There is no blue line that shows up when dragging the file. Is Is this for all installations? You need to be more specific if this is only for creating Yosemite while using Yosemite..wasted my time.
I know you published this in 2015, however, it was really relevant in 2020 for those ones who needed to upgrade our old macbooks and Yosemite was a version I happened to choose. Everything worked out pretty smoothly and the way you explained was really helpful! thanks!
Mr. Cox, I used your video to swap out my hard drive. It was a life saver. The only trouble I had was procrastinating in backing up files. Very helpful tutorial. Thanks for sharing your expertise.
You're the best teacher I've ever seen in my life, I can understand you more than my teacher school And your channel have the How To videos. THANK YOU!
David, I was on the phone with Applecare for 4 hours total, never could get the boot USD Flash Drive to work. I used your video and carefully did each step s-l-o-w-l-y and it worked PERFECT. Thank you!
I bought a new computer for my small business and unwittingly "upgraded" to El Capitan. Immediately, I was plagued with problems, so I purchased a bootable USB but I kept getting an error message. Thanks to your instructions, I was able to create my own bootable USB to successfully install it on three of my affected computers .... and save money in the process. Thank you.
Thanks for this wonderful, clear tutorial. I made the bootable USB, but it turned out I didn't need it right away. But now I'll always have it just in case. The world needs more instructors like you, Dave!
Hi David, I'd like to say a massive thank you for making this video. I bought my son a second hand iMac for Christmas, it came updated to El Capitan, and I had a problem with white screens at boot up. After formatting and reinstalling El Capitan several times I used your method to create a boot disk and put the machine back to Yosemite. Problem solved. Thank you so much you've no idea how much this has helped me. My son is delighted too :)
I am so computer illiterate it is painful. The worst of the worst. This got me through my crisis with zero understanding of anything (I can barely send an email), after I accidentally wiped everything during an attempt at restoring defaults for sale. Thank you so much for your help. You provided a massive service to me today. Appreciate it!
If You are using El Capitan Disk Utility the "restore" function is located in the top menu bar NOT in the disk Utility Window drag the base system dmg to the "restore from" drop down.
This has been the BEST explanation and process on how to make one of these bootable USBs. Thanks for the video!!!! Just Pause the video while you complete the various tasks and maybe watch it once before you actually start the process. Super Easy!!!
+Rudy Valdes Having trouble finding a "next step" video for you guys. I searched for how to revert with a bootable drive and eventually found instructions on how to restart in "recovery" mode>disk utility>erase hard drive>then reboot in "option" mode>select the bootable disk you have plugged in with USB stick>then walk away for a long freaking time until it's completely, completely done.
Just bought a cheap iMac 8.1. After days of searching how to reinstall Yosemite I am so glad I found your video!! After so many years, this video is still doing good for some people. Thanks, you got yourself a like and a sub!
I rarely comment on these tutorial videos, but this one literally saved my life cause I can't live without my laptop. I wanted a fresh and clean install, so I tried to re-install Yosemite but it didn't let me. This bootable usb trick worked like a charm though and you have no idea how much this video means to me. VERY clear instructions! Thanks a LOT man!
Thanks Dude, thanks, thanks thanks! Works excellent! Finally i can install OS X Yosemite on mi MacBook Pro 13" (late 2011)! On 2018! (Early 2019 xd) Thanks! Nice video, you are my last hope! You save me xd Thanks!
after 2 days trying to restore an old mac (which couldnt log into the app store to upgrade)... I finally came across your video, and made my own OSX install disk.. thank you, very much
What OS you using. look in finder. You will see that BaseSystem. dmg has been mounted and open. then select at top of page when in Disk utility . the Restore button is there and its different layout so which you restoring from to what.
Hi David, I've been watching your videos anonymously for quite some time now and now I am ready to write and comment you: YOU ARE THE MAN!!!!! You definitely have a gift to communicate technical stuff to people. You see, I am no computer illiterate, I've been around computer almost all my life (I'm 47) and good at it even though I didn't follow a career directly related to IS however, my knowledge and skills help me excel in my career. A couple of years back I made the jump to Mac and the learning spree started for me all over again. I'm always searching YT for tutorials to lean and become proficient in the Mac World and my abilities help me understand and learn from people that are just not the best or just teach stuff with a bunch of shortcuts that if a person is not good at this, will end up in some deep trouble. You are thorough and well versed, I understand why you went on your own when leaving your job with Apple, and also know the reason for your success. Anyhow, just wanted to share my thoughts (something I rarely do), wish you the best and ask you to keep it up. You have another follower, subscriber and supporter. Take care and Godspeed.
I bought the SP 3.0 8 gig flash drive as you recommended and just finished creating my flash drive back up---instructions were GREAT!! So easy to follow and the fact it's on video I could pause, and go back to watch parts again just to make sure I was doing everything correctly! Thanks so much!
Thank you. Got myself in to a bit of bother after attempting to reset my daughters old MacBook. Completely lost the os system. Thanks to your excellent video I’ve manage create a boot flash drive and get it back to normal and now updating like a dream. Again Thank You.
