If you have an old flash drive or one that was formatted to work with windows or another operating system, you can still format your flash drive to work on a mac. Get familiar with the following steps and install mac os x 10. How to burn your own os x lion install dvd or usb drive. This format will allow you to use your flash drive on mac without any limitations. Mar 02, 20 i cant find any settings in safari,i have mbp with 128 flash and i dont want to download files to flash memory i will do it instead to usb 3. How to format a drive for mac and pc compatibility. When you install os x lion using the usb thumb drive, you will not be able to. I found instructions on how to format the drive on mac, and it appears that it worked ok, mac says that it has approx 16gb space and is formatted with exfat. In this article, we are taking a closer look at the disk utility, which comes with all recent versions of the mac os x operating system and how you can use it to format usb drive on mac.
If you format your fat32 drive in windows, the drive partition cannot be larger than 32gb. Every mac running os x lion and later has a small 650mb hidden recovery partition called recovery hd located on your mac s internal hard drive which is. Now optionclick on purchases and installed will change to install so that you can re download the installer. Creating a bootable thumb drive that will run lion and fit in your pocket is easy. Rename the usb flash drive, choose the format as msdos fat for format, master boot record for scheme. If you only use a mac computer, you can format your thumb drive so it can work on windows systems. Quit disk utility and continue with a reinstall of os x mountain lion. Dec 17, 2018 mac os extended journaled this format is considered as default file system format of the mac os x drives. Whilst the process of downloading and installing an os through the mac app store is straightforward enough, its painful for people with a slower internet connection, or if theyve multiple macs in their home. Mac free usb flash drive recovery helps you easily recover all lost missing files and folders from your usb media due to wrong deletion, format, power failure. On the page for purchasing the new mac os x lion v10. Also, a few users were wondering how to create a bootable usb thumb drive with the same installer so i have added those steps to. Usb flash drive format tool free download and software. If your mac is from before 2009 or never had os x lion.
Trying to make a bootable os x lion flash drive macrumors. I would like to use it on both mac and windows machines. How to format a flash drive on macos erase usb macmetric. Find out how to format an external drive or usb disk making the drive work with both windows pc and mac can read and write. Find the installer in your applications folder and rightclick on it then. The good news is the disk utility built into the os x comes in handy, like a visual assistant making the process easier. However, for this you need to follow the next steps. This simple guide walks you through the necessary steps. Download installer of os x yosemite, mavericks, mountain lion, and lion we are still able to download yosemite from apple store. Whether external hdds or solidstate chip storage, you can use a compatible usb drive to install macos.
Hi there, well after so much of reading guides and stuff, i got to install mountain lion on a acer 2930z, and it was great, but silly me or stupid me, before i get to boot from hard drive, i modified the usb, and when i tried to get to the new mackintosh i just couldnt get to it, i reinstall unibeast and all of that on the usb but the new hackintosh get stuck on white screen with apple icon. Usb flash drives free delivery possible on eligible purchases. How to make a bootable lion install disc or drive macworld. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wi. The installer should show up in your applications folder. Cleanmydrive is absolutely free to use, so download it on the mac app store and enjoy. Dec 19, 2017 the reasons for wanting to format your mac storage drive may vary depending on immediate need. How to create a bootable installer for macos apple support. Creating a gpt partition to build a mac os x bootable drive on windows 10. The apple mac os x lion thumb drive was incredible simple to use. Confirm that the usb drive will lose its data and enter the admin password when asked. If you search online for os x dmg download you will find many websites that host the dmg file for your mac s operating. Volume format most manufacturers use the fat 32 or msdos fat volume format.
Install os x mountain lion from usb flash drive appducate. Use disk utility to restore this dmg file to a thumb drive to make a lion installation usb drive like you buy from the apple store. Make sure you have right files and know how to do it. After you complete the steps, the usb flash drive from mbr to gpt format, you can use the steps below to create a bootable usb installation media to install mac os x. How to format usb flash drive on mac stepbystep tutorial. Some people are asking for a way to format a hard drive for mac. How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. My hope is to download lion to an external drive, and then boot the macbook air from the external drive. Though a recovery partition will be created when you install os x lion, a installation dvd or thunmb drive is. In the screenshot below, the drive is formatted with the exfat file system. Go to mac apple store use your apple id and login find and download os x yosemite. Select your usb flash drive on the sidebar, choose erase.
