To create a bootable USB drive for OS X, you first need to download the desired operating system setup file from Apple, such as OS X 10.10 Yosemite. And, this does not require downloading any third-party tools or paying for extra utilities. The process is easy and any Mac user who considers themselves to be semi-technical will be capable of creating a bootable USB drive containing the Mac OS X installation files. This should also provide is little context around this being a standard process that is supported by Apple. This is becoming especially convenient as newer Macs don’t have (or need) an internal DVD drive.įor reference, Apple has a page that covers how to create a bootable USB drive with the OS X 10.9 Mavericks installation files, but leaves out a few of the details discussed here. When doing this I prefer to use a bootable USB drive instead of a DVD. However, there are times when OS X needs to be installed on a new (blank) hard drive, or, we simply want to perform a “clean install”.
Most people will upgrade their Mac over the top of their existing OS, which is perfectly fine. In this case it is Mac OS X 10.10, or what is better known as Yosemite. It’s Mac OS X season again and with that is a new version of Mac OS X.
