macOS Catalina?

There are a number of reasons for creating a bootable USB Mac installer.

  1. If you have more than one Mac, it allows you to install Catalina on all your other Macs without having to download it from the App Store each time.
  2. You may want to clean install Catalina, in which case you’ll completely wipe your startup disk and will need to boot from an external drive to do that.
  3. It’s good protection against a catastrophe striking your Mac’s startup disk, especially if you don’t have a stable internet connection. Normally, if you need to reinstall macOS, you can just boot from the recovery partition and do it from there. However, that means re-downloading the installer. So, if you don’t have an internet connection or it’s very slow, you need an alternative.

What should I use as a bootable installer?

You can use an external hard drive, an SSD or a USB stick. Anything that has at least 16 GB of free space. You’ll need to create a new partition (or container if it’s formatted as AFPS) for the installer so if you have data on it you need, you should copy it to another drive first.

How to create a bootable USB drive for macOS Catalina

Whoa! Not so fast. There’s one more thing you should do before you create the installer: clear out the junk on your Mac. Before you undertake any major task on your Mac, and especially before you install a new version of the operating system, you should clear out junk and old files you no longer need. I don’t normally recommend software tools, but in this case, the nest way to clear out the clutter is to use CleanMyMac X. It can scan your Mac at the press of a button, identify all the files you don’t need, and allow you to get rid of them with one more click. Here’s how to use it:

  1. Install, and launch CleanMyMac X — download a free edition here
  2. Choose Smart Scan from the list of utilities in the sidebar.
  3. Press Scan.
  4. When it’s finished, press Run to delete files immediately, or Review Details to see what it has found.

Once you’ve cleared out the clutter, you can go ahead and create your bootable installer. Here’s how:

Macos
  1. Launch the App Store app and search for macOS Catalina. (If you’re reading this before Catalina has been launched, you’ll need to use the public beta. You can sign up for Apple’s public beta program and download it here Apple Beta Software Program)
  2. When the results appear, click on Catalina, then click ‘Get’.
  3. Wait for it to download. When it’s finished, the installer will launch. Quit it immediately.

The installer has now been saved in your Applications folder. You can go ahead and check, if you like. You now have two options for creating the installer. If you’re comfortable with using Terminal, you can go ahead and jump to the instructions for that, below. If you’d rather not use Terminal, there’s a neat utility called Diskmaker X that will do it for you. All you need to do is download and install it and then, when you run it, point it to the macOS Catalina installer you just downloaded. There are full instructions on the download page.

Test your bootable thumb drive. If you have managed to follow through till this step, this means you have created a bootable thumb drive with macOS installer. Now, let’s give it a test to see if it works. Plug in the thumb drive into the USB port of a compatible mac. Restart your computer. Hold the Option key when your computer starts.

How to create a bootable installer using Terminal

  1. Plug the USB stick, hard drive or SSD into your Mac.
  2. Go to Applications>Utilities and double-click Disk Utility to launch it.
  3. Select the disk you want to use for the installer and choose the Erase tab.
  4. Choose APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the format and choose GUID partition map from the options, if it’s available.
  5. Give the disk a name and press Erase.
  6. When it’s finished, quit Disk Utility.
  7. Go to Applications>Utilities and double-click Terminal to launch it.
  8. Type:

    sudo /Applications/Install macOS Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia —volume /Volumes/Untitled

    where ‘Untitled’ is the name of your USB stick or external hard drive

  9. Press Return and wait for the word Done to appear in Terminal.
  10. Quit Terminal

You now have a macOS Catalina installer on an external disk or USB stick. Eject it, unplug it and keep it safe. You can use it to install Catalina on any Mac that supports it.

One more step: update applications

Once you’ve used tour new installer to install Catalina on a Mac, it’s a good idea to update all your applications so that that are Catalina compatible. You can do this manually, from the App Store and by launching non-App Store apps and choosing check for updates, but that’s a long and tedious process. It’s much quicker and easier to use the updates in CleanMyMac X. Here’s how you do it.

  1. Launch CleanMyMac X.
  2. Select the Updater tool in the Applications section.
  3. Press Select All.
  4. Press Update.

