How to Install macOS from a USB Drive

Are you looking for a way to install macOS onto a USB drive and work with the same installation that's on your internal (and faster) drive? Linux users know that booting from a USB drive is a useful way to get into the OS, but for macOS users, it's not recommended. In fact, it's likely not supported, and you may experience issues if you try to install an older OS that you don't own.

However, if your Mac is based on Apple Silicon, you may find incompatibilities when trying to boot an older version of macOS from a USB drive. Apple does offer ways to install older versions on a USB drive, but it's important to note that not all methods are supported.

For our testing, we used a USB 2.0 to USB-C connector and found no issues with using older USB drives. You can press your older USB drives into service by following these steps. First, you'll need a large enough USB drive to store Big Sur - we recommend at least 16GB of space.

To install macOS from a USB drive, you'll need to follow these steps:

1. Insert the USB drive into your Mac.

2. Shut down your Mac.

3. Restart your Mac and hold the Power key until you come to the Startup Manager (if using an Apple Silicon machine) or hold the Option key to enter the boot selection dialog (if using an Intel Mac).

4. Use your keyboard's arrow keys to select the USB drive from the list of bootable devices, click to confirm, and your USB drive will begin to boot.

You can also use the Startup Manager to select your boot drive when you start macOS. Your Mac will reboot from the USB instead of your default startup disk.

It's important to note that while installing macOS onto a USB drive is possible, it's not recommended by Apple and may experience issues if you try to install an older OS or use a USB connection other than USB-C. Additionally, you won't be able to split an installation across multiple USB drives, and disk operations on the boot drive cannot be performed safely from a USB stick.

Overall, while installing macOS onto a USB drive is possible, it's not recommended by Apple and may experience issues if you try to install an older OS or use a USB connection other than USB-C.

How to install macos from usb drive