How to Make Bootable MacOS High Sierra 10.13 Beta Installer USB Drive

MacOS High Sierra 10.13 beta offers the createinstallmedia tool allowing for the creation of a macOS High Sierra bootable installer drive. Many advanced users prefer to install major Mac OS releases this way since it offers a single boot tool to partition, update, or install macOS from, and though it’s considered advanced it’s really not particularly complicated.

This tutorial will show you how to make a bootable macOS High Sierra 10.13 beta installer, the boot drive will work to update or install macOS 10.13 onto any High Sierra compatible Mac.

MacOS High Sierra Bootable USB Drive Requirements

Before getting started, you’ll need two things;

• A USB flash drive (16GB or larger) you don’t mind formatting to become the High Sierra installer
• The macOS High Sierra beta install application downloaded from the Mac App Store (direct link) and located in the /Applications/ folder

This guide shows how to create a macOS 10.13 beta installer with the current developer beta preview release, but the same principles will be true with the public beta when that is available as well.

How to Create macOS High Sierra Beta USB Install Drive

1. Check to have “Install macOS 10.13 Beta.app” in the Applications folder of your Mac, this is where it defaults to download
2. Connect the USB flash drive to the Mac, rename the drive to “HighSierra” for easy identification – remember the USB drive will be formatted and erased to become the High Sierra installer
3. Open the Terminal application in Mac OS, located in /Applications/Utilities/
4. Enter the following command syntax exactly:

• For MacOS High Sierra Final Version:

sudo /Applications/Install macOS High Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/HighSierra --applicationpath /Applications/Install macOS High Sierra.app --nointeraction &&say Boot drive created

• For MacOS High Sierra Developer Beta:

sudo /Applications/Install macOS 10.13 Beta.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/HighSierra --applicationpath /Applications/Install macOS 10.13 Beta.app --nointeraction &&say Boot drive created

• For MacOS High Sierra Public Beta:

sudo /Applications/Install macOS High Sierra Beta.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/HighSierra --applicationpath /Applications/Install macOS High Sierra Beta.app --nointeraction &&say Boot drive created

When finished the USB boot drive will be called “Install macOS 10.13 Beta” and it is ready to be used.

Booting from MacOS High Sierra Beta Installer Drive

With the High Sierra USB installer connected to the Mac, restart the computer ( Apple menu > Restart) and hold down the OPTION key. At the boot menu choose the macOS High Sierra 10.13 beta install from the boot loader screen where the installer will load.

From the bootable drive you can format, partition, update, or install macOS High Sierra beta easily. It’s generally recommended to install beta system software on a fresh new partition or a separate non-primary Mac entirely, and not update over an existing operating system. Beta system software is notoriously unreliable, unstable, and buggy, and is not fit for everyday use by most users.

Remember that updating a Mac to High Sierra (even the beta) will update the file system to APFS.

Always back up a Mac before updating or installing any system software.

Any questions, ideas, tips or tricks about making boot drives for MacOS High Sierra beta? Let us know in the comments below!