Sep 5, 2014 - Question Disk Image Tool needed for mac. Was having TimeMachine just backup another mac's hard drive plugged in via USB or SATA onto.
Apple distributes macOS High Sierra through the App Store. You need an internet connection, and the download will be over 5GB, so it’ll take a few minutes.
For a single Mac, the installation process through the App Store works well, but if you have several Macs, it’s not efficient. That’s why I like to create a bootable installation drive. I can use the drive on each Mac I need to upgrade, saving me from the process of entering an Apple ID and password and then waiting for the download.
It’s easy to create an external installation drive. It’s also handy to keep around, just in case you’re in a situation where you rather use the drive than rely on booting in Recovery mode.
Here are a couple of different ways you can create a bootable macOS High Sierra installation drive. First, let’s cover the items you’ll need and how to get them. Then we’ll go over the two ways to make the drive itself.
Macworld also has bootable-install-drive instructions for:
Get an external drive and maybe an adapter
Just about any type of USB external drive will work: thumb drive, hard drive, or SSD. The installer software will take up over 5GB.
If you want to use a thumb drive, an 8GB drive works perfectly. I used an 8GB Kingston Data Traveler G4 ($9 on Amazon); it’s cheap and it supports USB 3.1, so it’s fast. I’ve also used a VisionTek 120GB USB 3.0 Pocket Solid State Drive ($95 on Amazon) and older USB thumb drives that support USB 2, which is slower, but works.
If you have a 2015 or newer MacBook or a 2016 or newer MacBook Pro, you may need Apple’s USB to USB-C adapter. This will allow you to connect a storage device that uses a USB type-A connector. If you have a USB-C storage device, then you don’t need to get the adapter.
When creating the boot drive, the storage device is reformatted, so there’s no need to format the drive beforehand.
Get the macOS High Sierra installer software
You’ll find High Sierra in the App Store. It’s not available as an update, so if you run Software Update (Apple menu > About This Mac > Software Update), you won’t find it. If you launch the App Store app and look for it in the Updates section, you won’t find it. Go to the Featured section of the App Store, and you may see High Sierra appear at the top. If not, just do a search for “High Sierra.” Click on it to go to the High Sierra page. (You can also click here.)
You can read the information to learn more about High Sierra. When you’re ready to download the software, click the Download button under the icon on the upper left. (If you’ve already downloaded the installer, the button will say Open instead of Download.)
Once the download is complete, the installer will launch automatically. But don’t continue with the installation. Instead, press Command-Q on your keyboard to quit the installer.
The High Sierra installer app will be in your Applications folder, so you can go there and launch it later to upgrade your Mac to the new operating system.
If you already installed High Sierra, you won’t find the installer app in your Applications folder. You also won’t find it in the App Store app under Purchased. Click here to go to the macOS High Sierra section of the App Store. This link should open the App Store app and take you directly to High Sierra. Under the High Sierra icon on the left of the banner, click on the Download button. This will download the installer to your Applications folder. If the installer auto launches, press Command-Q on your keyboard to quit the app.
Make a bootable installer drive: The quick way
There’s a free app called Install Disk Creator that you can use to make the installation drive. It has been updated to support High Sierra. There’s another app called Diskmaker X that I’ve used before, but during the original writing of this article, it didn't support High Sierra. It now does.
Download Install Disk Creator by clicking on the link above. When the download is done, you can move it over to your Applications folder. Then follow these steps to create your bootable macOS High Sierra drive.
- Connect your drive to your Mac. It’s OK if it’s not formatted as a Mac drive. The app will reformat it.
- Launch Install Disk Creator.
- In the main window, you’ll see a pop-up menu under “Select the volume to become the installer.” Click on the menu and select your drive.
- Under the pop-up menu, you’ll see “Select the OS X installer.” (macOS used to be called OS X.) If you have only the High Sierra installer on your Mac, Install Disk Creator will automatically select it. If you have other macOS installers, you need to click on “Select the OS X installer” and select the High Sierra installer.
- When you’re ready, click “Create installer.” Your Mac may tell you that Install Disk Creator wants to make changes, and you need to enter your user name and password. After you do this, the app will take a few minutes to create the boot drive. You won’t see a progress bar.
- When the App is done, your installer is ready to use.
Need help to copy or clone a flash drive on Mac
'I want to make an entire copy of my Toshiba USB flash drive to another flash drive with the same type. Tried Disk Utility, but the cloning process always failed when selecting the destination disk. What's the other way of cloning a flash drive I should take?'
You can achieve the cloning purpose on Mac by using Disk Utility, and the right steps to use Disk Utility should be like this.
Select and drag destination disk to the Destination entry field. Next, select and drag the source disk to the Source entry field, and double click to go.
![Usb Usb](http://seagate119.info/imgs/2017-11/38990866771_usb-repair-tool-mac.jpg)
Fastest way to clone everything on a USB drive on Mac
If you prefer a more straightforward way of cloning a USB flash drive to another, simply download EaseUS Todo Backup for Mac. It's considered as the fastest way by customers to clone files, pictures, applications along with settings and even operating system on a bootable USB flash drive to a destination storage device.
Ease of use is the biggest advantage of using EaseUS mac cloning software to perform cloning job than that of Disk Utility, what's more, the guarantee of less chance of disk cloning failure, hanging or stuck.
Guide: how to clone USB on Mac with Mac cloning software
Be aware that EaseUS Todo Backup for Mac can run seamlessly on Mac OS X versions starting from 10.9 to the latest macOS Sierra. Now, connect both your usb flash drives using the USB ports to the Mac computer and follow the guide to get started.
Step 1. Select the disk clone feature which is the fourth option at the top left corner on the main window of EaseUS Todo Backup for Mac.
Step 2. In the From drop-down list, select the USB flash drive as source disk you want to clone.
Step 3. In the From drop-down list, select the other empty USB flash drive as destination disk.
Step 4. Set up the disk cloning properties. Here, you are allowed to exclude files or folders if necessary.
Step 5. Finally, click the Start button to execute the cloning operation.