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Creating a Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Bootable Flash Drive

Posted by timothy on from the no-you-probably-can't-put-it-on-your-netbook dept.

WankerWeasel writes "With the release of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion this month, Apple will no longer offer a bootable installer DVD and is making 10.7 Lion available only through the App Store. This guide provides quick instructions on how to use the OS X 10.7 Lion installer to create a bootable flash drive (instructions for making a bootable DVD are also included on the blog)."

23 of 206 comments (clear)

  1. So how do you install a new hard drive? by wbhauck · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Does Apple provide a way to replace a hard drive? Without access to a booted system you can't download anything. Unless they want you to bring in your machine ...

    1. Re:So how do you install a new hard drive? by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yes, the same way every other OEM provides a way. Either open up the case in the case of a desktop or unscrew and open up the hatch for the hard drive bay on the laptop. It's extremely easy.

    2. Re:So how do you install a new hard drive? by blueg3 · · Score: 2

      They provide a system recovery disk or flash drive with the computer.

    3. Re:So how do you install a new hard drive? by HogGeek · · Score: 2

      or drive to your local home depot...

      http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100087664/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

    4. Re:So how do you install a new hard drive? by Culture20 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I believe you misunderstood me. The new HDDs are _like_ the new screws. New Apple HDDs don't use the new screws (that I know of), but they do use proprietary firmware and hardware that makes thermal sensors on the Mobo go crazy if the new firmware isn't present. So you have to buy only Apple HDDs (which have in recent history been nothing more than SATA drives that cost twice to three times as much; now at least there's a reason for the increased cost, albeit a bad reason). They'll do it with RAM, keyboards, mice, graphics cards, etc. soon enough.

    5. Re:So how do you install a new hard drive? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Culture20 is talking about the new iMacs only (so far).

      http://www.macrumors.com/2011/05/12/apple-restricts-hard-drive-replacements-on-new-imacs/

      Try to keep up before falsely accusing others of spewing nonsense.

    6. Re:So how do you install a new hard drive? by Culture20 · · Score: 3, Informative

      So, no, you don't need to buy Apple HDDs or whatever nonsense you are spewing.

      Please tell that to angry iMac Fans:
      https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3053942?start=0&tstart=0
      http://blog.macsales.com/10146-apple-further-restricts-upgrade-options-on-new-imacs
      http://www.macrumors.com/2011/05/12/apple-restricts-hard-drive-replacements-on-new-imacs/

    7. Re:So how do you install a new hard drive? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      This is one of the problems with owning a Mac. Everyone wants to see them fall.

      So when one site states (through a mistake of their own making) that you cannot replace an iMac's hard drive with anything but an Apple-supplied drive, it goes viral, everyone who doesn't own a Mac (and some Mac users) want to believe it SO DAMNED HARD that it becomes repeated as truth, modified, passed on, and changed into various forms of APPLE ARE DOING THIS INSANE THING OMG.

      Hint as to the truth: I replaced my brand new two week old 27" iMac's 1TB WD hard drive with a 3TB Seagate, and it didn't make the thermal sensors go crazy, it didn't refuse to boot, it didn't run at half speed, and it certainly didn't send DRM monkeys flying to Apple to report me. I closed up the iMac, re-installed the OS, and went on with my business as normal... then I had just about every Mac owner who hadn't done it themselves ask how I got around Apple's HD restrictions.

      Lies last a long time when they're popular.

    8. Re:So how do you install a new hard drive? by CheerfulMacFanboy · · Score: 3, Informative

      So, no, you don't need to buy Apple HDDs or whatever nonsense you are spewing.

      Please tell that to angry iMac Fans:

      Yeah, because "angry iMac Fans" have never been wrong before.

      BTW, the claim "you have to buy only Apple HDDs" is already wrong, and that is not what people actually complain about, so I'm not even going to waste more time with you troll.

      http://forum.hardmac.com/index.php?s=c4ee13da3fefe1394852a4b8fa883faf&showtopic=10324&st=0&p=18910&#entry18910
      http://www.tuaw.com/2011/05/13/hdd-fan-control-software-addresses-imac-hard-drive-replacement-i/
      http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1183176

      --
      Fandroids hate facts.
    9. Re:So how do you install a new hard drive? by stewbacca · · Score: 3, Informative

      This is why I hate anti-apple people. Nothing in your post is true. You can't buy an "apple HDD", so therefore they aren't 2-3x as much. You can, however, buy any replacement drive you like, or go to an Apple store and pay a little more for the same thing you can buy at Fry's.

    10. Re:So how do you install a new hard drive? by UnknowingFool · · Score: 2

      Wow. Another 15 seconds says that there is no real issues and that was just a bunch of BS.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  2. Already have a bootable USB driver for MacOS by jedidiah · · Score: 2

    I expect the stumbling block here is creating some sort of normal looking install media for MacOS Lion.

