Apple on Wednesday released OS X El Capitan as a free upgrade and as a result, lots of Mac users are busy upgrading their desktop and notebook computers.
As with OS X Lion, OS X Mountain Lion, OS X Mavericks and OS X Yosemite, Apple makes it easy for users to install the upgrade by downloading El Capitan from the App Store and running the installer.
See also: Apple OS X El Capitan review: A more refined Mac experience
For most users, this is the best way to upgrade because it means your existing programs and data remain where they are. Sometimes, however, you don't want to do a regular OS upgrade. Maybe you want to start fresh or maybe you need to install El Capitan on a machine that doesn't already have OS X installed. For those users, the best bet is to do a clean installation, erasing the hard disk and installing from scratch.
If you want to do a clean install of OS X El Capitan on your Mac — or on a new hard drive — you can do it, it just takes a bit of work.
El Capitan is a free upgrade for all Mac users who meet the system requirements. This tutorial covers the main features of El Capitan including split screen mode, new mail features, improved.
If you've gone through the clean install processes in the last few years, these instructions will look familiar. (That's because they are almost the same as past years, albeit with changes made for the proper OS name). With a little time, it's relatively easy to create a bootable copy of OS X El Capitan that you can run from a USB stick or other drive.
Note: A clean install will erase all of the contents on your disk drive. Make sure to back up your important files, settings and apps before proceeding.
After the Install
After installing OS X El Capitan, you can start restoring your programs and settings using either a Time Machine backup or Migration Assistant.