Advertisement As you may know, you can reinstall macOS on your computer via the internet recovery. But did you know that you can create a bootable USB drive to install macOS from?

This will let you boot your Mac from a different source if it won’t work normally, and makes installs on multiple machines easy. Let’s see how to do this. Choosing a USB Flash Drive for Installing Mac USB flash drives are cheaper than ever, so you won’t have to spend much for this task. However, make sure to buy a name-brand flash drive (like SanDisk, Kingston, or PNY) from a reputable store.

Stay away from super-cheap drives with suspiciously high storage on sites like eBay. These drives have their firmware hacked to report a false size to your operating system. Not only will the transfer speeds be painfully slow, but using them may also result in loss of data or even a damaged USB port. Also, check to see what ports you have on your Mac. The 12″ MacBook has a single USB-C port, while MacBook Pro models from 2016 and later feature USB-C ports exclusively. Fortunately, there are USB-C drives available, or you can use a USB-C to USB-A adapter.

It’s best to go with a USB 3.0 drive, with a minimum size of 16GB. The is good overall value for the money; we’ve highlighted for more options. $9.99 Formatting Your USB Flash Drive You can only create a bootable installer for macOS on a Mac. If you’re using a flash drive that already has data on it, make sure to back up any important files as you’re going to erase everything in a moment. Navigate to Applications > Utilities, and open up Disk Utility. You should see your flash drive under the External section in the left pane. After selecting it, click on the Erase button along the top.

Macs support a variety of file systems. By default, they format disks with the Mac-only OS X Extended file system. But, if you plan on using an external drive with both Macs and PCs, you should format the disk with the exFAT file system instead. Plug the USB drive into the Mac. Avoid plugging it into a USB hub or the USB port on a Mac keyboard. Click the 'Finder,' choose 'Applications,' choose 'Utilities and launch the Drive Utility. This software is part of the Mac operating system. Download google chrome mac version.

Choose a friendly name (which you’ll use later), and make sure to choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for the format. Finally, click Erase and you’re done with this step.

Downloading the macOS Installer To download the macOS installer, open the App Store and search for your version of macOS. Click on the Download button if you’re on High Sierra or earlier. MacOS Mojave is slightly different, as it opens up your System Preferences to download the installer. This is because one of is a new way of installing updates. The experience of building the USB with DiskMaker_X_7 was painless. I am now able to boot to a screen with two icons like the one shown in this article. At this point, I select the USB drive that is named 'Install OS X High Sierra' and that takes me to the menu with 4 choices.