On Monday Apple finally unveiled to the world the next iteration of OS X, Mavericks. A developer preview of the new operating system is available now as a Mac App Store download for registered developers. Delivering Mavericks via a download is super conveient and easy for everyday users but can be unhelpful in several troubleshooting or advanced OS modification situations. The only way to obtain a bootable OS X Mavericks USB flash drive is to create your own:
The Marek Bell blog notes that creating a bootable flash drive of Mavericks is a bit more intricate than Mountain Lion because “it is no longer possible to simply restore the InstallESD.dmg to get a bootable image for USB / Flash drive installation.” But there is a way around this obstacle, which Marek outlines in his thorough walkthrough of creating a bootable OS X Mavericks flash drive. You will need at least a 8GB Flash Drive (USB 3.0 is obviously a better choice).
- You are going to need to see some hidden files for this. So start by opening Terminal.app and pasting in the following (don’t worry, we’ll undo this change when we are done)…
defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YESkillall Finder - Download the installer as normal from the app store. (At time of writing this is only possible for those with access to the developer previews).
- After download you will have the ‘Install OS X 10.9′ app in your /Applications folder. Right-click it and select ‘Show Package Contents’.
- Navigate to the Contents/SharedSupport. There you will see the InstallESD.dmg file. Unfortunately, you can’t just grab it and restore it. Instead double-click it to mount it.
- You should now see the normally hidden BaseSystem.dmg file in the mounted volume.
- Open Disk Utility and restore the source BaseSystem.dmg to the destination of your USB drive.
- Now open up the restored USB volume (default name is OS X Base System) and navigate to System/Installation. In there you will see an alias for Packages. Delete this alias.
- Copy the full Packages folder from the root of the mounted InstallESD volume (the same place you got the BaseSystem.dmg file) to the USB volumes System/Installation folder. Basically, replace the Packages alias you just deleted with the real Packages folder from the original InstallESD volume.
- The USB drive should now be bootable. So simply restart, hold down the Option key (Alt) when booting with the USB drive in your machine, and you should get the option to boot from the USB drive.
- Remember, to rehide the normall hidden files just repeat step 1 but change YES to NO.
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Sep 30, 2015 Using USB-SATA adapter I followed above process and installed El Capitan installer on new drive. About to put in MBP and boot it up to hopefully install the system on the same drive. Everything here refers to using USB thumb drives and I am just wondering if this sounds like the right procedure please. Aug 17, 2011 Is there a way i can take my snow leopard user DVD, and make a bootable USB out of it on Windows. My friends mac doesnt have a DVD drive. I already was able to rip it into a DMG file. So how can i take that and make it a bootable USB? We were gonna reinstall 10.6 so i need a way to burn the retail.dmg to my 8GB USB.
Because OS X Mountain Lion is downloadable software, it does not include a physical installer, typically a bootable DVD or USB drive. For most Mac users, installing Mac OS X on a removable media (DVD or flash drive) when installing cleanly on the boot drive is a must.
This tutorial guides you through the process of creating the OS X Mountain Lion installer on DVD or USB.
Although Apple ended support for OS X Mountain Lion in August 2016, it is still available for purchase at the Apple Store. Purchasing will generate the download code for you to import into the Mac App Store when downloading the software.
How to create OS X Mountain Lion installer on DVD or USB
- What you need
- Locate the installation of Mountain Lion image
- Burn the bootable DVD of the Lion X Mountain Lion installer
- Copy the installer Lion X Mountain Lion to the USB can boot
- Delete and format USB
- Copy the InstallESD.dmg file to the flash drive
What you need
Picture 1 Create a bootable copy of the OS X Mountain Lion installer download this picture HERE
You need a dual layer DVD (DVD with double sided recording) and a disc or USB drive. DVD dual layer has two layers, increasing the available recording space to about 8.5GB. The OS X Mountain Lion installer is just too big a thing to match the standard DVD. DVD dual layer is available wherever standard DVDs are sold. If your Mac doesn't have an integrated SuperDrive, use an external DVD burning tool.
You can also use a USB flash drive with at least 5GB capacity (8GB and 16GB are available sizes) as a bootable medium.
Download a copy of OS X Mountain Lion that you must purchase at Apple Store online and download it from the Mac App Store. It is saved in the Applications folder on the Mac. This file is called Install OS X Mountain Lion .
