Install Mac Os El Capitan On External Drive

Alternatively, you can use the computer’s original disks or Apple's Internet Recovery system to install an earlier OS on the new drive and then upgrade it. In any case, the new drive will need to be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), but this can be done from an earlier OS. I want to install Mojave onto an external drive, using a Mac that has Catalina as its current OS. The Mac is old enough to run Mojave. A specific form of this question has been asked before, to which the answer is 'create a USB installer disk'.

• Install Mac Os X El Capitan On External Drive
• Can I Install Macos On External Drive

One easy way to do this is to partition the Macs hard drive and install OS X El Capitan onto that new separate partition, this will insure that OS X El Capitan 10.11 remains away from the stable build of OS X 10.10 or 10.9, and allows the user to boot between the Mac OS releases as they see fit.

1. Ahead of time, prepare a bootable USB Flash drive with El Capitan on it. Follow these steps in a great Macworld article by Dan Frakes: ' How to make a bootable OS X 10.11 El Capitan installer drive.
2. For an OS X El Capitan installation, the file gets saved as a disk image named 'InstallMacOSX.dmg'. To install, open the disk image and run the installer named 'InstallMacOSX.pkg'.
3. Dec 21, 2020 Plug your drive into any eligible Mac to install El Capitan. To do this, shut down the mac you want to install El Capitan onto. Plug the Flash Drive into the computer. Reboot by pressing the power button and holding down the ⌥ Option key while it starts up. Follow the onscreen instructions to install OS X El Capitan.
4. Step 1 How to create a bootable USB drive. If you're currently running macOS Mojave, click this link to find the Mojave installer in the App Store. For Catalina, click here. For all earlier versions of macOS, launch the App Store on your Mac, and search for the macOS version you want (this option is only available when running macOS High Sierra.

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. Open Disk Utility from the OS X Utilities window, then use Disk Utility to erase your built-in hard disk using the OS X Extended (Journaled) format. HS has had issues accessing external drives however if you have a new drive and use disk utilities in HS to format HFS journaled then it should work fine. The issue is with older drives that we previously formatted correctly say with Sierra that may have an issue with HS unless formatted again (for some reason). TM should work fine with HS. Format your flash drive or external drive using Disk Utility. Make sure it is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Open the downloaded macOS Catalina Patcher tool, and from the Tools menu, select “Download macOS Catalina.” This will download the latest copy of the installer directly from Apple’s server.

Steps

1. Connect the external hard drive you want to install OS X Lion on to your Mac.
2. Navigate to Applications>Utilities> and double-click Disk Utility.
3. Select the hard drive you connected from the pane on the left within Disk Utility. Note: Be careful, this process will erase everything on your external drive before installing Lion.
4. Click the “Partition” tab followed by “1 partition” from the drop down menu.
5. Click the “Options” button and Select “GUID Partition Table” followed by “OK”.
6. Click “Apply” when you are done to create your new formatted partition on your drive.
7. Double-click the OS X Lion Installer app you downloaded to launch it.
8. Click “Continue” on the welcome screen to start the installation process.
9. Click “Agree” followed by the blue “Agree” button to agree to the terms of software license agreement.
10. Click the partition you created from the list of available disks followed by the “Install”.
11. Enter your administrator password when prompted and click “OK” to begin the installation process. Your computer will automatically restart and begin the installation process. After the installation process is finished, you will be prompted to restart your Mac again.

Tips

So, you’ve decided to download an older version of Mac OS X. There are many reasons that could point you to this radical decision. To begin with, some of your apps may not be working properly (or simply crash) on newer operating systems. Also, you may have noticed your Mac’s performance went down right after the last update. Finally, if you want to run a parallel copy of Mac OS X on a virtual machine, you too will need a working installation file of an older Mac OS X. Further down we’ll explain where to get one and what problems you may face down the road.

A list of all Mac OS X versions

We’ll be repeatedly referring to these Apple OS versions below, so it’s good to know the basic macOS timeline.

STEP 1. Prepare your Mac for installation

Given your Mac isn’t new and is filled with data, you will probably need enough free space on your Mac. This includes not just space for the OS itself but also space for other applications and your user data. One more argument is that the free space on your disk translates into virtual memory so your apps have “fuel” to operate on. The chart below tells you how much free space is needed.

Note, that it is recommended that you install OS on a clean drive. Next, you will need enough disk space available, for example, to create Recovery Partition. Here are some ideas to free up space on your drive:

• Uninstall large unused apps
• Empty Trash Bin and Downloads
• Locate the biggest files on your computer:

Go to Finder > All My Files > Arrange by size
Then you can move your space hoggers onto an external drive or a cloud storage.
If you aren’t comfortable with cleaning the Mac manually, there are some nice automatic “room cleaners”. Our favorite is CleanMyMac as it’s most simple to use of all. It deletes system junk, old broken apps, and the rest of hidden junk on your drive.

Download CleanMyMac for OS 10.4 - 10.8 (free version)

Download CleanMyMac for OS 10.9 (free version)

Download CleanMyMac for OS 10.10 - 10.14 (free version)

STEP 2. Get a copy of Mac OS X download

Normally, it is assumed that updating OS is a one-way road. That’s why going back to a past Apple OS version is problematic. The main challenge is to download the OS installation file itself, because your Mac may already be running a newer version. If you succeed in downloading the OS installation, your next step is to create a bootable USB or DVD and then reinstall the OS on your computer.

