Can I install Mt Lion directly onto USB thumb drive?

I want to tryout Mt Lion without a lot of reinstalling of Snow Leopard issues. Can I just install Mt Lion onto a USB thumb drive or external HD via Firewire 800 to demo Mt. Lion and if I don't like it then I won't have to reinstall SL.

Yes, if the Thumb drive is big enough. I installed it on an External Drive myself... & went back to 10.5/10.6 for getting work done.
Also, the Installer "conveniently" erases itself after install, so to save a huge download if needed again... make a copy of it before you install.

Similar Messages

  • Can't install 10.7 from Apple USB thumb drive on a freshly reformatted hard drive.

    My previous install of Snow Leopard was acting up and ended up biting the dust. I am currently on deployment overseas and don't have regular or fast access to the internet so buying Lion from the App Store was out of the question. I recently recieved the 10.7 USB in the mail and was excited to begin the installation process... but then I got the "Recovery System can't be created." error. Which from what I've been reading is commonly associated with Boot Camp.
    While I did have Boot Camp previously installed, this is a newly and completely reformatted drive, and I also verified and repaired the disk through disk utility. The other option I tried was creating a recovery partition. First 2 GB, then 5 GB, then 10 GB. Nothing, same error was previous. I was given no option for the install to continue, just a restart button. When I restarted to let it go through again in an attempt to install without the recovery option I recieved the same error. Tried resetting PRAM (On the off chance) no luck, tried formatting the hard drive with empty space, no luck.
    I'm growing increasingly frustrated with this process the ridiculous error it is producing. I am desperate for your help on this matter. If you guys can assist me on this it would be greatly appreciated.

    Is the system able to boot into the recovery/installer from the Mac OS X 10.7 USB Drive? Is this error occurring after you've started the install process from the USB?
    You may have to completely repartition the hard disk drive with 1 partition and a GUID partition table. I had a similar issue when I moved a hard disk from a Windows machine and forgot to change the partition type.
    Note: Creating a new partition table will make all data currently on the disk inaccessible, effectively erasing the data.
    Here's the steps to repartition using the Disk Utility application available after booting the mac from the USB Installer.
    1) Highlight/select the Mac's internal Hard Disk Drive (not the volume) in Disk Utility. The disk will be named something like "240 GB OCZ-VERTEX3", depending on your specific size, make and model. Basically the format is "Size GB Make/Model".
    2) Click the "Partition" tab on the right side.
    3) From the "Partition Layout" pick box select "1 Partition"
    4) Click the "Options" button below the drive space diagram. Select the option "GUID Partition Table". Click OK.
    5) Click the Apply button and allow Disk Utility to complete the task.
    6) Quit Disk Utility and begin the install process to the Mac's Internal Hard Disk Drive.
    The above resolved this issue for me and it makes good sense why it worked since the partition scheme/table on my drive was MBR and I changed it to GUID.
    Good Luck,
    -Josh
    Message was edited by: Joshua Kapellen

  • HT4848 Hello- My laptop needs the OS X recovery run. Can I download the software directly to a thumb drive without affecting my desktop unit? The Geek Squad said they need to wipe my hard drive and re-install the operating system. Thanks.

    Hello- My laptop needs the OS X recovery run. Can I download the software directly to a thumb drive without affecting my desktop unit? The Geek Squad said they need to wipe my hard drive and re-install the operating system. Thanks.

    They already damaged you Mac by fooling with the BootCamp partition without knowing what they were doing. I wouldn't suggest haveing them help you do anything.
    Here is the article that describes the Recovery HD: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
    First, see if you can boot into the Recovery HD. Restart and hold down cmd-r until you see the gray screen. It should boot into Recovery. If your Mac shipped with Lion or Mountain Lion, it will boot into Internet Recovery if it cannot boot into the Recovery HD on the hard drive.
    They should have tried this at the store.

  • I erased my HD. Now I can't instal mountain lion from my bootable flash drive, and keep getting "installation error. Try again."

    I bought  mountain lion, made a bootable flash drive.
    I booted from it and it went to upgrading right away!
    So I stopped it and went to my former recovery partition I erased my HD because I wanted a clean start.
    Now I can't instal mountain lion from the bootable flash drive, and keep getting "installation error. Try again."
    and there is no 4 choices window.
    I don't know what to do.

    How did you create the USB install thumb drive? If it was with Disk Utility I have run into this problem and have since used THIS program to make the USB install drive.
    As to your problem you only have one option and that is to Reinstall the Original OS X version that came on your computer or if you still have the Lion Recovery Partition use that to reinstall Lion. Or if you system came with Lion and you have No Lion Recovery HD Partition you can boot the system from over the internet and Reinstall Lion.
    At startup hold down the Command+Option+r keys until you saa a spinning Globe in the center of the screen. Once that loads Repartition the drive as One partition and then reinstall Lion.

