- Install Macos On New Hard Drive Imac
- Install New Hard Drive Macbook
- Mac Mini Install Os On New Hard Drive
- How To Install Mac Os On A New Hard Drive
If something doesn't quite work right after you've installed macOS Catalina, you can reinstall the operating system so it is a fresh copy. Reinstalling a fresh copy of macOS Catalina will not affect your current settings. Applications and settings will remain the same. Completing this process replaces the core files of macOS Catalina in case something wasn't working right before.
Before you start: Back up your data
- It is a good idea to perform one full backup before starting with a clean copy of macOS Catalina. You can also back up files and documents using a cloud-based storage system like Dropbox, OneDrive, or the easiest: iCloud.
- Make sure the computer on which you're installing a fresh copy of macOS Catalina can be connected to the internet, either via Wi-Fi or Ethernet. This step is important. An Internet connection is needed in order to reinstall the macOS operating system.
- If you are using a laptop, make sure it is connected to a power source.
How to install a new copy of macOS Catalina in Recovery Mode
Install from installer drive. Now we are ready to install the copy of macOS from the installer drive on our Mac. If you want to do a fresh installation (and completely wipe your Mac) it's time to.
Recovery Mode is the special salvation of the Mac that first launched with OS X 10.7 Lion. It creates a temporary boot partition that allows you to access certain things on your computer that you might not be able to if your system froze or crashed. It is the easiest way to install a fresh copy of an operating system.
- Connect your Mac to the internet via Wi-Fi or Ethernet
- Click on the Apple icon in the upper left corner of your screen.
- Select Restart from the drop-down menu.
- Hold down Command and R (⌘ + R) at the same time. When you hear the startup chime (or when the screen goes black on newer Macs), keep holding the keys until your computer reboots.
- Click on Reinstall a new copy of macOS.
- Click Continue.
- Click Continue again when the installer window appears.
- Agree to the software terms and conditions.
- Select your hard drive.
- Click Install.
- Complete the installation process.
How to update to Catalina after reinstalling an earlier macOS
When you install the latest operating system from Recovery Mode, sometimes, your Mac will install an older operating system, like High Sierra or Mojave. Once the older operating system installation is complete, you can then download Catalina as a software update.
Remember, you must have an internet connection in order to download a fresh copy of the Mac operating system.
- Open System Preferences.
- Click on Software Updates.
- Click on Update Now.
Any questions?
Do you need help reinstalling macOS Mojave on your Mac? Post your questions in the comments and I'll do my best to help troubleshoot your issue.
Updated September 2019: Updated for the public launch of macOS Catalina.
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Looking for a way to install and run OS X on an external hard drive? This can be useful for a couple of different reasons. Firstly, it allows you to run another copy of OS X without needing any additional Mac computer.
Also, since you can run a full copy of OS X on the external drive, it can be used for troubleshooting purposes on other Macs or it can be as a kind of virtual OS X. I’ve already written about how you can install OS X in VMware Fusion, but that takes up space on your Mac. Using an external drive, you can save space on your Mac, though it might be a bit slower if you are using USB 2.0.
In this article, I’ll walk you through the requirements and steps to install OS X onto an external hard drive.
Format External Hard Disk
The first thing you’re going to need to do is format the external hard drive properly. The file format has to be Mac OS X Journaled and you have to use the GUID partition map. To do this, open Disk Utility and connect the drive to your Mac. Brother mfc-j430w driver mac os x 10.
Under External in the left hand menu, click on your external hard drive and then click on the Erase button. Mac os make bootable usb. Make sure you backup any data before you erase the drive. When you click Erase, a dialog will pop up where you can configure some options.
Give your drive a name, choose OS X Extended (Journaled) for Format and GUID Partition Map for Scheme. It should only take a minute or two for the drive to be erased and reformatted. Now your drive is ready for OS X.
Install OS X
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.
The easiest way is to download OS X from the App Store. Once you open the App Store, you’ll see a link on the right for the latest version of OS X (El Capitan as of this writing).
Go ahead and click the Download button to start downloading the installer. Note that if you already have that version of OS X installed, you’ll see a popup message appear asking if you still want to continue or not. Just click Continue.
Install Macos On New Hard Drive Imac
Once it has been downloaded, just double-click the installer, which will be located in the Applications folder.
Keep clicking past the license agreement, etc., until you get to the screen that asks you which disk to install OS X on. By default, it is set to MacBook.
Click on the Show All Disks button and you’ll see an icon for the different disks and partitions on the Mac. I named my external hard drive OS X and that shows up in the middle.
You can also tell it’s an external hard disk because it uses the icon with the orange hard drive. Click Continue and then follow the instructions to complete the installation. Note that your computer may restart during the install and you don’t have to do anything. OS X will automatically continue installing onto the external hard drive rather than booting up to your internal version of OS X.
At the end of this article, I’ll show you how to boot up to the external hard drive, so skip down if you ended up using the App Store method. Note that by default, the Mac will start booting up directly to the external hard drive until you change it.
The second method to install OS X is to restart the Mac and press and hold the COMMAND + R keys. This will load up OS X Recovery.
Install New Hard Drive Macbook
The OS X Utilities screen will appear and here you want to click on Reinstall OS X. Again, you’ll go through some basic screens, but when you get to the hard disk screen, click on Show All Disks again.
Using this method, you’ll have to login using your Apple ID and password so that the entire OS X installer can be downloaded off of Apple’s servers. Whichever method you choose, it will take anywhere from 15 to 30+ minutes to install OS X onto your external hard drive.
While OS X is installing, your computer will restart a couple of times. Note that when it finally boots into OS X, that is the version running off your external drive. To switch back and forth between the internal and external drive, you have to restart your computer and hold down the OPTION key.
Mac Mini Install Os On New Hard Drive
When you do that, you should see at least four icons. In my case, I have five because I have Windows installed using Boot Camp. Anyway, the grey MacBook and Recovery 10.11.2 icons are for my internal OS X and the orange OS X and Recovery 10.11.3 are for the version installed on my external drive.
How To Install Mac Os On A New Hard Drive
Use the arrow keys to select which drive to boot from and then simply press Enter. If you have a newer Mac and a USB drive that supports USB 3.0, everything should run fairly fast. Overall, it’s a fairly straight-forward process and took me less than an hour to get everything working. If you have any questions, feel free to comment. Enjoy!