Thanks Jake, With your excellent guide I was able to finally create a Mavericks Bootable USB, having made several detailed notes and spent many frustrating hours, studying and attempting to unsuccessfully follow other tutorials on YT and consequently ended up being baffled by 'Error' messages and unexplained failure reports in the process. I was delighted this evening to finally test my drive and found that I could now successfully boot from my newly created USB Bootdisk, with a recently updated OSX 10.5 (Mavericks) that incidentally was near impossible to locate since it had been removed by Apple last year. I appreciate the wisdom of ejecting any 'Backup' drive beforehand and your hints on how to mount the USB and make visible hidden files. I initially copied your Terminal command lines to an open Word document before starting the process for them to be readily available when required. Thanks. I have just one comment I would like to add, as it might avoid others making the same mistake as me. I discovered that I hadn't allowed sufficient time for the Package files to be completely copied across before opening Terminal in order to paste the second line command to restore hidden files. As a consequence, my first attempt failed as the Installation Folder was incomplete. I had rather naively assumed the copying process would continue in the back ground whilst I continued with something else. I was wrong and it failed. I had previously tried to use 'Create Install' app to make a boot disk as I had read that it had benefit of creating a recovery partition, does this method not do the same? I'm now also thinking of creating another Bootdisk for Yosemite as no doubt, with the introduction of El Capitan, it too may be soon be withdrawn by Apple. My intention is to install an additional 240gB SSD and to use the boot disk to achieve a clean version of Mavericks, ultimately using the SSD for the OS and retain my original HD for storage and other programs. As yet I haven't upgraded to Yosemite, although may do so in the future. Thanks for help.
By upgrading my iPhone to iOS 9 Apple has forced me against my will to upgrade my MacBook Pro from 10.6.8 - iTunes, Mail, MobileMe, et al no longer worked on my computer simply by upgrading my phone (!). The more common procedure to create a bootable USB drive (using Terminal) did not work but this worked procedure perfectly. In fact I made a bootable Yosemite USB using this method, for anyone curious. Many thanks +geekouttech!
Great video man!Very helpful.(and guys,if you wish to avoid using the terminal go ahead and download Tinkertool it's much easier for the hidden files thing)
Hello Jake, I'm using Snow Leopard and trying this but get only to the "show package contents" step and there is no "shared support" file folder in the Mavericks I downloaded from Apple? I'm stuck Help!
Hi Jake. Thanks for the great video. It worked for me, but is it possible to make the USB bootable, but still use the rest for other storage? Thanks. Vincent
Great question! I'm 99% sure that the answer is yes. I believe you can partition the USB drive with two partitions. One with enough space for the OS X Installer (6GB should work) and the other partition would take up the rest of the space. I did this in the past but the installer would automatically start every time I connected the USB. But with my Mavericks bootable USB, it does NOT start the installer automatically which is nice. I'm going to try this out and if it works, I'll make a video about it. Thanks for watching and thanks for the idea!!
5 years later, and this is STILL needed! and it BOOTS! (now on to Yosemite and, I suppose, more). Here's my question ... assuming the Yosemite upgrade fails and I need to use my usb to install Mavericks again, is there anything else I should put on this usb before I try to install Yosemite?
Jake I Have a quick question. Will this method work on MacOS Sierra ??? If I Wanted to boot to a older version of MacOS on a MacBook pro 2015 will it still work????
very cool, but i have a dough that already i have usb bootable pen drive but i want to transfer to other pen drive without loosing any bootable file is it possible. thanks
This works! for some reason, I cannot advance using the other method because everytime when it ask me for my password on the terminal, I cant type anything!! Anyway, I will be installing an SSD drive on my mac and I want to start fresh, this would work right? thanks again man! big big help!!!
When typing the password in Terminal, for some reason it doesn't show anything at all. Not even the typical little dots. It might seem like you're not typing it in but you actually are. But even if that still doesn't work, this method works just as well. And yes, creating a bootable Mavericks drive will be exactly what you need to partition the new SSD and do a clean install of the OS. I do have a video covering how to do a clean install if you need it. Thanks for watching!
My system can't install Mavericks with this method. I already have Version 10.9.5 running but want to re-install the OS. I don't want to loose all my data. Any suggestions?
Thank you, very nicely done. I did get the command not found error, and I tried this method. However, still would not boot my new Mac Book pro. but the same bootable USB works on my IMAC!! can not figure out why? Any Ideas.