I am so extremely grateful for your video, I have an older macbook pro and after formatting my hard drive I realised it had a firmware bug preventing me from reinstalling any OS over WiFi, fortunately I also have a very old macbook (with a broken LCD) so after swapping the ram in order to get it above 2gb and finding an HDMI adaptor, eventually I was able to download Yosemite, although it took like a day and a half. After that your video with its clear and concise instructions enabled me to get a bootable thumb drive, with which I was able get my macbook Pro up and running again with relative ease and because I live in a country without an apple store you saved me a fair bit of cash too. You are a legend, thanks mate! Subscribe.
David.....having been a PC guy my whole life I knew nothing about how to do things in a Mac. My son had his MacBook Pro go bonkers and not be able to boot up. After doing a fair amount of research on line I was able to get it working again. I wanted to come up with a way to be able boot it and re-install his operating system if needed should it ever happen again. I tried a different (written) set of instructions I found on line, but wasn't able to follow everything well enough and failed. Your video is "spot on" to allow us non-Apple people to do something like this successfully, I had no problems at all. Excellent job........thanks a bunch.
After struggling for 1 week and spending endless hours, came across this video (i have seen 50 tutorials by now) which is perfect and solved my issue. I Installed on my 2007 MacBook Pro (machine was dead for few years, got it fixed recently) Mac OS X 10.7.5, 10.10 Yosemite and 10.11.6 El Capitan. The great thing about the solution is, the same approach works for fresh install for all these 3 MaC OS X without any issues by creating a bootable USB for fresh install. For those who are trying to install El Capitan, my suggestion is erase the Hard Drive and do a fresh install. If you don't do this then you will face an error with 4 mins remaining to complete the install. Just 1 more request "Show package contents" is not a feasible option when you are trying to create a bootable USB with 10.7.5 installed and are targeting to create it for 10.11.6 as you get an error message that upgrade is not allowed. Is there any other way of getting this option without adding it in Applications. Thanks again David...keep up the good work.
Excellent tutorial. I'd searched and searched for how to make a boot USB, but yours is the best. Very clear, well-paced, and with explicit instructions at each step. It's an example of how these videos should be constructed (but often aren't). Thank you.
Hey David, Thank You for the great class. My mid 2009 macbook pro hd died and with this class it has been healed. I put 1tb sad in it and it works great. I'm awful with computers and usually mess things up more. This was flawless. I switched the hd and loaded Yosemite in less than 30 mins. Thanks again.
thanks a million times, i have used your method both with yosemite and El Capitan ,with diffrent sticks and diffrent computers, and it works flawlessly a million thanks
WOW!!! Thank You Ever So!!! I am up since 5 a.m. wanted to create a flash bootable Yosemite to upgrade from Maverick on my iMac... I first used disk maker , boot from iMac and file was corrupted . Now I am doing all the steps following your video... will go to get me a cabled mouse+keyboard so that I can start to start fresh and install Yosemite from flash drive on my iMac after migrate from Time Machine. :)
Man what a relief. I have no clue what I just did (other than exactly what is done in the video), but now I can actually give the old iMac to a friend in need rather than to a sledgehammer. Great, thanks!
Excellent tutorial! My husband particularly appreciated your enunciation (as so many TH-cam videos - especially technical ones, can be very garbled and unintelligible). And I appreciated the highlighted circles that you used to show us exactly where each folder could be found. We were able to create a bootable USB flash drive by following your very specific, very exact directions. We will be testing it on my husband's Mac following a hard drive replacement. I am confident that if anything goes wrong, we will then go back and repeat the steps you showed, and undoubtedly find it was our own error. Thank you again, and we will post a follow-up to let everyone know how it went.
it worked for me and i tried 3 others and they did not work. thank you so much david i have been at it for 4 days. again thank you for these vids you are a life saver.
Hello David A Cox, I review tech videos to see if the instructor has simplified the steps and if so I refer others to the video. I really have to say this video is straight to the point. Since it is a video others can stop or pause get what they need to catch up then continue with the video. Again this was great and straight to the point. I do believe that even the beginners will be able to follow and keep up. SPK
I know this video is a year old, but this video helped me out so much! I wasnt able to find a video that helped me get a bootable drive to work. I stumbled apon this video and it was so easy to follow step by step and it worked perfectly!!! This video gets a like from me and i will be a lifetime subscriber to this channel. Thanks again!! David A. Cox
im totally new to mac and i found this video really easy to follow, what i didnt see (maybe i missed it) is the part where you tell the people the capacity of the USB we need, other than that i think is perfect, thanks
I followed all instructions. All worked out just as instructed. I don't know if the boot disk will work but for the instruction session here, all is great. Thank you.
