In fact, you have a couple of ways to do this: either using Disk Utility to format the drive before installing macOS or cloning your drive using a third-party tool.
#Download mac os x iso to usb install#
macOS users can also install the OS onto a USB drive and work with the same installation that’s on your internal (and faster) drive. Linux users know that booting from a USB drive is a useful way to get into the OS. In short, we don’t recommend it, and it’s likely not supported.
We also don’t know whether you’ll experience issues if you look to install an older OS you don’t own. Though, if your Mac is based on Apple Silicon, you may find incompatibilities. Users can download Monterey, which is a minor update compared to the previous Big Sur version, on their computers for free. Apple officially released the macOS Monterey 12 operating system, which it introduced at WWDC on June 7, 2021, on October 25, 2021. In theory, there’s no reason why you couldn’t boot an older version of macOS, and Apple does offer ways to install older versions on a USB. macOS Monterey 12 ISO File for VMware Workstation, VirtualBox, ESXi, or Mac. Can I boot older versions of macOS from a USB drive? Our testing gave us no issues when using a USB 2.0 to USB-C connector, so you’re able to press your older USB drives into service. Am I able to use a USB connection other than USB-C? We recommend 16GB to give yourself enough “wiggle room” when it comes to the installation process. As such, you’ll need a large enough USB drive to store Big Sur. In our experience, you will not be able to do this. Can I split an installation across multiple USB drives? Disk operations on the boot drive can be performed safely from a USB stick as well.
You can now run the operating system as normal and use this USB drive to boot up your Mac.
For Intel Macs, restart and hold the Option key to enter into the boot selection dialog.įor both types of machines, use your keyboard’s arrow keys to select the USB drive from the list of bootable devices, click to confirm, and your USB drive will begin to boot.