Jun 07, 2019 As a Windows user, there may be times when you need to use macOS but don’t have the money to invest in your own Mac computer. Apple has always made it hard to install their operating system on non-Apple hardware, making it hard to take advantage of the benefits of this refined OS. Normally, you can start up a Mac while holding down Command-R to boot into what Apple now calls macOS Recovery. That allows you to run Disk Utility, reinstall or wipe and install the system. Download github for macos.
These advanced steps are primarily for system administrators and others who are familiar with the command line. You don't need a bootable installer to upgrade macOS or reinstall macOS, but it can be useful when you want to install on multiple computers without downloading the installer each time.
Download macOS
Find the appropriate download link in the upgrade instructions for each macOS version:
macOS Catalina, macOS Mojave, ormacOS High Sierra
Installers for each of these macOS versions download directly to your Applications folder as an app named Install macOS Catalina, Install macOS Mojave, or Install macOS High Sierra. If the installer opens after downloading, quit it without continuing installation. Important: To get the correct installer, download from a Mac that is using macOS Sierra 10.12.5 or later, or El Capitan 10.11.6. Enterprise administrators, please download from Apple, not a locally hosted software-update server.
Installers for each of these macOS versions download directly to your Applications folder as an app named Install macOS Catalina, Install macOS Mojave, or Install macOS High Sierra. If the installer opens after downloading, quit it without continuing installation. Important: To get the correct installer, download from a Mac that is using macOS Sierra 10.12.5 or later, or El Capitan 10.11.6. Enterprise administrators, please download from Apple, not a locally hosted software-update server.
OS X El Capitan
El Capitan downloads as a disk image. On a Mac that is compatible with El Capitan, open the disk image and run the installer within, named InstallMacOSX.pkg. It installs an app named Install OS X El Capitan into your Applications folder. You will create the bootable installer from this app, not from the disk image or .pkg installer.
El Capitan downloads as a disk image. On a Mac that is compatible with El Capitan, open the disk image and run the installer within, named InstallMacOSX.pkg. It installs an app named Install OS X El Capitan into your Applications folder. You will create the bootable installer from this app, not from the disk image or .pkg installer.
Use the 'createinstallmedia' command in Terminal
- Connect the USB flash drive or other volume that you're using for the bootable installer. Make sure that it has at least 12GB of available storage and is formatted as Mac OS Extended.
- Open Terminal, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
- Type or paste one of the following commands in Terminal. These assume that the installer is still in your Applications folder, and MyVolume is the name of the USB flash drive or other volume you're using. If it has a different name, replace
MyVolume
in these commands with the name of your volume.
Catalina:*
Mojave:*
High Sierra:*
El Capitan: - Press Return after typing the command.
- When prompted, type your administrator password and press Return again. Terminal doesn't show any characters as you type your password.
- When prompted, type
Y
to confirm that you want to erase the volume, then press Return. Terminal shows the progress as the bootable installer is created. - When Terminal says that it's done, the volume will have the same name as the installer you downloaded, such as Install macOS Catalina. You can now quit Terminal and eject the volume.
* If your Mac is using macOS Sierra or earlier, include the
--applicationpath
argument, similar to the way this argument is used in the command for El Capitan.Use the bootable installer
After creating the bootable installer, follow these steps to use it:
- Plug the bootable installer into a compatible Mac.
- Use Startup Manager or Startup Disk preferences to select the bootable installer as the startup disk, then start up from it. Your Mac will start up to macOS Recovery.
Learn about selecting a startup disk, including what to do if your Mac doesn't start up from it. - Choose your language, if prompted.
- A bootable installer doesn't download macOS from the Internet, but it does require the Internet to get information specific to your Mac model, such as firmware updates. If you need to connect to a Wi-Fi network, use the Wi-Fi menu in the menu bar.
- Select Install macOS (or Install OS X) from the Utilities window, then click Continue and follow the onscreen instructions.
Learn more
For more information about the
createinstallmedia
command and the arguments that you can use with it, make sure that the macOS installer is in your Applications folder, then enter this path in Terminal:Catalina:
Mojave:
High Sierra:
El Capitan:
One way to share information from your Mac is by setting permissions in your folders. As you might expect, permissions control who can use a given folder or any disk (or partition) other than the startup disk.
Why can’t you share the startup disk? Because macOS won’t let you. Why not? Because the startup disk contains the operating system and other stuff that nobody else should have access to.
You can set permissions for
- The folder’s owner
- A subset of all the people who have accounts on the Mac (a group)
- Everyone who has the Mac’s address, whether they have an account or not (guests)
To help you get a better handle on these relationships, a closer look at permissions, owners, and groups is coming right up.