For those wanting to restore the BaseSystem.dmg to the USB, I personally had struggles myself on disk utility with that, especially on MacOS Mojave. Here is what worked for me. *IMPORTANT:* There are two things you need to understand. First, *YOU MUST BE IN THE SUDOERS FILE*, which means you need to be able to execute sudo terminal commands. Second, Make sure your usb name *DOES NOT* have spaces. It is possible to do it with spaces, though makes things a tiny bit harder. And of course change the and placeholders and insert the necessary information. TO RESTORE IMG FILE TO USB: 1. Retrieve the BaseSystem.dmg AND the original .dmg installer file and drag it over onto your desktop. Do not change the name of BaseSystem.dmg. 2. Verify your .dmg installer file (not the BaseSystem.dmg) using the following command; *sudo /usr/sbin/asr imagescan --source ~/Desktop/.dmg* 3. When complete, restore your BaseSystem.dmg file to your usb using the following command; *sudo /usr/sbin/asr restore --source ~/Desktop/BaseSystem.dmg --target /Volumes/ --erase* 4. Continue with instructions on video. If there are any issues please let me know
You are my hero! Tried for so long and this was the missing part! Thank you! Worked on OS High Sierra... Installed Yosemite again because of a specific program.
I have tried many other tutorials and none worked ( like the bootable usb 'creators', and the terminal 'suma' codings ), this was a really good tutorial, and you should be number 1 at this topic. keep the good work up. (Sorry for bad english).
Great video! Very clear to understand and easy to follow. The only note that I might add would be to add markers during the video for important detailed instructions that people might want to jump back to for referencing. Other than that, haven't seen a better video yet. Thanks again.
I am new to Mac and trying to learn. I am about to upgrade my macbook Pro from 125 GB to an SSD 1TB hard drive. Your video was fantastic and easy for me to follow. I am now waiting on the last copy phase, but to this point everything has gone exactly as you have laid things out. Thanks for making this tutorial.
Thanks David. Very nice easy & step by step. It made a bootable flash drive which I used to update a new 500GB SSD in a mid-2009 MBP. This will remotely control a telescope in my observatory.THX!!!
Just wanted to say, this is an absolutely brilliant tutorial. Couldn't fault it. I was at the end of a long night of trying to get a USB boot to work and this was like a breath of fresh air. This is the second time I've followed it (for a different Mac). Thanks again, great stuff
This is perfect... I almost gave up.. but then i came across your video. Thank you so much.. you were indeed a life saver... much appreciated.. wishing you the best.
Have to comment and say thank you, I spent 2 days trying to fix my Mac mini as I needed Logic Pro to work again after I upgraded and lost it. Finally found this guide and I was able to restore thank you. My mini was nearly thrown out of the window 👌
Outstanding Video and Teaching technique, still holds true in 2016, I just created 3 separate Mac OS X Images from your lesson, El Capitan, Yosemite and Mavericks.
Great I tried other you tube lessons about this. Yours by far is the best. I found it helpful to play the lesson on my iPad and do it step by step on my laptop. Thanks
FIX: "won't let me drop Basesystems.dmg to disk utility" (7:00), I was able to successfully drag the Basesystems.dmg into the "Source" option in the "Restore" (7:18) since it doesn't automatically show up there. Then continue with all the other well explained steps David Cox provided. Excellent and easy to follow tutorial :)
A life saver for me rebuilding an old Mac that I lent my daughter. I find that the older processors perform better with Yosemite vice the newer versions of the OS. Huge thanks!!
Hi David, I would like to say that it worked with me perfectly, I changed my hard disk to SSD and I needed to install new system on the hard disk. I did everything step-by-step and in the end I was happy with the result. Thanks a lot . I really appreciate it.
Tremendous David, thank you. I've tried numerous published instructions before without success; there was always something which didn't work. Your video however is clear, at least to me, accurate and puts everything in logical order.
This video is very helpfull. All instruction s are very clear and super easy. Worked for macbook 5 2008 silver unibody. Replaced my old hdd with new samsung 850 evo SSD It takes couple of minutes to load initially and it looks i stuck on grey screen but after a 2 minutes of waiting apple logo comes on and fresh OSX YOSEMITE start to flash on. Laptop performing fast, application loads faster and scrolling and multi tasking is much better than stock HDD.
It worked flawlessly. I just downgraded my macbook from El Capitan to Yosemite. (I used another computer with Yosemite to make the bootable USB). Just perfect. Thanks.
I haven't tried installation of this yet but if its anything like your tutorial here then I imagine it will be a breeze. I should mention that my yosemite purchase was somehow hidden in the app store so before I found it I used this same tutorial for lion and it worked exactly the same - Thank you so much!
I still run "legacy" apps for a few clients and all was smooth until last night, could not get MacBookPro Mid 2010 to boot after crashing, found your video and am in the process of hopefully repairing it thru First Aid. Many thanks, super easy to follow and bootable USB works!
It worked , you should mention you may have to erase your Hard Drive to allow room if you are stuck on El CRAPitan like I was ....I was stuck at a boot up issue and had to "Option" hold to boot up and get to USB Flash drive to revert , thanks !