  • Can I install Mountain Lion on a different hard drive when it's already installed on one hard drive?

    I have a Mac Pro with two 2TB hard drives installed, one I use for storage, and one as my startup disk (also store things on there as well). I just installed two new 2TB drives and have set up a RAID 0 with them. I want to use the RAID drive as my start up disk, but I'm not sure if I can install Mountain Lion on the new RAID drive while it is still on the original start up drive. I also don't want to lose or erase any information from my current start up drive. Can anyone offer me guidance??

    Firstly, you need to partition and format the SSD. You need to be able to boot the computer from another drive that has a bootable OS X system installed or a Snow Leopard DVD installer that works on the computer.
    Install Lion/Mountain Lion on a New HDD/SDD
    Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
    Boot to the Internet Recovery HD:
    Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears on the screen. Wait patiently - 15-20 minutes - until the Recovery main menu appears.
    Partition and Format the hard drive:
    1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
    2. After DU loads select your external hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
    3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
    Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button. Be sure to select the correct drive to use if you have more than one.
    Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

  • Can I install Leopard from an external USB DVD drive?

    I am trying to install Leopard onto an older PB G4 whose internal drive is shot. I have an external Pioneer USB 2 drive attached, but when the Leopard Installer prompts me to restart, the installer doesn't kick in and the computer restarts into basic OSX. I've tried to choose the Installer DVD via System Preferences "Start-up Disk" pane, but it doesn't show up. The DVD drive does have its own AC power source.
    Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks!

    Mac OS X will only boot PowerPCs with Firewire, not with USB. That's the reason it doesn't work.

  • Can I Install Tiger with an exterinal USB DVD Drive??

    Hi,
    I've accuired a couple iMacs that are currently running Mac OS 9, but are fast enough to run Tiger. The problem is they only have built in CD drives. Rather than going out to find several internal iMac DVD drives, could I buy one exterinal USB DVD drive to install Tiger?
    Thanks!

    What happens if the firmware isn't updated?
    The display may stop working, even for OS 9. It is not easy to fix.
    I just installed 10.2 on one of them and it seems to be working. Should I uninstall it and upgrade the firmware and start over?
    Check the "Boot ROM version" with System profiler. If the firmware is updated it will be 4.1.9
    It is not necessary to remove OSX to install the updates if OS 9 is still on the hard drive. If not, and the OS 9 drivers are there, OS 9 can be installed without affecting OSX.
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  • Can you install leopard from an external usb disc drive?

    I don't know if the disc drive is fast enough for leopard or something. It's taking forever to open the installer, and when I restarted into the installer it just booted back to my desktop. I have an external disc drive I want to try. Can you install leopard from and external disc drive?

    ****, I just tried it and when I restarted it didn't go into the installer. I think my disc drive in my old mac mini might be too slow. It takes forever to recognize the disc and just to double click on it and it up. And when I tried to install it the first time from the internal drive it just booted right into my desktop again.

  • OS X lion USB Thumb Drive - will this work on new Mac Mini or MBA (2011)?

    Hi All,
    Not to be confused with the other similar posts, I am interesting in only clarification of what build comes with the USB Thumb Drive now available on Apple Store - will this work with new MBA and Mac Mini?
    Thanks,

    KeanuReeves wrote:
    From what I have read about the usb installer, it is not intended for you to try booting from the stick after wiping your hard drive. You are to click on the installer
    You may be correct, but this statement is quite confusing in that context:
    Important Note
    When you install OS X Lion using the USB thumb drive, you will not be able to reinstall OS X Lion from Lion Recovery. You will need to use the USB thumb drive to reinstall OS X Lion.
    So, if the Thumb drive is supposed to take the part of the Recovery partition, it seems that it should be able to boot. However, the license agreement still requires an Apple computer running Snow Leopard, so maybe it isn't bootable.

  • Are there any rumors that the new iPad will be able to connect to usb thumb drive for iWork or microsoft word?

    Please help, I would like to know if it would be better to buy the new ipad instead of an ipad2

    It will almost certainly not connect directly to USB thumb drives. There's still no USB port, and except for photos on specifically-arranged drives, there have been no indications that such support will be provided via the Camera Connection Kit.
    Regards.

  • How do I install Lion onto a USB thumb drive or SD card

    Hi, folks..
    I'm not asking about how to create a Lion installation thumb drive or SD card, or copy the recovery partition to a USB drive or SD card. I already have a backup Lion install thumb drive. What I am hoping to do is create a bootable Lion thumb drive or SD card on which I can also have Drive Genius and other utilities -- so I can boot from the thumb drive or SD card and work on my unmouted nternal hard drive.
    Is it as simple as installing Lion onto the thumb drive or SD card, or is there more to it than that?
    I've tried searching for this, but everything I've found has been about creating an install SD or thumb drive.
    Thanks in advance!

