If you already got this file, then move to Part 3. Part 2: Download macOS Big Sur DMG FileĭMG is the default file type on Mac for compressing files and macOS Big Sur installation file ends with. Your first task is done as you have formatted the drive to Mac supported format and now you need to download the macOS DMG file for creating macOS USB bootable drive. Now wait for a few seconds as the format process is started and once it is completed, click on the Done button. Step 5: After completing the above task, click on the Erase button.

Select APFS from the drop-down menu in the format box and finally, select GUID Partition Map for the Scheme section. Step 4: You will have to fill the available boxes with the Big Sur or another name in the Name section. Step 3: Now, select your connected external drive and further click on the Erase button. Step 2: Open Disk Utility and click on the view icon to select Show All Devices.

Step 1: Connect the external drive to Mac using the cable. So, if you had important files, then make sure to take a backup first. Formatting the external drive (SSD) will wipe all the data associated to it. macOS uses totally different file system so you have to format the external drive first in order to install Big Sur on it. The default file system on portable hard drive or SSD is exFAT or FAT, which is used for Windows or Linux OS. Part 1: Format External Hard Drive or SSD On modern Macs, it is usually shipped with USB 3.0 port and Thunderbolt 2/3. Please note! No matter what kind of external drive you decided to buy, make sure the ports are compatible with your Mac. No one want to run macOS Big Sur on external drive but with weak performance, right? For rest of the cases, SSD is always the best chocie because of faster writing and reading speed. In simple terms, hard drive should be the your choice only if you had tight budget or looked for large volume disk (over 1TB).

It could be a traditional Hard Disk Drive (HDD) or Solid State Drive (SSD). The first question comes to the selection of portable external drive, which is the final storage media to keep OS files. Now, you will have to go through each section one by one, and here, you will get the detailed instructions of each method. Next, you need to download the installer (.dmg file) and then create a bootable USB drive and at last, you will learn the ways to install macOS Big Sur on an external hard drive. In a glimpse, you will need an external hard drive and format it Disk Utility. Instead, you can test it out by installing the OS on an external hard drive or SSD.īefore moving ahead, you must be familiar with the task that you need to perform in the operation. So it is not the perfect time to upgrade to Big Sur.

We heard dozens of popular apps like Dropbox and Parallels Desktops not working properly in Big Sur. MacOS Big Sur is still in pulic beta and not stable according to user feedback.

Installing big sur on mac