How to Create El Capitan bootable USB from Windows PC?

WD External and Portable SSD External SSD for macOS
1

I have a WD external SSD drive and want to install Mac OS X El Capitan on it. Currently, I have an M3 MacBook Pro but the official createinstallmedia command does not work on this new Mac as the install app is too old to run this Mac.

Does anyone know how to create El Capitan bootable USB from a Windows PC So I can install El Capitan on my WD external SSD drive.

Thank you

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2

El is one of the best OS X versions I have worked with. Unfortunately, it is a very old version now. Making El Capitan bootable USB on Apple Silicon MacBook Pro is no longer supported with the official createinstallmedia command as the Install El Capitan app can’t run on new Mac.

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Download El Capitan dmg file and burn it to a USB flash drive. This is the right way to create El Capitan bootable USB on any Windows PC and Mac without limitation. The official way does not work anymore on Apple Silicon Mac.

4

Back up your data before creating El Capitan bootable USB from Windows PC. I learned this by wiping my USB drive without thinking—a rookie move. Now, I keep backups of everything, just in case. Make sure your Mac is compatible with El Capitan. I didn’t check this one time and ended up with a fancy USB that wouldn’t even work with my machine. Always confirm that your hardware can run the software!

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It is always a good practice to backup the data. The built-in Time Machine app is good to go. Better use a fast portable ssd drive instead. The traditional hard drive for back up is really slow!

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Make an El Capitan virtual machine on Windows PC using the free VirtualBox app. After that, using the official createinstallmedia command to make El bootable USB drive from Windows.

Step 1: Install VirtualBox and the VirtualBox Extension Pack on your Windows PC.

Step 2: Plug the USB drive into your Windows PC. Open VirtualBox and select your macOS virtual machine. Go to Settings > USB and enable USB Controller (select USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 if supported). Add the USB drive to the list of USB devices by clicking the + icon and selecting your USB drive.

Step 3: Start the macOS virtual machine in VirtualBox. Once macOS boots up, confirm that the USB drive is detected.

Step 4: If you don’t already have the macOS El Capitan installer, download it from the Mac App Store on the virtual machine. Locate the installer in the Applications folder. The file is usually named Install OS X El Capitan.app.

Step 5: Open Terminal in macOS. Run the following command to create El Capitan bootable USB:

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/USB --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app --nointeraction

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Creating a bootable El Capitan USB from a Windows PC using a VirtualBox macOS virtual machine sounds like an adventurous project! Let’s talk about the complexity. Setting up VirtualBox and getting a macOS virtual machine running isn’t exactly a walk in the park, especially if you’re not super tech-savvy. I remember when I first tried it out; I was neck-deep in forums and tutorials just to figure out the right configurations, and I had to deal with compatibility issues that left me scratching my head.