Tag Archives: usb drive

Install Windows 8.1 on an External USB Windows To Go

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This video will show you how to Install Windows 8.1 on an External USB Windows To Go.

Hi All,
So I get loads of people on the 123myIT.com website and on the YouTube channel about how can they install Windows on an external drive USB drive so they can just carry that around and use the USB to plug into their Mac or PC hardware.

Well I was able to find a solution for this issue from most people and it is Microsoft’s “Windows to Go”. This allows you to install Windows on an external USB drive to and allows you to run the a copy of Windows basically on any PC or Mac, without having to go ahead and install it locally. Is Windows to go the answer?

Why would you want to do that? Well there are many benefits to this however the main benefits are:
* You can save disk space on the PC or Mac local drive.
* Its very portable, which means you can carry the hard drive and plug it into a friends or work PC.
* Your files stay on the USB so its safer.
* You can also setup the drive to be encrypted, which means if you lose the drive no one will be able to get your data.

Ok so let get into it. What do you need to make this happen.
You will need a few things. The first is you will need to get yourself a copy of Windows Enterprise. This is a special copy of Windows designed to large companies, however I found a place where you can get the Evaluation version.
So to do that watch this video.
Where to Download Windows 8.1 Enterprise Evaluation

The next step is to install that Enterprise copy like you would on a Mac or PC. To help out I made a video on how this is possible to install it on a Mac. Watch the video below.
Install Windows 8.1 Enterprise on a MacBook Air OS X Yosemite

Windows to Go

Once installed you can watch the video above Install Windows 8.1 on an External USB Windows To Go

Of course you will need an external USB drive to install Windows too. I suggest a USB 3 external hard drive with at least 40GB of disk space. You might be able to get away with a smaller drive but I would advise it, because you may want to have some space for App like Mcirosoft Office or some personal data like photos and videos.

Well I hope this helps out guys and good luck!
Matt

How to do a Clean Install of OS X Yosemite from USB

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This video will show you how to do a clean install of OS X Yosemite from USB.

Hi All
I have had a few people from the 123myIT YouTube channel ask me how to Fix GPT Error: Windows cannot be installed to this disk.

If you have followed the video linked above and still having some problems getting Windows installed on your Mac because of the GPT partition it is probably best to do a clean install of OS X Yosemite and this video will help you achieve this.

You will need to Create a bootable OS X Yosemite installer USB drive, this drive will install OS X Yosemite on to your Mac.

Clean Install of OS X Yosemite

Make sure you back up your Mac with Time Machine, because the OS X install will remove any data you have on the Mac hard drive. Once you have everything backed up use the newly created USB drive to do Clean Install of OS X Yosemite.

Boot into the USB driver and format the Mac hard drive with Disk Utility. At this stage all of your data with be removed from the Mac hard drive and you can then proceed with the install. Doing a clean install of OS X Yosemite will take around 30 mins to 45 mins depending on the speed of your Mac hardware. Your Mac will also restart a few time during this stage. Just let it do its thing. Once the Mac OS X Yosemite has been installed you will need to setup the Mac as if it is a new Mac. So you will need to choose a user name a password, choose time zone and location.

If you want to know more about the OS X Yosemite you can find more info on the official Apple web page here.

Create a bootable OS X Yosemite installer USB drive

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Apple have made it much easier to create an OS X Yosemite installer USB drive and this same process can also be done for OS X Mavericks. In this video and article I will show you what you need to do to make this happen.

You can check out the older video 123myit.com video for the Mavericks USB here.

What do you need to get started?
* 8GB or larger USB drive, SD Card or USB hard drive
* OS X Yosemite.app or Mavericks.app (this can be downloaded from the App Store)
* An Apple computer with access to the Apple App Store
* A user account with administrator rights

Step 1. Download Yosemite, Mavericks from the App store.
Apple direct link here.
Step 2. Insert your USB into the Mac and run the Disk Utility.
Step 3. Erase the USB, so it becomes a clean USB with no data on it.
Step 4. Download OS X Yosemite App, get it from the Apple Store.
Step 5. Open Terminal and use the command below. Make sure the Yosemite App is located on your Desktop of your Mac.

NOTE: Change the USB name to MyVolume or you can change code “MyVolume” to the same name as your USB drive.

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

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

OS X Terminal Command

This install may take some time depending on the speed of your Mac hardware. Once the Terminal finishes copying everything across you will then be able to use the OS X Yosemite installer USB drive to do clean installs of OS X Yosemite.

If you are looking for a video on how to setup OS X Mavericks USB you can use the code above if that doesn’t work you can find the 123myIT.com video.
How to do a clean install of OS X Mavericks from USB

Good luck,
Matt

Create a bootable Windows 8.1 USB on a Mac running OSX Yosemite

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This video will show you how to Create a bootable Windows 8.1 USB on a Mac running OSX Yosemite.

Hi All
Allot of 123myIT users have decided to take the plunge and upgrade their Mac OS X to Yosemite and I thought it might be a good idea to do a short video on how to create a bootable Windows 8.1 USB on a Mac running OSX Yosemite.
This video is mainly for people that want to be able to create a USB installer disk drive, so that they can install Windows on any computer whether it be a Mac or another brand. This method can also be used at a later date to reinstall Windows on the same Mac that you create the USB drive on.
So in the example in the video I created the USB on a early 2014 MacBook Air. In this process it also downloaded the Windows support software for this Mac hardware. This means it will run the boot camp installer after Windows gets installed. See the picture below.

