Each operating system could crash at one time or another. While it's safe to say that macOS is more stable than Windows, it can still be affected by issues that prevent your computer from booting up. In such cases, you might need to boot your Mac from a USB flash drive to fix the problem. This article shows you two ways to boot Mac from external USB stick, as well as some troubleshooting tips in case Mac won't boot from the target USB.
For macOS, USB boot VirtualBox Virtual Machine. Note: VirtualBox should be installed already on the system. Step 1: Open a Terminal. In the Terminal of MacOS type a command: diskutil list to see all attached disk and USB drives. When the list appears, jot down the bootable USB drive letter (example /dev/disk2) as we have done for Windows above. Boot Mac from USB Option l: Startup Manager. If your Mac won't boot up normally, you can set it to boot from a different drive, such as a USB stick containing macOS installation files in bootable format. The drive will have to contain a version of the OS that is compatible with the Mac. As long as you have the bootable installation USB, you can.
Boot Mac from USB Option l: Startup Manager
If your Mac won't boot up normally, you can set it to boot from a different drive, such as a USB stick containing macOS installation files in bootable format. The drive will have to contain a version of the OS that is compatible with the Mac. As long as you have the bootable installation USB, you can start your Mac from the USB by accessing the Startup Manager. Here are the steps to be followed:
Step 1: Insert the bootable USB into Mac and power it on.
Step 2: As soon as the startup process begins, hold down the Option (alt) key and keep it depressed until you see the Startup Manager on your screen. If there is a firmware password on your Mac, hold down the Option key until you're asked to enter that password.
Step 3: You will now see the various startup disk options, and your USB will be listed there. If you click on the Up arrow right below the icon for the USB, the computer will only startup once using this disk. If you press and hold down the Control key while making your selection, it will be saved, and your computer will boot from the USB every time, as long as it is left in the computer.
At this point, you can also use the Mac installation disk to boot your Mac from. It will appear as EFI Boot, and it works on all computers running macOS 10.9 or higher.
Boot Mac from USB Option 2: macOS Recovery Mode
As an alternative, you can start your Mac in Recovery Mode. This will allow the system to automatically detect and repair directory issues. Recovery Mode will only allow required kernel extensions to load, preventing login items and startup items to load automatically. It can also help you isolate the issue depending on whether or not the issue goes away in Recovery Mode. If the issues you have during normal startup don't show up in Recovery Mode, they are most likely fixed. That means you can reboot normally and your system should be back to normal.
Step 1: Start your Mac and hold down the Shift key. You will see the Apple logo on your screen.
Step 2: When you see the login screen, you can release the Shift key and login to your Mac.
Step 3: To check whether your Mac has booted into Recovery Mode, click on the Apple logo on the top left and then on About this Mac. In the window that opens, click on System Report… You should be able to see this:
How to Fix Mac Won't Boot from USB Drive
Sometimes Mac won't boot from USB as expected. If you are unable to select a different startup disk, it's possible that your disk is not showing up in Startup Manager. If you try Method 1 above but don't see your USB drive listed there, it could mean one of the following problems:
Compatibility: It is possible that the version of macOS or Mac OS X that you have on the USB drive is not compatible with the hardware. That means you won't be able to see it in the Startup Manager so, of course, you won't be able to boot from it. In such cases, you may need to burn a compatible macOS version on USB drive in order to be able to boot Mac from it.
Startup Security Utility: In certain cases where your Mac has the Apple T2 Security Chip (2018 and later devices), it may be your Startup Security Utility settings that are preventing you from booting from USB. In this situation, restart your Mac and hold down the Command + R keys when you see the Apple logo. This will put your Mac into Recovery mode. In macOS Utilities, go to Utilities >Startup Security Utility and sign in as admin. Under External Boot, select the second option - Allow Booting from External Media.
Option ROM Firmware: Another known issue is that Option ROM firmware will not load in Startup Manager until you press certain keys manually. To do this, use Method 1 to access Startup Manager. Once you are there, press Option-Shift-Command-Period. You should now be able to see the USB drive. This is not exactly a problem as much as a feature. If the USB contains Option ROM firmware, you will need to press those keys everytime to boot from your pen drive.
These two methods and the troubleshooting tips should allow you to boot from USB or in Recovery Mode so you can then isolate the problem that's preventing your Mac from booting up normally.
Booting ISO files in VirtualBox to create a Virtual Machine is pretty much easy, however, what about Virtual Machine USB boot? Yes, I mean suppose you have a bootable USB drive and no ISO file image or anything to boot with to install an OS on VirtualBox; at such condition what will you do? Simple, we can use our bootable USB drive. Although the procedure of doing this is slightly techie as compared to the normal one, easily achievable by anyone.