Open the file in the applications folder and make a bootable usb thumb drive as set out. How to install mac os x lion from usb flash drive youtube. Apr 18, 2012 creating a bootable thumb drive that will run lion and fit in your pocket is easy. Its very easy to format a usb drive on a mac using disk utility. Sep 19, 2011 the overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats. How to quickly make a mac os x bootable usb on windows. So you might want to use other applications to format your external storage devices. Jul 08, 2011 open the file in the applications folder and make a bootable usb thumb drive as set out.
How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. If you need to connect to a wifi network, use the wifi menu in the menu bar. Follow this guide, and youll be able to do a cleaninstall of mac os x lion on your hackintosh, or upgrade your existing snow leopard installation thats your personal preference. Mac free usb flash drive recovery for mac free download and. There are a couple of things you should keep in mind, however. Formatting your flash drive will typically remove any files or folders on the drive, so make sure you back up your files before. They process was simple, easy, and nohassle at all. Jul 30, 2011 apple mac os x lion is now available to general public. While bootable copies are best made on internal ssds and hdds, they can also be made from usb drives. I bought a licensed copy of mac os x lion because that was what it was asking for, intending to format a usb drive to mac, put the installation disk image on it, and reinstall from that but i dont have a download link, just a redemption code for the mac app store that i cant access. We all make mistakes, and you wouldnt be the first person in the world to accidentally format a usb flash drive. How to mount os x lion to a flash drive hard drive and clean install mac os x lion. Again, formatting a drive will erase it completely, so make sure you have everything backed up that you want to keep. Even so, its still easy to create a usb installation disk for os x lion if you want to install lion on a freshly formatted hard drive, if youre in an emergency booting situation, or if you need to repair your mac s hard drive.
Why make a bootable usb install drive for mac mountain lion os. Learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. Step 1 plug in the usb flash drive then open the transmac right click on your usb flash drive thats appears on your left hand side then go to format disk and click format disk. Download hp usb disk storage format tool on mac, install it on emulated windows. With mac os extended journaled format, you can setup os x startup drive. Apple mac os x lion is now available to general public.
If you need to install multiple copies on a few computers, or even prefer not to have to download a new copy every time you have to install the mac os. I have a write protected sandisk that once used on mac and once used for linux boot. That said, im trying to prepare to upgrade my mbp hard drive to a ssd so i am trying to make a bootable os x lion usb flash drive. Starting with os x lion, apple did away with dvds and other media as a method of installing software and switched to a download model instead. Downloading mac os x lion to usb drive on apple community. Os x lion server may not be available on usb thumb drive, or so were left to understand with apple outlining that mac os x lion server requires lion and is available from the mac app store. How to create a bootable mac os x flash drive pcworld.
Disk utility will now create a bootable os x mountain lion installer drive out of usb drive using the disk image, this can take a little while depending on how fast the drive and mac. Power on the computer while holding down the option key. How to create a bootable usb drive for macos sierra. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos. Disk drill, a premium data recovery solution for mac os x with support for all popular file formats and common storage devices, is here to help you recover deleted files from usb flash drive. Install the parallels desktop emulator on your mac os. Jul 11, 2012 how to install mac os x lion from usb flash drive anderson araujo.
Usb disk storage format tool by authorsoft corporation is a free utility that allows you to easily format your usb flash drives. Download lion from the mac app storebut dont install it yet, because of the disappearing installer issue noted above. The main reason to make the bootable usb drive is to not have to download the 4gb file every time you want to do a reinstall of the mountain lion operating system. Mar 12, 2020 a bootable installer doesnt download macos from the internet, but it does require the internet to get information specific to your mac model, such as firmware updates. How to install macos or os x on a new hard drive for your mac. Go to applications utilities double click and open disk utility. To use the os x lion dvd and usb flash drive, you press and hold option key when you hear mac startup chime at start up.
