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Do I need a bootable drive for a Mojave clean install?

I booted up via an external hard drive so I can use Utilities to erase my internal hard drive, then do a clean install of Mojave. The instructions @ https://www.imore.com/how-do-clean-install-macos say I need to create a bootable external hard drive before I can install Mojave. That's a bit of a problem because I only have one external hard drive at the moment - the one I'm using.


If I do NOT create a bootable hard drive and go ahead on my external hard drive, then when I access the App store via my external hard drive and "Open" Mojave (I've never seen anything that allows me to download it), will it allow me to designate WHERE it should be installed (on my INTERNAL hard drive)? When I tried it before, there were no such options, so I aborted the process.


I do NOT want to do a typical install of Mojave on my external hard drive. I want to do a clean install on my internal hard drive, but I'm seeing conflicting instructions on several key points. It's really confusing.


Thanks for any tips.

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.12

Posted on May 18, 2019 10:03 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 18, 2019 10:50 PM

Chavista wrote:

I booted up via an external hard drive so I can use Utilities to erase my internal hard drive, then do a clean install of Mojave. The instructions @ https://www.imore.com/how-do-clean-install-macos say I need to create a bootable external hard drive before I can install Mojave. That's a bit of a problem because I only have one external hard drive at the moment - the one I'm using.

If I do NOT create a bootable hard drive and go ahead on my external hard drive, then when I access the App store via my external hard drive and "Open" Mojave (I've never seen anything that allows me to download it), will it allow me to designate WHERE it should be installed (on my INTERNAL hard drive)? When I tried it before, there were no such options, so I aborted the process.

I do NOT want to do a typical install of Mojave on my external hard drive. I want to do a clean install on my internal hard drive, but I'm seeing conflicting instructions on several key points. It's really confusing.



Latest Mojave Recovery a bit different—

How to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904



Similar questions

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 18, 2019 10:50 PM in response to Chavista

Chavista wrote:

I booted up via an external hard drive so I can use Utilities to erase my internal hard drive, then do a clean install of Mojave. The instructions @ https://www.imore.com/how-do-clean-install-macos say I need to create a bootable external hard drive before I can install Mojave. That's a bit of a problem because I only have one external hard drive at the moment - the one I'm using.

If I do NOT create a bootable hard drive and go ahead on my external hard drive, then when I access the App store via my external hard drive and "Open" Mojave (I've never seen anything that allows me to download it), will it allow me to designate WHERE it should be installed (on my INTERNAL hard drive)? When I tried it before, there were no such options, so I aborted the process.

I do NOT want to do a typical install of Mojave on my external hard drive. I want to do a clean install on my internal hard drive, but I'm seeing conflicting instructions on several key points. It's really confusing.



Latest Mojave Recovery a bit different—

How to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904



Do I need a bootable drive for a Mojave clean install?

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