NOTE: The macOS Catalina Installer File must be present in your application folder to proceed with this tutorial. Step 2: Create macOS Catalina Bootable Installer. To create a macOS Catalina Bootable Installer file, we will be using Terminal from the Applications with the help of a macOS Catalina Installer File. This change makes is a bit tricky to create a bootable install media like a USB stick or memory card. Albeit not as straightforward as before, but it is definitely possible to make a bootable installer for macOS Catalina. This tutorial shows how to do that. Update – 12th November, 2020: The latest update to macOS is out now. Jul 14, 2020 Bootable USB installers offer an easy way to upgrade multiple Macs to macOS Catalina, to perform clean installs of MacOS Catalina, to perform maintenance from a boot disk like formatting disks, modifying disk partitions, and performing restorations, and much more.
In the guide, we will learn How to Create macOS Catalina Bootable Installer for Clean Installation. With macOS Catalina Bootable Installer you can simply use it to install macOS Catalina on your MAC. The steps are pretty easy, so you can simply sit back and relax and read this guide on How to Create macOS Catalina Bootable Installer for Clean Installation.
For Windows PC, you can use this guide- How To Create macOS Catalina Bootable USB on Windows: 4 Easy Steps (+Video Tutorial)
Who can upgrade?
- MacBook (early 2015 or newer);
- MacBook Air (mid-2012 or newer);
- MacBook Pro (mid-2012 or newer);
- Mac mini (late 2012 or newer);
- iMac (late 2012 or newer);
- iMac Pro (2017 or newer);
- Mac Pro (late 2013 or newer).
As you can see, the update is very democratic. Even the old computers seven years ago got a new version of macOS.
How to Create macOS Catalina Bootable Installer for Clean Installation: Things Required
- A USB Drive or an external drive with a minimum of 16GB free space.
- macOS Catalina Installer File. (Links provided below)
Easy steps to Create macOS Catalina Bootable Installer
Step 1: Download the latest version of the macOS Catalina Installer File.
You can get the latest version of macOS Catalina from the Apple App Store.
Or, you can download it from the links provided below.
After the download is complete, do not proceed to install the macOS. Instead, close the installer and go to your application and look out for the installer file.
NOTE: The macOS Catalina Installer File must be present in your application folder to proceed with this tutorial.
Step 2: Create macOS Catalina Bootable Installer
To create a macOS Catalina Bootable Installer file, we will be using Terminal from the Applications with the help of a macOS Catalina Installer File.
Now, insert your USB drive or the external drive into the USB port. Before proceeding with the installation, we need to format the USB drive. Now, open the Disk Utility and click on your pen drive and click Erase.
Title: USBFlashDrive
Format: Mac OS X Extended (Journaled).
Scheme: GUID Partition Map.
Once the USB disk has been erased, close the disk Utility and open the Terminal from Applications or Launchpad.
Type the following command.
Note: USBFlashDrive at the end of the comment is the name of the USD drive that you have kept.
Make Bootable Installer Catalina
Enter your password and wait for the process to finish.
If you are using a Windows PC, you can use this guide- How To Create macOS Catalina Bootable USB on Windows: 4 Easy Steps (+Video Tutorial)
How to Install macOS Catalina from Bootable Installer
- Insert the Bootable Installer to your MAC.
- Restart your Mac.
- Power to the Mac and hold on to the Options button on the keyboard.
- Select the macOS Catalina alternative from the drop-down menu.
- Then, the utility window will be opened, you have to pick the disk drive utility. You need to erase the drive that you would like to install macOS Catalina into.
- Once you’ve finished then click on the Install button and then wait for the setup to complete.
How to Create macOS Catalina Bootable Installer for Clean Installation: Final Words
It was all about How to Create macOS Catalina Bootable Installer for Clean Installation. You can also make a bootable installer for macOS Catalina on Windows, but it needs a lot of time. Here is the guide that you can use- How To Create macOS Catalina Bootable USB on Windows: 4 Easy Steps (+Video Tutorial). In Mac, it has some easy actions to be carried out. If you face any problems, don’t be afraid to leave comments in the comment section below. Here are some Common macOS Catalina Problems and Solutions: 11 Key Errors and their Fix
You can also read: How to Speed Up macOS Catalina? 7 Easy Methods
An external drive that you can use as an installer for macOS Catalina is a handy thing to have. If you have multple Macs to upgrade, it’s a lot more efficient to plug in the USB installer drive and run the installer than to log into the App Store, download the 8.09GB OS installer, and then run it.
