How to create a bootable OS X Mavericks Installer
As you may be aware computers are becoming smaller and smaller, most Mac’s do not ship with DVD drives as DVD content can now be installed from USB Sticks, external hard drives or even straight from the internet via the App Store.
Myself and my colleague recently worked on a project of upgrading 10 iMac computers from Lion to OS X Mavericks by using a USB Stick. Not only is it quick and easy to create a bootable USB installer it’s much quicker to install software from a USB device than a CD/DVD due to the speed that the computer can read from a USB stick than a CD/DVD Drive.
Please follow the guide below on how to create a bootable OS X Mavericks installer.
What you will need:
- USB Stick/Flash Drive – Minimum of 8GB (Be aware that this will have to be formatted – backup any essential data first)
- Latest Version of OS X Mavericks from the App Store (Currently 10.9.2)
- Use of a Mac Computer
Please log into the App Store and download Mavericks (Size: 5.30GB)
Firstly we need to prepare the USB Stick, this can be completed within Disk Utility that is already installed on your Mac.
Please Open Disk Utility and format your drive. To do this use the Erase tab and select your USB Device from the left.
Please format the drive using the following settings below.
Format: MS-DOS (FAT)
Name: UNTITLED
You should have a USB Stick that is formatted ready for the next stage.
Now we are ready to copy the Mavericks OS X Installer that we downloaded from the App Store Previously.
Open Terminal – this can be found using Apple’s Spotlight Search or you should be able to find it within Applications
You should see a Window appear, possibly something similar below depending if you have customised the font colour.
Please type (or copy) the following command:
sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia –volume /Volumes/Untitled –applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app –nointeraction
The command above looks for the the installer that we downloaded from the app Store Mavericks.app and copies it to your formatted USB Drive – Untitled
When you have copied the command into the Terminal window please press Enter.
You will be prompted to enter your user account password.
Please Enter your password and press Enter.
You should see the following displayed if the command has worked. The process will run through updating you on screen on the progress. This can take up to half an hour depending on how quick your Mac can write to USB.
Copying installer files to disk
Complete
You should now have a bootable USB installer for OS X Mavericks.
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