I don't have any idea why that would happen. You could try opening System Preferences and select Startup Disk. Then plug in the bootable USB drive and see if you can select it. If so, select it and click Restart and see if it will then boot from it. Also, you could start the computer holding down the Option key without the USB in. When you see the boot options, then plug in the USB drive and see if it shows up. I hope this helps!
Hi, I made the bootable USB exactly how you showed but when I restart the bootable disk is not shown. Only the Macintosh HD and Recovery Disc is shown. What am I doing wrong?
Hmm. I'm not sure. Try putting the USB drive in a different USB port if available. If that doesn't work, try booting from it on a different computer to see if it's just your computer. I had an old 2007 iMac that refused to boot from USB. I eventually had to create a bootable DVD.
Had to use this video as the standard method did not work. I want to test my created usb mavericks. The very last screen shot is too fuzzy to read properly. The right hand option is continue but I can't read the left hand option - is it cancel; or quit perhaps. I just want to see that it works without restoring. Sorry if this is a really dumb question.
It's an arrow button pointing to the left. I'm guessing it's to go to the previous screen of the installer or maybe to stop the installer. I'm not sure. But if you can boot from your USB, then you should be good to go. You can boot from the USB and it won't do anything. You can then just shutdown the computer if you don't want to do anything. Thanks for watching!
GeekOutTech Thanks. Booted from USB. First note of caution - I couldn’t boot if I put the USB in a hub - it had to be inserted into the port at the back of the imac. (I remembered as a note of caution to eject my back up device before shutting down and booting from the USB. But forgot to back up first but no harm done in this instance.) What happens when you boot from the USB is that you are offered the option to install OSX from the USB to your imac. I quit installer once I had satisfied myself of the integrity of the bootable USB. Thanks again Jake.
hi.thanks for the help. it works. i have a problem i want to share. i got a circle with a diagonal line (like a warning) on booting my mac the other day. i tried to boot with your bootable usb drive. it worked for the first time. but then the oxs crashed again may be because i had not charged the laptop and it went to deep discharge mode and then when i connected it to a power adapter and flipped it open, it was not able to boot and started showing the circle with a diogonal in it again. this time when im using the bootable drive, the osx is installed and after restarting the system, everything comes back to square one, the first page, the start of the installation. the system does not show any start up disk. Can you help?
I know I'm a bit late on this video but maybe someone can help me out, and way the after all is said and done for some reason the part of the USB that is OS X Base System keep changing the format to Mac OS Extended and not Journal. any thoughts?
This is so helpful compared to all the crap out there, you're the best. i have a situation: -I had os x 10.8 when i installed windows xp using bootcamp. -the programs that i wanted to run didn't work in xp so i thought, "hey i'm gonna use windows 7 now", so i erased the partition that i had windows in. -i installed os x yosemite on the mac os partition -now i'm trying to merge the erased partition with my mac os partition (by dragging down in from disk utility) and it says partition failed can you possibly make a video on fixing the problem, if you don't mind. Because I called the tech support and they wanna charge me money for that, but I'm like hey there's people like GeekOutTech who can help me F**K tech support.
I have a original macbook air that has a fresh formatted extended journaled hdd in it the drive has lion on it but it won't boot so i made a bootable usb using your video but it won't boot from it i just get the crossed circle and shortly after it turns off
Jbenfer98 If you want to use Apple Operating System, I'd recommend buying used. Apple does sell refurbished computers on their website which is all I ever buy from them. If you want to maximized your options, the only way to go for you is Windows. If you want Windows 7 you'll have to buy a DVD of it before October 31st. After that, they're not selling it anymore. You can also try installing Ubuntu (which is free) as an alternative to Windows. But won't have as wide of a variety of software compared to Windows.
SOLUTION FOR COMMAND NOT FOUND: sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app --nointeraction When pasting the above command the "createinstallmedia" gets replaced in terminal with "createi-nstallmedia" or "createi-stallmedia".. of which the path is not recognized. The best way is to TYPE word for word the command above, rather than copy and paste.
please help! I'm downgrading from the captain 10.11.I can't delete that damn alias package file!!!!!!!!! AARRRRRRRGGGHHHH! Somebody, please , help! I'm downgrading from the captain os x 10. 11
I have to wait 14 hours for Mavericks to download even though I already have the upgrade. Mavericks deleted the installer after it "cleaned up" the install. I am FURIOUS at Apple for not having a site where I can just download the Bootable USB directly onto my USB. This is the third time I am being forced to download Mavericks at 14 hours each time just to get to the installer file! I think Apple should be kicked right in the axx! How can I eliminate the 14 hour download time? Also when I did have the "Install OS Mavericks" in the applications folder I had to pause the install to stop the install and when it came time to transfer to USB I got a error message that the file was already in use and it was grayed out in Disk utility. Why we can't just download a bootable USB directly from Apple is beyond my comprehension. These guys are axxholes!