You must create a bootable copy of the installer before you install Mountain Lion, because the setup process will delete the files you need to create a bootable copy of the installer.
Locate the installation of Mountain Lion image
Picture 2 Create a bootable copy of the OS X Mountain Lion installer download this picture HERE
The installation of Mountain Lion that you need to create a bootable DVD or USB drive is contained in the Install OS X Mountain Lion file that you downloaded from the Mac App Store.
Because the image is contained in the downloaded file, copy it to the desktop to create an image that can be booted as easily as possible.
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1. Open the Finder window and go to the Applications folder (/ Applications).
2. Scroll through the list of files and find the file called Install OS X Mountain Lion .
3. Right-click the Install OS X Mountain Lion file and select Show Package Contents from the pop-up menu.
4. Open the Contents folder and then open the SharedSupport folder . You will see a file called InstallESD.dmg.
5. Right-click the InstallESD.dmg file and select Copy InstallESD.dmg from the pop-up menu.
6. Close the Finder window and return to the desktop.
7. Right-click an empty area on the desktop and select Paste Item from the pop-up menu.
Pasting an item into the desktop takes some time, so be patient.
When the process is finished, you have a copy of the InstallESD.dmg file that you need to create a bootable copy on the desktop.
Burn the bootable DVD of the Lion X Mountain Lion installer
Picture 3 Create a bootable copy of the OS X Mountain Lion installer download this picture HERE
With the Mountain Lion InstallESD.dmg file copied to the desktop, you're ready to burn the installer bootable DVD.
1. Insert a blank DVD disc into the Mac's optical drive.
2. If a message asks you what to do with the blank DVD, click the Ignore button . If the Mac is set to automatically launch an application related to DVD, when you insert the DVD, exit the application.
3. Launch Disk Utility, located in / Applications / Utilities.
4. Click the Burn icon , located in the top right corner of the Disk Utility window.
5. Select the InstallESD.dmg file you copied to the desktop.
6. Click the Burn button .
7. Put a blank DVD in the Mac's optical drive and click the Burn button again to create a bootable DVD containing OS X Mountain Lion.
8. When the burn is complete, remove the DVD, add the label and store the DVD in a safe location.
Copy the installer Lion X Mountain Lion to the USB can boot
Picture 4 Create a bootable copy of the OS X Mountain Lion installer download this picture HERE
If you can't burn DVDs, you can use a bootable USB drive. Create a bootable copy of Mountain Lion on a hard drive. All you need is the InstallESD.dmg file that you copied to the desktop and flash drive.
Delete and format USB
1. Insert the USB into the USB port of the Mac.
2. Launch Disk Utility, located in / Applications / Utilities.
3. In the Disk Utility window open, scroll through the list of devices in the left panel and select your USB device. It can be listed with multiple volume names. Do not select the volume name. Instead, choose the top-level name, usually the device's name, such as 16GB SanDisk Ultra .
4. Click the Partition tab .
5. From the Partition Layout drop-down menu , select 1 Partition .
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6. Click the Options button .
7. Make sure that the GUID Partition Table is selected from the list of available partition schemes. Click OK. All data on the USB will be deleted.
8. Click the Apply button .
9. Disk Utility requires you to confirm that you want to partition the USB device. Click the Partition button .
USB device deleted and partition. When that process is complete, the flash drive is ready for you to copy the InstallESD.dmg file.
Copy the InstallESD.dmg file to the flash drive
1. Make sure the USB device is selected in the device list in Disk Utility. Do not select the volume name but select the device name
2. Click the Restore tab .
3. Drag the InstallESD.dmg item from the device list into the Source field . It will be near the bottom of Disk Utility's device list. You may need to scroll down to find it.
4. Drag the volume name of the USB device from the device list to the Destination field .
5. Some versions of Disk Utility may include a box labeled Erase Destination. If you fall into this situation, make sure this box is selected.
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6. Click Restore.
7. Disk Utility asks you to confirm that you want to perform a restore, delete all information on the destination drive. Click Erase.
8. If Disk Utility requires an admin password, provide the information and click OK.
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Disk Utility copies InstallESD.dmg data to USB device. When the process is complete, you will have a bootable copy of the OS X Mountain Lion installer ready to use.
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Hope you are succesful.