Boot From Usb Key Mac

These advanced steps are primarily for system administrators and others who are familiar with the command line. You don't need a bootable installer to upgrade macOS or reinstall macOS, but it can be useful when you want to install on multiple computers without downloading the installer each time.

Usb

Press and hold the Option (Alt) ⌥ key immediately after turning on or restarting your Mac. Release the Option key when you see a dark screen showing your bootable volumes. Select the volume containing the bootable installer. Then click the up arrow or press Return. To boot a PowerMac (or an iMac, iBook, eMac, etc.) from an USB stick or drive, if you have a G5 or late G4 model, first refer to the boot from CD guide and if it does not work, then follow these instructions: 1. Plug your USB stick or drive in an USB port 2. Booting from a USB Drive 1. Restart your Mac and hold down the Option key to enter into the boot selection dialog. Use your keyboard’s arrow keys to select the USB drive from the list of bootable devices. Your USB drive will begin to boot.

What you need to create a bootable installer

  • A USB flash drive or other secondary volume, formatted as Mac OS Extended, with at least 12GB of available storage
  • A downloaded installer for macOS Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra, or El Capitan
  • To actually boot the drive, reboot your Mac and hold down the Option key while it boots. You’ll see the boot options menu appear. Select the connected USB drive. The Mac will boot the Linux system from the connected USB drive.
  • These are instructions on how to make a bootable USB install key for macOS Catalina. Step One Connect a 16GB or larger USB key to your computer then launch the Mac App Store from your dock.

Download macOS

  • Download: macOS Big Sur, macOS Catalina, macOS Mojave, or macOS High Sierra
    These download to your Applications folder as an app named Install macOS [version name]. If the installer opens after downloading, quit it without continuing installation. To get the correct installer, download from a Mac that is using macOS Sierra 10.12.5 or later, or El Capitan 10.11.6. Enterprise administrators, please download from Apple, not a locally hosted software-update server.
  • Download: OS X El Capitan
    This downloads as a disk image named InstallMacOSX.dmg. On a Mac that is compatible with El Capitan, open the disk image and run the installer within, named InstallMacOSX.pkg. It installs an app named Install OS X El Capitan into your Applications folder. You will create the bootable installer from this app, not from the disk image or .pkg installer.

Use the 'createinstallmedia' command in Terminal

  1. Connect the USB flash drive or other volume that you're using for the bootable installer.
  2. Open Terminal, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
  3. Type or paste one of the following commands in Terminal. These assume that the installer is in your Applications folder, and MyVolume is the name of the USB flash drive or other volume you're using. If it has a different name, replace MyVolume in these commands with the name of your volume.

Big Sur:*

Catalina:*

Mojave:*

High Sierra:*

El Capitan:

* If your Mac is using macOS Sierra or earlier, include the --applicationpath argument and installer path, similar to the way this is done in the command for El Capitan.


After typing the command:

  1. Press Return to enter the command.
  2. When prompted, type your administrator password and press Return again. Terminal doesn't show any characters as you type your password.
  3. When prompted, type Y to confirm that you want to erase the volume, then press Return. Terminal shows the progress as the volume is erased.
  4. After the volume is erased, you may see an alert that Terminal would like to access files on a removable volume. Click OK to allow the copy to proceed.
  5. When Terminal says that it's done, the volume will have the same name as the installer you downloaded, such as Install macOS Big Sur. You can now quit Terminal and eject the volume.

Use the bootable installer

Determine whether you're using a Mac with Apple silicon, then follow the appropriate steps:

Boot From Usb Key Acer

Apple silicon

  1. Plug the bootable installer into a Mac that is connected to the internet and compatible with the version of macOS you're installing.
  2. 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.
  3. Select the volume containing the bootable installer, then click Continue.
  4. When the macOS installer opens, follow the onscreen instructions.

Intel processor

  1. Plug the bootable installer into a Mac that is connected to the internet and compatible with the version of macOS you're installing.
  2. Press and hold the Option (Alt) ⌥ key immediately after turning on or restarting your Mac.
  3. Release the Option key when you see a dark screen showing your bootable volumes.
  4. Select the volume containing the bootable installer. Then click the up arrow or press Return.
    If you can't start up from the bootable installer, make sure that the External Boot setting in Startup Security Utility is set to allow booting from external media.
  5. Choose your language, if prompted.
  6. Select Install macOS (or Install OS X) from the Utilities window, then click Continue and follow the onscreen instructions.

Learn more

Boot

For more information about the createinstallmedia command and the arguments that you can use with it, make sure that the macOS installer is in your Applications folder, then enter the appropriate path in Terminal:

  • Big Sur: /Applications/Install macOS Big Sur.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia
  • Catalina: /Applications/Install macOS Catalina.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia
  • Mojave: /Applications/Install macOS Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia
  • High Sierra: /Applications/Install macOS High Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia
  • El Capitan: /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia

A bootable installer doesn't download macOS from the internet, but it does require an internet connection to get firmware and other information specific to the Mac model.

2020 MacBook Pro boot from USB

Starting in 2018 the Macbook Pro includes a secure boot chip that prevents your Macbook from booting windows, linux, BSD, gentoo, Fedora, Atlas Supervisor, other Mac O/S/s on a usb, etc.

You CAN boot a 2018 2019 or 2020 Macbook Pro from USB!

But it does take a few steps to get there.

Step One

Boot into Recovery Mode

To access Recovery Mode, turn off your Macbook, turn it on and hold the Command (⌘) and R keys. Keep holding them through the chime sound until you see the Recovery Screen below…

Yaaay! You entered a secret level with hidden powers!

Step 2

Click on Utlities (on the menu bar at the top of the screen, don’t click on Disk Utlities in the middle of the screen)

Boot From Usb Key Mac Download

Select ‘Startup Security Utility’ and you’ll get this screen…

Change the settings for both to the same as the image above.

Secure Boot to No Security

External Boot to Allow booting from external media

Exit out, shut down the laptop.

Step 3

Plug in your bootable USB device and boot up your 2018 2019 Macbook Pro from USB, hold the Command (⌘) key and you’ll see the startup disk screen, select the USB and boot it up.

Caveats, notes and disclaimers.

  1. You need an uefi bootable image. (we’re uncertain of other workarounds for grub at this time)
  2. You may not have any access to the internal drive. Not sure if it is a linux driver issue or some sort of on chip security, but so far, no access.
  3. Leaving ‘external boot allowed’ is a risk that if stolen, someone might be able to access the internal drive.
  4. The law of unintended consequences. Apple rarely supports playing around with bootable O/Ss, you could brick an extremely expensive device.
  5. Apple does have further detail on the T2 security chip and how to use it. Read more before playing around too much in there.

The better option

If you are looking for a great laptop to run NinjaStik we recommend getting an IBM Lenovo T430i for ~$140 and using it. The T430i is one of the best value for $ deals to run a daily use linux based personal laptop. It’s ugly but it is a solid machine.

Using a $140 laptop for linux and not risking your $5000 Macbook Pro is our recommendation.