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:

Creating A Bootable Installer

There are numerous 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:

• 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 about 10-15 minutes for the process to complete. You should see this once it’s finished:

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

I used to back everything up to an external hard drive, but now I sync all my files to the cloud. Dropbox is great (and right-clicking to share public links works like a charm). However, I find Google One to be a more economically viable option. If you’re fully immersed in the 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, shut down your machine, and hope there won’t be an ounce of regret. 🐵

Insert the bootable USB, and as you press the power key, hold down the Option key until a screen appears prompting you to choose which device you want to boot from. Select the thumb drive with the macOS installer.

Select Disk Utility and click Continue.

What you see here are the drive partitions. Our goal is to wipe the entire hard drive. First, select View > Show All Devices. Then, choose the physical storage device you want to erase (e.g., APPLE SSD AP0512J Media), and click Erase.

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

Once done, go back and click on Reinstall OS X.