Mar 24, 2014  An external hard drive containing a bootable copy of OS X is probably the most important tool for any Mac technician to have. Whether you're trying to troubleshoot a failed software update or need to install Mavericks onto hundreds of Macs, an external hard drive loaded with OS X can be just what you need to perform whatever software task might be needed. Apr 28, 2017  Join GitHub today. GitHub is home to over 40 million developers working together to host and review code, manage projects, and build software together. Jun 18, 2016 Additionally, we are also providing the MD5 and SHA1 hash values for the original disk image file (InstallESD.dmg) found within the processed OS X El Capitan app package. If you wish to download the raw package (ftk304584541.pkg) from alternate sources, such as torrents, you can verify the authenticity of the file using its MD5.

This guide deals with 3 ways of making a boot disk from OSX 10.9 Mavericks the first one is the fastest and is done via the Terminal from a new command already in OSX Mavericks called createinstallmedia , the other 2 are older ways when Mavericks was in development and are done with a mixture of finder using Disk Utility and command line.

Quickest Way

Download Mac OSX 10.9Mavericks but don’t install.

Attach your USB stick/drive.

Launch the Terminal from /Applications/Utilities and enter the command below and then your password when prompted, be sure to change the ‘Untitled‘ name in the below command to your external disk name:

Let it do its thing and there you have it, one bootable Mac OSX 9 drive.

This really is a super simple way – however if using the Terminal fills you with fear and dread, there are some GUI apps that can get the job done namely DiskMakerX and a new imaging tool that can clone a new disk very quickly – AutoDMG.

A lot of easier to find an app for making a bootable USB from ISO file. How to burn dmg file to dvd in windows 7. Considering the above, let's look at different ways to from a DMG file on a Windows computer. The easy way to do this is to use Command Prompt. Part 1: Convert DMG to ISO and Make Bootable USB from ISOSince Windows doesn't offer native support for DMG files, you can first convert the file to ISO.

Alternative Ways of building a Bootable Mavericks OSX Disk.

To make a boot disk of OSX 10.9 Mavericks, first of all get the app or download via the App store, if downloaded it will file in the folder Applications.

Control / Left click Options, Show in Finder to get to the app, don’t install at this stage.

Located in the Applications Folder

Finding the InstallESD.dmg

To find the actual InstallESD.dmg file, control/left click the ‘Install OS X Mavericks’ app and choose show contents – then navigate to Shared Support folder.

Control/Right click to show contents

Navigate to Shared Support folder to see the InstallESD.dmg file

Mount InstallESD.dmg

Double click to mount the image.

Make Invisible Files Visible

Installesd.dmg Can Be Found Within The App Structure If Needed Movie

We need to see the BaseSystem.dmg inside the InstallESD.dmg

Crank open Terminal and run:

This will show all invisible files have a look inside the mounted InstallESD.dmg

Mount an External Disk

Attach a USB/external drive – this guide uses the external drive name calledBootDisk, you need to make sure the format is correct, it needs to be Mac OSX Extended Journaled – it its not you can format that in Disk Utility.

Launch Disk Utility

Launch Disk Utility as found in Applications/Utilities and go to the Restore tab.

Drag BaseSystem.dmg to the Source field and your external disk to the Destination and click Restore.

This will mount your new OSX 10.9 external disk and name it OSX Base System – but we need to add the packages.

Fix the Packages

Couple of things to fix in the newly created boot disk, remove the Packagealias at System/Installation/ folder

Now from the previously mounted InstallESD.dmg copy over the Packages folder to the same location where we just removed the alias above.

Will take a while as it holds all the install packages.

Job done now you can boot from the OSX 10.9 disk.

Make the Visible back to Invisible

If you want all to return back to normal and hide the system files run a couple more commands in the Terminal

How to create the OSX 10.9 Mavericks Bootable Drive just via Terminal

Just for the crazy ones……after Mavericks is downloaded….and again this assumes you external disk is named BootDisk

Mount the InstallESD.dmg buried deep in the app

Swap to the newly mounted image

This puts you back in the Finder in front of the newly mounted InstallESD.dmg, go back to Terminal and clone the BaseSystem.dmg to the remote USB drive

This will change ‘BootDisk‘ to ‘OS X Base System‘

Remove the existing Packages alias link from the newly restored image

Copy the full OSX Mavericks Packages over to the new image….takes a while

And there it is! – to eject the new bootable USB OSX Mavericks 10.9 disk ‘cd’ to home and eject

Now you can boot up from your newly bootable disk and either Install OSX10.9 on another device or use the Terminal/Disk Utility or Firmware Password Utilities on another device.

