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Create bootable mavericks installer on Catalina?

Hi all. I have a mid-2014 vintage MacBook Pro that I just acquired. The system drive was wiped and a fresh install of Catalina (10.15.7) was done.


Unfortunately, I don't want Catalina. This machine originally shipped with Mavericks (10.9), and that's what I bought it for.


But trying to create a bootable installer is a nightmare, as Catalina won't allow me to launch the <<Install OS X Mavericks.app>> file in order to make to bootable flash drive. Gee, thanks Apple.


So, anyone have a workaround? Anyone know a way to boot this thing via an external drive? Maybe Bueller?





MacBook Pro

Posted on Sep 1, 2022 6:49 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 1, 2022 8:00 PM

A second machine that is running Mavericks 10.9.5, would often

be required to make a usable USB flash installer for that macOS.


Catalina uses different format on hard drive, APFS. HFS+ is what

older Mavericks would need in order to be written to that HDD.


[The online or recovery partition to supply or support Mavericks

would've had been older, than the systems installed online later.]


So you'd likely need to have means to run that old system & to

make a new bootable installer. If possible. But may not happen.


"A bootable installer doesn't download macOS from the internet.

But does require an internet connection to get firmware + other

information specific to the Mac model." ~ create bootable installer


Unless my articles from Support reads wrong to me.

..That idea requires different path(s) than available..

And the correct installer, was not an original download.


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4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 1, 2022 8:00 PM in response to Mike Janowski

A second machine that is running Mavericks 10.9.5, would often

be required to make a usable USB flash installer for that macOS.


Catalina uses different format on hard drive, APFS. HFS+ is what

older Mavericks would need in order to be written to that HDD.


[The online or recovery partition to supply or support Mavericks

would've had been older, than the systems installed online later.]


So you'd likely need to have means to run that old system & to

make a new bootable installer. If possible. But may not happen.


"A bootable installer doesn't download macOS from the internet.

But does require an internet connection to get firmware + other

information specific to the Mac model." ~ create bootable installer


Unless my articles from Support reads wrong to me.

..That idea requires different path(s) than available..

And the correct installer, was not an original download.


Sep 2, 2022 6:48 AM in response to K Shaffer

Thanks for your reply.


A lot of this is typical Apple nonsense. For instance, they claim that I can boot in "Internet Recovery" mode, which will install a version of the ORIGINAL OS supplied with this computer (which was OS10.9.1, Mavericks release 1). Three times, that was a non-starter...got to the point where "Apple" wanted to check my "machine" for "compatibility"...asked which drive I wanted to install Mavericks on...and then did not show any available drives (as, no doubt, it considers an APFS drive incompatible with a Mavericks install).


Luckily for me, after a decent night's sleep, I came up with the solution. I simply plugged in an old backup of the iMac (kind of current, but a couple months old) to the USB port and, restarted with Option, and voila, I was given a startup disc choice.


Step 2 was to take out the old HDD backup from the encolsure and replace it with the salvaged SSD from the iMac. Bingo cheesecake, the MBP is running 10.9.5, and looks for all intents and purposes like my old iMac.


Now, to get rid of Catalina and its nervous nelly parenting style of "No, you can't do that with your computer" crap. And install the OS that I actually want to use.


Thanks for helping me here.

Sep 3, 2022 9:26 AM in response to HWTech

Yes, the internal SSD in the MBP is the Mac original. And the "boot" SSD from the disabled iMac was also a compatible replacement for the original Fusion drive in that computer. I had that replaced when it failed back in 2020.


The moral of the story here is:

1) don't give up, just put it down for a while and rest

2) ALWAYS backup, using a utility that makes a "blessed" copy of the drive (which means it will start up the system - two brands I have used are Carbon Copy Cloner, and SuperDuper). If I hadn't backed up the iMac, I would have never been able to try starting from that backup. When that worked, the next step was to boot from the salvaged iMac SDD (via a USB3 enclosure). That started up quite quickly, and I was able to clone the external startup disc to the MBP's internal drive using the aforementioned SuperDuper.


Also, finally, shoutout to the Internet Archive, for hosting downloadable copies of ALL Mac vintage OS.


Too bad the geniuses at One Infinitely Dumb Loop couldn't figure out how to do that. There's reasons for staying upgraded, and reasons for not upgrading. Someone there should learn that.

Create bootable mavericks installer on Catalina?

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