Hi, David- thank you for your very easy to follow steps. I had upgraded to El Capitan (yes, I'm running a very old OS!) and discovered that a recording interface I'm using for work was not compatible with that OS so I had to downgrade back to Yosemite. I couldn't have done it without your help!
Best Tutorial EVER!! THANKS MAN, after watching many many many others, I finally fouind you, your explanations were perfect, even if you don't know anything about computers, I recommend every body to follow this tutorial, GOOD JOB, YOU ARE A GREAT TEACHER
Years ago I encountered the expression -- it was the ultimate compliment to a how-to book -- "designed by geniuses to be executed by idiots." Admittedly it sounds harshly put, but in all modesty it is what I want from tutorials. By the time I go scurrying around the web desperately searching for a tutorial, my anxiety level is high enough and my ego low enough that I just want some handsome young fellow like yourself to take my hand and lead me through the Wilderness at a pace I can sustain. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all your wonderful teaching, and an especial thanks for this slowed-down version for those of us who are over 14, and therefore lack the skills that come without effort to those happy youngsters who have suckled at the iBreast. ;-)
Thank you so much David. Not sure if this comment is relevant in 2020 but I have never used a Mac but was given two of them, a late 2008 and a late 2013 model. The instructions were spot on and easy to follow and I have both up and running. Thanks for the time spent making this video.
Lilian Nieves , no I didn’t. I have a copy of OS X 10.7 install DVD. Yosemite is the one I wanted but I started with this one. A friend still had the Lion install disk.
I installed Lion because it was the only OS I could get my hands on. I’m afraid to do the upgrade install because not sure if it upgrades to Yosemite. My MacBook is working but I know I need to upgrade for security reasons.
Avenger96 oh ok. I don’t have one but Apple support says it’s still available for older models like mine. I don’t see it there though. My iMac desktop quit on me and disk utility says it can’t repair it. :( Thanks for replying
Lilian Nieves, it may be due to the shutdown with Covid. I say that because like you I couldn’t find it in the store and holding down Command on pressing power on to the Mac...did not pull up the Apple restore server. I didn’t want to wait so I used what I had. I’ll try in a few weeks. Thanks for the information that it is still available in the store or should be.
THANKS ALOT MAN!!, all the new ways of creating a bootable usb drive for mac didnt work for me. But this did it, I appreciate it. I managed to get the old mac up and running again.
Awesome video! Even now in 2018 after many things have been updated (like disk utility), your video still made it very easy to copy an OS onto a flash drive! Thanks for the help!
Thanks for this. It save me money and makes me a Pro in reformatting our Mac Air. Works on Mountain Lion dmg. Now i will try downloading yosemite. Best instruction ever by David!
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There is no blue line that shows up when dragging the file. Is Is this for all installations? You need to be more specific if this is only for creating Yosemite while using Yosemite..wasted my time.
I know you published this in 2015, however, it was really relevant in 2020 for those ones who needed to upgrade our old macbooks and Yosemite was a version I happened to choose. Everything worked out pretty smoothly and the way you explained was really helpful! thanks!
Now we need this video for MacOs Sierra !! 🖖🏽🖖🏽🖖🏽
It's the same...Even for High Sierra. Worked for me.
Mr. Cox, I used your video to swap out my hard drive. It was a life saver. The only trouble I had was procrastinating in backing up files. Very helpful tutorial. Thanks for sharing your expertise.
You're the best teacher I've ever seen in my life, I can understand you more than my teacher school
And your channel have the How To videos. THANK YOU!
David, I was on the phone with Applecare for 4 hours total, never could get the boot USD Flash Drive to work. I used your video and carefully did each step s-l-o-w-l-y and it worked PERFECT. Thank you!
All I can say is THANK YOU! A HUGE THANKS! THIS WAS SO HELPFUL. You made my day. Wife's computer is now running like the day we bought it.
Hopefully the wife rewarded you later that night.
I bought a new computer for my small business and unwittingly "upgraded" to El Capitan. Immediately, I was plagued with problems, so I purchased a bootable USB but I kept getting an error message. Thanks to your instructions, I was able to create my own bootable USB to successfully install it on three of my affected computers .... and save money in the process. Thank you.
This was simple due to your taking time to help non geeks like me... much thanks
Thanks for this wonderful, clear tutorial. I made the bootable USB, but it turned out I didn't need it right away. But now I'll always have it just in case. The world needs more instructors like you, Dave!
Thank you man,
Your video solved my problem
darlon eduardo Henkemeier :)
+David A. Cox ah gaga
bro can i upgrade osx yosemite to el capitan
Hi David, I'd like to say a massive thank you for making this video. I bought my son a second hand iMac for Christmas, it came updated to El Capitan, and I had a problem with white screens at boot up. After formatting and reinstalling El Capitan several times I used your method to create a boot disk and put the machine back to Yosemite. Problem solved. Thank you so much you've no idea how much this has helped me. My son is delighted too :)
great vid man. so far best one out there.