And that’s it. You’re done. CleanMyMac X checks all your installed apps for updates and then updates them all.

Creating a bootable installer for macOS Catalina isn’t difficult. If you have a spare disk or USB stick and are comfortable using Terminal, you can do it right away. If you’d rather not use Terminal, use the Diskmaker X tool described above. Whichever method you use, make sure you use CleanMyMac X to clear out the junk on your Mac before you start, and use it again to update your applications when you’ve finished.

In the guide, we will learn How to Create macOS Catalina Bootable Installer for Clean Installation. With macOS Catalina Bootable Installer you can simply use it to install macOS Catalina on your MAC. The steps are pretty easy, so you can simply sit back and relax and read this guide on How to Create macOS Catalina Bootable Installer for Clean Installation.

For Windows PC, you can use this guide- How To Create macOS Catalina Bootable USB on Windows: 4 Easy Steps (+Video Tutorial)

Who can upgrade?

  • MacBook (early 2015 or newer);
  • MacBook Air (mid-2012 or newer);
  • MacBook Pro (mid-2012 or newer);
  • Mac mini (late 2012 or newer);
  • iMac (late 2012 or newer);
  • iMac Pro (2017 or newer);
  • Mac Pro (late 2013 or newer).

As you can see, the update is very democratic. Even the old computers seven years ago got a new version of macOS.

How to Create macOS Catalina Bootable Installer for Clean Installation: Things Required

  1. A USB Drive or an external drive with a minimum of 16GB free space.
  2. macOS Catalina Installer File. (Links provided below)

Easy steps to Create macOS Catalina Bootable Installer

Create Macos Catalina Bootable Usb Hackintosh

Step 1: Download the latest version of the macOS Catalina Installer File.

Catalina

You can get the latest version of macOS Catalina from the Apple App Store.

Or, you can download it from the links provided below.

After the download is complete, do not proceed to install the macOS. Instead, close the installer and go to your application and look out for the installer file.

NOTE: The macOS Catalina Installer File must be present in your application folder to proceed with this tutorial.

Step 2: Create macOS Catalina Bootable Installer

Create Macos Catalina Bootable Usb Terminal

To create a macOS Catalina Bootable Installer file, we will be using Terminal from the Applications with the help of a macOS Catalina Installer File.

Now, insert your USB drive or the external drive into the USB port. Before proceeding with the installation, we need to format the USB drive. Now, open the Disk Utility and click on your pen drive and click Erase.

Create A Bootable Macos Catalina Usb Disk

Title: USBFlashDrive
Format: Mac OS X Extended (Journaled).
Scheme: GUID Partition Map.

Once the USB disk has been erased, close the disk Utility and open the Terminal from Applications or Launchpad.

Type the following command.

Note: USBFlashDrive at the end of the comment is the name of the USD drive that you have kept.

Enter your password and wait for the process to finish.

If you are using a Windows PC, you can use this guide- How To Create macOS Catalina Bootable USB on Windows: 4 Easy Steps (+Video Tutorial)

How to Install macOS Catalina from Bootable Installer

  • Insert the Bootable Installer to your MAC.
  • Restart your Mac.
  • Power to the Mac and hold on to the Options button on the keyboard.
  • Select the macOS Catalina alternative from the drop-down menu.
  • Then, the utility window will be opened, you have to pick the disk drive utility. You need to erase the drive that you would like to install macOS Catalina into.
  • Once you’ve finished then click on the Install button and then wait for the setup to complete.

How to Create macOS Catalina Bootable Installer for Clean Installation: Final Words

It was all about How to Create macOS Catalina Bootable Installer for Clean Installation. You can also make a bootable installer for macOS Catalina on Windows, but it needs a lot of time. Here is the guide that you can use- How To Create macOS Catalina Bootable USB on Windows: 4 Easy Steps (+Video Tutorial). In Mac, it has some easy actions to be carried out. If you face any problems, don’t be afraid to leave comments in the comment section below. Here are some Common macOS Catalina Problems and Solutions: 11 Key Errors and their Fix

You can also read: How to Speed Up macOS Catalina? 7 Easy Methods