Boot Camp Installer

So the If you want to check out the list of Windows support software or boot camp drives for your Mac a great place to start is the 123myIT boot camp drivers page here.

Bootable Windows 8.1 USB on a Mac running OSX Yosemite

In the photo above you can see a picture or the Yosemite desktop as the Windows files are being copied to the USB drive.
If you want more info on Apple Boot Camp you can find the official link here.
If you want to find out more about OS X Yosemite you can go to the official Apple page here.
Want to buy Windows 8.1? Check out the 123myIT.com Store page here.

How to upgrade OS X Mountain Lion to Mavericks

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This video will show you how to upgrade OS X Mountain Lion to Mavericks using a USB Drive.

NOTE: You will need to create a OS X Mavericks USB drive and if you want to know how to do this you can see the video here. Before going ahead make sure you backup your data just in case anything goes wrong. You can find a video on how to do this here.

Step 1 After creating the OS X Mavericks USB drive, open up the USB drive and click on the Install OS X Mavericks installer.

Step 2 Press continue on the OS X Mavericks install screen. Click Agree and Agree again.

Step 3 Select your Hard Disk that you want to upgrade to OS X Mavericks. This should be your Main Hard Drive. Then click Install and add your password if it prompts you.

Upgrade OS X Mountain Lion to Mavericks

Step 4 Once you add in your password you will start the upgrade process. The computer will reboot when it finishes installing. This process can take 30 to 40 mins depending on the speed of your computer.

Step 5 Because this is an upgrade not a clean install of OS X Mavericks all your settings and files should be the same as you left it.

Step 6 You will be prompted for you Apple ID at the log in page. You can choose to sign in or skip this page.

Apple ID Sign In

And once you have logged in you should now see your OS X upgrade from Mountain Lion.

If you want some more information you can find it on the Apple Upgrade page here.

If you want to download the upgrade of OS X Mavericks you can find it in the App store here. Just remember that you will need to be running and old version of OS X to that has App Store in the Taskbar.

Good luck and feel free to ask any questions.
Cheers
Matt

How to create a bootable OS X Mavericks usb drive

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This guide will show you how to create a USB installer of Apples OS X 10.9 Mavericks.

Have you ever wanted to do a clean install of OS X from but your new MacBook Air doesn’t come with a DVD drive?
Well this guide will step you through how to create a bootable OS X Mavericks 10.9 USB drive.

To complete the process you will need the following items:
* 8GB USB drive or SD Card
* OS X Mavericks.app (this can be downloaded from the App Store)
* An Apple computer with the Mac App Store
* A user account with administrator rights

OS X Mavericks USB drive

Step 1. Download Mavericks from the App store.
Apple direct link here.
Step 2. Insert your USB into the Mac and run the Disk Utility.
Step 3. Select the USB drive that appears in the left-hand menu and select the Partition tab across the top.
Step 4. Select the drop down menu and click on 1 partition.
Step 5. In the format type menu make sure you have Mac OS Extended (Journaled) selected.
Disc Utility

Step 6. Select the Options button and make sure the GUID Partition Table radio button is selected.
Disc Utility - GUID Partition Table

Step 7. Open up the Terminal.app you can find it under the Applications Utilities folder or search for it in Finder.
In the terminal window type the following command.

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE;\killall Finder;\say Files Revealed

Terminal Window

Step 8. When the USB completes the formatting, go into the Launchpad and copy the Install Mac OS X Mavericks.app to your desktop then Right-click and click on Show Package Contents.

Mavericks App
Step 9. Go into the Contents > Shared Support folder and double click the InstallESD.dmg file.

Install ESD

Step 10. Click on the mounted.dmg file and find the hidden BaseSystem.dmg file.

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Step 11. Go into Disk Utility and open the newly formatted USB and click on the Restore tab.
Step 12.Drag and drop the BaseSystem.dmg into the Source field. And drag and drop the partition that you recently created on the USB drive, into the Destination field.

OS X Restore

Step 13. Click the restore button and click Erase. You might get prompted for the Administrator password.

Untitled Message

Step 14. It may take some time to copy all the data to the USB drive.

Copy Time OS X Mavericks

Step 15. When the files have finished copying, the USB drive should mount automatically. Go into the System > Installation folder and delete the Packages directory.

OS X Packages Directory

Step 16. Go back into the mounted Install ESD.dmg file and find the directory called Packages. Copy this to the Installation folder.

Installation Folder

And now you are done. You have just created a bootable copy of OS X Mavericks on a USB drive.

Good Luck.

How to create an OSX USB Recovery Disk.

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OSX has a Recovery function built in which allows you to repair disks or reinstall OS X without a DVD/ CD Rom. Some
of the new models such as the Macbook Air don’t have a DVD player. So how can you reinstall OS X without a DVD drive???

With the OS X Recovery Disk Assistant on a USB or external drive you can format the Macs hard drive and reinstall Lion or Mountain Lion. You can also repair the disk using Disk Utility, restore a backup from Time Machine or simply browse the internet with Safari.