In the past, upgrades to Apple’s flagship OSX were done via a CD purchased in an actual store. This made it nice and easy to upgrade each machine. With the last couple versions of OSX that have been released, including OSX Mavericks, the upgrade is done completely online via the Mac App Store.

While this is great for cutting down on materials used, it does make it a pain to install on multiple machines. The download comes in at 5.3 GB, which makes for a fairly long download on most broadband connections. It is possible however, to clean install OSX Mavericks with a USB flash drive, so you only need to download it once. There are two steps to setting up OSX Mavericks fresh from a flash drive. First you need to turn the flash drive into a bootable device, and then you need to install it. Part one will show you how to get the flash drive all set up and part two will show you how to get started with the Install. Part 1 – Mavericks In A Flash You can complete the steps below with or without OSX Mavericks already installed on your machine.

If you already have it installed and want to make a flash drive for other machines, follow the steps as listed. If you’re making an installer without upgrading, skip step 1 below and head on over to the Updates tab in the Mac App Store and OPTION-Click the FREE UPGRADE button next to Mavericks.

Download Mavericks (again) Head over to the Mac App Store and find the OSX Mavericks page. It should be shown in the front page.

Click on it to continue. When you click on it, you should see a Download button where the purchase one used to be.

To install macOS or OS X from the USB flash drive, check how to clean install Mac OS from USB. Make A Bootable Installer for macOS via DiskMaker X or Install Disk Creator If you think it is too much trouble to use Terminal to make a bootable installer on a USB drive, you can use tools like DiskMaker X, Install Disk Creator. Since we don't want to use Disk Utility anymore to make a bootable Mac OS X Mavericks install drive, we'll have to resort to the Terminal application on your Mac. Install Google Chrome OS on a Flash drive How To. How To: Create a Bootable Install USB Drive of Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite.

Click this to start your download. Since the file is over 5 GB, it’ll probably take a little time.

You will get a warning telling you OSX Mavericks is already installed. Click Continue. Make The Flash Drive With the OS downloaded to your machine, it’s time to make the flash drive bootable. Plug in the flash drive, then open up Disk Utility (Applications>Utilities>Disk Utility) Next, click the flash drive in the left sidebar. With the flash drive selected; click the Erase tab at the top of the window.

Choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for the format, leave the Name set to Untitled, and click the Erase Button. A warning will pop up. Click Erase again to continue.

Once this is complete, you can close Disk Utility. Open up Terminal (Applications>Utilities>Terminal) and paste the following command into it.

Make sure to copy it EXACTLY as seen below. This will copy the OSX Installer to your thumb drive. Once pasted, hit Enter.

Sudo /Applications/Install OS X Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install OS X Mavericks.app --nointeraction You will be prompted to enter an administrator password. When you’re typing, it’ll look like nothing is being entered. Instagram for chrome extension. This is OK and is done by Terminal for security purposes.