Cannot make High Sierra USB installer

[Shed209]

I'm having all kinds of trouble making a USB drive installer for High Sierra. I've tried both DiskmakerX and Disk Creator and both are failing to do the job. Disk Creator is telling me there is something wrong with the copy of High Sierra that I've downloaded (twice now) from the App Store. This sort of tallies because the copy is supposed to be 4.5GB or something, but takes about 10 seconds to download so clearly is not 4.5GB. Can anyone point me in the right direction to get a proper copy of High Sierra that I can use to make a USB installer?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Fishrrman]

First, you need to have the FULL copy of the installer. It's about 5.1gb in size. Anything less and it's not "all there".

Some folks are having problems downloading the full installer.
They're getting only a small "stub installer" instead.
Here's a page that tells you how to work around that:
http://osxdaily.com/2017/09/27/download-complete-macos-high-sierra-installer/

I suggest you read it carefully.

Once you have the full installer, I'd recommend the free app "Boot Buddy" to create the USB installer.
Get it from here:
https://sqwarq.com/boot-buddy/

 

[Husky29]

I believe that you have to be on macOS Sierra or later in order to download the full ~5.2GB macOS High Sierra installer. I have tested this theory and proved it true. It always downloads the full installer on a Mac with Sierra 10.12.5 or later or High Sierra 10.13 or later or El Capitan 10.11.6. If you are on an older system it downloads a ~5MB "Installer" that actually downloads the rest. You can use the method that Fishrrman posted above to download the installer. Once it it downloaded, format a USB drive as "MyVolume" using Mac OS Extended (Journaled) using GUID Partition Table. Make sure the High Sierra installer is in your Applications folder and then execute this command in Terminal (without the quotes):

"sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume"

Your USB drive has to be called "MyVolume" for this to work. See this Apple Support Article for more information: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

 

[dldjr31]

I followed your method and other people from youtube, but I can't get HS to install on my new SSD. I erase/format the SSD and then install macOS HS. After the install it just takes me back to the disk utility.

I believe that you have to be on macOS Sierra or later in order to download the full ~5.2GB macOS High Sierra installer. I have tested this theory and proved it true. It always downloads the full installer on a Mac with Sierra 10.12.5 or later or High Sierra 10.13 or later or El Capitan 10.11.6. If you are on an older system it downloads a ~5MB "Installer" that actually downloads the rest. You can use the method that Fishrrman posted above to download the installer. Once it it downloaded, format a USB drive as "MyVolume" using Mac OS Extended (Journaled) using GUID Partition Table. Make sure the High Sierra installer is in your Applications folder and then execute this command in Terminal (without the quotes):

"sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume"

Your USB drive has to be called "MyVolume" for this to work. See this Apple Support Article for more information: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

I am trying boot buddy right now.

 

[Shed209]

I found some suggestions that the OS might need updating before it would let me download the non-stub version. Sure enough, there were some updates waiting, and after I had installed them, suddenly I could download the full OS rather than just the stub. Frustrating that it didn't work before for such a seemingly odd reason.

To dldjr31, I used Disk Creator to make an installation USB drive, which was a very straightforward process and installed High Sierra without any problems. If you have an 8GB+ flash drive you don't mind writing over, the app is available here:

https://macdaddy.io/install-disk-creator/

 

[Remadepreacher]

I am having trouble getting guid partition on the usb drive. I clicked the disk and then Erase>OS X extended (journaled) but no scheme comes up. As I'd read elsewhere that GUID was default on OS X extended (journaled) I went ahead and erased. But now installer tells me the drive must have GUID partition. Partition in Disk Utility is grayed out, now what?

 

[Shed209]

The app should do all of that for you. I didn't have to do any formatting on my flash drive. Are you using Disk Creator?

 

[Fishrrman]

One thing to be careful about when using "Install Disk Creator".

It WILL create the bootable USB flashdrive, as intended.
However, the time I tried using it, after creating the flashdrive, it then DELETED my OS Installer from the applications folder.
Not sure why.

So... IF you choose to use IDC, be sure to MAKE A COPY of the OS installer app somewhere else before you run it. Otherwise, you may have to download the full installer again, if you want another copy.

"Boot Buddy" DID NOT delete the installer app when it was done...

 

[Remadepreacher]

The app should do all of that for you. I didn't have to do any formatting on my flash drive. Are you using Disk Creator?

No, I did not download disk creator because when I checked macdaddy.io on Norton Safe web it is untested — the same result for diskmakerx and sqwarq.com for boot buddy.

 

[Shed209]

Your choice but I'm pretty sure it's kosher. Recommended by a lot of people.

 

[Bmju]

There is another approach working only from the officially downloaded small installer here and here.

But in case you're looking at it, AFACIT it doesn't really work as advertised... especially if you have to do the second version - with the extra fixup step during install - then you don't really have fully stand-alone install media, and you might as well have just installed directly from the 'small' installer to the new partition, which you could always do anyway.

 

[Bmju]

I've got another approach which should help in some circumstances:

• From the small app, install to a USB, or a new partition made at the end of the disk for this
• Reboot, set up, and then: re-download High Sierra inside the new High Sierra (!)
• From the newly downloaded version:
  • If you wanted High Sierra on the main drive, you can just reinstall it to the main drive (then remove your temporary partition and resize the main partition)
  • If you really wanted a installer USB, then I found that the High Sierra downloaded from within High Sierra was the full version (on the same machine where I was previously only getting the small version), so if that works for you to, then you can make one. YMMV.