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Taking screenshots in macOS Recovery Mode or within a bootable installer #

0. Boot into Recovery Mode (Cmd+R) or via a USB bootable install disk
1. Utilities > Terminal
2. If you have access to the existing macOS install, you can use the copy of screencapture located at /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/usr/sbin/screencapture for the following. Otherwise, copy /usr/sbin/screencapture from another macOS install to a USB flash drive (e.g., SANDISK) and run from there.
3. Open desired application(s) from the Terminal, e.g.,
   • Disk Utility: /Applications/Utilities/Disk\ Utility.app/Contents/MacOS/Disk\ Utility
   • Safari: /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/MacOS/Safari
4. Open another tab in Terminal and run /Volumes/SANDISK/screencapture /Volumes/SANDISK/screenshot.png

References:

• How to multitask in OS X Lion's recovery partition
• Donny Hornstein's reply to Is it possible to take a screenshot in Recovery Mode?

/mac | Oct 01, 2017

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