Start up from macOS Recovery
Dec 26, 2021 Install the NEW hard drive back into Mac. Before you do this, there are a couple of screw-in pins that are in the sides of the old hard drive that you will need to hold your new hard drive in place. Use the T8 mini Torx screwdriver to remove them and place them into the sides of the new drive. After purchasing a new hard drive or managing a corrupt one on an older Mac, you can install your current version of OS X even though you might not have a working Recovery option (on the drive. Sep 06, 2019 There are several reasons you might need to install a new copy of macOS or OS X on the hard drive in your Mac or MacBook. Fortunately, there are also several ways to do it, ranging from Internet recovery to installation discs. In this article, we’ve given detailed instructions for each method. If you don't see the hard drive to select, then go to the Utilities menu, then Disk Utility, and choose your new hard drive, click the Erase tab, and continue with an Erase format of the hard drive. Quit Disk Utility, and you should then see the hard drive available as a choice. Reinstall macOS. Select Reinstall macOS from the utilities window in macOS Recovery, then click Continue and follow the onscreen instructions. Follow these guidelines during installation: If the installer asks to unlock your disk, enter the password you use to log in to your Mac. If the installer doesn't see your disk, or it says that it can't install on your computer or volume, you might need to erase your disk first.
First make sure that your Mac has a connection to the internet. Then determine whether you're using a Mac with Apple silicon and follow the appropriate steps:
Apple silicon
Turn on your Mac and continue to press and hold the power button until you see the startup options window. Click the gear icon labeled Options, then click Continue.
Intel processor
Turn on your Mac and immediately press and hold Command (⌘)-R until you see an Apple logo or other image.
If you're asked to select a user you know the password for, select the user, click Next, then enter their administrator password.
Reinstall macOS
Select Reinstall macOS from the utilities window in macOS Recovery, then click Continue and follow the onscreen instructions.
Follow these guidelines during installation:
- If the installer asks to unlock your disk, enter the password you use to log in to your Mac.
- If the installer doesn't see your disk, or it says that it can't install on your computer or volume, you might need to erase your disk first.
- If the installer offers you the choice between installing on Macintosh HD or Macintosh HD - Data, choose Macintosh HD.
- Allow installation to complete without putting your Mac to sleep or closing its lid. Your Mac might restart and show a progress bar several times, and the screen might be empty for minutes at a time.
After installation is complete, your Mac might restart to a setup assistant. If you're selling, trading in, or giving away your Mac, press Command-Q to quit the assistant without completing setup. Then click Shut Down. When the new owner starts up the Mac, they can use their own information to complete setup.
Other macOS installation options
When you install macOS from Recovery, you get the current version of the most recently installed macOS, with some exceptions:
- On an Intel-based Mac, if you use Shift-Option-Command-R during startup, you're offered the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available. If you use Option-Command-R during startup, in most cases you're offered the latest macOS that is compatible with your Mac. Otherwise you're offered the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available.
- If the Mac logic board was just replaced, you might be offered only the latest macOS that is compatible with your Mac. If you just erased your entire startup disk, you might be offered only the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available.
You can also use these methods to install macOS, if the macOS is compatible with your Mac:
- Use the App Store to download and install the latest macOS.
- Use the App Store or a web browser to download and install an earlier macOS.
- Use a USB flash drive or other secondary volume to create a bootable installer.
You can 'pop in' your ssd and buy the disk of Mac OS Snow Leopard or Lion and do the install or you can do a internet recovery following the instruction from Apple. If you have another Mac around you can use this kind of install from a bootable usb. Apr 16, 2020 Connect the drive to your Mac (if it is an external drive or memory card). If it is your internal hard drive that you have reformatted, consider using Target Disk Mode or Disk Drill's Portable Mode to increase your chances of data recovery on your Mac’s formatted hard drive. You can also create a bootable drive for data recovery with Disk Drill on any other Mac to recover the formatted. Mar 15, 2018 Click the “File” menu and select “Load File System From Device.” It will automatically locate the connected drive, and you can load it. You’ll see the contents of the HFS+ drive in the graphical window. Just select the files or folders you want, click “Extract,” and choose a folder. On my MacBook Pro with OSX 10.13I had a 240gb Solid state hard drive, but I needed bigger! So I got a new Kensington 480gb SSD. During formatting and installation, OSX 10.7.5 is automatically installed can’t do anything about it!
