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If you have ever tried to install a fresh install of Apple’s latest OS 10.9.4 Mavericks from a USB drive, than you may have run into a couple of set backs.

After you have downloaded a copy of OSX from the App Store, your next step is to extract the file into a USB or external source and make it boot ready to install on a fresh hard drive.

Before being able to create a bootable OS X installer, you’ll need to do the following first:

  1. Use the Mac App Store to download the OS X installer app.
  2. Mount the volume you wish to convert into a bootable installer. This could be removable media such as a USB flash drive or a secondary internal partition.
  3. You can then use the createinstallmedia tool to convert the volume from step two into a bootable installer based off the installer app from step one. To learn how to use createinstallmedia, use the following command in Terminal:/Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia

For example, assuming you have a volume mounted at /Volumes/MyVolume and the OS X installer app is at /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app you could erase /Volumes/MyVolume and convert it into a bootable installer with this command:

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app

You may need to adjust the path to the OS X installer app in the above command.

Note: createinstallmedia is an advanced option for system administrators and as such, requires some knowledge of the command line in order to be used properly. It is only intended to be used with the version of OS X installer app it came with.

Last Modified: Jul 28, 2014

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS.

Once you have created your bootable USB drive, boot into the setup OSX utility, run the installer on your chosen hard disk, and your computer restarts at 24 minutes remaining, leaving you an infinite loop. What to do?
  • First possible issue could be faulty RAM modules, this is why your kernel is panicking and the Mac is restarting. Change both RAM sticks and run the setup again.
  • Second possible issue could be a faulty USB image. Run disk utility, erase the USB drive and re-run above steps to extract the OSX installer and retry the setup.