How do I make a boot drive for my imac?

What do I need to make a boot drive for my iMac in case the internal drive fails? About how much memory is required (I'm running Snow Leopard.) Or, can I run it off the disk that came with my machine?

Yes, you can do that - I prefer having an up to date bootable clone of my entire system for emergencies. It's easy to do that: download either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper (I use both), hook up an external hard drive (preferrably Firewire because it is much faster), format it to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and GUID partition scheme (under Options) - both done in Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities) and then you simply launch either one of the two apps mentioned and let them do their thing (170 GB take about an hour).
You will wind up with a complete carbon copy/bootable clone of your system.

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How do I make a boot disk for my new iMac?

How do I make a boot disk for my new iMac?

Make Your Own Mavericks, Mountain/Lion Installer
After downloading the installer you must first save the Install Mac OS X application. After the installer downloads DO NOT click on the Install button. Go to your Applications folder and make a copy of the installer. Move the copy into your Downloads folder. Now you can click on the Install button. You must do this because the installer deletes itself automatically when it finishes installing.
   2. Get a USB flash drive that is at least 8 GBs. Prep this flash drive as follows:
Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
After DU loads select your flash drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the leftside list. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list.
Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to an hour depending upon the flash drive size.
Use DiskMaker X to put your installer clone onto the USB flash drive.
Make your own Mavericks flash drive installer using the Mavericks tool:
You can also create a Mavericks flash drive installer via the Terminal. Mavericks has its own built-in installer maker you use via the Terminal:
You will need a freshly partitioned and formatted USB flash drive with at least 8GBs. Leave the name of the flash drive at the system default, "Untitled." Do not change this name. Open the Terminal in the Utilities folder. Copy this entire command line after the prompt in the Terminal's window:
     sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume
     /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app --nointeraction
Press RETURN. Enter your admin password when prompted. It will not be echoed to the screen so be careful to enter it correctly. Press RETURN, again. Wait for the process to complete which will take quite some time.

How can I make a recovery disk for an imac 24 " early 2008 to April 2009 or connect via thunderbolt to another imac

How can I make a recovery disk for an imac 24 " early 2008 to April 2009 or connect via thunderbolt to another imacimac 24 " or connect via thunderbolt to another imac
ann

You will only know about the hard drive when you try to access it in TDM from your other computer. If you cannot boot into TDM mode or if the drive does not appear on the new computer's Desktop then it is likely bad.
What you are thinking about as a recovery disk is the Recovery HD normally created when you install Lion or later on the computer. You boot from it as follows:
Boot Using Command+R keys:
1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the
"COMMAND" and the "R" keys together.
3. Release the keys when the Utilities Menu appears.

How to make a boot disk for new iMac?

I just purchased a new iMac equipped with a bare bones 1TB SATA hard drive. I want to replace that disk with a 1TB SSD from Crucial (less than 1/2 of the cost of purchasing the iMac with the SSD). I have a Time machine backup of the iMac on a Time Machine/Airport device; how do I make a boot disk that can get the OS up and running, and able to restore the backup from the Time Machine?
Thanks,
Tony Darst
Baton Rouge, LA

tdarst wrote:
I had not given the warranty issue any prior thought; thanks for pointing that out. Is there a way around the warranty issue; such as a "factory authorized" way to install it, that is feasible?
Thanks for the quick response...
TD
You can take it an AASP to have the install done however you probably would be better off returning the machine (assuming it was bought directly from Apple and is less than 14 days old) and buy the configuration you want. Even if an AASP does install the SSD there is no guarantee Apple will honor the warranty, it's 100% at their discretion.

How do I make a boot CD for Lion?

I just bought my kids MacBook Pros with Lion pre-installed. It came with no resotre disk- what if they crash? How do I make a bootable 'recovery disk' without having to buy another copy of Lion from the App store?
I found this link on Google-
http://www.ehow.com/video_4978308_create-mac-startup-disk.html
but soemthing doesn't make sense about this method- wouldn't the diosk image you were trying to burn end being way bigger than a DVD?