- Sep 06, 2019 Click ‘Install OS X’ and select your hard drive as the destination. Your Mac installs OS X from the installation disc. It may take some time. Contact Apple Support. If you’re struggling to install macOS or OS X on your new hard drive, you may be able to get one-to-one support directly from Apple.
- Oct 25, 2021 Reinstall macOS. Select Reinstall macOS from the utilities window in macOS Recovery, then click Continue and follow the onscreen instructions. Follow these guidelines during installation: If the installer asks to unlock your disk, enter the password you use to log in to your Mac. If the installer doesn't see your disk, or it says that it can't install on your computer or volume, you might need to erase your disk first.
Dec 02, 2021 How To Install Mac Os X El Capitan On New Hard Drive Step 4: Run macOS on the external drive. There are two ways to run the version of macOS from your external drive. Either: How To Load Mac Os On New Hard Drive Mac. Open System Preferences Startup Disk. Select the external drive you wish to use to start up the Mac and click Restart. How do I install OSX on an external hard drive? Download Mac OS X Lion from the Mac App Store. Connect the external hard drive you want to install OS X Lion on to your Mac. Navigate to ApplicationsUtilities and double-click Disk Utility. Select the hard drive you connected from the pane on the left within Disk Utility. Nov 30, 2021 Installing the Mac operating system on an external drive is the safest way to get a good look at a new OS without changing anything on your Mac. It'll leave your current configuration intact and allow you to play around with Monterey or try out the beta of the next version of macOS.
Many Mac hard drives break down and stop working. If you are upgrading or replacing a Mac hard drive and you don't have an operating system, this video will. Many Mac hard drives break down and stop working. If you are upgrading or replacing a Mac hard drive and you don't have an operating system, this video will. Nov 27, 2021 Here's how to partition your Mac. Nov 29, 2015 Install the version of OS X that your Mac was using when you made your Time Machine backup. Now that OS X has been installed on your new hard drive, it’s time to restore everything from Time Machine. Again, turn on your Mac and hold down Command-R. Pick the drive you wish to use to start up the Mac.
Jun 08, 2020 • Filed to: Solve Mac Problems • Proven solutions
The macOS Sierra is a wonderful operating system - and easily the best for all Apple computers and laptops. If you have a Mac, then you probably cannot wait to get your hands on the Sierra - provided your system supports it. However, even if your Mac does support Sierra, there may be a few reasons as to why you may not be able to install it on your hard disk.
For starters, it takes around 8GB of storage space. While that is the minimum recommended by Apple, you will probably need a bit more to make use of it. In addition to that, if you are using an older Mac, then you will still face a few issues while running Sierra. You also have to backup the entire system before installing macOS Sierra, which is a must-do step in any update. For those who have a lot of data on their Macs, this can be a very lengthy procedure.
However, there is a solution to all of that. You can simply go ahead and install the macOS Sierra on an external hard drive, and then boot your Mac from that!
- Install Mac Osx On New Hard Drive Without Disc; Install Macos On New Hard Drive Without Disc; Installing Mac Os On New Hard Drive Without Cd Download; How to Install OS Without a CD or Floppy Drive. When buying a new computer or laptop, the latest operating system is often already installed. If not, and you have the original media that the OS is.
- When you boot your Mac it will download the OS for installation. How To Load Mac Os On A New Hard Drive; By default, your Mac starts up from its built-in hard disk, but a startup disk can be any storage device that contains an operating system compatible with your Mac. For example, if you install macOS on an internal or external drive, your Mac.
