USB bootable installer not recognised on some machines

[AncientMacUser]

I can't get an MBP to see a bootable USB installer for Sierra in startup disk.



I have 2 MBPs. Both 2013. One runs Sierra. The other Yosemite. (I also have access to a third 2016 Retina MBP with Yosemite installed.


2013 MBP with Sierra. DL'd Sierra. Made bootable USB with Disk Installer X. I can view it in sys pref Startup Disk as an option to boot from and restart.


2013 MBP with Yosemite, with wiped HD. It boots to the standard reinstall OS X thing. From here, open Startup Disk from the apple menu top left. Cannot see the USB bootable disk Startup Disk... Same with 2016 MBP Retina with Yosemite. Cannot find USB bootable disk in sys pref Startup Disk.


USB disk is definitely GUID partition etc. Where am I going wrong? Why can't I see the disk on other MBs?*


 

[harryb2448]

G'day anc welcome to the forums.

I take it yuou mean DiskMakerX? Try making it on a USB thumb drive of +8GB. If that is what you mean pop it in the MBP and restart holding down the Option key. The thumb drive will boot, go to Utilities and format the hard drive, back to installer and proceed. How did you erase the Yosemite hard drive?

 

[AncientMacUser]

Yes, I used a 16GB flash drive. It is recognised as a bootable disk using startup disk on a sierra running MBP. The second MBP that *was* running Yosemite was erased, I'm actually not sure how. I believe by running an installer, but before installing, erased the HD.

This MBP also has the unfortunate problem of having a defective keyboard and trackpad so I am using an external USB keyboard and mouse (side notes really).

Regardless, the option key does not show the bootable installer. The main point is nor does it when it boots to the standard wiped OS screen, and you open startup disk. This option *does* recognise my external bootable cloned drive. But not the USB installer. This USB *is* recognised on the MBP that created it under the system preferences startup disk selection menu.

 

[harryb2448]

I would suggest checking out the hard drive of the MBP that does not recognise the installer.

 

[AncientMacUser]

This doesn't quite make sense. The MBP recognises an external bootable HD (cloned from an old backup a year or so ago, running Yosemite). But it does not recognise the USB as bootable. What should I examine on the HD of the machine that would make it exhibit this behaviour?

EDIT: Oh, and it was late when I first replied to you yesterday: TY for the welcome. I muddled up the name. I tried "Installer Disc Creator X" and *also* "DiskMaker X 6"

Cheers for the replies (I'm much better at this communicating thing when I'm not tired)!

 

[AncientMacUser]

Bump: Again, thanks for the reply! What should I look for on my hard drive?
Would anyone else have a suggestion here?

 

[ferrarr]

My usual go to's would be PRAM and NVRAM reset.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

 

[AncientMacUser]

So the above resets didn't help.

To reiterate:
The USB is recognised by the machine. It's recognised on three machines:
OS Sierra 2013 MBP - this machine created the bootable disk. It recognises it, and recognises it as bootable in the StartUp Disk Pref menu.
Yosemite 2013 MBP - It recognises the created USB drive, but *does not* recognise it as bootable in the StartUp Disk Pref menu.***
Yosemite 2016 MBP Retina - It recognises the created USB drive, but *does not* recognise it as bootable in the StartUp Disk Pref menu.


***This machine is booting from an external HD (cloned) because the HD was wiped, so only boots to the standard disk util, upgrade OS X screen etc. This machine does not recognise the USB as bootable, either from a cloned booted HD. Or from the wiped HD that can boot to the standard disk util screen etc, which has a StartUp Disk Pref. Neither will recognise it as bootable.

Thoughts on how to proceed?

 

[ferrarr]

Off topic, I am very curious about your "Yosemite 2016 MBP Retina", can you provide About This Mac specs, or image? Technically 2016 Macs came with Sierra, not El Capitan, so I'm surprised Yosemite does run on it? Thanks.

 

[ferrarr]

You could also make the bootable USB installer using the Apple method?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

 

[AncientMacUser]

Sorry, the MBP Retina I'm told is Mid 2012, core i7, 8GB RAM (should have checked myself - it's my flatmates). My bad.

And, I did try the terminal command too, should have added that to our thread.

I'm trying to restore the cloned bootable HD, onto the MBP that I want to install Sierra on. This should let me create a USB on that machine... if it's as I've experienced here, maybe it's just the machine I create the disk on that can see it. Although this should NOT be the case... maybe it will work :s

4 hours to go on this restore job.

Any other suggestions welcome guys, because I get the feeling this won't work either!

Thanks so far!!!

EDIT: I checked myself - because I don't believe her automatically.

 

[AncientMacUser]

It didn't work. Eventually I just updated to Sierra from the restore of a cloned Yosemite on an external HD. Worked fine. New query, new thread. Cheers for your help anyway guys!!!

 

[ferrarr]

Let me get this straight, you have three MBP's, 2-2013, and 1-2012, correct? The 2012 & one of the 2013's are running Yosemite, and the other 2013 is running Sierra? You created a bootable USB installer of Sierra, on the MBP that is running Sierra and it works perfectly, on that machine only? Yesterday, you attempted to clone a drive that, I assume, was cloned from the 2013 that is running Sierra? Or, did you just try to clone the Sierra machine to the other, non Sierra 2013 MBP? Are the non Sierra machine working properly? Are they experiencing issues, besides this?

Is there a reason, you are not just creating the bootable USB installer on the other machines? Just download Sierra to those machines?
Maybe you could give complete year and specs of all machine involved? Include drive type, size, free and used space, too?
Since all machine have access to Internet Recovery, have you attempted that?
Make sure your backups, for all machines are good.

 

[harryb2448]

Whenever you go to use a new operatin g system, go into Utilities and verify the hard drive is good to go. Amount of free space, condition of the drive etc. all need checking.