Macs with pre-installed OS X Lion don't come with physical media. You have a recovery partition on your internal hard disk on your mac. If you want to reinstall OS X, hold down CMD + R when you hear the startup sound.
If you want to, you can buy an OS X Lion USB Thumb drive here: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD256Z/A ($69.00)
You can also copy the recovery hd on an USB drive with this tool: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433

How to get make a boot disk for lion

Hi,
I have a fatal disk error that required a full rebuild (so says disk utility) but how to obtain as there was no option to create at upgrade time and I can not see any other method. SO how do you do it?

Macs with pre-installed OS X Lion don't come with physical media. You have a recovery partition on your internal hard disk on your mac. If you want to reinstall OS X, hold down CMD + R when you hear the startup sound.
If you want to, you can buy an OS X Lion USB Thumb drive here: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD256Z/A ($69.00)
You can also copy the recovery hd on an USB drive with this tool: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433

How do I upgrade my hard drive for my iMac

My 3TB fusion HD died yesterday. This is my very first MAC computer. it failed exactly 2 years and 4 months of use. Glad I got the 3 year Apple care. Now I am sour on fusion drive. Can I upgrade my iMac to a SSD? I will pay the up charge to get one.

You are covered by AppleCare and your HD will be replaced. Remember a Fusion drive is a combination SSD and rotating hard drive "fused" together by software. Any HD can fail at any time though so it's not a Fusion drive problem, it is a HD issue.
Regarding whether you can upgrade to an SSD only, Apple Stores do not perform upgrades on Fusion Drives to SSDs. If you would like this done you may have better luck by contacting an Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP) in your area. You can begin finding one by clicking:
https://locate.apple.com/country

Can I create an external boot drive for an updated Mac OS Maverick system?

I'm currently running Mac OS Snow Leopard (10.6.8) on my 24" iMac and would like to clone my current drive to an external drive & then update that external drive to Mac OS Maverick. First, can this be done to create an external Boot drive for my iMac System? Secondly, can I then select the internal system (OS 10.6.8) or the external drive Maverick OS system at boot time?

Probably will depend on just what your machine is - i.e. how current and fast is the internal hardware.
Generally though, the performance booting off a firewire 800 should be fine for most things with little if any system lag. My late-2008 MBP ( 2.53Ghz core-2 duo, 8GB RAM) runs quite well when booted from a firewire 800 drive (7200rpm - even my 5400rpm portable clone is perfectly useable).
Just remember if using the external for a long or serious work session, if the power goes out, that external is not going to be powered off battery (I keep my full size external drives plugged into a UPS because of that).

How to use ssd as boot drive and hdd as storage on a macbook pro 13

Does anyone know how to use SSD as boot drive and have HDD in optical bay as storage on a Macbook pro 13. I mean in that both drives work as one . by formatting using mac software . I would like to run all programs and OS but would love to have my downloads and useless data on run on my 1tb 5400rpm hdd without me have to manual send it there..

Does anyone know how to use SSD as boot drive and have HDD in optical bay as storage on a Macbook pro 13. I mean in that both drives work as one
Each drive mounts as a separate volume. There is no convenient way to make them look like one contiguous volume.*
Franky, with an hdd and a ssd I would recommend you put your home dir on the hdd and leave the ssd for the OS and your key applications. It's relatively easy to do and I think better than moving only portions of your stuff.
How to Move the Home Folder in OS X – and Why
* There are ways to to make musltiple volumes appear as one large drive but I think it is beyond the scope of this discussion and not appropriate to this configuration.

How Do I Make a Boot/Startup on CD not Floppy?