The Prerequisites
There is no doubt about the fact that you will save a lot of trouble and hassle if you install the macOS Sierra on an external drive. It will even let you use the same hard drive with multiple Macs, without updating to Sierra on each of those. However, to begin with this, you will need an external hard drive. Since Apple only requires you to have a little over 8 GB of free space, any hard drive, even one with 128 GB, will do just fine. For better performance, it is recommended that it be an SSD.
It must be better if you can format the external hard drive beforehand to make it compatible with your Mac.
You will also have to download macOS Sierra from the Mac App Store. To do that, just open the App Store on your Mac, and search for macOS Sierra. You can also download macOS Sierra by directly clicking on the link from your Mac. If your Mac is compatible, then the download option will appear. Click on it, and the download will begin.
Mac Os Hard Drive Icon
The download size is around 5GB, and the total time may vary depending on your internet connection as well as Apple’s servers.
Once you have a hard drive, you can go ahead and follow the simple steps to install and use macOS Sierra from your external drive.
Part 1. Installing macOS Sierra on the external drive
1. Preparing the hard drive for the installation
Before you install macOS Sierra on the hard drive, you will need to clean the external device. Ensure that there is no important data on your hard drive. Then plug it into your Mac, go to Finder and select Applications.
Load Mac Os On A New Hard Drive Mac
From Applications, go to Utilities and from there, find and double click on Disk Utility. In the Disk Utility tab, select the external hard drive that is connected to the Mac, and then click on Erase at the top.
Now rename it to something like sierra that you will remember, choose 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)' in the format and then click on Erase. Once the process completes, click on Done, and you are ready to begin installation.
2. Creating the bootable drive
Once your hard drive is formatted, you will need to turn it into a bootable drive. Before you begin this, you will require the Administrator access on your Mac.
Related: Wanna access Mac data without reinstalling it? Go there and boot Mac up to recover data easily.
Step 1 Go to Finder to open the window, and from the left side, select Applications.
Step 2 From the applications Window, find and click Utilities, and from there, go to Terminal.
Step 3 Now, remember the name that you set for formatting your external drive (i.e. sierra). In case you named it something other than sierra, then make the appropriate changes in the following text. Once you are in the terminal, enter the following text, ensuring to use your drive’s name wherever Volumes/sierra is written.
sudo /Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/sierra --applicationpath /Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app –nointeraction
Step 4 When you tap enter, you will be asked the password for the administrator account. As you type the password, no text will be there in the terminal window. Depending on the drive, this process could take a while. Once the window reports ‘Done’, you can close the drive.
Part 2. Using macOS Sierra with the Bootable Hard Drive
Once the above step completes, your external hard drive will be ready to run macOS sierra on any compatible Mac. First, you have to turn off the Mac on which you want to run Sierra from the bootable drive. Then, before switching it on, connect the drive through the Mac’s USB Port.
Then turn on your Mac, and as soon as you hear the startup sound, press the Option key and keep it pressed. Within a few seconds, you will get a screen that asks you to select the appropriate hard drive for booting from. In this screen, select the one on which you have installed macOS Sierra, and you will soon have your Mac running Sierra!
Thus, as you follow these simple steps, you will have configured the macOS Sierra to run from an external hard drive. You do not have to worry about how much free space there is in your Mac, or anything else of the sort. Through this approach, you can run macOS Sierra on any compatible Mac without having to separately download and install it on either one. In addition to that, since there are no backups of the mac’s hard disk required, the process will involve comparatively less hassle.
Any changes or files that you make can be stored on your Mac as well, so you do not have to worry about where your data is. This can be a great way to have the same OS on your personal as well as work Macs. Thus, now, you do not have to bother about freeing up your Mac’s drives or separately downloading it for every PC in the house- just configure it once on an external hard drive, and everything else is taken care of!
Whenever and however you lost your data, keep it in mind that you're able to retrieve data back from Mac by the means of data recovery software like Recoverit. It is the data recovery tool to help you retireve all kinds of data from various devices.
What's Wrong with Mac
- Recover Your Mac
- Fix Your Mac
- Delete Your Mac
- Learn Mac Hacks
Mac Os Catalina
Reinstall from macOS Recovery
macOS Recovery makes it easy to reinstall the Mac operating system, even if you need to erase your startup disk first. All you need is a connection to the Internet. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the Wi-Fi menu , which is also available in macOS Recovery.
