It can be quite easy making an update to the OSX 10.10 Yosemite from the Mac App store for one computer, but when it comes to making updates for several Macs, or even doing a fresh install, you might find it really stressful having to make those updates separately. One way to save yourself the hassle is grabbing the Mac update on a USB thumb drive and installing the update using same drive on all your Macs.

Apr 21, 2018 Step 2: Make the Drive a Yosemite Boot Installer. In a single command you'll create the bootable install drive. To do this, launch Terminal and enter the following command. Note, this assumes that you haven't moved the installer out of your Applications folder. If you have, simply replace '/Applications' with the location of the. UPDATE 09/2017: Create a Bootable macOS High Sierra Install Drive with DiskMaker X 7. Update 09/2015: For help creating a bootable USB install drive for OS X El Capitan, click here. Apple released the latest and greatest Mac operating system last month in the form of OS X Yosemite. And like the previous versions of OS X dating back to OS X 10.7.

It is important to note that running the Yosemite update on your Mac before following the below procedures would erase the installer from your Applications folder. So it is necessary you firstly perform this tutorial using any of the below methods, unless you wish to download a fresh copy of the update again from the app store. Let’s move on to the tutorial.

• Must Read:MAC OS X vs PC Windows – Which Should I Choose / Buy?

Things You’ll Need

• A Mac
• An 8GB USB Flash Drive or larger where you would be burning the OSX Yosemite copy to.
• The OS X 10.10 Yosemite installer from the Mac App Store in your Applications folder
• An Administrator account on your Mac

Method 1: Using DiskMaker X

Using Diskmaker X is the easiest way to burn or make a bootable USB Flash drive. Here is how to go about it.

1. You need to download the Yosemite installer as stated above from the Mac App Store and DiskMaker X .

2. Insert your 8GB (or larger) flash drive into your MAC. Make sure you must have backed up all important stuff, as you will loose them in this process from the flash drive.

3. Launch DiskMaker X. The app will offer to make installers for OS X 10.8, 10.9, and 10.10. Since we wish to install Yosemite, you will have to select 10.10 and let DiskMaker X handle the rest. DiskMaker X would find the Yosemite Installer and have it installed on your thumb drive. If it doesn’t find it, you can click on “Select an Install File” so you can easily navigate to the installer.

After the whole process must have been completed, you can now use this flash drive to install OSX Yosemite to any MAC. It’s actually that simple.

Method 2: Using Terminal

If for some reasons you couldn’t get DiskMaker X working for you, you might want to follow this geeky steps using Terminal to achieve same result.

1. Firstly Download the Yosemite installer.

2. Insert your 8GB (or larger) flash drive (make sure you assign a name to it – I’ll be using Untitled as my drive name for this tutorial). Make sure you format your USB flash drive in OS X Extended (Journaled) using Disk Utility.

3. Launch the Terminal application on your MAC. Then type (or copy and paste) the following command into your Terminal window. Make sure you replace Untitled with the name of your drive. Then hit Enter on your keyboard.

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

4. Now you would be prompted to type in your password, then press Enter again.

Allow terminal to complete the process (this could take close to half an hour). You can take out your USB Flash when you get the Done prompt. After it’s done, you should be able to use your USB Flash drive as a bootable disk to install OSX 10.10 Yosemite on any MAC computer.

Note: The Bootable USB Flash drive would not only be used to install Yosemite on Mac computers, but would also have utilities like Disk Utility and Time Machine recovery.

• Must Read:All There Is To Know About Windows 10

To make use of this thumb drive to install the OSX 10.10 update, you can change the default Startup Disk in System Preferences or by holding down the Option key at boot and selecting the drive.

I hope you find this useful.

By Michael Argentini
Managing Partner, Technology and Design

How do you erase your Mac hard drive and install OS X Yosemite without a startup disk? Normally the answer would be to boot into recovery mode. But what if you need to partition the hard drive, wiping the recovery partition? You need a bootable OS X Yosemite installer. Here's how to make one using Apple's built-in boot drive creation tool.

What You Need

1. The 5GB OS X Yosemite installer app that downloads into your Applications folder when you first install it via the Mac App Store. The file name is Install OS X Yosemite. After you upgrade to Yosemite, this file is deleted. So you have to quit the installer once it appears in order to keep this file.
2. A flash drive, external hard disk, SD card, or the like, with at least 8GB of capacity.
3. Your Mac user account must be an Administrator. If it isn't, go to Users & Groups in System Preferences and assign Administrator to your user account. You can change it back to a standard user when you're finished. You can also sign in to your Mac as the administrator to create the bootable drive.

Step 1: Format Your Drive

First, you must partition and erase the drive so that it can be bootable. To do this, launch Disk Utility and choose the destination drive in the drive list (left column). On the right, in the Erase tab, choose to format the drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). These are the defaults, so just confirm the settings.

Next go to the Partition tab and under Partition Layout choose '1 Partition' in the dropdown menu. Change the name from 'Untitled 1' to 'Untitled'. This is so that the Terminal command below will find the drive. Once the process is complete, the drive name will be 'Install OS X Yosemite'.

Click the 'Options' button. In the dialog that appears, choose 'GUID Partition Table' as the partition scheme, then click 'OK'. Again, this is the default, so just confirm the setting.

Mac Os Sierra

Finally, click 'Apply' to confirm the settings and prepare the drive.

Step 2: Make the Drive a Yosemite Boot Installer

Install Os X Yosemite From Bootable Usb

In a single command you'll create the bootable install drive. Pretty sweet! To do this, launch Terminal and enter the following command. Note, this assumes that you haven't moved the installer out of your Applications folder. If you have, simply replace '/Applications' with the location of the installer:

The sudo command will ask for your password. As you type it will not appear. This is normal. Just enter it and press return to create the boot drive.

During installation, you'll see a progression of status messages.

Mac Os Yosemite Download

Wait until you see a status of 'Done.' When you do, you can safely eject the drive and quit Terminal.

Step 3: Start Up from the Install Drive

If you open the new bootable drive in the Finder, you'll notice that it appears empty, other than the Install OS X Yosemite app. No worries. The boot files are hidden, and the installer app allows you to upgrade without booting from the drive if you don't need to.

To boot from this new installer, shut down the Mac, plug in the bootable drive, and hold down the option key while powering back up. You should eventually see a series of bootable drives. Click on the one named 'Install OS X Yosemite' and press the return key.