I am so computer illiterate it is painful. The worst of the worst. This got me through my crisis with zero understanding of anything (I can barely send an email), after I accidentally wiped everything during an attempt at restoring defaults for sale.
Thank you so much for your help. You provided a massive service to me today. Appreciate it!
hey, i got to the part where you have to drag the BaseSystem.dmg but when i do it, the blue line does not appear, what should i do??
some tim eit appear in diff colour
Do this process in an older macOS version, Apple updated disk utility and now it doesn’t work as great as it used to
If You are using El Capitan Disk Utility the "restore" function is located in the top menu bar NOT in the disk Utility Window drag the base system dmg to the "restore from" drop down.
A big thank you to the man!
This has been the BEST explanation and process on how to make one of these bootable USBs. Thanks for the video!!!! Just Pause the video while you complete the various tasks and maybe watch it once before you actually start the process. Super Easy!!!
Sir, I'm using El Capitan to perform this. "BaseSystem.dmg" won't drag to Disk Utility. Any suggestions?
+Rudy Valdes same issue require assistance please
+Rudy Valdes Having trouble finding a "next step" video for you guys. I searched for how to revert with a bootable drive and eventually found instructions on how to restart in "recovery" mode>disk utility>erase hard drive>then reboot in "option" mode>select the bootable disk you have plugged in with USB stick>then walk away for a long freaking time until it's completely, completely done.
+Rudy Valdes thank you sir i will try and see how i go appreciate help and assistance
+mark langley absolutely
+Rudy Valdes Same i dragged the OS X File to the usb and am gonna try
Just bought a cheap iMac 8.1. After days of searching how to reinstall Yosemite I am so glad I found your video!! After so many years, this video is still doing good for some people. Thanks, you got yourself a like and a sub!
it won't let me drag the "BaseSystem.dmg" over to disk utility
Double click it and work on mine
@@winoline thank u it worked
Click the usb in disk utility, click restore, drag basesystem.dmg into source
I rarely comment on these tutorial videos, but this one literally saved my life cause I can't live without my laptop. I wanted a fresh and clean install, so I tried to re-install Yosemite but it didn't let me. This bootable usb trick worked like a charm though and you have no idea how much this video means to me. VERY clear instructions! Thanks a LOT man!
Thanks Dude, thanks, thanks thanks!
Works excellent!
Finally i can install OS X Yosemite on mi MacBook Pro 13" (late 2011)!
On 2018! (Early 2019 xd) Thanks!
Nice video, you are my last hope! You save me xd
Thanks!
after 2 days trying to restore an old mac (which couldnt log into the app store to upgrade)... I finally came across your video, and made my own OSX install disk.. thank you, very much
I can't drop BaseSystem.dmg into disk utility. Please help!
same problem here.
same here
you are using a el capitan disk utility then
What OS you using. look in finder. You will see that BaseSystem. dmg has been mounted and open. then select at top of page when in Disk utility . the Restore button is there and its different layout so which you restoring from to what.
Hi David, I've been watching your videos anonymously for quite some time now and now I am ready to write and comment you:
YOU ARE THE MAN!!!!!
You definitely have a gift to communicate technical stuff to people. You see, I am no computer illiterate, I've been around computer almost all my life (I'm 47) and good at it even though I didn't follow a career directly related to IS however, my knowledge and skills help me excel in my career. A couple of years back I made the jump to Mac and the learning spree started for me all over again. I'm always searching YT for tutorials to lean and become proficient in the Mac World and my abilities help me understand and learn from people that are just not the best or just teach stuff with a bunch of shortcuts that if a person is not good at this, will end up in some deep trouble.
You are thorough and well versed, I understand why you went on your own when leaving your job with Apple, and also know the reason for your success.
Anyhow, just wanted to share my thoughts (something I rarely do), wish you the best and ask you to keep it up.
You have another follower, subscriber and supporter.
Take care and Godspeed.
The thumbnail font made me think this was a green ham gaming video.
I bought the SP 3.0 8 gig flash drive as you recommended and just finished creating my flash drive back up---instructions were GREAT!! So easy to follow and the fact it's on video I could pause, and go back to watch parts again just to make sure I was doing everything correctly! Thanks so much!
Please make a El Capitan bootable video.
Thank you. Got myself in to a bit of bother after attempting to reset my daughters old MacBook. Completely lost the os system. Thanks to your excellent video I’ve manage create a boot flash drive and get it back to normal and now updating like a dream. Again Thank You.
I am so extremely grateful for your video, I have an older macbook pro and after formatting my hard drive I realised it had a firmware bug preventing me from reinstalling any OS over WiFi, fortunately I also have a very old macbook (with a broken LCD) so after swapping the ram in order to get it above 2gb and finding an HDMI adaptor, eventually I was able to download Yosemite, although it took like a day and a half. After that your video with its clear and concise instructions enabled me to get a bootable thumb drive, with which I was able get my macbook Pro up and running again with relative ease and because I live in a country without an apple store you saved me a fair bit of cash too. You are a legend, thanks mate! Subscribe.