1. Start up from macOS Recovery
To start up from macOS Recovery, turn on your Mac and immediately press and hold one of the following sets of keys on your keyboard. Release the keys when you see an Apple logo, spinning globe, or other startup screen.
![New New](https://www.m4vgear.com/images/guide/install-macosx-on-external-drive/start-up-the-mac.jpg)
Command (⌘)-R
Reinstall the latest macOS that was installed on your Mac (recommended).
Option-⌘-R
Upgrade to the latest macOS that is compatible with your Mac.
Shift-Option-⌘-R
Reinstall the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available.
How To Load Mac Os On New Hard Drive
You might be prompted to enter a password, such as a firmware password or the password of a user who is an administrator of this Mac. Enter the requested password to continue.
When you see the utilities window, you have started up from macOS Recovery.
2. Decide whether to erase (format) your disk
You probably don't need to erase, unless you're selling, trading in, or giving away your Mac, or you have an issue that requires you to erase. If you need to erase before installing macOS, select Disk Utility from the Utilities window, then click Continue. Learn more about when and how to erase.
3. Install macOS
When you're ready to reinstall macOS, choose Reinstall macOS from the Utilities window. Then click Continue and follow the onscreen instructions. You will be asked to choose a disk on which to install.
- If the installer asks to unlock your disk, enter the password you use to log in to your Mac.
- If the installer doesn't see your disk, or it says that it can't install on your computer or volume, you might need to erase your disk first.
- If the installer is for a different version of macOS than you expected, learn about macOS Recovery exceptions.
- If the installer offers you the choice between installing on Macintosh HD or Macintosh HD - Data, choose Macintosh HD.
Please allow installation to complete without putting your Mac to sleep or closing its lid. During installation, your Mac might restart and show a progress bar several times, and the screen might be empty for minutes at a time.
If your Mac restarts to a setup assistant, but you're selling, trading in, or giving away your Mac, press Command-Q to quit the assistant without completing setup. Then click Shut Down. When the new owner starts up the Mac, they can use their own information to complete setup.
macOS Recovery exceptions
The version of macOS offered by macOS Recovery might vary in some cases:
- If macOS Sierra 10.12.4 or later has never been installed on this Mac, Option-Command-R installs the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available. And Shift-Option-Command-R isn't available.
- If you erased your entire disk instead of just the startup volume on that disk, macOS Recovery might offer only the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available. You can upgrade to a later version afterward.
- If your Mac has the Apple T2 Security Chip and you never installed a macOS update, Option-Command-R installs the latest macOS that was installed on your Mac.
- If you just had your Mac logic board replaced during a repair, macOS Recovery might offer only the latest macOS that is compatible with your Mac.
How To Install Macos On New Ssd Hard Drive
If you can't get macOS Recovery to offer the installer you want, you might be able to use one of the other ways to install macOS.
Other ways to install macOS
External Hard Drive Mac Os
How To Load Mac Os On New Hard Drive Free
- You can also install macOS from the App Store or Software Update preferences. If you can't install macOS Catalina, you might be able to install an earlier macOS, such as macOS Mojave, High Sierra, Sierra, El Capitan, or Yosemite.
- Or create a bootable installer disk, then use that disk to install macOS on your Mac or another Mac.
Mac Os Hard Drive Space; Mac Os Hard Drive; Mac Os Hard Drive Format; There are two ways you can install OS X on to your external hard disk: by reinstalling OS X from the OS X Utilities repair screen or by downloading OS X from the App Store and running the installer. I’ll show you both methods in case one isn’t working for you. Dec 09, 2021 Step 1: If there is a trouble with the current hard disk, and you wish to solve it or use the new version of the OS, then plug the bootable external drive to the Mac. Step 2: Power on the machine and hold the option button until you notice the recovery screen appear.