    Okay, so I ran the Lion Install app and directed it to install onto my USB thumb drive. Everything looked like it was doing what I wanted, and since the screen showed that it would take about 17 minutes I stepped away for about a half-hour. When I came back my screen was off, and when I pressed a key the progress bar said it would take another 11 minutes. Huh? I went away again for another half-hour, and when I returned the progress bar hadn't moved -- still 11 minutes.
    Okay, I was working on a USB drive, no big thing. No keypresses did anything, so I hit the power button on my Mcbook Pro, shut the sytem down, then started it back up. It booted to a screen to setup Lion. Hmmm.... I shut the system down (this time from the Apple menu), pulled the USB thumb drive, powered back up, and ended up at the same place.
    I rebooted, this time holding the Alt key, and saw that my Macintosh HD had been renamed to something about install. Booting from that partition gave me no option but to complete a Lion installation.
    Thankfully I have a Time Machine backup, and the recovery partition worked, so my system is back up (although some of my preferences seem to have changed, even though my backup was current -- another "huh?").
    So, what did I do wrong?

  • OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive can run from usb stick?

    OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive can run from usb stick[no install]?

    Your questions are easily answered by means of a web search, which you can do as well as I can. You can order a Lion installer on a USB stick. I don't know how big it is, and it doesn't matter, because all you can do with that stick is install Lion, which is what you don't seem to want. If you have a Mac and want to be able to run Lion from an external storage device, the capacity of the device has to be at least 7 GB.
    Apple - OS X Lion - Technical specifications
    I hope you understand that if you buy the Lion USB installer with the intention of installing onto a PC, or running Lion on a PC without installing, you'll be wasting your money. It won't work.

  • Mac mini server to regular Lion by the Lion USB thumb drive directly?

    Hi,
    I would like to know can Mac mini OSX SL Server change to install regular Lion by the Lion USB thumb drive directly?
    Thank You!!

    Have you reported your problems to Apple?
    BugReporter
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    Free ADC (Apple Developer Connection) account needed for BugReporter.
    Anyone can get a free account at:
    <http://developer.apple.com/programs/register/>
    And/Or
    Mac OS X Feedback<http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html>

  • How How can i install Mountain Lion with faulty firewire ports??

    Basically the firewire ports are fried on my MBP 3.1  (2007). My mac used to take hang on blue screen and take 10 mins to boot but I solved this problem by installing an ssd and deleting the following kext file...
    /System/Library/Extensions/IOFireWireFamily.kext
    My MBP now boots in under 20 seconds so if anybody is having the same issue then there is the resolotion..
    Anyway these are the steps I have taken but failed to properly install ML.
    Dowloaded Mountain Lion at least 3 times from the App store to make sure the download wasn't corrupted.
    I even tried making a Lion Bootdisk so I can install Mountain Lion on a USB drive (Install ESD.dmg).
    I have even tried installing Lion first thinking I would take it one version at a time but gets stuck on boot screen too.
    I even changed my hard drive to a new blank SSD drive to see any difference.
    Each time I install Mountain Lion or Lion, everything is good until the installer has to restart the laptop.
    Laptop gets stuck at the grey boot screen with the Apple logo and the loading circle. Nothing ever happens after.
    I always had to use/boot to the Snow Leopard CD so I can restart the laptop back to the Snow Leopard OS and then update to 10.6.8.
    I am guessing it is the ML dmg reinstalling the above file ( /System/Library/Extensions/IOFireWireFamily.kext ) which is leading to the same issue because of the faulty firewire ports.
    Is there anyway I can resolve this because its doing my head in and Snow Leopard is old and doesnt support newer software that I would like to use.
    Any help would be kindly appreciated. Thanks

    Kurt Lang wrote:
    Just some thoughts.
    I presume you already partitioned the new SSD drive as GUID?
    Is there anything on the new drive at all yet, or anything that isn't already backed up? If not, you could try erasing the drive and then installing OS X from the bootable flash drive installer you made.
    Ive tried that and yes it is GUID. Im going to get grey hairs soon and Im not even 30 lol .... yet
    I am not going to buy a new logic board as its just not logical (sorry for the pun) I got the mac for free and I want to spend as little money as possible. Im running out of ideas though

  • How can I create a Lion USB Thumb Drive with the 11E2068 build?

    It seems that the Lion build from the Mac App Store is not compatible with my Macbook Pro Retina 15''. It's seems I would need the the build 11E2068 for my USB thumb drive to work properly.
    I don't want to go through the internet recovery and loose 8 hours.
    Is there anyway for my to get that build(11E2068) on my USB thumb drive?
    Thanks,

    keg55's given you article that allows you to capture the installer. These are the critical portions:
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