I have seen like 10 videos trying to get this one thing down to get mavericks going-This video is the first one that actually made sense!
Thank you very much! And thanks for watching. : )
Thanks Jake, With your excellent guide I was able to finally create a Mavericks Bootable USB, having made several detailed notes and spent many frustrating hours, studying and attempting to unsuccessfully follow other tutorials on YT and consequently ended up being baffled by 'Error' messages and unexplained failure reports in the process.
I was delighted this evening to finally test my drive and found that I could now successfully boot from my newly created USB Bootdisk, with a recently updated OSX 10.5 (Mavericks) that incidentally was near impossible to locate since it had been removed by Apple last year.
I appreciate the wisdom of ejecting any 'Backup' drive beforehand and your hints on how to mount the USB and make visible hidden files. I initially copied your Terminal command lines to an open Word document before starting the process for them to be readily available when required. Thanks.
I have just one comment I would like to add, as it might avoid others making the same mistake as me. I discovered that I hadn't allowed sufficient time for the Package files to be completely copied across before opening Terminal in order to paste the second line command to restore hidden files. As a consequence, my first attempt failed as the Installation Folder was incomplete. I had rather naively assumed the copying process would continue in the back ground whilst I continued with something else. I was wrong and it failed.
I had previously tried to use 'Create Install' app to make a boot disk as I had read that it had benefit of creating a recovery partition, does this method not do the same? I'm now also thinking of creating another Bootdisk for Yosemite as no doubt, with the introduction of El Capitan, it too may be soon be withdrawn by Apple.
My intention is to install an additional 240gB SSD and to use the boot disk to achieve a clean version of Mavericks, ultimately using the SSD for the OS and retain my original HD for storage and other programs. As yet I haven't upgraded to Yosemite, although may do so in the future. Thanks for help.
By upgrading my iPhone to iOS 9 Apple has forced me against my will to upgrade my MacBook Pro from 10.6.8 - iTunes, Mail, MobileMe, et al no longer worked on my computer simply by upgrading my phone (!). The more common procedure to create a bootable USB drive (using Terminal) did not work but this worked procedure perfectly. In fact I made a bootable Yosemite USB using this method, for anyone curious. Many thanks +geekouttech!
Informative and concise tutorial. One of the better tutorials on RUclips regarding creating a bootable USB for Mavericks. Keep up the good work!
Thank you!
Worked like a charm!! I was lost, kept getting the error. Awesome job!
Thanks pal! Your videos were insanely helpful.
This was insanely helpful, thank you!
thank you very much !!
my hd crashed and with this help I was able to reinstall a working system with a SSD
keep up the good work. Best regards. Paul
Excellent step by step instruction. Thank you for the video.
Dude, this method is amazing, it helped me a lot. Thanks, you're work is very good
Thank you very much for the help jake this was very helpful and this means a lot bless you I left you a like also keep up the great work 👍👍
Very helpful. Thank you!!!
This is really helpful. Thanks man. Liked and subscribed.
Work perfectly!!!! Thank you
Great video man!Very helpful.(and guys,if you wish to avoid using the terminal go ahead and download Tinkertool it's much easier for the hidden files thing)
Well done Jake thanks - most helpful
Thanks much appreciated. I think I have it. SO much for the tech people and my expensive warranty!
Hello Jake, I'm using Snow Leopard and trying this but get only to the "show package contents" step and there is no "shared support" file folder in the Mavericks I downloaded from Apple? I'm stuck Help!
thank man its so nice when you have been hitting brick walls to have something that works first time lol
You sir, are a lifesaver. THANK YOU.
OKAY THIS VIDEO IS AMAZINGLY GREAT! THANK YOU IT REALLY WORKED FOR ME! NOW THE OTHER VID! A CLEAN INSTALL OF THE OSX
:D
Hi Jake. Thanks for the great video. It worked for me, but is it possible to make the USB bootable, but still use the rest for other storage? Thanks. Vincent
Great question! I'm 99% sure that the answer is yes. I believe you can partition the USB drive with two partitions. One with enough space for the OS X Installer (6GB should work) and the other partition would take up the rest of the space.
I did this in the past but the installer would automatically start every time I connected the USB. But with my Mavericks bootable USB, it does NOT start the installer automatically which is nice.
I'm going to try this out and if it works, I'll make a video about it.
Thanks for watching and thanks for the idea!!
