I purchased a used 2018 Mac mini desktop and wanted to put a fresh installation of the latest macOS 10.15 Catalina on it. Below are the steps I took.

1. Catalina Usb Drive Size
2. Install Catalina Usb Drive
3. Usb Drive Install Catalina

Note: The instructions below are the same for macOS 10.13 High Sierra and macOS 10.14 Mojave.

Create Macos Catalina Install Usb On Windows 10. After the process completes, which can take up to an hour, connect the USB flash drive and power on your Mac holding down the Option key, select the USB drive to begin installing macOS. How To Make A Bootable Usb For Macos Catalina. This article guides you through the process of performing a clean installation of macOS 10.15 Catalina using the bootable USB drive method, rather than upgrading your Mac using Apple's standard.

Download macOS Catalina

You will need a Mac to download macOS Catalina; you can download Catalina from The Mac Go. (The Mac mini came with macOS 10.14 Mojave so I used it to download Catalina.)

Go to the Mac App Store, search for “macOS Catalina”, and download it. It will be saved to the “/Applications/Install macOS Catalina” location. If the installer automatically launches, just close it.

Note: If you plan to run the installer first to update your current macOS version to Catalina, you will want to move the “Install macOS Catalina” application out of the “/Applications” directory; otherwise, the installer will delete itself from the “/Applications” directory when the upgrade completes. For example, you can move the “Install macOS Catalina” application to the “~/Downloads” directory and run it from there.

Format USB Flash Drive

Because macOS Catalina is 8.4GB in size, you will need a 16GB USB flash drive. You don’t need to delete the existing content on the drive because we will blow it all away in a subsequent step.

If the USB flash drive is not already formatted as “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”, format it like so:

1. Plug the USB flash drive into your Mac.
2. Launch the “Disk Utility” application.
3. On the left-hand pane, select the USB drive (not the partition under it, if any).
4. Click on the “Erase” tab (or button at the top).
   1. Input a name like “Catalina” (this name will be overwritten later).
   2. Select “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” for “Format”.
   3. If available, select “Master Boot Record” for “Scheme”.
   4. Click the “Erase” button at the bottom. Click the “Erase” button in the warning popup dialog if you get one.
5. The format operation may take several minutes to complete. (USB 2.0 and large capacity drives may take longer.) After the format completes, the partition will be mounted under “/Volumes/Catalina” (or whatever name you selected above).
6. Close the “Disk Utility” application.

Write macOS Catalina to USB Flash Drive

To create a bootable USB macOS Catalina installer, run the “Terminal” application and this command:

Note: If the createinstallmedia command returns a “Failed to start erase of disk due to error (-9999, 0)” error, then your current Mac OS X version does not fully support the createinstallmedia tool. Use a more recent macOS version (at least Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan) or manually create the USB installation drive using instructions from Bootable USB Flash Drive to Install Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite.

The “createinstallmedia” program will erase the USB flash drive, create a new partition named “Install macOS Catalina”, and copy the installation files to that partition. The output will look like:

The above process took 20-30 minutes using my Kingston USB 2.0 flash drive.

Boot From USB Flash Drive

Note: Apple’s How to create a bootable installer for macOS page suggest using the “Startup Disk” configuration (under “System Preferences”) to select the USB flash drive as the startup drive. Then on restart, the Mac should boot from the USB flash drive. Unfortunately, the “Startup Disk” did not list my USB flash drive as a startup option, so I was not able to use this method.

To boot a Mac with the USB flash drive:

1. Insert the USB flash drive.
2. While holding the “option” key down, turn on the Mac to display the Startup Manager.
3. You should see one or more icons, one of which should be called “Install macOS Catalina” for the USB flash drive. (The internal hard drive may not be visible if it does not have a valid, bootable partition installed.)
   • Note: If you don’t see the USB flash drive’s “Install macOS Catalina”, try removing and re-inserting the USB flash drive while viewing the Startup Manager screen. The USB flash drive should then appear after a few seconds.
4. Select the “Install macOS Catalina” (with left/right arrow keys) and hit the “return/enter” key to boot from the USB flash drive.

It may take 5-10 minutes to load the installer from the USB flash drive. Sometimes the progress bar may appear to be frozen or the screen will go black for a minute or two. Be patient.