The hp usb format tool allows you to format the usb flash drive in the mac os x. A bootable mac os x thumb drive comes in handy when you need to troubleshoot os issues for yourself, your family, or your friends. Format your thumbdrive using a guid partition table, and mac os extended journaled, then you can run the lion installer and install lion. How to create a bootable install usb drive of mac os x 10.
This guide will teach you how to create a bootable usb flash drive of mac os x lion 10. Download and create usb installer for mac os x yosemite. Make os x lion offline installer dvd and usb thumb drive. How to redirect download files in safari to usb flash drive. How to boot into os x lion installer dvd or usb thumb drive. Mar 12, 2020 connect the usb flash drive or other volume that youre using for the bootable installer. Type or paste one of the following commands in terminal.
This mode is only available on apple computers made after 2009 that were running os x lion or later. The other limitation is the total size of the partition. By default, mac starts from its builtin hard disk, but a startup disk can be any storage device that contains bootable contents that compatible with your mac. If you have an external hard drive or usb flash drive that youd like to use on both macs and windows pcs, choosing the right file system to format the drive can be confusing. Dec 01, 2016 how to create a mac os x usb boot drive on windows kevin muldoon. Some people may want to format a storage because they want to clean hard drive mac and others might want to install fresh os x. This is the process i used to create a bootable usb drive of mountain lion os x for my macbook pro. This article will help you create a mac os x or macos recovery usb drive to use in case of disaster or no boot from internal hard drive. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. Click the erase tab, select your hard drive, and then erase the disk. Hi, a relative gave me their sandisk cruzer glide 16gb usb drive. Make sure that it has at least 12gb of available storage and is formatted as mac os extended. Some flash drives have to be formatted first before you can store files on them.
Jul 24, 2015 how to create usb installer for mac os x step 1. Mac free usb flash drive recovery for mac free download. The best thing to do is download it once and create a bootable install usb drive from the file for all of your macs. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Whether you are trying to backup mac to an external hard drive, wipe out any personal information and sell the computer, or even use a new operating system, you need to format the hard drive on your mac or pc. Jun 26, 2017 so by following this guide, you can install mac os x lion on your hackintosh using only a usb thumb drive.
This format is considered as default file system format of the mac os x drives. If you want to use a different file system on your usb drive, youll need to format it. How to burn os x mountain lion to a dvd or usb flash drive. You will learn the easiest way to format drive on mac and windows as exfat. Mac os x installation basics sata drive seagate support us. This is a usb flash drive with a specific macos or os x installer on it. Apple file system format or the older mac os extended format, and it automatically chooses a compatible format for you. Getting lion from the app store is convenient, but if you want a physical copy of the installation, you can easily make your own lion install dvd or usb drive with disk utility. Formatting cruzer glide for windows and mac sandisk forums.
Usb flash drive format tool erases my usb flash drive for more than 10 passes. Best usb format tools pen drive stick formatters for. The first is that when you format and disk, you will erase all the data currently on it. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. How to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows.
So, sometimes it is even more helpful to create a video that explains the process, so i quickly put one together. I would recommend this to anyone who need to update their software, and i will be looking for thumb drives for additional updates in the future. There are many reasons why you may want to use a usb flash drive to install mac os x mountain lion. This wikihow teaches you how to change your flash drives default file format.
How to install macos on a usb drive make tech easier. Use these steps to create a bootable media to install mac os x. How to upgrade or install mac os x lion on a hackintosh using. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive. How to format a drive for mac and pc compatibility macyourself. Open terminal, which is in the utilities folder of your applications folder. Its also extremely useful for keeping your basic setup consistent across multiple computers, if you find yourself switching hardware regularly. Jul 16, 2019 the reinstall option in disk repair keeps failing. The release date of usb disk storage format tool for mac is unknown and we cannot say for sure if it will be released at all.
Transferring a 4gb or larger file to a usb flash drive or. The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os x, though with some drawbacks. This guide provides 2 ways to boot a mac from a usb flash drive. After downloading, os x yosemite installer will appear in applications. For example, if you install macos or microsoft windows on a usb drive, your mac can recognize that drive as a startup disk.
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