How to download older Mac OS X versions via the App Store

If you once had purchased an old version of Mac OS X from the App Store, open it and go to the Purchased tab. There you’ll find all the installers you can download. However, it doesn’t always work that way. The purchased section lists only those operating systems that you had downloaded in the past. But here is the path to check it:

1. Click the App Store icon.
2. Click Purchases in the top menu.
3. Scroll down to find the preferred OS X version.
4. Click Download.

This method allows you to download Mavericks and Yosemite by logging with your Apple ID — only if you previously downloaded them from the Mac App Store.

Without App Store: Download Mac OS version as Apple Developer

If you are signed with an Apple Developer account, you can get access to products that are no longer listed on the App Store. If you desperately need a lower OS X version build, consider creating a new Developer account among other options. The membership cost is $99/year and provides a bunch of perks unavailable to ordinary users.

Nevertheless, keep in mind that if you visit developer.apple.com/downloads, you can only find 10.3-10.6 OS X operating systems there. Newer versions are not available because starting Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.7, the App Store has become the only source of updating Apple OS versions.

Purchase an older version of Mac operating system

How To Install Mac Os On Pc

You can purchase a boxed or email version of past Mac OS X directly from Apple. Both will cost you around $20. For the reason of being rather antiquated, Snow Leopard and earlier Apple versions can only be installed from DVD.

Buy a boxed edition of Snow Leopard 10.6
Get an email copy of Lion 10.7
Get an email copy of Mountain Lion 10.8

The email edition comes with a special download code you can use for the Mac App Store. Note, that to install the Lion or Mountain Lion, your Mac needs to be running Snow Leopard so you can install the newer OS on top of it.

How to get macOS El Capitan download

If you are wondering if you can run El Capitan on an older Mac, rejoice as it’s possible too. But before your Mac can run El Capitan it has to be updated to OS X 10.6.8. So, here are main steps you should take:

1. Install Snow Leopard from install DVD.
2. Update to 10.6.8 using Software Update.
3. Download El Capitan here.

“I can’t download an old version of Mac OS X”

If you have a newer Mac, there is no physical option to install Mac OS versions older than your current Mac model. For instance, if your MacBook was released in 2014, don’t expect it to run any OS released prior of that time, because older Apple OS versions simply do not include hardware drivers for your Mac.

But as it often happens, workarounds are possible. There is still a chance to download the installation file if you have an access to a Mac (or virtual machine) running that operating system. For example, to get an installer for Lion, you may ask a friend who has Lion-operated Mac or, once again, set up a virtual machine running Lion. Then you will need to prepare an external drive to download the installation file using OS X Utilities.

After you’ve completed the download, the installer should launch automatically, but you can click Cancel and copy the file you need. Below is the detailed instruction how to do it.

Install Mac Os X El Capitan On External Drive

STEP 3. Install older OS X onto an external drive

The following method allows you to download Mac OS X Lion, Mountain Lion, and Mavericks.

1. Start your Mac holding down Command + R.
2. Prepare a clean external drive (at least 10 GB of storage).
3. Within OS X Utilities, choose Reinstall OS X.
4. Select external drive as a source.
5. Enter your Apple ID.

Now the OS should start downloading automatically onto the external drive. After the download is complete, your Mac will prompt you to do a restart, but at this point, you should completely shut it down. Now that the installation file is “captured” onto your external drive, you can reinstall the OS, this time running the file on your Mac.

1. Boot your Mac from your standard drive.
2. Connect the external drive.
3. Go to external drive > OS X Install Data.

Locate InstallESD.dmg disk image file — this is the file you need to reinstall Lion OS X. The same steps are valid for Mountain Lion and Mavericks.

Install Older Mac Os On External Drives

How to downgrade a Mac running later macOS versions

Osx External Boot Drive

If your Mac runs macOS Sierra 10.12 or macOS High Sierra 10.13, it is possible to revert it to the previous system if you are not satisfied with the experience. You can do it either with Time Machine or by creating a bootable USB or external drive.
Instruction to downgrade from macOS Sierra

Instruction to downgrade from macOS High Sierra

Instruction to downgrade from macOS Mojave

Instruction to downgrade from macOS Catalina

Before you do it, the best advice is to back your Mac up so your most important files stay intact. In addition to that, it makes sense to clean up your Mac from old system junk files and application leftovers. The easiest way to do it is to run CleanMyMac X on your machine (download it for free here).

Visit your local Apple Store to download older OS X version

If none of the options to get older OS X worked, pay a visit to nearest local Apple Store. They should have image installations going back to OS Leopard and earlier. You can also ask their assistance to create a bootable USB drive with the installation file. So here you are. We hope this article has helped you to download an old version of Mac OS X. Below are a few more links you may find interesting.

New Hard Drive Os Install

These might also interest you:

1. Download El Capitan installation from the App store. It might complain that you already have it installed but download it anyway. It will be downloaded to /Applications and be named Install OS X El Capitan.app
2. Create a bootable image from the El Capitan installer on a USB stick larger than 6GB. In a terminal run:

where MyVolume is the name of your USB stick. Change this to match the name of your USB stick.

3. Physically install SSD into the target laptop.
4. Insert the El Capitan USB stick into the target laptop and power up. (This might take a while.)
5. When the menu finally turns up, choose Disk Utility and format the SSD as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with a unique name.
6. Once complete, exit from Disk Utility and return the main menu.
7. Choose to Install OS X on the formatted SSD.
8. Follow the prompts until El Capitan is installed.

Here’s link to a video on how to physically install the SSD as well as run the software installation.

Can I Install Macos On External Drive

If you’d rather install Yosemite on the SSD then follow the How to Install Yosemite on a New SSD guide.