By default, the VirtualBox doesn’t support USB Flash Drive boot but we can make it run a virtual machine from a flash drive. After following this tutorial, you will be able to boot Windows 10, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, or any OS using USB boot.
Virtual machine boot from USB on a Windows/macOS/Linux Host
Note: Before following any of the below-given methods to install Virtual Machine on VirtualBox using a bootable USB drive, please ensure the VirtualBox is already on your system.
In Windows 10/8/7
Step 1: Find the Bootable USB drive letter
To identify the plugged-in USB drive letter or identification number in the Windows system, press Win key +R, to open the Run box. Type diskmgmt.msc
Step 2: Locate your connected bootable USB Disk drive
On the Disk Management of Windows locate for attached removal drive using which you want to boot and create a VirtualBox Virtual Machine. You can easily identify it as it will be denoted with a Removable text. When you find that note the Disk X letter.
For example, in the below screenshot, our USB drive is labeled as Disk 3, so ‘3‘ is the number that we have to remember. It might be different in your case.
Step 3: Open Command Prompt
On Windows 7/8/10, in the start menu search box typed CMD to search command prompt and when it appears, right-click and select “Run as Administrator“.
Step 4: Switch to Oracle VirtualBox directory
At this step, we enter into Oracle’s VirtualBox installation directory. For that, just copy and paste the below-given command in the Command prompt and press the Enter button.
Step 5: Create USB vmdk -rawdisk
This is a crucial step of the tutorial, as we are going to map a virtual machine (.vmdk file) to the USB Drive. This means we create a VMDK raw file that holds the path of our bootable USB drive for VirtualBox which helps it to recognize the USB drive as a normal Virtual Disk drive.
What you have to do? Just copy-paste the following command in Command Prompt. After that replace the # letter with the drive number which you noted in the second step of this tutorial. For example, our disk number is ‘3’ so we will replace the # letter with 3.
Note: Red color USB2 in the below command is the name of the rawdisk we about to create and you can give it whatever name you want.
Step 6: Create a New Virtual Machine
Step 7: Assign some name to it.
Make Boot Usb Mac
Here we are creating Windows 7 Virtual Machine with the name USB Windows 7, however, you can select Linux or any other OS depending upon your bootable USB OS.
Allot the amount of RAM you want to give to Virtual Machine.
Step 8: Use USB boot VDMK Raw disk in VirtualBox
Make Boot Usb Mac Os
In the Hard disk section, select the “Use an existing virtual hard disk file” option and then click on the folder icon which opens Windows Explorer. Now go to C: drive and select your created.VDMK file. In our case it is usb2.vdmk.
Then click on the Create button.
Note: If you get an error:
Then simply close the VirtualBox and start it under administrative rights…
Step 9: Start created a virtual Machine
Select the created USB bootable virtual machine from the right-side panel and click on the Start button given in the VirtualBox menu and that’s it.
If you are using macOS or Linux like Ubuntu then from step 6 to step 9 will be the same, the only difference is the method to create a .VDMK Raw file. For that please see the below steps:
For macOS, USB boot VirtualBox Virtual Machine
Note: VirtualBox should be installed already on the system.
Step 1: Open a Terminal
In the Terminal of MacOS type a command: diskutil list to see all attached disk and USB drives. When the list appears, jot down the bootable USB drive letter (example /dev/disk2) as we have done for Windows above.
Create Boot Usb Mac El Capitan
Step 2: Unmount USB Disk
To use the USB disk to create a raw image for VirtualBox, first, we have to unmount it. For that the command is:
Note: Replace the # with the USB drive disk number noted above.
Step 3: Create VDMK Raw file of connected bootable USB drive
Use the below command in your MacOS command terminal and again replace the # with the USB disk number.
After running the above command once again unmount the same disk. As done above, in the same way, replace # with disk number.
Step 4: Run VirtualBox under root access
To run the VirtualBox under root privilege type the below command in terminal
Note: Whenever you want to boot VirtualBox using USB, it should be run under root access.
Step 6: Create a Virtual Machine and assign the created USB VDMK file as a hard disk.
For Linux (Ubuntu 19.04) VirtualBox Virtual Machine USB boot
To install VirtualBox, if not already, the command is:
Step 1: List the attached disks
Step 2: Create USB raw VDMK file
Replace sdbx with the disk name that appeared on your screen. While usb1 is the name of the RAW file that could be anything you want.
Create Boot Usb Macos Big Sur
Step 3: Open the VirtualBox
How To Make Boot Usb Mac
Type sudo virtualbox in the command terminal to run under root access. When it opens, create a new Virtual Machine.
Create Boot Usb Macos Catalina
And at the Hard disk section, select the “Use an existing virtual hard disk” option. Click on the folder icon and select the above-created USB drive raw image file which will be under the home directory. After that just click on the Create button. This will let you perform virtual machine USB boot on Ubuntu Linux.
Other Useful Resources: