{"id":1974,"date":"2014-08-22T12:51:44","date_gmt":"2014-08-22T12:51:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.designed79.co.uk\/?p=1974"},"modified":"2014-09-17T07:08:28","modified_gmt":"2014-09-17T07:08:28","slug":"how-to-create-an-os-x-10-10-yosemite-usb-installer-for-the-developer-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.designed79.co.uk\/?p=1974","title":{"rendered":"How to Create an OS X 10.10 Yosemite USB Installer for the Developer Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"
Creating a\u00a0bootable<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0OS X installer isn\u2019t as simple as it\u00a0used to be<\/a>, and things are a little bit more complex with the Developer Preview of OS X Yosemite. While there are multiple methods that will work, here\u2019s the easiest way to create a bootable OS X 10.10 Yosemite USB Installer.<\/header>\n
\n
\n

Note:<\/span>\u00a0As mentioned, these steps are for the OS X Yosemite\u00a0Developer<\/em>\u00a0Preview<\/em><\/span>, which is provided to registered members of the\u00a0Mac<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0Developer Program. If you\u2019re a consumer using the free Yosemite Public Beta, follow\u00a0these similar, but specialized, instructions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Step 1: Obtain the Yosemite Developer Preview Installer<\/h3>\n

Download the OS X Yosemite Developer Preview installer from the\u00a0Mac\u00a0<\/span>App\u00a0<\/span>Store<\/span><\/span><\/a>. This will put a file called\u00a0Install OS X 10.10 Developer Preview.app<\/span>\u00a0in your \/Applications<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0folder. It will also launch the Yosemite installer app when the download completes. Quit the app by pressing\u00a0Command+Q<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Step 2: Format and Prepare USB Drive<\/h3>\n

Grab a USB flash drive that\u2019s at least 8GB in size. While it\u2019s possible to create a separate partition for the Yosemite USB installer, it\u2019s safest and easiest to use an empty drive or one that you don\u2019t mind erasing. Plug the drive into a Mac running OS X 10.7\u00a0Lion<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0or higher and launch\u00a0Disk\u00a0<\/span>Utility<\/span><\/span><\/a>from the \/Applications\/Utilities\u00a0<\/span>folder<\/span><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Disk Utility, select the USB flash drive from the list on the left. Note that you want to select the\u00a0drive<\/em>\u00a0and not the\u00a0volume<\/em>.\u00a0We\u2019re using a\u00a0SanDisk Cruzer<\/a>\u00a0flash drive, so in our case we choose\u00a08 GB SanDisk Cruzer Media<\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0the default \u201cNo Name\u201d volume.<\/p>\n

\"Create<\/a><\/p>\n

With the USB drive selected, choose the\u00a0Partition<\/span>\u00a0tab on the right side of the window. The partition scheme and volume properties of your flash drive will vary depending on manufacturer and previous configuration. In our case, our drive is brand new and formatted as a FAT volume with a\u00a0Master\u00a0<\/span>Boot\u00a0<\/span>Record<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0partition scheme. This won\u2019t work for Yosemite, so we need to change it.<\/p>\n

\"Create<\/a><\/p>\n

In the drop-down menu under\u00a0Partition Layout<\/em>, choose\u00a01<\/span>\u00a0to create a single new partition. Then click\u00a0Options<\/span>, choose\u00a0GUID Partition Table<\/span>, and click\u00a0OK<\/span>\u00a0to save the change. Under\u00a0Partition Information<\/em>, change\u00a0Format to\u00a0Mac OS Extended (Journaled)<\/span>\u00a0and give the drive the name \u201cUntitled\u201d (this allows your drive to work with the Terminal commands below; you can rename the drive when the process is complete).<\/p>\n

\"Create<\/a><\/p>\n

Press\u00a0Apply<\/span>\u00a0to restructure the USB volume with the new parameters. Note that this will erase all contents of the USB drive so, as mentioned above, be sure to back up any files on the drive or use a blank drive to begin with.<\/p>\n

