In each command, replace the name MyVolume with the name of your volume. These commands are dependent on the installer being in your Applications folder. At the Terminal prompt, type or copy and paste (easier and more accurate) one of the following commands.Find the Terminal app in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.For this article, I used a 2TB USB hard disk drive erased and formatted as Mac OS Extended and given the name Installer. Plug in the USB flash drive or formatted volume you’re using for the bootable install disk.When the file is downloaded, double-click it to install an app named “Install OS X El Capitan” into your Applications folder. The installer has the name “Install macOS ”.įor Mac OS X El Capitan, the link downloads a disk image file named InstallMacOSX.dmg.

For macOS Big Sur, macOS Catalina, macOS Mojave or macOS High Sierra, the links download an installer directly into your app folder. To ensure that you’re getting a valid, un-hacked, and legal version of macOS, you need to download it directly from Apple.

The macOS Big Sur download page in the Mac App Store

Create bootable iso usb for mac