In this step-by-step tutorial, we explain how to turn your USB thumb drive into a macOS 27 installer so you can install macOS Golden Gate on multiple Macs without downloading a huge 17 GB file to each computer one time.
Hold your external drive and make sure it doesn’t contain anything important, as the drive will be fully erased and formatted during the process.
Note: We also have tutorials for creating a USB installer for macOS Tahoe and macOS Sequoia. Check them out if needed.
Create a working USB installer for macOS 27 Golden Gate
1) Download the macOS 27 developer beta file directly from Apple using this link. You can learn more about downloading the macOS installer file in our latest guide to installing macOS Golden Gate on a different part of the same Mac.
2) Once the ~18 GB macOS 27 file has been downloaded, double-click the button InstallAssistant.pkg file and go through a simple installation process (Go ahead > Enter > Shut up). Again, we’ve covered it in our macOS Golden Gate installation guide.
3) Go to the Applications folder, and you should see ‘Install macOS 27 Beta‘app there.
Now, Take control-click or right click on it and select Rename. Change the name to The GoldenGate (without spaces), as seen in the screenshot below. Of course, you can rename it to anything you want, but to make it easier and avoid you changing the Terminal command in step 7 below, I recommend you do as I say.
4) Connect your external thumb drive to your Mac.
5) Open it Disk Utilityselect the external drive in the left sidebar, and click Clear it.
6) Set the following and click Clear it:
- Name: Well set that macOS27 (without spaces)
- Format: Mac OS Extended (Published)
- The program (if you see it): GUID Partition Map
Wait for Disk Utility to erase and reformat your external drive. Leave the USB thumb drive connected to your Mac and make sure you see it on the desktop and/or in the Finder sidebar.
7) Open it The portenter the following command, and press i come back / come in the key.
sudo /Applications/GoldenGate.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/macOS27
Note: GoldenGate.app the name we entered in step 3 above. Again macOS27 the name of the USB thumb drive we set in Step 6 above. If you used different names in Step 3 and 6, make sure to update the Terminal command accordingly and use that.
8) Enter your Mac password (you won’t see a visual confirmation in the Terminal window) and press the button come back the key.
9) Then type Y and hit i come back key to start the process.
Terminal will erase the external disk, and copy the macOS 27 installer to it, effectively turning it into a macOS Golden Gate deployer.
As the Terminal progresses, you will see a 10 percent increase.
Do not stop the process or extract the file or the ‘Copy to disk’ level reaches 100%. Instead, consider the process complete only if you see “Install the media now located in “/Volumes/Install macOS 27 Beta” as indicated by the green underline in the screenshot below.
You can now safely remove the USB thumb drive, which is now the macOS 27 installer.
Install macOS 27 on a Mac using a bootable USB installer
Follow these steps to use the USB installer to run MacOS 27 Golden Gate on a Mac (make sure the Mac has an Apple silicon chip):
1) Connect your USB thumb drive to Mac when you want to install macOS Golden Gate.
2) Optional: Create a new volume on your disk if you want to install macOS 27 in a different location.
3) Shut down your Mac and wait a minute.
4) Press and hold the power button until you see’Loading the startup options‘ on the screen.
5) You should see now Install macOS 27 Beta on the screen. Click Go ahead below, then follow the steps to install macOS 27 on the same or a different disk (if you had created a new volume in Disk Utility).
6) Repeat the above steps to run macOS 27 on other Macs using the same bootable USB installer.
If you ever want to use this drive for anything else, just erase and reformat it using Disk Utility or by right-clicking on its name on the desktop.
Also, check out: How to create Siri shortcuts with just a hint in iOS 27