External Startup Disk Not Allowed

On a newer Mac with the T2 security chip, booting from an external drive may be disallowed by default. Attempting to boot from a USB flash drive will result in a “Security settings do not allow this Mac to use an external startup disk” warning message.

Catalina Usb Drive Size

To allow booting from the USB flash drive, do the following:

1. Hold down “Command-R” (hold down both the “Command ⌘” and “R” keys) when you start the Mac to launch macOS Recovery. You can release the keys when you see the Apple logo.
   • Tip: An easier alternative is to hold the “Option/Alt” key on boot to launch the Startup Manager. Then just click and release “Command-R” keys to launch macOS Recovery.
2. The macOS Recovery screen contains a top-level “macOS Utilities” menu.
3. Click on the “Utilities” menu and select “Startup Security Utility”. Input your administrator password when prompted.
4. In the Startup Security Utility, under “Allowed Boot Media”, select the “Allow booting from external or removable media” option.
5. If the Mac won’t have access to the Internet (either by wire or wirelessly) when installing macOS Catalina, make sure to select either the “Medium Security” or “No Security” option under the “Secure Boot” section. (You can change the option back to the default “Full Security” afterwards.)
6. Quit the macOS Utilities to restart the Mac.
7. On restart, follow the directions in the previous section to boot from the USB flash drive.

Erase the Internal Hard Drive

When the installer finishes loading, you will see a “macOS Utilities” screen appear. It looks the same as the “macOS Recovery” screen with one difference. In the “macOS Utilities” window, the second option will say “Install macOS” instead of “Reinstall macOS”. In “macOS Recovery”, the “Reinstall macOS” option would just re-install the same version of macOS. The “Install macoS” option will install the macOS Catalina version on the USB flash drive.

Before installing macOS, I wanted a clean slate so I erased the internal hard drive like so:

1. Select the “Disk Utility” option and click the “Continue” button on the bottom to launch the “Disk Utility” application.
2. On the left-hand pane, select the internal hard drive (not the partition under it, if any).
3. Click on the “Erase” button at the top.
   1. Keep the default “Macintosh HD” name or input a new one.
   2. Select “APFS” for “Format”.
   3. Click the “Erase” button at the bottom. The SSD (Solid State Drive) format took less than a minute to complete.
4. Close the “Disk Utility” application.

Install macOS Catalina

Warning: If your Mac has a T2 security chip and you left the “Full Security” option configured in the Startup Security Utility, make sure that Internet access (wired or wireless) is available before starting the macOS Catalina installation. You can configure the wireless network by clicking on the wireless icon at the top-right corner of the macOS Utilities screen.

Back at the “macOS Utilities” window, do the following to start the macOS Catalina installation:

1. Click on the “Install macOS” option and click the “Continue” button.
2. The “macOS Catalina” installer’s splash screen will appear. Click the “Continue” button.
3. Click on the “Agree” button to agree to the license. A popup confirmation window will appear; click on the popup’s “Agree” button.
4. Select the internal hard drive and click the “Install” button.

My Mac mini took 20-30 minutes to complete the macOS Catalina installation. I think there were a couple of reboots in-between. And a few times, the screen would go black for a minute or two. Be patient and give the process an hour or more to complete.

If you run into problems installing macOS Catalina, check the “What Does Giving Up Mean?” section (at the bottom) of Install macOS Sierra Using Bootable USB Flash Drive for possible solutions.

Note: macOS Catalina seems to have an issue with my Dell 24in U2410 monitor. During the initial bootup screen, the monitor shows a blank screen with a message, “The current input timing is not supported by the monitor display”. Thankfully, the monitor works correctly after the bootup completes. And later, this warning message no longer appeared on bootup.

Enjoy your fresh installation of macOS 10.15 Catalina.

2019 is one of the great years for computer users and smartphones user. Because the world of technology is now in progress, as we know that in 2019 Apple Inc announced in world developers conference, macOS Catalina. Therefore, besides macOS Catalina announced iOS 13 with its significant new features. And with the announcing of macOS Catalina Microsoft also announced its new updates for the public, Windows 10 new features, with the same equality of macOS Catalina or macOS Mojave Dark Look and Light Look. And for Samsung smartphones, they announced the Android P version. However, we got the idea to install macOS Catalina 10.15 on VirtualBox and VMware. And here I will show you How to Create a macOS Catalina USB Drive installer. The way of creating a macOS Catalina USB installer is easy the same as macOS Mojave.