Contemplating permissions
When you consider who can use which folders, three distinct kinds of users exist on the network. Here’s a quick introduction to the different user types:
- Owner: The owner of a folder or disk can change the permissions to that folder or disk at any time. The name you enter when you log in to your Mac — or the name of your Home folder — is the default owner of Shared folders and drives on that machine. Ownership can be given away. Even if you own the Mac, you can’t change permissions for a folder on it that belongs to another user (unless you get Unix-y and do so as root). The owner must be logged in to change permissions on his folders.
macOS is the owner of many folders outside the Users folder. If macOS owns it, you can see that “system” is its owner if you select the folder and choose File → Get Info (or press ⌘+I).
Folders that aren’t in the User directories generally belong to system; it’s almost always a bad idea to change the permissions on any folder owned by system.
If you must change permissions on a file or folder, select its icon and choose File → Get Info (⌘+I) and then change the settings in the Sharing & Permissions section at the bottom of the resulting Get Info window. Don’t change permission settings if you’re not absolutely sure of what you’re doing and why. And by all means think twice before deciding to apply changes to all the items in a folder or disk; change permissions on the contents of the wrong folder and you could end up with a mess.
- Group: In Unix systems, all users belong to one or more groups. The group that includes everyone who has an account with administrator permissions on your Mac is called Admin. Everyone in the Admin group has access to Shared and Public folders over the network, as well as to any folder that the Admin group has been granted access to by the folder’s owner.
For the purpose of assigning permissions, you can create your own groups the same way you create a user account: Open the Users & Groups System Preferences pane, click the little plus sign, choose Group from the New Account pop-up menu, type the name of the group, and then click the Create Group button.
![Macos install for users or on disk drive Macos install for users or on disk drive](/uploads/1/2/6/5/126567174/370617444.jpg)
The group appears in the list of users on the left, and eligible accounts appear with check boxes on the right.
- Everyone: This category is an easy way to set permissions for everyone with an account on your Mac at the same time. Unlike the Admin group, which includes only users with administrative permissions, this one includes, well, everyone (everyone with an account on this Mac, that is).
If you want people without an account on this Mac to have access to a file or folder, that file or folder needs to go in your Public folder, where the people you want to see it can log in as guests.
Sharing a folder
Suppose you have a folder you want to share, but it has slightly different rules than those set up for the Public folder, for the Drop Box folder within the Public folder, or for your personal folders. These rules are permissions, and they tell you how much access someone has to your stuff.
Actually, the rules governing Shared and Public folders are permissions, too, but they’re set up for you when macOS is installed.
It is suggested that you share only those folders located in your Home folder (or a folder within it). Because of the way Unix works, the Unix permissions of the enclosing folder can prevent access to a folder for which you do have permissions. If you share only the folders in your Home folder, you’ll never go wrong. If you don’t take this advice, you could wind up having folders that other users can’t access, even though you gave them the appropriate permissions.
By the way, you can set permissions for folders within your Public folder (like the Drop Box folder) that are different from those for the rest of the parent folder.
Don’t forget that anything said about sharing a folder also applies to sharing any disk (or partition) other than your startup disk. Although you can’t explicitly share your startup disk, anyone with administrator access can mount it for sharing from across the network (or Internet).
Macos User Account
To share a folder with another user, follow these steps:
- Open System Preferences.The System Preferences window appears.
- In the System Preferences window, click the Sharing icon.The Sharing System Preferences pane appears.
- Click File Sharing in the list of services on the left.The lists of shared folders and their users appear on the right.
- Click the + (plus) button under the Shared Folders list or drag the folder from the Finder onto the Shared Folders list to add the folder you want to share.If you select the Shared Folder check box in a folder’s Get Info window, that folder already appears in the list of Shared Folders, so you won’t have to bother with Step 4.Alas, although selecting the Shared Folder check box in a folder’s Get Info window causes it to appear in the Sharing System Preferences pane’s Shared Folders list, you still have to complete the steps that follow to assign that folder’s users and privileges.
- Click the + (plus) button under the Users column to add a user or group if the user or group you want isn’t already showing in the Users column.
- Click the double-headed arrow to the right of a user or group name and change its privileges.You can choose among three types of access (in addition to no access) for each user or group. If you’re the folder’s owner (or have administrator access), you can click the padlock icon and change the owner and/or group for the file or folder.
Clean Install Macos
Permission | What It Allows |
Read & Write | A user with Read & Write access can see, add, delete, move, and edit files just as though they were stored on her own computer. |
Read Only | A Read Only user can see and use files that are stored in a Shared folder but can’t add, delete, move, or edit them. |
Write Only (Drop Box) | Users can add files to this folder but can’t see what’s in it. The user must have read access to the folder containing a Write Only folder. |
No Access | With no permissions, a user can neither see nor use your Shared folders or drives. |