Sep 14, 2021 • Filed to: Solve Mac Problems • Proven solutions
The macOS Sierra is a wonderful operating system - and easily the best for all Apple computers and laptops. If you have a Mac, then you probably cannot wait to get your hands on the Sierra - provided your system supports it. However, even if your Mac does support Sierra, there may be a few reasons as to why you may not be able to install it on your hard disk.
For starters, it takes around 8GB of storage space. While that is the minimum recommended by Apple, you will probably need a bit more to make use of it. In addition to that, if you are using an older Mac, then you will still face a few issues while running Sierra. You also have to back up the entire system before installing macOS Sierra, which is a must-do step in any update. For those who have a lot of data on their Macs, this can be a very lengthy procedure.
However, there is a solution to all of that. You can simply go ahead and install the macOS Sierra on an external hard drive, and then boot your Mac from that!
How To Install New Mac Os On New Hard Drive Windows 7
The Prerequisites
There is no doubt about the fact that you will save a lot of trouble and hassle if you install the macOS Sierra on an external drive. It will even let you use the same hard drive with multiple Macs, without updating to Sierra on each of those. However, to begin with, this, you will need an external hard drive. Since Apple only requires you to have a little over 8 GB of free space, any hard drive, even one with 128 GB, will do just fine. For better performance, it is recommended that it be an SSD.
It must be better if you can format the external hard drive beforehand to make it compatible with your Mac.
You will also have to download macOS Sierra from the Mac App Store. To do that, just open the App Store on your Mac, and search for macOS Sierra. You can also download macOS Sierra by directly clicking on the link from your Mac. If your Mac is compatible, then the download option will appear. Click on it, and the download will begin.
The download size is around 5GB, and the total time may vary depending on your internet connection as well as Apple’s servers.
How To Install New Mac Os On New Hard Drive Windows 10
Once you have a hard drive, you can go ahead and follow the simple steps to install and use macOS Sierra from your external drive.
Part 1. Installing macOS Sierra on the external drive
1. Preparing the hard drive for the installation
Before you install macOS Sierra on the hard drive, you will need to clean the external device. Ensure that there is no important data on your hard drive. Then plug it into your Mac, go to Finder, and select Applications.
From Applications, go to Utilities and from there, find and double click on Disk Utility. In the Disk Utility tab, select the external hard drive that is connected to the Mac, and then click on Erase at the top.
Now rename it to something like sierra that you will remember, choose 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)' in the format, and then click on Erase. Once the process completes, click on Done, and you are ready to begin the installation.
2. Creating the bootable drive
Once your hard drive is formatted, you will need to turn it into a bootable drive. Before you begin this, you will require the Administrator access on your Mac.
Related: Wanna access Mac data without reinstalling it? Go there and boot Mac up to recover data easily.
Step 1 Go to Finder to open the window, and from the left side, select Applications.
How To Install New Mac Os On New Hard Drive For Macbook Pro
Mac Os High Sierra
Step 2 From the application's Window, find and click Utilities, and from there, go to Terminal.
Step 3 Now, remember the name that you set for formatting your external drive (i.e. sierra). In case you named it something other than sierra, then make the appropriate changes in the following text. Once you are in the terminal, enter the following text, ensuring to use your drive’s name wherever Volumes/Sierra is written.
How To Install Mac Os On New Hard Drive Mac Mini
sudo /Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/sierra --applicationpath /Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app –nointeraction
Step 4 When you tap enter, you will be asked the password for the administrator account. As you type the password, no text will be there in the terminal window. Depending on the drive, this process could take a while. Once the window reports ‘Done’, you can close the drive.
Part 2. Using macOS Sierra with the Bootable Hard Drive
Once the above step completes, your external hard drive will be ready to run macOS Sierra on any compatible Mac. First, you have to turn off the Mac on which you want to run Sierra from the bootable drive. Then, before switching it on, connect the drive through the Mac’s USB Port.
Then turn on your Mac, and as soon as you hear the startup sound, press the Option key and keep it pressed. Within a few seconds, you will get a screen that asks you to select the appropriate hard drive for booting. On this screen, select the one on which you have installed macOS Sierra, and you will soon have your Mac running Sierra!
