Partitioning, naming and formatting the external hard drive In this example the drive is a 1TB USB 3.0 external hard drive that is preformatted in the Microsoft File Allocation Table (FAT) format. Essentially, it's just the downloading of the particular OS X installer required, the correctly formatting of an external volume and the installation of OS X.Ĭorrectly Formatting an External Volume Connect an external drive The process for installing OS X on an external volume is quite straight-forward. I do not particuarly recommend using an SD Card or a USB 2.0 external drive.
#OS X YOSEMITE INSTALLER INSTALL#
For example, if the Mac originally shipped with OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, then it is not normally possible to install OS X 10.7 Lion. You should also note that it is not normally possible to install a version of OS X prior to the version that originally shipped with the particular Mac that you are using. With USB 2.0 the experience is quite slow. This is down to the transfer speeds possible. It is possible, theoretically, to run OS X from any of these different types of media though–practically speaking–it is probably best to choose USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt. You can install OS X to a choice of media, such as USB drive, SD Card or an external hard drive connected via USB 2.0, USB 3.0, FireWire or Thunderbolt.
#OS X YOSEMITE INSTALLER HOW TO#
Whilst this tutorial is entitled How to Install OS X Yosemite Onto an External Volume, the same principles apply for installing Lion, Mountain Lion or Mavericks on to an external volume. In this tutorial I'll show you how to install OS X on an external drive without replacing the particular version of the operating system, on the Mac, itself.
This is easy if you have a number of Macs, less so if you have just one. Mv /tmp/Yosemite.cdr ~/Desktop/Yosemite.Sometimes it would be great to be able to try different versions of the OS X operating system before upgrading. Hdiutil convert /tmp/Yosemite.sparseimage -format UDTO -o /tmp/Yosemite
Hdiutil resize -size `hdiutil resize -limits /tmp/Yosemite.sparseimage | tail -n 1 | awk ''`b /tmp/Yosemite.sparseimage Rm /Volumes/install_build/System/Installation/PackagesĬp -rp /Volumes/install_app/Packages /Volumes/install_build/System/Installation/Ĭp -rp /Volumes/install_app/BaseSystem.chunklist /Volumes/install_buildĬp -rp /Volumes/install_app/BaseSystem.dmg /Volumes/install_build
Hdiutil attach /tmp/Yosemite.sparseimage -noverify -nobrowse -mountpoint /Volumes/install_build
Hdiutil resize -size 8g /tmp/Yosemite.sparseimage Hdiutil convert /Volumes/install_app/BaseSystem.dmg -format UDSP -o /tmp/Yosemite Hdiutil attach /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg -noverify -nobrowse -mountpoint /Volumes/install_app You may then boot up from it by holding the option key down and then install Yosemite.
#OS X YOSEMITE INSTALLER FULL#
If you prefer to make a bootable dvd, you can do it this way:Īfter downloading the full Yosemite installer app from the Mac App Store, run these 14 commands in Terminal to create a Yosemite.iso file and then burn it to a dual layer DVD with Disk Utility.