When your Mac doesn’t boot from a bootable USB drive, you should perform the following fixes, then try the boot process once again. If you identify any of the above scenarios, read the following sections to learn how to fix the non-booting issue on an external USB drive.

The USB drive is not formatted properly.

The USB drive booting is prohibited (Refer Solution #4).

The USB drive is not connected properly.

Mac is not compatible with the macOS present in the USB drive.

Your Mac may not boot from the external USB drive due to several reasons. If the above steps are performed correctly, your Mac should boot from the external USB drive. Select the USB drive.ĭ) Wait until your Mac boots from the external drive instead of the internal Macintosh HD. Once the intent is clear, execute the following steps to boot your Mac from an external USB drive.Ī ) Connect a bootable USB drive to the MacBook Air/Pro, iMac, or Mac mini.ī) For Intel-based Mac, start or restart it, then press-hold the Option key until Startup Manager appears.

To upgrade macOS on multiple Mac devices.

Purpose of Booting Your Mac from USB Drive

But, sometimes, you need to boot your Mac from an external USB drive to perform a specialized task. When you power on your MacBook Pro or Air, Mac mini, or iMac, the computer boots up automatically from the internal storage drive-say SSD, HDD, or Fusion Drive.

User can directly use Stellar Data Recovery through an activated link. Note: Create Recovery Drive feature is only available in Stellar Data Recovery Version 10 & earlier! The latest version has eliminated the need of any other Mac or external device. To salvage data from a crashed or non-booting Mac, download Stellar Data Recovery Professional to create a bootable USB drive.

Summary: In this blog, you’ll learn different troubleshooting methods if your Mac doesn’t boot from a USB drive.

Restore mac from usb