The Easiest Way to Create a Bootable OS X USB Drive

If you want to make a clean install of the new OS X Mavericks or even the older versions of Mac OS X, than I strongly suggest you to create a bootable OS X key or a drive.

First thing's first, you'll need a install package of OS X Mavericks, if you don't have one, this is how you download it:

  How to Download OS X Mavericks Installation File

Next thing you will need to make the procedure really simple is to download the OS X Boot Making tool. Go to the Lion DiskMaker X website and click the download link.

Save and run it when the DiskMaker X is downloaded.

This step will look different if you don't use the Firefox browser as I did in this case.

Click and drag the DiskMaker X into the Applications folder (see picture).

If you already haven't, put your USB stick/drive into the USB port on your Mac computer. It has to be at least 8GB USB key/drive.

Go to the Applications folder and launch the DiskMaker X app.

Choose the Mavericks (10.9)

You can of course choose Lion or Mountain Lion versions of Mac OS X, if you want to create the bootable disk with one of these two older Mac OS X versions. In this case you need the installation package of the version you want to make the bootable UBS key of.

My OS X Mavericks installation package is in the Applications folder that's why I chose Use this copy.

Click An 8 GB USB thumb drive.

Choose the USB stick you put in your Mac and click Choose this disk.

Mine is called Untitled.

After this, you will loose all the data you might have stored on your USB stick. So you better double check if it contains something important to you before carrying on with the procedure.

If you are sure the USB stick/drive can be erased, click Erase then create the disk button.

Click Continue.

Enter your administrator credentials and click OK.

Now wait for about 20 minutes for the whole thing to finish...

And if everything went according to plan, you are now in a possession of a shiny new bootable Mac OS X Mavericks USB stick.

Click Quit or Make a donation if you appreciate the authors of the the DiskMaker X tool.