Ran into a problem when I boot the USB drive. OS X installation couldn't be completed and there is a crash log. Next steps? Thanks
thanks much.....please continue with more videos...
Hats off to you worked perfectly...
It worked perfect!.....now that i have this can I use it more than once....Does he installer delete itself after the first install???
Works great! Thank you very much
clear communication, many thanks!
thanks Jake worked great
You are a life saver.
i save money... your amazing generous geek.. keep up... THANKS A LOT
5 years later, and this is STILL needed! and it BOOTS! (now on to Yosemite and, I suppose, more). Here's my question ... assuming the Yosemite upgrade fails and I need to use my usb to install Mavericks again, is there anything else I should put on this usb before I try to install Yosemite?
Jake I Have a quick question. Will this method work on MacOS Sierra ??? If I Wanted to boot to a older version of MacOS on a MacBook pro 2015 will it still work????
very cool, but i have a dough that already i have usb bootable pen drive but i want to transfer to other pen drive without loosing any bootable file is it possible. thanks
It works perfectly! Thanks
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS VIDEO IT WORKED!!!!!
This works! for some reason, I cannot advance using the other method because everytime when it ask me for my password on the terminal, I cant type anything!!
Anyway, I will be installing an SSD drive on my mac and I want to start fresh, this would work right? thanks again man! big big help!!!
When typing the password in Terminal, for some reason it doesn't show anything at all. Not even the typical little dots. It might seem like you're not typing it in but you actually are. But even if that still doesn't work, this method works just as well.
And yes, creating a bootable Mavericks drive will be exactly what you need to partition the new SSD and do a clean install of the OS. I do have a video covering how to do a clean install if you need it.
Thanks for watching!
Hi, thanks so much for this video! Would this same process work for creating a Yosemite usb drive?
Thanks for your video, let me know how to create Mavericks boot disc from USB.
Thank you for sharing info.
Thank you so much for this!! Works like a charm =)
My system can't install Mavericks with this method. I already have Version 10.9.5 running but want to re-install the OS. I don't want to loose all my data. Any suggestions?
your rock, it works for me
Great vídeo, thankyou very much!!
Thank you, very nicely done.
I did get the command not found error, and I tried this method.
However, still would not boot my new Mac Book pro. but the same bootable USB works on my IMAC!!
can not figure out why?
Any Ideas.
I don't have any idea why that would happen. You could try opening System Preferences and select Startup Disk. Then plug in the bootable USB drive and see if you can select it. If so, select it and click Restart and see if it will then boot from it. Also, you could start the computer holding down the Option key without the USB in. When you see the boot options, then plug in the USB drive and see if it shows up. I hope this helps!
Thanks so much worked perfectly! got frustrated when I got that command error -___-
Olae Lae You are very welcome! I'm glad it worked.
thank youu!! excellent video.. keep posting.
Hi, I made the bootable USB exactly how you showed but when I restart the bootable disk is not shown. Only the Macintosh HD and Recovery Disc is shown. What am I doing wrong?
Hmm. I'm not sure. Try putting the USB drive in a different USB port if available. If that doesn't work, try booting from it on a different computer to see if it's just your computer.
I had an old 2007 iMac that refused to boot from USB. I eventually had to create a bootable DVD.
Awesome Stuff! Thank you
Had to use this video as the standard method did not work. I want to test my created usb mavericks. The very last screen shot is too fuzzy to read properly. The right hand option is continue but I can't read the left hand option - is it cancel; or quit perhaps. I just want to see that it works without restoring. Sorry if this is a really dumb question.
It's an arrow button pointing to the left. I'm guessing it's to go to the previous screen of the installer or maybe to stop the installer. I'm not sure. But if you can boot from your USB, then you should be good to go. You can boot from the USB and it won't do anything. You can then just shutdown the computer if you don't want to do anything. Thanks for watching!
GeekOutTech Thanks. Booted from USB. First note of caution - I couldn’t boot if I put the USB in a hub - it had to be inserted into the port at the back of the imac.
(I remembered as a note of caution to eject my back up device before shutting down and booting from the USB. But forgot to back up first but no harm done in this instance.)
What happens when you boot from the USB is that you are offered the option to install OSX from the USB to your imac. I quit installer once I had satisfied myself of the integrity of the bootable USB.
Thanks again Jake.
do you still have to sign on to your apple account?
Trying to install mavericks on a partition on Mojave 2017 mbp please help!
I'm missing the Shared Support folder.
Thanks it really help
Does anyone know where I can download Mavericks I know that it's not in the app store?
Thank you!