David.....having been a PC guy my whole life I knew nothing about how to do things in a Mac. My son had his MacBook Pro go bonkers and not be able to boot up. After doing a fair amount of research on line I was able to get it working again. I wanted to come up with a way to be able boot it and re-install his operating system if needed should it ever happen again. I tried a different (written) set of instructions I found on line, but wasn't able to follow everything well enough and failed. Your video is "spot on" to allow us non-Apple people to do something like this successfully, I had no problems at all. Excellent job........thanks a bunch.
After struggling for 1 week and spending endless hours, came across this video (i have seen 50 tutorials by now) which is perfect and solved my issue. I Installed on my 2007 MacBook Pro (machine was dead for few years, got it fixed recently) Mac OS X 10.7.5, 10.10 Yosemite and 10.11.6 El Capitan. The great thing about the solution is, the same approach works for fresh install for all these 3 MaC OS X without any issues by creating a bootable USB for fresh install. For those who are trying to install El Capitan, my suggestion is erase the Hard Drive and do a fresh install. If you don't do this then you will face an error with 4 mins remaining to complete the install.
Just 1 more request "Show package contents" is not a feasible option when you are trying to create a bootable USB with 10.7.5 installed and are targeting to create it for 10.11.6 as you get an error message that upgrade is not allowed. Is there any other way of getting this option without adding it in Applications.
Thanks again David...keep up the good work.
Excellent tutorial. I'd searched and searched for how to make a boot USB, but yours is the best. Very clear, well-paced, and with explicit instructions at each step. It's an example of how these videos should be constructed (but often aren't). Thank you.
After searching and trying a bunch of other install tutorials, yours was the one that worked. Thanks!
Hey David, Thank You for the great class. My mid 2009 macbook pro hd died and with this class it has been healed. I put 1tb sad in it and it works great. I'm awful with computers and usually mess things up more. This was flawless. I switched the hd and loaded Yosemite in less than 30 mins. Thanks again.
thanks a million times, i have used your method both with yosemite and El Capitan ,with diffrent sticks and diffrent computers, and it works flawlessly
a million thanks
WOW!!! Thank You Ever So!!! I am up since 5 a.m. wanted to create a flash bootable Yosemite to upgrade from Maverick on my iMac... I first used disk maker , boot from iMac and file was corrupted . Now I am doing all the steps following your video... will go to get me a cabled mouse+keyboard so that I can start to start fresh and install Yosemite from flash drive on my iMac after migrate from Time Machine. :)
Man what a relief. I have no clue what I just did (other than exactly what is done in the video), but now I can actually give the old iMac to a friend in need rather than to a sledgehammer. Great, thanks!
Thank you David, this was brilliant and sorted me out, 4 years later and still works!
Thank u. You clearly explained each steps. I followed those steps and now bootable USB works perfectly
So far so good. I was getting a 'flashing ? folder' on startup. I replaced the SATA cable for HD, but the error came back intermittently in
Big thanks! I've been in IT for over 20 years, but Macs are a new breed to me.
Excellent tutorial! My husband particularly appreciated your enunciation (as so many TH-cam videos - especially technical ones, can be very garbled and unintelligible). And I appreciated the highlighted circles that you used to show us exactly where each folder could be found. We were able to create a bootable USB flash drive by following your very specific, very exact directions. We will be testing it on my husband's Mac following a hard drive replacement. I am confident that if anything goes wrong, we will then go back and repeat the steps you showed, and undoubtedly find it was our own error. Thank you again, and we will post a follow-up to let everyone know how it went.
it worked for me and i tried 3 others and they did not work. thank you so much david i have been at it for 4 days. again thank you for these vids you are a life saver.
Hello David A Cox,
I review tech videos to see if the instructor has simplified the steps and if so I refer others to the video. I really have to say this video is straight to the point. Since it is a video others can stop or pause get what they need to catch up then continue with the video.
Again this was great and straight to the point. I do believe that even the beginners will be able to follow and keep up.
SPK
I know this video is a year old, but this video helped me out so much! I wasnt able to find a video that helped me get a bootable drive to work. I stumbled apon this video and it was so easy to follow step by step and it worked perfectly!!! This video gets a like from me and i will be a lifetime subscriber to this channel. Thanks again!! David A. Cox
I managed to create the Boot Flash Drive using your walk through and I'm a complete beginner in this sort of stuff, thank you.
im totally new to mac and i found this video really easy to follow, what i didnt see (maybe i missed it) is the part where you tell the people the capacity of the USB we need, other than that i think is perfect, thanks
3 years later still a very useful video. thanks for the time and work put into this. cheers
Really good, in depth and helpful video. Tried so many other rubbish guides and non worked. This worked a treat!
I followed all instructions. All worked out just as instructed. I don't know if the boot disk will work but for the instruction session here, all is great. Thank you.
For those wanting to restore the BaseSystem.dmg to the USB, I personally had struggles myself on disk utility with that, especially on MacOS Mojave. Here is what worked for me.
*IMPORTANT:* There are two things you need to understand.
