The installation of macOS Mojave 10.14 on an external hard drive or solid state drive (SSD) is quite simple and straightforward. Most importantly, it doesn’t damage your PC or current Windows installation if you carefully follow the instructions in this video. To assist you better, we have also added a video guide at the end. So all you have to do is follow the steps mentioned below to install the latest macOS Mojave release on any external SSD or portable hard drive.
Steps to install macOS Mojave on External Drive
Steps to install macOS Mojave on External Drive
Dec 08, 2016 Install OS X Sierra.app Install OS X Mojave.app Command for the terminal to create your USB stick: IMPORTANT: Remember to modify it (as shown in the video at 3:16) for your version of the Mac OS X. Jan 10, 2020 Maybe you want to troubleshoot some problems, repair the disk, do partitions, format the entire disk, update, and install OS X etc. All these are executed perfectly when you use an external boot volume to boot up your Mac. In this article, we are here with the detailed step by step guide on how to boot Mac from external hard drive easily.
Step 1: Things You Need
- A USB 3.0 8GB Flash Drive
- An external hard drive or SSD with a USB 3.0 connector/enclosure (see the above picture)
- A Mac computer/Macbook or access to Hackintosh PC
- TheEFI folder with right config.plist file
- Patience (sometimes a lot)
Before You Begin
Make sure the external hard drive or SSD does not contain any data as we will be formatting it. If it contains any data, backup it. The same goes for the USB 3.0 8GB stick.
Step 2: Prepare macOS Mojave Installer
New Hard Drive Os Install
- Open App store on a Mac or Hackintosh and download Mojave Installer (It’s Free)
- Open Disk Utility and connect the USB 3.0 8GB flash drive
- Select it and click Erase
- Enter a name, eg. MojaveInstaller and choose macOS extended Journaled. Click ‘Erase‘
- Now connect your external hard drive or enclosed M.2 or SATA SSD and click ‘Erase‘
- Enter a name, eg. Mojave HD or Mojave SSD (if using SSD). Choose APFS from the format and click ‘Erase‘
- Now close Disk utility and Open Terminal app
- Type following command assuming your USB 3.0 8GB thumb drive name is MojaveInstaller. Replace MojaveInstaller if you have given a different name to your USB stick
- After entering the command, press Enter/Return and wait for it to finish
- In the Terminal Window, type diskutil list and note down the disk no. of your USB 3.0 *GB Flash Drive and your connected external hard drive or SSD
- Then download the EFI mounter app and double-click to open it
- Enter the password and double-click the drive number that you saw in the Terminal against your Thumb drive volume
- Open Finder and click ‘EFI’ partition
- Paste this EFI folder inside the partition.
Important: The EFI folder we shared works for Dell 7560/7460 and a few other laptops powered by Sky Lake, Kaby Lake, and Coffee Lake i5 and i7 processors. However, you can always edit the EFI folder’s config.plist file according to your system hardware. To know how to edit the config.plist file as per your system hardware, visit this link - Once EFI folder with edited config.plist is pasted in the ‘EFI’ partition of your USB flash drive, eject the partition
- Make sure your external hard drive or SSD that we formatted earlier is connected to the system; Once again, double-click EFI Mounter app to run it and enter the password when prompted.
- Now choose the drive number that was shown against your external hard drive or SSD in the Terminal command that you entered in step no. 10
- Open the Finder and click EFI. Paste the EFI folder here
- Now that you have prepared the installer and installation drive, go to your PC or Laptop where you will be running macOS Mojave and connect both drives
Step 3: Installing macOS Mojave
- Turn on PC and access BIOS. Use this link and configure BIOS settings for macOS installation
- Once BIOS is configured, save the settings and restart the system. As soon as system boots, start pressing F12 key continuously to Enter the Boot option key
- Choose the Flash Drive from the option and click ‘Enter’
- On Clover screen, select Install macOS from Mojave Installer and press Enter
- Wait for the installer to load files. If system restarts, boot using verbose and report the issue with a screenshot, system details via comments down below
- Now Click ‘Install macOS’ and then agree to the terms and conditions
- Choose the external drive that we named ‘Mojave HD’ or ‘Mojave SSD’ in step no. 6 and click ‘Install’
- Wait for the installer to finish and restart the system. As soon as system restarts, start pressing the boot options key usually F12 and choose your external drive from the option and press ‘Enter’
- Let it boot and install the macOS Mojave on your external hard drive or SSD (whichever you using). At this stage, you can remove your USB 3.0 8GB Flash drive
- After installation is done, the system will reboot and again you need to press boot options key to choose your external drive as boot drive where you just installed macOS Mojave
Tip: You can set your external hard drive or SSD as default drive from BIOS settings. refer to your user manual or manufacturers website to know how to set boot priority order. You can also visit this link to know how it’s done. - Now setup your macOS Mojave OS and choose between light or dark mode
Voila! At this stage, you have successfully installed macOS Mojave on an external drive. To boot macOS, you can either use Boot Option key or set the drive as default drive via Boot Priority order in BIOS.
Watch this step-by-step Video Tutorial
Installing Mac Os On Hdd
Wrap Up
I hope this guide has been helpful in guiding you installation of macOS Mojave on an external hard drive or SSD. you can use Any hard drive, however, we would highly recommend you to get an SSD at least 128GB available for just 000000 and enclose it under an HDD enclosure. You can also opt for M.2 SSD which looks like a giant USB thumb drive with USB C Type port. here’s what we use. This is the best combination, small, light, and highly portable. You can buy an M.2 SSD at the same price and enclosure for Just under 10 USD using this link.
Good luck. Share your thoughts and do follow us on Facebook, Twitter and subscribe to our YouTube channel for Video guides and tutorials. We will bring more such guides and solutions for issues related to Hackintosh. happy Hackintosh!
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: