There are various ways to boot macOS. Aside from using the built-in Startup Manager, you can also boot into Verbose, Safe, and Target Disk modes. In addition to this, macOS users also have an option of picking a disk to boot the operating system from.
After downloading Flash Player, close all browsers. Locate the Flash Player install file. Unless you have specified otherwise, the file is saved in.
But let’s delve into something more specific. You’re about to find out how to boot your Mac up directly from external storage, specifically flash storage or a USB-based flash drive.
Related:Create bootable flash drive for Windows 10.
Why You Need to Boot from External Drive?
There are many occasions you may have trouble with your Mac.
- Corrupted system files and Mac crashes unexpectedly.
- Mac runs very slow with sufficient storage.
- You have deleted some system files wrongly.
- You couldn’t login to your Mac.
- Troubleshooting purposes.
Let’s begin with the obvious question here; what are the basic requirements for creating bootable USB for Mac?
How to Create Bootable USB Drive for Mac?
- USB drive with sufficient storage space.
- Access to a working and supported Mac.
- Format USB to Apple supported file system.
- Get installer file for macOS.
- Create bootable USB.
- Booting Mac from Startup Manager.
If you are not able to login to your Mac, you need to use Time Machine backup disk. Otherwise you should have another Mac for creating a bootable USB.
1. USB Drive
The macOS installer file is large with approximate size of 6 to 10GB depending upon the version. Also the process needs to sufficient storage space on your USB. So ensure to have at least 32GB or greater storage space on your USB drive.
Remember to copy and backup the USB since you need to delete the entire content for creating the bootable drive.
2. An Intel Based Mac
Apple transitioned to an Intel processors in 2005. In other words, if your Mac is not older than 2005, you should be fine.
3. Format USB Flash Drive to Apple File System
First, plug in your USB drive. Press “Command +Spacebar” to access Spotlight, then type “Disk Utility”. You can view the current file system of the USB drive. In our example, we have FAT32 file system which is compatible on Windows. You need to erase and format the USB to be compatible with your Mac.
Click on the “Erase” button on “Disk Utility” and choose the format as either APFS or Mac OS Extended. In most cases, your Mac will show the supported format by default and you don’t need to change it. On older Mac, you will see an additional scheme option, choose “GUID Partition Map”. Click on “Erase” button to continue further.
Disk Utility will delete all content on the USB and format it in the selected APFS or Mac OS Extended format.
Formatted USB Drive in Mac OS Extended File Format
4. MacOS Installer File
In order to create a bootable USB drive for Mac, you need download Mac OS installer. Open App Store on your Mac and search for the latest macOS version. Remember, App Store will only have the latest version which is macOS Mojave at this point when we write this article. Search for “macOS mojave” and click on the “Get” button.
This will start downloading the installer file to your “Applications” folder.
5. Creating USB Installer
After downloading, the installer will automatically ask you to install macOS Mojave. Simply quit the installer without starting the installation.
- At this point, ensure you have inserted the formatted USB drive, let’s say the name of the USB volume is “Boot Disk”.
- Also make sure the downloaded macOS installer file is in “Applications” folder.
- Press “Command + Spacebar” and search for “terminal” to open Terminal app.
- Copy and paste the below command in Terminal and hit enter.
sudo /Applications/Install macOS Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia –volume /Volumes/Boot Disk
- You need to enter admin password to proceed further.
- Terminal will ask you to confirm erasing the volume, press Y and hit enter to confirm.
Ready to start.
To continue we need to erase the volume at /Volumes/Boot Disk.
If you wish to continue type (Y) then press return:
- Now the erase disk process will start to copy the installer file on the USB drive. After successful completion of the process, name of the USB drive will be changed similar to the installer file name like “Install macOS Mojave”.
Note that Apple discourages booting with an earlier macOS version than the version your device is shipped with.
6. Boot Mac from USB
Follow the below process to boot your Mac from bootable USB:
- Insert the bootable USB installer drive and go to “Apple Menu > Restart”.
- When your Mac restarts, press and hold the Option key till “Startup Manager” opens.
- The Startup Manager scans and lists the drives that are connected and bootable.
- Note that the Startup Manager will only list volumes that include bootable volumes. If you only see “Macintosh HD” like below then the USB drive is not connected to your Mac or not created properly with the installer file.
- Select your Wi-Fi network name from the “Choose Network…” dropdown and enter the password to connect to internet. Remember, you need to have an internet connection for installing from USB as the installer needs to get updates for your Mac from Apple’s server.
- Double click on your USB that contains the macOS installer or highlight it and press the return key.
- You will see macOS Recovery app and choose “Install macOS” option from Utilities.
- It may take long time depending upon your Mac to start booting with macOS Mojave.
Wrapping Up
As simple as the process seems, it tells you a lot about your system. For example, if a USB flash drive that contains a bootable copy of macOS doesn’t show up on the Startup manager, you may need to repair the disk permission. Also, remember to format the USB drive with a APFS or Mac OS Extended format.
That said, now you know how to boot up another version of or a copy of macOS and troubleshoot possible issues with your device.
Having trouble installing Adobe Flash Player? Identify your issue and try the corresponding solution.
1. Have you checked if Flash Player is already installed on your computer?
2. Are you being asked to close the browser?
On Safari, the installer closes the browser to proceed with the installation.
Follow these instructions.
3. Have you checked if Flash Player is enabled in your browser?
For Firefox on any OS, see Enable Flash Player for Firefox.
For Safari on Mac OS, see Enable Flash Player for Safari.
For Google Chrome, see Enable Flash Player for Chrome.
For Opera, see Enable Flash Player for Opera.
4. Did the installer start installing?
You don’t know where the Flash Player installer has been downloaded.
By default, the files are downloaded and saved to the Downloads folder unless the 'save to' location is changed manually.
- After downloading Flash Player, close all browsers.
- Locate the Flash Player install file. Unless you have specified otherwise, the file is saved in your Downloads folder.
- Double-click the installer file to begin the Flash Player installation.
Choose Window > Downloads or press Option+Command+L. Control-click the downloaded file and choose Show in Finder.
5. Are you unable to resolve the issue?
The rich-media content does not work, and you do not know what the issue is.
Uninstall Flash Player and perform a clean install of Flash Player.
6. Do you have password-related issues?
If you are unable to authenticate successfully, check your user name and password. Use your system credentials, not your Adobe ID.
Enter system user name and password when prompted
Still having problems?
If you are still having trouble installing Adobe Flash Player, try downloading the installer directly from the following sites:
- Flash Player for Safari and Firefox - NPAPI
- Flash Player for Opera and Chromium-based browsers - PPAPI
Also see:
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