Step 3:\u00a0Modify the Yosemite Installer\u2019s Preference File<\/h3>\n

This is one step that consumers running the public Yosemite beta don\u2019t have to worry about. By default, the process of creating a bootable Yosemite USB installer via the method outlined in this article won\u2019t work\u00a0unless\u00a0we make a slight change to a .plist file in the Yosemite installer app.<\/p>\n

\"Modify<\/a><\/p>\n

Locate the\u00a0Install OS X 10.10 Developer Preview.app<\/span>\u00a0file in your Applications folder, right-click, and choose\u00a0Show Package Contents<\/span>. Then open the\u00a0Contents<\/span>\u00a0folder and find\u00a0Info.plist<\/span>. Open this file in your text editor of choice and find the line\u00a0<key>CFBundleShortVersionString<\/key><\/span>. The default value for this key, listed in the string below it, is 1.4.3. Change this to\u00a01.4.1<\/span>, and save the file, authenticating with an admin password if requested.<\/p>\n

Step 4: Create the Bootable Yosemite USB Installer with Terminal<\/h3>\n

Now that the Developer Preview\u2019s preference file has been modified, we can complete the process of creating a bootable Yosemite USB installer with a simple Terminal command. Open Terminal from \/Applications\/Utilities and then enter the following command:<\/p>\n

sudo \/Applications\/Install\\ OS\\ X\\ 10.10\\ Developer\\ Preview.app\/Contents\/Resources\/createinstallmedia --volume \/Volumes\/Untitled --applicationpath \/Applications\/Install\\ OS\\ X\\ 10.10\\ Developer\\ Preview.app --nointeraction<\/pre>\n
Press\u00a0the\u00a0Return<\/span>\u00a0key on your keyboard to execute the command, and enter your admin password when requested. This will create a bootable Yosemite USB installer using OS X\u2019s\u00a0createinstallmedia\u00a0<\/em>tool, which can take quite a while depending on the speed of your flash drive.<\/p>\n
\"Create<\/a><\/p>\n
Let the tool do it\u2019s thing and don\u2019t interrupt the process until you see Terminal output\u00a0Done<\/span>\u00a0and return your window to the user prompt. When it\u2019s complete, you\u2019ll see that your USB flash drive is now mounted to your desktop with the name \u201cInstallAssistant.\u201d You can now rename this drive (highlight it on the Desktop and press Return), as well as supply it with its own\u00a0custom icon<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Eject your new Yosemite USB installer and connect it to any Mac you wish to upgrade to the Yosemite Developer Preview. Reboot the Mac holding the\u00a0Alt\/Option<\/span>\u00a0key on the keyboard and you\u2019ll see the installer appear in the EFI boot menu. Select it and follow the prompts to install OS X Yosemite.<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
Or By Hand<\/p>\n
Use an 8GB+ USB stick and format it with GUID partition mapping and a partition named 1010, then run the following in terminal:<\/p>\n
#!\/bin\/bash
\n#Call your USB stick 1010
\n
\nsudo hdiutil attach \/Applications\/Install\\ OS\\ X\\ Yosemite\\ Developer\\ Preview.app\/Contents\/SharedSupport\/InstallESD.dmg
\nsudo asr restore -source \/Volumes\/OS\\ X\\ Install\\ ESD\/BaseSystem.dmg -target \/Volumes\/1010 -erase -format HFS+
\nsudo rm \/Volumes\/OS\\ X\\ Base\\ System\/System\/Installation\/Packages
\nsudo cp -a \/Volumes\/OS\\ X\\ Install\\ ESD\/Packages \/Volumes\/OS\\ X\\ Base\\ System\/System\/Installation\/Packages
\nsudo cp -a \/Volumes\/OS\\ X\\ Install\\ ESD\/BaseSystem.dmg \/Volumes\/OS\\ X\\ Install\\ ESD\/BaseSystem.chunklist \/Volumes\/OS\\ X\\ Base\\ System<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Creating a\u00a0bootable\u00a0OS X installer isn\u2019t as simple as it\u00a0used to be, and things are a little bit more complex with the Developer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-info-on-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.designed79.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.designed79.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.designed79.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.designed79.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.designed79.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.designed79.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.designed79.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.designed79.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.designed79.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}