Create macOS Catalina USB Installer

However, the macOS Catalina version for the operating system is still not released for the public. But they can upgrade there macOS Mojave version directly through the internet into macOS Catalina 10.15. In July 2019 they will release the full version for Macintosh users. By the way, while installing any kind of operating system on a computer you need a Bootable USB Drive, and here I will show you the easiest way just follow the steps and read the article.

As you know there are different kinds of creating macOS Catalina 10.15 USB Drive. But one of the easiest ways to create Bootable USB using Terminal on macOS, whether you can use Disk Utility. I recommend you to choose Disk Utility because the procedure is a bit easy. And using Terminal is somehow complicated.

Create macOS Catalina USB Installer – System requirements of macOS Catalina 10.15

Before checking macOS Catalina on your system, there are some good points to know about your Mac computer version. However, macOS Catalina is heavy and for its installation, you need a nice computer, with high graphics, Processor, and RAM. Below I will declare some Mac computers that you can install macOS Catalina 10.15 on it.

• MacBook: 2015 or newer
• MacBook: Air, MacBook Pro 2012 or newer
• Mac Mini: Late 2012 or newer
• iMac: 2012 or newer
• iMac Pro: All models can support macOS Catalina 10.15
• Mac Pro: 2013 or newer

The great changes that come on macOS Catalina 10.15 Beta are:

• Catalyst
• Gatekeeper
• Voice Control
• Sidebar
• Changes in Application
• iTunes
• Find My Mac
• Reminders
• Removed Components

macOS Catalina creating USB Drive required files:

• At least 16 GB USB drive or more than 16 GB
• macOS Catalina 10.15 image file

By the way, if you don’t know the ways of installing macOS Catalina on VirtualBox and VMware Player. However, You can also check the below links and download macOS Catalina 10.15 Virtual machine images.

Download macOS Catalina 10.15 Beta 1

• Step #1. Enter to Apple Developer, and go ahead for download macOS Catalina or if you are not a member of Apple developer. Then go ahead and create an account to download macOS Catalina 10.15 Beta 1.
• Step #2. After signing in Apple Developer, go ahead and under featured click on download link.
• Step #3. After that, download is finished get start

In this case, you have gone through Apple Developer to download the latest update of macOS Catalina. Therefore, from Apple Developer you can use upgrading from macOS Mojave to macOS Catalina 10.15. Remember one thing upgrading can be risky for you so, I suggest to have a backup of your important files. However, in the next step you must have a clean installation of macOS Catalina on your computer. For that, you need a Bootable created USB. And insert the USB drive to your computer, then install macOS Catalina and enjoy using the new and fresh operating system.

How to create macOS Catalina USB Installer

• Step #1. Insert the USB drive to your computer.
• Step #2. I mentioned above also that the process of creating a macOS Catalina USB drive with Disk Utility is easy. Therefore, go to the search bar and type there “Disk Utility”. Erase USB drive with “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” then complete the process of Disk Utility for macOS Catalina USB Drive.

Format the USB Drive

• After the USB Drive, formatted click Done

Click Done

• Now navigate to search spotlight and type “Terminal” then hit enter.

• When the terminal opened copy the below command and paste into the terminal then press enter. The process of creating will take some minute, wait until it should complete 100%. When it completed close the terminal window.

Copy the command

Once the Bootable USB drive is created, open the clover configurator. With the clover configurator, you need to mount the EFI partition. When the clover configurator opened on the left-handed click on “Mount EFI”, then Mount the EFI on install macOS 10.15 Beta. Click on “Mount Partition” then type the password and click OK.

Mount Partition

Install Catalina Usb Drive

Bottom Line

Usb Drive Install Catalina

By the way, that’s all about How to create a macOS Catalina USB Installer. And the process of creating macOS Catalina Beta USB Installer is easy, and I also explained that step by step. Therefore, if you faced any kind of problem feel free and comment below. Give us feedback and subscribe to our Blog.