Sep 21, 2020 • Filed to: Solve Mac Problems • Proven solutions
The macOS Sierra is a wonderful operating system - and easily the best for all Apple computers and laptops. If you have a Mac, then you probably cannot wait to get your hands on the Sierra - provided your system supports it. However, even if your Mac does support Sierra, there may be a few reasons as to why you may not be able to install it on your hard disk.
For starters, it takes around 8GB of storage space. While that is the minimum recommended by Apple, you will probably need a bit more to make use of it. In addition to that, if you are using an older Mac, then you will still face a few issues while running Sierra. You also have to back up the entire system before installing macOS Sierra, which is a must-do step in any update. For those who have a lot of data on their Macs, this can be a very lengthy procedure.
However, there is a solution to all of that. You can simply go ahead and install the macOS Sierra on an external hard drive, and then boot your Mac from that!
The Prerequisites
There is no doubt about the fact that you will save a lot of trouble and hassle if you install the macOS Sierra on an external drive. It will even let you use the same hard drive with multiple Macs, without updating to Sierra on each of those. However, to begin with, this, you will need an external hard drive. Since Apple only requires you to have a little over 8 GB of free space, any hard drive, even one with 128 GB, will do just fine. For better performance, it is recommended that it be an SSD.
You will also have to download macOS Sierra from the Mac App Store. To do that, just open the App Store on your Mac, and search for macOS Sierra. You can also download macOS Sierra by directly clicking on the link from your Mac. If your Mac is compatible, then the download option will appear. Click on it, and the download will begin.
Installation of a Mac OS X or macOS operating system (Lion, Mountain Lion, Yosemite, El Capitan, macOS Sierra, macOS High Sierra) on an external hard drive is an excellent option the test an operating system. Due to performance reasons, you should use USB 3.0 external hard drives at least. The Best Mac External Hard Drive and SSD Deals This Week. WD My Passport 5TB Portable External USB 3.0 Hard Drive — $115.00 (List Price $149.99) WD Elements 4TB Portable External USB 3.0 Hard.
The download size is around 5GB, and the total time may vary depending on your internet connection as well as Apple’s servers.
Once you have a hard drive, you can go ahead and follow the simple steps to install and use macOS Sierra from your external drive.
Part 1. Installing macOS Sierra on the external drive
1. Preparing the hard drive for the installation
Before you install macOS Sierra on the hard drive, you will need to clean the external device. Ensure that there is no important data on your hard drive. Then plug it into your Mac, go to Finder, and select Applications.
From Applications, go to Utilities and from there, find and double click on Disk Utility. In the Disk Utility tab, select the external hard drive that is connected to the Mac, and then click on Erase at the top.
Now rename it to something like sierra that you will remember, choose 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)' in the format, and then click on Erase. Once the process completes, click on Done, and you are ready to begin the installation.
2. Creating the bootable drive
Once your hard drive is formatted, you will need to turn it into a bootable drive. Before you begin this, you will require the Administrator access on your Mac.
Step 1 Go to Finder to open the window, and from the left side, select Applications.
Step 2 From the application's Window, find and click Utilities, and from there, go to Terminal.
Step 3 Now, remember the name that you set for formatting your external drive (i.e. sierra). In case you named it something other than sierra, then make the appropriate changes in the following text. Once you are in the terminal, enter the following text, ensuring to use your drive’s name wherever Volumes/Sierra is written.
sudo /Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/sierra --applicationpath /Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app –nointeraction
Step 4 When you tap enter, you will be asked the password for the administrator account. As you type the password, no text will be there in the terminal window. Depending on the drive, this process could take a while. Once the window reports ‘Done’, you can close the drive.
Part 2. Using macOS Sierra with the Bootable Hard Drive
Once the above step completes, your external hard drive will be ready to run macOS Sierra on any compatible Mac. First, you have to turn off the Mac on which you want to run Sierra from the bootable drive. Then, before switching it on, connect the drive through the Mac’s USB Port.
Then turn on your Mac, and as soon as you hear the startup sound, press the Option key and keep it pressed. Within a few seconds, you will get a screen that asks you to select the appropriate hard drive for booting. On this screen, select the one on which you have installed macOS Sierra, and you will soon have your Mac running Sierra!
Thus, as you follow these simple steps, you will have configured the macOS Sierra to run from an external hard drive. You do not have to worry about how much free space there is in your Mac or anything else of the sort. Through this approach, you can run macOS Sierra on any compatible Mac without having to separately download and install it on either one. In addition to that, since there are no backups of the mac’s hard disk required, the process will involve comparatively less hassle.