First, *YOU MUST BE IN THE SUDOERS FILE*, which means you need to be able to execute sudo terminal commands.
Second,
Make sure your usb name *DOES NOT* have spaces. It is possible to do it with spaces, though makes things a tiny bit harder.
And of course change the and placeholders and insert the necessary information.
TO RESTORE IMG FILE TO USB:
1. Retrieve the BaseSystem.dmg AND the original .dmg installer file and drag it over onto your desktop. Do not change the name of BaseSystem.dmg.
2. Verify your .dmg installer file (not the BaseSystem.dmg) using the following command;
*sudo /usr/sbin/asr imagescan --source ~/Desktop/.dmg*
3. When complete, restore your BaseSystem.dmg file to your usb using the following command;
*sudo /usr/sbin/asr restore --source ~/Desktop/BaseSystem.dmg --target /Volumes/ --erase*
4. Continue with instructions on video.
If there are any issues please let me know
this worked on MacOs Ventura 👍🏽
You are my hero! Tried for so long and this was the missing part! Thank you! Worked on OS High Sierra... Installed Yosemite again because of a specific program.
This has been helpful to me for more than a year now - I've used the same tutorial for Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite, El Capitan and Sierra. Thanks!
This is the first comment I've ever left on TH-cam. And you deserve it!! Thanks a lot for the EXTREMELY CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS!! Worked like a charm!
I have tried many other tutorials and none worked ( like the bootable usb 'creators', and the terminal 'suma' codings ), this was a really good tutorial, and you should be number 1 at this topic. keep the good work up. (Sorry for bad english).
Great video! Very clear to understand and easy to follow. The only note that I might add would be to add markers during the video for important detailed instructions that people might want to jump back to for referencing. Other than that, haven't seen a better video yet. Thanks again.
I am new to Mac and trying to learn. I am about to upgrade my macbook Pro from 125 GB to an SSD 1TB hard drive. Your video was fantastic and easy for me to follow. I am now waiting on the last copy phase, but to this point everything has gone exactly as you have laid things out. Thanks for making this tutorial.
I enjoyed your class on creating a USB installable copy of OS X Yosemite. I found it easy to follow. Thank you so much for your class.
Thanks David. Very nice easy & step by step. It made a bootable flash drive which I used to update a new 500GB SSD in a mid-2009 MBP. This will remotely control a telescope in my observatory.THX!!!
Just wanted to say, this is an absolutely brilliant tutorial. Couldn't fault it. I was at the end of a long night of trying to get a USB boot to work and this was like a breath of fresh air. This is the second time I've followed it (for a different Mac). Thanks again, great stuff
This is perfect... I almost gave up.. but then i came across your video. Thank you so much.. you were indeed a life saver... much appreciated.. wishing you the best.
thank you, this was the quickest and simplest way to correct and create a usb key
Have to comment and say thank you, I spent 2 days trying to fix my Mac mini as I needed Logic Pro to work again after I upgraded and lost it. Finally found this guide and I was able to restore thank you. My mini was nearly thrown out of the window 👌
Outstanding Video and Teaching technique, still holds true in 2016, I just created 3 separate Mac OS X Images from your lesson, El Capitan, Yosemite and Mavericks.
Just WOW.I couldn't found a guy like you who could teach me like that.thanks sir
This worked perfectly, there’s so much conflicting information on the net, but you nailed with this. Thank you.
Great I tried other you tube lessons about this. Yours by far is the best. I found it helpful to play the lesson on my iPad and do it step by step on my laptop.
Thanks
After 3 years this tutorial still working 👍👍👍 thank you!!
Been following your procedures, will comment after installation but the way you presented seemed so good
FIX: "won't let me drop Basesystems.dmg to disk utility" (7:00), I was able to successfully drag the Basesystems.dmg into the "Source" option in the "Restore" (7:18) since it doesn't automatically show up there. Then continue with all the other well explained steps David Cox provided. Excellent and easy to follow tutorial :)
hi Dave, this tutorial is still working up to this day. Thank you for this video 😊
A life saver for me rebuilding an old Mac that I lent my daughter. I find that the older processors perform better with Yosemite vice the newer versions of the OS. Huge thanks!!
Excellent, it worked, I've tried many other tutorials but none of them worked
this is a much more in depth method than I have seen previously done,
Good work Sir !
Hi David, I would like to say that it worked with me perfectly, I changed my hard disk to SSD and I needed to install new system on the hard disk. I did everything step-by-step and in the end I was happy with the result. Thanks a lot . I really appreciate it.
Tremendous David, thank you. I've tried numerous published instructions before without success; there was always something which didn't work. Your video however is clear, at least to me, accurate and puts everything in logical order.
Thank you David! I just updated my wife's mac with more memory and ssd. I followed this video to make bootable flash drive and it worked perfectly.
you make my day ! I spent two days reading everything how to create a usb bootable for my old MacBook 2009.
Still useful 5 years later. Thanks
Hey your tutorial worked great...I tried multiple times earlier with no success until I followed this video...Thanks Alot
This video is very helpfull.