Introduction

Apple officially released OS X 10.11 El Capitan operating system in September 2015 as an update through Apple App Store. This actualization will update core of your system and preserve your user data.

However, if you want to have a clean installation of El Capitan on your Mac you will need to create a special installation USB drive and in this article we will show you how.

Four ways how to create El Capitan USB installation flash drive:

Preparation - get OS X El Capitan installer and USB flash drive

Download El Capitan installer (Install OS X El Capitan.app in Applications folder) available in Mac App Store.

Prepare a flash drive with OS X Disk Utility. Format it with GUID Partition Table and name it as Untitled. The minimal capacity of flash drive must be 8 GB.

How to create El Capitan installation USB drive with createinstallmedia tool

The createinstallmedia is a command line tool distributed with OS X installer.

When you have prepared your USB flash drive and El Capitan installer is downloaded from App Store ► open Terminal and type command:

sudo /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app --nointeraction

In our case 'Untitled' is the name of USB flash drive! Replace 'Untilled' by name of your flash drive.
Wait a few minutes and your El Capitan installation USB drive will be prepared.

To install OS X El Capitan ► restart computer ► hold the Option key and select Installation USB drive from the menu.

How to create El Capitan USB installation with Terminal commands

When your USB flash drive is ready and El Capitan installer downloaded from App Store ► Open Terminal and type the following sequence of commands:

sudo hdiutil attach /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg

sudo asr restore -source /Volumes/OS X Install ESD/BaseSystem.dmg -target /Volumes/Untitled -erase -format HFS+

sudo rm /Volumes/OS X Base System/System/Installation/Packages

sudo cp -a /Volumes/OS X Install ESD/Packages /Volumes/OS X Base System/System/Installation/Packages

sudo cp -a /Volumes/OS X Install ESD/BaseSystem.chunklist /Volumes/OS X Base System

sudo cp -a /Volumes/OS X Install ESD/BaseSystem.chunklist /Volumes/OS X Base System

sudo cp -a /Volumes/OS X Install ESD/BaseSystem.dmg /Volumes/OS X Base System

hdiutil detach /Volumes/OS X Install ESD

Now wait until your bootable installation flash drive with OS X 10.11 El Capitan is made.

To install OS X El Capitan ► restart computer ► hold the Option key and select Installation USB drive from the menu.

How to create El Capitan USB installation with Disk Utility and Finder

When your USB flash drive is ready and El Capitan installer downloaded from App Store ► Open Terminal and type:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles 1 && killall Finder

This command allows you to view hidden files in Finder.

Now Open Finder ► Applications ► Install OS X El Capitan.app ► right click ► Select Show Package Contents option.

Navigate to Contents/SharedSupport ► Mount InstallESD.dmg file

Open OS X Install ESD archive in Finder and mount BaseSystem.dmg archive

Connect USB drive and open Disk Utility (/Applications/Utilities)

Select the USB drive from the list of disks, select Restore tab and pick Select OS X Base System archive as a source and USB flash drive as the destination. When ready click on Restore button.

After the Restore process is finished, open Finder ► open USB drive (OS X Base System) ► go to the System/Installation folder and select Packages file and delete it.

Open OS X Install ESD volume in Finder, select Packages folder and copy them to System/Installation folder on USB drive.

Also copy BaseSystem.chunklist and BaseSystem.dmg files from InstallESD.dmg volume to root of USB flash drive (OS X Base System).

Now your El Capitan installation USB drive is prepared and ready for use.

To install OS X El Capitan ► restart computer ► hold the Option key and select Installation USB drive from the menu.

How to create El Capitan USB installation disk with DiskMaker X

DiskMaker X tool is Wizard like tool that allows you create OS X installation disk. Download DiskMaker X to your Mac and copy it to Applications folder.

Installesd.dmg Can Be Found Within The App Structure If Needed To Go

When you have prepared your USB flash drive and El Capitan installer is downloaded from App Store ► open DiskMaker X.

Select version of OS X (in our case El Capitan)

Select copy of OS X installation app

Select USB drive that will be used for USB installation

And wait a few minutes till the the DiskMaker X finish creating process.

To install OS X El Capitan ► restart computer ► hold the Option key and select Installation USB drive from the menu.