Thus, as you follow these simple steps, you will have configured the macOS Sierra to run from an external hard drive. You do not have to worry about how much free space there is in your Mac or anything else of the sort. Through this approach, you can run macOS Sierra on any compatible Mac without having to separately download and install it on either one. In addition to that, since there are no backups of the mac’s hard disk required, the process will involve comparatively less hassle.
Any changes or files that you make can be stored on your Mac as well, so you do not have to worry about where your data is. This can be a great way to have the same OS on your personal as well as work Macs. Thus, now, you do not have to bother about freeing up your Mac’s drives or separately downloading it for every PC in the house- just configure it once on an external hard drive, and everything else is taken care of!
Install Mac Os X On A New Hard Drive Cost
Whenever and however you lost your data, keep it in mind that you're able to retrieve data back from Mac by the means of data recovery software like Recoverit. It is the data recovery tool to help you retrieve all kinds of data from various devices.
What's Wrong with Mac
- Recover Your Mac
- Fix Your Mac
- Delete Your Mac
- Learn Mac Hacks
Concerned about updating your Mac to the latest version of macOS? Perhaps you aren't sure about running macOS Monterey quite yet, or maybe you want to test the beta but don't want to risk messing up your system. You might be concerned about incompatible software or you might just be thinking that you might hate it and not be able to go back to the macOS you are familiar with.
Luckily you don't have to install the OS update on your Mac at all - you can install it on an external drive instead.
Installing the Mac operating system on an external drive is the safest way to get a good look at a new OS without changing anything on your Mac. It'll leave your current configuration intact and allow you to play around with Monterey or try out the beta of the next version of macOS.
In this tutorial we explain how to run macOS from an external drive in four simple steps:
- Prepare the external drive for the installation using Disk Utility.
- Get the macOS install files - we'll show you how.
- Install macOS on the external drive.
- Run macOS on the external drive by pressing Alt/Option at start up on an Intel-powered Mac, or pressing and holding the on switch on an M1 Mac.
What you need
If you want to run macOS on an external drive you will need a few things including a drive with a good amount of storage available.
Make sure that you opt for flash storage because Apple's APFS (Apple file system) is optimized for SSD and the computer will be sluggish if you attempt to boot from a hard drive. It's also worth investing in a USB C or Thunderbolt 3 drive as this will offer the fastest connection.
Install Mac Os X On A New Hard Drive Not Showing Up
You can get hold of a USB flash stick pretty cheaply, such as this San Disk USB Type-C drive with 256GB for £30.93 (RRP £59.99). It's a bit harder to find a Thunderbolt powered SSD, and unfortunately they are a lot more expensive. One example is the Samsung X5 Thunderbolt 3 1TB SSD, currently £273.98 from Amazon (RRP £344.99).
How To Load Mac Os On New Hard Drive
If you want to use the external installation as if you are running it on your Mac we suggest you get the biggest USB C/Thunderbolt 3 drive you can afford. For more buying advice, take a look at our guide to the best external drives for Mac.
How To Install Mac Os On New Hard Drive Mac Mini
Troubleshooting problems with the M1 Mac
Before we move on to how you can create this external installation of macOS we will mention some issues people had when trying to create such an installation for an M1 Mac.
After the first M1 Macs launched in 2020 it emerged that there was a problem with the USB interface. As a result some users encountered problems trying to install macOS on and booting from SSDs connected via USB. This issue was quickly addressed in Big Sur 11.0.1, improved further in 11.1 and refined again in 11.2. The problem has now been addressed by Apple's developers, but if you find it affects you we suggest that you do the following:
How To Install New Mac Os On New Hard Drive
- Try a different port. For some it has worked to install on a disk connected via USB-A connector, but not USB-C, while the situation has been vice versa for others.
- Another solution is to use a drive that uses Thunderbolt rather than USB (the port looks the same, but the standard is different). It should be connected directly to the computer, not via a dock. That drive will need a good amount of space (back when we started running Mojave beta on a 32GB stick we found it wasn't enough once we started using iCloud Desktop and other features that meant that our data started being downloaded).