Awesome thanks very much
hi.thanks for the help. it works.
i have a problem i want to share. i got a circle with a diagonal line (like a warning) on booting my mac the other day. i tried to boot with your bootable usb drive. it worked for the first time. but then the oxs crashed again may be because i had not charged the laptop and it went to deep discharge mode and then when i connected it to a power adapter and flipped it open, it was not able to boot and started showing the circle with a diogonal in it again.
this time when im using the bootable drive, the osx is installed and after restarting the system, everything comes back to square one, the first page, the start of the installation. the system does not show any start up disk. Can you help?
Thank you! Too many hours looking a solution for "command not found" error..
Where can i download the OS X Mavericks installer?
perfect guide - keep up the good work (Y)
Sanger Ayubi Thanks!
Thanks! for your video broo!! : )
thank you
nice it is work.
thanks
Thanks mate
Thought about showing them through Disk Utility, pretty much a fail safe.
Thanks
thnx a lot this one worked for me
did try the disk maker but no succes whaaaaooaaa
Sierrta won make the partition in my usb, any sugestions?
I know I'm a bit late on this video but maybe someone can help me out, and way the after all is said and done for some reason the part of the USB that is OS X Base System keep changing the format to Mac OS Extended and not Journal. any thoughts?
This is so helpful compared to all the crap out there, you're the best. i have a situation:
-I had os x 10.8 when i installed windows xp using bootcamp.
-the programs that i wanted to run didn't work in xp so i thought, "hey i'm gonna use windows 7 now", so i erased the partition that i had windows in.
-i installed os x yosemite on the mac os partition
-now i'm trying to merge the erased partition with my mac os partition (by dragging down in from disk utility) and it says partition failed
can you possibly make a video on fixing the problem, if you don't mind. Because I called the tech support and they wanna charge me money for that, but I'm like hey there's people like GeekOutTech who can help me F**K tech support.
I have a original macbook air that has a fresh formatted extended journaled hdd in it the drive has lion on it but it won't boot so i made a bootable usb using your video but it won't boot from it i just get the crossed circle and shortly after it turns off
drive is brand new also before lion was installed on it
Is the USB partitioned with a GUID Partition Table?
i tried the other method around... the bootable way with the terminal
but it didn't work .. my last method should be this one step by step..
There is no relaunch option when i right click finder
Boommmm Great thanks!!!
Would this work on a built computer with an amd cpu?
Jbenfer98 Are you asking if you can create the bootable usb on a built computer or actually install Mavericks on a built computer?
Install it. I have amd fx 4350 cpu, ASRock 990 fx extreme 9 mobo
Jbenfer98 No. I will not work. You can legally only install Apple's Operating System on an Apple computer.
Poop. Any alternate recommendations?
Jbenfer98 If you want to use Apple Operating System, I'd recommend buying used. Apple does sell refurbished computers on their website which is all I ever buy from them.
If you want to maximized your options, the only way to go for you is Windows. If you want Windows 7 you'll have to buy a DVD of it before October 31st. After that, they're not selling it anymore.
You can also try installing Ubuntu (which is free) as an alternative to Windows. But won't have as wide of a variety of software compared to Windows.
my air book os x is deleted how to install
shit aint working, when i booted from the stick and go to terminal, it still says "command not found"... what the actual fuck?
In older mac os versions
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
SOLUTION FOR COMMAND NOT FOUND:
sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app --nointeraction
When pasting the above command the "createinstallmedia" gets replaced in terminal with "createi-nstallmedia" or "createi-stallmedia".. of which the path is not recognized.
The best way is to TYPE word for word the command above, rather than copy and paste.
please help! I'm downgrading from the captain 10.11.I can't delete that damn alias package file!!!!!!!!! AARRRRRRRGGGHHHH!
Somebody, please , help! I'm downgrading from the captain os x 10. 11
nice
I have to wait 14 hours for Mavericks to download even though I already have the upgrade. Mavericks deleted the installer after it "cleaned up" the install. I am FURIOUS at Apple for not having a site where I can just download the Bootable USB directly onto my USB. This is the third time I am being forced to download Mavericks at 14 hours each time just to get to the installer file! I think Apple should be kicked right in the axx! How can I eliminate the 14 hour download time?
Also when I did have the "Install OS Mavericks" in the applications folder I had to pause the install to stop the install and when it came time to transfer to USB I got a error message that the file was already in use and it was grayed out in Disk utility. Why we can't just download a bootable USB directly from Apple is beyond my comprehension. These guys are axxholes!
Amazing! Thanks a million!
thank you