All instruction s are very clear and super easy. Worked for macbook 5 2008 silver unibody. Replaced my old hdd with new samsung 850 evo SSD
It takes couple of minutes to load initially and it looks i stuck on grey screen but after a 2 minutes of waiting apple logo comes on and fresh OSX YOSEMITE start to flash on.
Laptop performing fast, application loads faster and scrolling and multi tasking is much better than stock HDD.
It worked flawlessly. I just downgraded my macbook from El Capitan to Yosemite. (I used another computer with Yosemite to make the bootable USB). Just perfect. Thanks.
I haven't tried installation of this yet but if its anything like your tutorial here then I imagine it will be a breeze. I should mention that my yosemite purchase was somehow hidden in the app store so before I found it I used this same tutorial for lion and it worked exactly the same - Thank you so much!
I still run "legacy" apps for a few clients and all was smooth until last night, could not get MacBookPro Mid 2010 to boot after crashing, found your video and am in the process of hopefully repairing it thru First Aid. Many thanks, super easy to follow and bootable USB works!
To get old versions of mac os nothing has worked for me. This video is a game changer. It workes even in 2022!
This was extremely helpful in helping me fresh install OS X Lion onto the original MacBook Air . Clear and concise , thank you !
Thanks! I can never get the tutorials that rely on copying and pasting a terminal command to work. Your method worked great.
It's 2018 but your video came in so handy for solving a problem. Thank you, David!
It worked , you should mention you may have to erase your Hard Drive to allow room if you are stuck on El CRAPitan like I was ....I was stuck at a boot up issue and had to "Option" hold to boot up and get to USB Flash drive to revert , thanks !
Hi, David- thank you for your very easy to follow steps. I had upgraded to El Capitan (yes, I'm running a very old OS!) and discovered that a recording interface I'm using for work was not compatible with that OS so I had to downgrade back to Yosemite. I couldn't have done it without your help!
Best Tutorial EVER!! THANKS MAN, after watching many many many others, I finally fouind you, your explanations were perfect, even if you don't know anything about computers, I recommend every body to follow this tutorial, GOOD JOB, YOU ARE A GREAT TEACHER
Years ago I encountered the expression -- it was the ultimate compliment to a how-to book -- "designed by geniuses to be executed by idiots." Admittedly it sounds harshly put, but in all modesty it is what I want from tutorials. By the time I go scurrying around the web desperately searching for a tutorial, my anxiety level is high enough and my ego low enough that I just want some handsome young fellow like yourself to take my hand and lead me through the Wilderness at a pace I can sustain. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all your wonderful teaching, and an especial thanks for this slowed-down version for those of us who are over 14, and therefore lack the skills that come without effort to those happy youngsters who have suckled at the iBreast.
;-)
Instructions clear as day for a novice! Thank you sir job done!
Great lesson .Produced my flash drive .not used it yet but feel safe I now have Bootable drive Thanks.
This is the best how to tutorial video I have ever seen. I followed every step and it helped me out a lot. THANKS ALOT
Thank you so much David. Not sure if this comment is relevant in 2020 but I have never used a Mac but was given two of them, a late 2008 and a late 2013 model. The instructions were spot on and easy to follow and I have both up and running. Thanks for the time spent making this video.
Avenger96 did you find OS X Yosemite in the App Store? I only see catalina
Lilian Nieves , no I didn’t. I have a copy of OS X 10.7 install DVD. Yosemite is the one I wanted but I started with this one. A friend still had the Lion install disk.
I installed Lion because it was the only OS I could get my hands on. I’m afraid to do the upgrade install because not sure if it upgrades to Yosemite. My MacBook is working but I know I need to upgrade for security reasons.
Avenger96 oh ok. I don’t have one but Apple support says it’s still available for older models like mine. I don’t see it there though. My iMac desktop quit on me and disk utility says it can’t repair it. :( Thanks for replying
Lilian Nieves, it may be due to the shutdown with Covid. I say that because like you I couldn’t find it in the store and holding down Command on pressing power on to the Mac...did not pull up the Apple restore server. I didn’t want to wait so I used what I had. I’ll try in a few weeks. Thanks for the information that it is still available in the store or should be.
THANKS ALOT MAN!!, all the new ways of creating a bootable usb drive for mac didnt work for me. But this did it, I appreciate it. I managed to get the old mac up and running again.
Great simple instructions to follow. I was able to create my bootable OS X Yosemite USB and install it on my new SSD. Thanks!!!
Awesome video! Even now in 2018 after many things have been updated (like disk utility), your video still made it very easy to copy an OS onto a flash drive! Thanks for the help!
Thanks for this. It save me money and makes me a Pro in reformatting our Mac Air. Works on Mountain Lion dmg. Now i will try downloading yosemite. Best instruction ever by David!
Excellent!!
I have no idea about Macs and I had to instal a new SSD into my daughters MBP.
Followed this tutorial and it works. Thanks very much!!