Another issue worth flagging is that if you were hoping to use this boot drive to run older versions of macOS on M1 Macs sadly it isn't possible as the M1 Mac can only run the ARM version of Big Sur.
Step 1: Prepare the drive for installation
Follow these instructions to prepare your external drive - note that there may be some slight changes to the process if you wish to install the macOS Monterey or the latest beta.
- Connect the external drive to your Mac.
- Launch Disk Utility (press Cmd + spacebar and start to type Disk Utility).
- Before this next step - if you are running High Sierra or later you will need to click on the View drop down below the close/minimise buttons. Choose Show All Devices from the options. Now you will see the root drive in addition to the external volume below it.
- Select the External drive in the sidebar (the next step won't work if you only select the volume - in the screenshot above you would need to select the SanDisk, not the NO NAME).
- Click on Erase (you need to erase the drive so you can reformat it properly).
- Give your drive a name such as 'macOS Big Sur' or 'USB'.
- Choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the Format.
- Choose GUID Partition Map as the Scheme.
- Click on Erase.
- Wait while Disk Utility creates the partition and sets up the drive (this can take a few minutes).
- Then click Done.
Now you will see that your external storage has been renamed with the name you choose and it will be ready for you to install the macOS on it - but there is something else you need to do first.
Step 2: Get the macOS install files
This step will depend on whether you want to run a macOS beta, a full version of macOS, or even an older Mac OS X.
Whether you want to get the macOS Monterey or the latest beta installation files the process to be similar to that detailed below. When Monterey becomes available to download on 25 October 2021 you should be able to get the installation files via Software Update or the Mac App Store.
Here's how to get the macOS Big Sur or Catalina installer:
- To download the macOS Big Sur installer click here to go to the Big Sur page on the Mac App Store. To download the macOS Catalina installer click on this link to the Mac App Store.
- Click on Get to download the installer.
- Software Update will search and then, if you are already running Big Sur (or Catalina), if will ask you to confirm that you do want to download macOS Big Sur (or Catalina).
- Click on Download.
Remember that you just want to download the software, not install it, at this stage.
If it's a full version of an older version of macOS you are after, we explain how to get the installation files for macOS here.
If you are after a beta of macOS, you will need to sign up for the beta on your Mac and download the beta files. Once you have the files you'll want to install them on the external drive rather than your Mac, so be careful. We have a complete guide to getting the macOS beta here. The beta files are about 12GB.
Step 3: Install macOS on the external drive
Now to install the beta or alternative version of the Mac operating system on your external drive.
- Open a finder window, go to Applications and find the Catalina or Big Sur installer (or whichever version of macOS you want to run). You can also find it by using Spotlight (press Command + spacebar and start typing the name of the OS)
- Click on the installer.
- A window should open (check the Dock if not). It will invite you to set up the installation of macOS Monterey (or whatever) click Continue.
- Agree to the software licence agreement.
- Next, and this is important, click on Show All Disks. Do not click on Home as you don't want to install on your main drive.
- Click on the external drive.
- Click Install.
Wait while the version of macOS installs on the drive. This process may take a while - if it tells you it will take 10 minutes it's lying.
Note: This will not work if you didn't set your external drive up correctly as a GUID Partition as per the steps above.
How To Install Mac Os X El Capitan On New Hard Drive
Step 4: Run macOS on the external drive
There are two ways to run the version of macOS from your external drive
Either:
How To Load Mac Os On New Hard Drive Mac
- Open System Preferences > Startup Disk.
- Select the external drive you wish to use to start up the Mac and click Restart.
Or:
- Hold down Option/Alt during startup on an Intel-powered Mac, or press and hold the on button on an M1 Mac until you see the start up options.
- Pick the drive you wish to use to start up the Mac.
How To Load Mac Os On A New Hard Drive
Once you have installed the macOS you want on the drive it should be easy to install subsequent updates there via System Preferences.
For more advice about installing macOS or Mac OS X read How to update the Mac operating system and How to install old versions of OS X on a Mac.