Yosemite Public Beta Bootable USB installers

[tywebb13]

Here is how to make a bootable usb of the yosemite public beta installers. It is much easier than for yosemite DP1 and similar to how you do it for mavericks (but obviously the installer name has changed).

Format an 8 GB USB drive which should be called Untitled and formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). The installer should be called Install OS X Yosemite Beta.app and should be in your Applications folder.

Run this in terminal and wait about 20 minutes:

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite\ Beta.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite\ Beta.app --nointeraction

You can boot up from it by selecting it from the startup manager you get when starting your computer and holding down the option key.

EDIT: This code was first used for PB1 but also works for PB2, PB3 and PB4.

 

[bobbytomorow]

This method works great, cheers

 

[tywebb13]

Yeah it works pretty good. But this is build 14A299l for a public beta which won't necessarily give access to future developer previews and so I caution developers with DP4 (build 14A298i) not to install this over the top of DP4.

It would be better to install it on a separate partition or virtual machine.

 

[dmckinneysr]

Help

When I paste given link into terminal it asks for password and then when I try to click an type password I can't type anything...Did I miss something?

 

[JKarnsy]

When I paste given link into terminal it asks for password and then when I try to click an type password I can't type anything...Did I miss something?

Just type your password and click enter. It is in fact inputing the password even though you don't see it.

 

[S.B.G]

Here is how to make a bootable usb of the yosemite beta 1 installer. It is much easier than for yosemite DP1 and similar to how you do it for mavericks (but obviously the installer name has changed).

Format an 8 GB USB drive which should be called Untitled and formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). The installer should be called Install OS X Yosemite Beta.app and should be in your Applications folder.

Run this in terminal and wait about 20 minutes:

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite\ Beta.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite\ Beta.app --nointeraction

You can boot up from it by selecting it from the startup manager you get when starting your computer and holding down the option key.

This worked great! Thanks for posting it.

I'm about 15 minutes from finishing the install on my external SSD right now.

 

[Nermal]

--nointeraction

I used to see people suggesting this switch with earlier versions as well, and I never understood:

a) Where it comes from (it's not listed in createinstallmedia's documentation).
b) Why you'd want to use it - It presumably removes the confirmation step, therefore making the command potentially unsafe, and it takes longer to type than pressing Y at the prompt.

Why do you suggest it? I've been wondering for some time and finally got around to asking

 

[g35]

Thanks for the info. Will this also create a recovery partition if I do a clean install with this USB stick?

 

[lolkthxbai]

I used to see people suggesting this switch with earlier versions as well, and I never understood:

a) Where it comes from (it's not listed in createinstallmedia's documentation).
b) Why you'd want to use it - It presumably removes the confirmation step, therefore making the command potentially unsafe, and it takes longer to type than pressing Y at the prompt.

Why do you suggest it? I've been wondering for some time and finally got around to asking

You pretty much answered your own question. ;-)

 

[dmckinneysr]

Help again

ok so i followed the instruction given, now when I put password I get:

Password: (I ENTER PASSWORD HERE)
sudo: /Applications/Install OS X Yosemite Beta.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia: command not found

ANY SUGGESTIONS???

 

[Nermal]

Check that your installer is in /Applications and that the name matches. You can use the Tab key when entering the path to verify that it's valid.

You pretty much answered your own question. ;-)

I did? I'm more confused than ever now!

 

[coolfactor]

I tried installing onto a partition of an external Firewire 400 drive connected to my 2007 MacBook Pro, which was running Mavericks. After several attempts, it's failing to start up. I get a progress bar during the startup that never gets past the half way point, and the fan is blasting.

Because my first attempt was to do a normal install onto the external from the downloaded Yosemite installer, it changed the boot sequence for my primary internal boot disk, so it will no longer boot into Mavericks.

Thankfully, I do have a rescue boot disk that loads up fine, but I'm at a loss why this is being so troublesome.

 

[sanke1]

How to make a bootable USB from Windows?

 

[S.B.G]

Thanks for the info. Will this also create a recovery partition if I do a clean install with this USB stick?

Yes, it will.

 

[maflynn]

Yes, it will.

I thought USB installations did not create recovery partitions or did I miss something.

 

[jg321]

Thanks for posting this. Incidentally, I used the "other" method, which relies on copying over the Packages directory and two other files.

Clean install on my rMBP, upgrade on my iMac just for good measure. Running lovely so far.

 

[S.B.G]

I thought USB installations did not create recovery partitions or did I miss something.

Well it did. I installed it last night on an external Samsung 830 SSD from a USB drive following the OP's instructions in this thread.

 

[maflynn]

Well it did. I installed it last night on an external Samsung 830 SSD from a USB drive following the OP's instructions in this thread.

At some point in creating USB installers in the past it was reported that the recovery partition would not be created. I guess things have changed. I'm one of the few folks who have not installed Yosemite on their Macs.

 

[S.B.G]

At some point in creating USB installers in the past it was reported that the recovery partition would not be created. I guess things have changed. I'm one of the few folks who have not installed Yosemite on their Macs.

This is my first time ever installing a beta and the first time ever installing an OS from a USB drive. The whole process went quite smoothly.

 

[tywebb13]

I thought USB installations did not create recovery partitions or did I miss something.

That depends on how you make it.

Lion and Mountain Lion usbs made with restoring the InstallESD.dmg to the usb will create recovery partitions.

The bootable usb made for the first developer preview of mavericks with manual methods indeed did not make a recovery partition. But this was compensated by the fact that you could manually create one anyway.

Every full installer since DP4 of mavericks have had createinstallmedia and bootable usbs made with that also created recovery partitions (including DP1 of yosemite, although you had to edit the installer to get it to work).

 

[ninethirty]

Quick question if anyone can answer this for me. I'd like to install on a partition, and slowly start to use Yosemite over Mavericks as I discover that bugs and whatnot aren't an issue. Will it be possible for me at some point in the future to delete my original partition (with Mavericks) and just have this one take over and be the only partition on my drive. Or does that make no sense at all? Cheers!

 

[roland.g]

I did this but when I reboot, it doesn't reboot to Yosemite, it reboots to the Yosemite installer. I thought this circumvented the installation by putting the OS through a terminal command right onto the USB disk?

Am I missing something?

 

[S.B.G]

I did this but when I reboot, it doesn't reboot to Yosemite, it reboots to the Yosemite installer. I thought this circumvented the installation by putting the OS through a terminal command right onto the USB disk?

Am I missing something?

All this does is make an installer USB drive. You use it to install Yosemite to another, separate drive or partition.

 

[roland.g]

All this does is make an installer USB drive. You use it to install Yosemite to another, separate drive or partition.

Gotcha. It seems to be allowing me to install it on the USB drive. Hopefully it will be able to boot and run from there.

 

[S.B.G]

Gotcha. It seems to be allowing me to install it on the USB drive. Hopefully it will be able to boot and run from there.

It should. That's what I did. I used a USB drive to put the installer on, then installed it on an external USB 3 SSD and it's working just fine.