Installing macOS

Fresh Install, Is Best Install

I usually prefer wiping out my whole hard drive and just doing a fresh install. I've done macOS upgrades in the past but I still feel the bloat after two continuous OS upgrades. So let's create a bootable macOS installer!

First, download the latest macOS on the App Store:

Search for macOS Sonoma in your App Store

macOS Sonoma currently being downloaded

Creating A Bootable Installer

There are numerous apps and ways to create a bootable macOS install. As of this writing, Disk Maker X no longer supports older macOS starting from Big Sur. Fortunately, you can still easily do this on your Terminal. Here's how you create a bootable thumb drive:

• Prepare a 16GB USB thumb drive that's ready to be wiped out

• Make sure you already have downloaded macOS Sonoma. After downloading, It should be sitting in your Applications folder like this:

You can find it under Applications > Install macOS Sonoma

• Insert your thumb drive and simply run this command below on your terminal. Make sure you replace "Untitled" with the name of your USB thumb drive.

sudo '/Applications/Install macOS Sonoma.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia' --volume '/Volumes/Untitled'

• Wait for around 10-15 minutes to complete. You should see this after completing it:

Bootable macOS Sonoma installer completed successfully

Backup Checklist

• Files in your Desktop folder

• Files in your Downloads folder

• Files in your Documents folder

• Files on the Pictures folder

• Code in your Git folder

• Tiny code snippets or links (Instead of saving them on iCloud notes or on Sublime Text or in note-taking apps - use Paste)

• Browser bookmarks, settings, history, etc. If you're using different browsers, Raindrop.io is a great bookmark manager.

• Passwords, server logins & sensitive stuff. Don't store them in your notes. Use password managers like 1Password or LastPass. I recommend using Bitwarden — the free tier is good enough for my personal needs and is open-source.

• Don't forget to backup your public SSH keys too

• Your saved Font Files

Cloud Storage

Before, I used to back everything up to an external hard drive. Now, I sync all my files to the cloud. Dropbox is great (And right-clicking to share public links works like a charm). But I see Google One as a more economically viable option. And if you're living in an Apple ecosystem, iCloud might make more sense for you.

Google One

Apple iCloud

Dropbox

Let The Purge Begin

Now it's time to take a deep breath, shutdown your machine, and hope there won't be an ounce of regret. 🐵

Warning There's no going back after this point, so be sure to backup your files to the cloud. And if you don't feel comfortable with it, just do a manual backup using your external hard drive.

Insert the bootable USB and upon pressing the power key, hold the option key until it loads up a screen which prompts you to choose which device you want to boot from. So select the thumb drive with the macOS installer.

Select Disk Utility and click Continue.

Currently what you see here are the drive partitions. What we want to do is to wipe up the whole hard drive. Select View > Show All Devices

Then select the physical storage device you want to erase (ex. APPLE SSD AP0512J Media), then click Erase

Select GUID Partition Map and Apple File System (APFS) for the file system format. Then enter a name.

After that, go back and click on Reinstall OS X.

The process is pretty much straightforward into a series of clicking next.