Any changes or files that you make can be stored on your Mac as well, so you do not have to worry about where your data is. This can be a great way to have the same OS on your personal as well as work Macs. Thus, now, you do not have to bother about freeing up your Mac’s drives or separately downloading it for every PC in the house- just configure it once on an external hard drive, and everything else is taken care of!
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We are really sorry that M4VGear doen't support macOS High Sierra or above now. Our developers are working hard to fix this problem and it needs to take some time. We would post the latest news about our pragram on our Facebook once we find solutions to fix the issue. Currently, if you only have a Mac computer with macOS High Sierra or above and couldn't find a Windows computer to use our Windows version, you can still try to install and run Mac OS X 10.12 or 10.11 on an external hard drive to make M4VGear work under old version of Mac OSX.
In the following guide, we would show you how to install and run MacOS X 10.12 from an external hard drive as an example.
What You’ll Need:
- An external storage device with a minimum capacity of at least 16 GB;
- A copy of the macOS Sierra installer.
- Download the latest version of iTunes to the external hard drive;
- Downlad and install M4VGear for Mac for converting iTunes videos.
It's worth noting that you should download the macOS Sierra installer in the App Store under “Previous buys“ or 'previous bought'. Make sure you click “Download” and let it save to your Mac’s hard drive.
Important Tips: If you download and install macOS Sierra through other sources, your Mac might pop out a message that 'Downloading macOS Sierra the way in your Link is Not possible when your have High Sierra installed (because the file System)'. Under “Previous buys“ or 'previous bought' is a working Link where the Download is working ... You can check and install it in parallels successfully.
Step 1: Format External Hard Disk
In order for your external device to function as a startup disk, it must be formatted as Mac OS Extended and employ a GUID partition map. To check what format your drive is using (and change it), you’ll need to launch your Mac’s Disk Utility. Disk Utility can be found in the Applications > Utilities folder or by searching for it using Spotlight.
Once Disk Utility is running, click on your external device in the left-hand pane and check the partition map. In our case, our drive is partitioned using Master Boot Record rather than GUID. So, we definitely need to format it.
WARNING: Before proceeding, understand that formatting will obviously erase everything on your device. If there is anything you want to save, make sure you back it up first!
First, unmount the device.
Once the drive is unmounted, select the full disk in the left sidebar (labeled “UFD 3.0 Silicon” here)—not the sub-disk(s) under it (labeled “Untitled” here)—and click “Erase” in the top row of buttons.
From the resulting dialog, format your device as “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” and use the scheme “GUID Partition Map”. You can also give your device an appropriate name, if you want. Then click “Erase”.
When the operation is complete, you will see the following message. Click “Done” to continue.
Step 2: Install macOS Sierra
When macOS Sierra is downloaded, it is saved in your Applications folder. Double-click the installer to begin.
Click “Continue” to proceed.
“Agree” to the software license agreement.
On the next screen, click “Show All Disks”.
Choose your newly formatted external device and click “Install”.
Enter your system password and hit Enter.
macOS Sierra will now begin installing on your external device. Feel free to grab a cup of coffee or take a shower, because it will take a few minutes.
Before macOS can complete installation, your computer will need to restart. Make sure you save any work and then click “Close Other Applications” to continue.
Once your Mac restarts, it will take about 15 more minutes to finish, and will then boot automatically from the new device.
You will then need to go through the usual macOS setup, including enabling Siri, setting up your time zone, and adding your user account.
Format Hard Drive Mac Os
Once you’re done with all that, you’ll have a brand new installation of macOS Sierra on your external device.
Make sure you don’t remove or eject your external device while you’re using it, since macOS will periodically need to access it.
How to Boot From Your External macOS Installation?
So let’s say you start having trouble with your internal drive, and want to troubleshoot it. Or maybe you want to use your portable macOS installation on another compatible Mac.
To boot from your external Sierra drive, plug it into the Mac in question, press the power button, and hold the “Option key until the recovery disk screen appears. From there, you can select your external drive and click the arrow to boot into it for that session.
You’ll boot into your macOS Sierra installation where you can use it as normal. The next time you restart that Mac, it will boot to main, internal hard drive as normal. (Or you can hold Option and boot to the external drive again, if needed.)
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Now, you can install iTunes and M4VGear on your external hard drive and then smoothly convert iTunes videos as before.