In this article I’ll go over the different ways you can create a bootable macOS Catalina installation drive. But before I give instructions on how to create the drive, I’ll go over the items you’ll need and how to get them.
Get an external drive and maybe an adapter
The macOS Catalina installer software is over 8GB, so you need a USB external drive that can hold that much data. The drive can be a thumb drive, hard drive, or SSD.
If you have a 2015 or newer MacBook or a 2016 or newer MacBook Pro, you may need Apple’s $19 USB to USB-C adapter. This will allow you to connect a storage device that uses a USB type-A connector. If you don’t have an external drive and you have a USB-C Mac laptop, you could buy the SanDisk Ultra USB Type-C Flash Drive, which has a USB-C connector. You can get model number SDCZ450-016G-G46.
Bootable Installer Catalina
How to create a bootable macOS Catalina installer drive Put the macOS Catalina installer on an external USB thumb drive or hard drive and use it to install the operating system on a Mac. Turn on your Mac and continue to hold the power button until you see the startup options window, which shows your bootable volumes and a gear icon labled Options. Select the volume containing the bootable installer, then click Continue. When the macOS installer opens, follow the onscreen instructions. MacOS Catalina Patcher lets you install macOS Catalina on Mac computers that are no longer officially supported. It can help you create a bootable USB drive that can be used to install macOS Catalina on Mac computers older than mid 2012. Point to your Mac OS.dmg or.iso file by clicking the add button. After that TransMac will create bootable Mac OS USB within few minutes. Then you can insert it into your Mac, hold down the option key while turn on and boot your system with this USB. If you’re unable to use Internet Recovery Mode or create a bootable USB installer, you can still use a Mac OS X installation disc. These discs are available for OS X Snow Leopard, OS X Lion, and OS X Mountain Lion. If your Mac is from 2012 or earlier, there was an installation disc in the original box.
When creating the boot drive, the storage device is reformatted, so there’s no need to format the drive beforehand.
Get the macOS Catalina installer software
The macOS Catalina installer is available in the App Store. If you launch the App Store app, do a search for “Catalina.” Or, if you click this Catalina App Store link, it will take you to the Catalina App Store webpage, then click on the “View in the Mac App Store” button.
You can read the information to learn more about Catalina. When you’re ready to download the software, click the Download button. (If you’ve already downloaded the installer, the button will say Install instead of Get.)
Once the download is complete, the installer will launch automatically. But don’t continue with the installation. Instead, press Command-Q on your keyboard to quit the installer.
The Catalina installer app will be in your Applications folder, so you can go there and launch it later to upgrade your Mac to the new operating system.
Make a bootable installer drive: The quick way
I used a free app called Install Disk Creator to make the installation drive. Download Install Disk Creator by clicking on the link. When the download is done, you can move it over to your Applications folder. Then follow these steps to create your bootable macOS Catalina drive.
1. Connect your drive to your Mac.
2. Launch Install Disk Creator.
3. In the main window, you’ll see a pop-up menu under Select the volume to become the installer. Click on the menu and select your drive.
4. Under the pop-up menu, you’ll see Select the OS X installer. (macOS used to be called OS X.) If you have only the Catalina installer on your Mac, Install Disk Creator will automatically select it. If you have other macOS installers, you need to click on Select the OS X installer and select the Catalina installer.
5. When you’re ready, click Create installer. Your Mac may tell you that Install Disk Creator wants to make changes, and you need to enter your user name and password. After you do this, the app will take a few minutes to create the boot drive. A progress bar. appears at the bottom of the Install Disk Create window.
If you try to start the process and you get a failure message saying that the drive couldn’t be unmounted, try reformatting the drive first as ExFAT using Disk Utility. Then start the process over again.
Create Bootable Usb Mac Catalina
When the app is done, the installer is ready to use.