How to Make a Bootable macOS Tahoe 26 Installer Drive

Now that macOS Tahoe 26 is out, you might be interested in making a bootable installer drive for the latest MacOS release. Bootable installers drives are super useful as they can be used to easily perform clean system installs, install or update multiple Macs to Tahoe without having to download the installer/update multiple times, and to have on hand for troubleshooting situations if you need a recovery drive or boot drive for admin and tech purposes.

To make a macOS Tahoe boot installer drive, you will need to have a USB-C flash drive or external drive that you don’t mind erasing, some comfort with the command line and Terminal app, a macOS Tahoe compatible Mac, and an active internet connection.

How to Create a MacOS Tahoe 26 Installer Boot Drive

Making your boot disk is pretty straight forward:

1. Have a 32+ GB flash drive or SSD that you don’t mind erasing handy
2. Download the latest macOS Tahoe installer from here or here
3. Open the ‘InstallAssistant.pkg’ to extract the “Install MacOS Tahoe.app” into the Mac /Applications folder
4. Now connect your flash drive you wish to turn into the boot disk to the Mac
5. Open the ‘Disk Utility’ app from /Applications/Utilities or with Spotlight, and select the USB drive you just connected, then click Erase. You’ll want to make sure you choose to format it as “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” with a GUID Partition Map. Give the drive a descriptive name, like “MacOSTahoeInstaller”
6. Now open ‘Terminal’ app, found from /Applications/Utilities or with Spotlight
7. Execute the command below, be sure to replace “MacOSTahoeInstaller” with your drive name if you chose a different one:

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Tahoe.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MacOSTahoeInstaller --nointeraction

8. Hit the Return key to execute the command, enter the administrator password, and let the process complete in the Terminal

When finished, your macOS Tahoe boot drive will be created, and it can be used to boot any Tahoe compatible Mac, for either installing, updating, or performing troubleshooting tasks.

If you’re not comfortable with the Terminal and command line, there are also third party tools available to create boot disks for the Mac with simple graphical interfaces.

How to Boot a Mac from the MacOS Tahoe Install Drive

You can use the boot installer on any Mac that is compatible with macOS Tahoe. How you boot the Mac from the installer drive differs from Apple Silicon (M-series) and Intel Macs:

• Apple Silicon Macs: Connect the USB drive then power off the Mac, then press and hold the Power button until the ‘Startup Options’ screen appears on the Mac. Choose the “Install macOS Tahoe” volume to boot into the boot disk
• Intel Macs: Connect the USB drive to the Mac, then restart the Mac while the USB drive is connected, press and hold the “Option” key and choose the “Install macOS Tahoe” drive from the boot menu to boot with the Tahoe boot disk

After the boot drive has loaded, you’ll be at a familiar MacOS Utilities screen where you can access things like Restore from Time Machine, Install macOS Tahoe, access and use Disk Utility, and more.

You can use the same boot drive to install or update multiple Macs to Tahoe, or just to keep around for archival purposes. Once you’ve got macOS Tahoe running on a Mac or two, check out some useful tips for using new features in Tahoe, make some tweaks to Liquid Glass if you’d like, and remember that if things feel slow initially, it usually resolves itself after a few days.