    Once you've got that, it's actually pretty simple to target any USB storage device. Just install it like you would a normal disk. Pretty simple stuff.

    --
    A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  3. No DVD for upgrade, but probably for new computers by perpenso · · Score: 2

    Apple will no longer offer a bootable installer DVD ...

    Note that everyone is talking about the 10.7 ***upgrade***. If you are buying a new mac with 10.7 preinstalled you will probably have DVD media to restore your system.

  4. Re:Tired of all of the wanking about Lion by boristhespider · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Or perhaps you don't live anywhere near an Apple store -- you do realise that there are countries in the world with only one or two, or even none whatsoever? And that some of those are actually big Apple markets? Like Scandinavia where every monkey and his uncle has an iPhone but there are basically no Apple stores? And perhaps you have capped broadband, with a 4gig download taking a massive chunk out of the monthly limit? Perhaps you both live in a country without an Apple store *and* have capped broadband or, horror of horrors, dialup internet?

    It wouldn't take much for Apple to have just released this the normal way in addition to the Mac App Store. But no, they went about it this way, intentionally alienating a section of their market. Not a very large or profitable section, mind, which is why they don't give a shit. Likewise with ditching Rosetta.

  5. Re:No DVD for upgrade, but probably for new comput by frizop · · Score: 2

    Didn't they say it was going to be a USB Thumb drive?

  6. Pure BS and FUD by javab0y · · Score: 5, Informative

    Apple knows they cannot allow a non-bootable OS. If your drive crashes, WTF are you going to do? Anyways... lets get to the real deal. The downloadable version of Mac OS X lion has a bootable DMG in the Contents/Shared Resources directory.Its called InstallESD.dmg. Simply open DiskUtility and burn that to DVD, then you have a bootable disk.

    1. Re:Pure BS and FUD by boristhespider · · Score: 2

      It's BS and FUD to you, certainly - any of us here know (or should know) that the download includes an image for a bootable DVD. But how many normal Mac users are going to know that? In all honesty I don't know how well publicised this is. I read the tech press so I've known it for a while, but if I asked someone like my dad? I'm not so sure. Then their drive goes down, their computer is unbootable, and they're mightily pissed off with Apple for either not making it clearer (though as I say, it's possible they did and I've not seen) or simply not giving them bootable media in the first place. Given the cost of DVDs, I still don't quite see why Apple are so desperate to make this a download anyway.

    2. Re:Pure BS and FUD by FromageTheDog · · Score: 2

      Fashion accessory? I guess scientists and engineers are a mighty fashionable bunch, then. Most researchers I know (I'm in aerospace and split my time between NASA and Stanford) swear by Apple machines. UNIX underpinnings, It All Just Works, and the hardware is bulletproof. Best of all worlds.

    3. Re:Pure BS and FUD by boristhespider · · Score: 2

      But a problem there is if there *are* no Apple stores nearby, and you're on capped broadband.

      I just think Apple probably should offer Lion on DVDs, too. As it is, a lot of their customers aren't likely to have burned any recovery media and will have to go to an Apple store... and there might not even be any. (I live in Norway. We don't have any here. We've got quite a few resellers, but they're just resellers, and I've got absolutely no idea what they will or won't be able to do.)

  7. Re:rank speculation by adamstew · · Score: 4, Informative

    Apple has said, quite explicitly, that Lion will ONLY be available in the App store. They mentioned this as part of the WWDC keynote.

  8. USB flash drives cost more than DVDs by jsepeta · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Are Apple's profits too infinitesimal for them to take the staggering loss of pennies by making millions of DVDs that nobody uses after the first install? Or are they trying to help the environment by forcing all their technically-gifted customers to buy USB flash drives so that we can install a single download onto multiple computers?

    I think this move is every bit as misguided as Apple's Final Cut Pro X (iMovie Pro) and only slapping 2GB RAM onto brand new MacBooks - or Jobs' decision to not include a disk drive on the NeXt Cube (a decade before writable CD's were widely available). Yes, I use Macs, but more and more begrudgingly because those rich BASTARDS are being CHEAPSKATES.

    --
    Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
  9. Re:Leader, not a follower by stewbacca · · Score: 2

    Linux has had this option for ages. How often does Apple play catch up with the OSS community?

    Hate to break it to you but Mac OS has had this option longer than Linux has been around.

  10. No, MacBooks just can't run at SATA III speeds by tlambert · · Score: 2

    No, MacBooks just can't run at SATA III speeds. This is because the SATA cable is insufficient'y shielded, and since it's not COAX, if you put in a very fast drive, it'll happily negotiate the higher 6Gb/S data rate and then get errors and crash because of it.

    So it's really not a good idea to put the jumped up SSD drives in as a replacement for the existing drives (and no, a real and shielded SATA III coax has insufficient clearance to install in place of the old cable; the tolerances are too tight).

    -- Terry