I have a Lenovo Thinkpad R61li 15.4" screen laptop. It's important that I keep this computer in service with the Win XP Pro Sp 3 because I have two vital programs which will not install on Win 8.
This computer has never had a "A: Floppy dirve" and only a CD drive but the installation options for making a Boot Disk/ Start-up Disk only consider a Floppy drive and not a CD drive. I need to make a Boot/Start-up disk on a CD so that if I get locked out of my computer AGAIN, I can boot back into Windows and then either fix the problems or restore from my current backups.
I have two new sets of Rescue Disks but they don't boot into the current OS so that I can access my backups. And if I can't access Safe Mode or do a repair, I'm stuck with the problem of having to reinstall an old version of XP, which is then not compatible with my backups because the backups have new Windows files from all the upgrades.
How can I make a Boot Disk/Start-up Disk like we used to use in the "old days" to start the initial system files and boot into Windows so that I can either make repairs to restore from my backups using current Winows files?
Thank you so much. I love this computer and this operating system and I want to continue to hold onto them
Judi :-)
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hi, Richk...
OMG!! I had no idea in the world that I could do that.. Yes, indeed, that sure would be a solution. I'm going to do exactly that and buy a box of floppy disks right away.
I can't believe that it's so difficlult to make a CD boot disk, but this sure is the perfect solution.
I just can't thank you enough. Please give yourself a BIG hug for me..
Yay!!!
Judi :-)

How do I make a recovery disk for my Mac running 10.5.8?

How do I make a recovery disk for my Mac running 10.5.8?

Hi, if tryly a PowerMac, (PPC instead of Intel), you may need a Firewire Drive to be bootable, most PPC Macs cannot boot OSX from a USB drive.
So we know more about it...
At the Apple Icon at top left>About this Mac, then click on More Info, then click on Hardware> and report this upto but not including the Serial#...
Hardware Overview:
Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac7,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 6 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: IM71.007A.B03
SMC Version (system): 1.21f4

How can I get a boot-disk for a Compaq P2500 laptop Windows XP Home Edition?

I'm already in another forum with a eerily similar question, but that's for the HP Media Center Pavilion m8000e desktop system (Windows Vista Home Premium) I was just given; I've ordered a new hard drive for that. I assume the directions to create a boot disk with the *.iso file (using Imgburn) is going to work; I have the 25-digit code for that.
This question here now is for my wife's older Compaq P2500 2596US laptop running Windows XP Home Edition. This too needs a new hard drive, but I also am missing the boot disc for this; I do have the 25-digit product code.
How can I get a boot disk for this laptop? I tried the Ubuntu method outlined in a few posts; geez, what a headache ... never could get it managed. Does HP not make any boot disks available? Microsoft told me to check with HP.
I can furnish the product code; model #; serial# ... gee, maybe the oroginal receipt is even laying around somewhere ...
I need a boot disk to get the new hard drive up on board (if I end up ordering that).
Thanks for any help!
Michael

Hi
Please find the link given below might be helpful for your.
http://www.computersurgeons.com/productdetails.aspx?ID=4219
Let us know how it goes!
"I work for HP."
****Click the (purple thumbs up icon in the lower right corner of a post) to say thanks****
****Please mark Accept As Solution if it solves your problem****
Regards
Manjunath

How can I make a bootable disk for Mountain Lion?

How can I make a bootable disk for Mountain Lion?

Make Your Own Mountain/Lion Installer
1. After downloading Mountain/Lion you must first save the Install Mac OS X Mountain/Lion application. After Mountain/Lion downloads DO NOT click on the Install button. Go to your Applications folder and make a copy of the Mountain/Lion installer. Move the copy into your Downloads folder. Now you can click on the Install button. You must do this because the installer deletes itself automatically when it finishes installing.
2. Get a USB flash drive that is at least 8 GBs. Prep this flash drive as follows:
Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
After DU loads select your flash 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.
Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to an hour depending upon the flash drive size.
3. Locate the saved Mountain/Lion installer in your Downloads folder. CTRL- or RIGHT-click on the installer and select Show Package Contents from the contextual menu. Double-click on the Contents folder to open it. Double-click on the SharedSupport folder. In this folder you will see a disc image named InstallESD.dmg.
4. Plug in your freshly prepared USB flash drive. You are going to clone the content of the InstallESD.dmg disc image to the flash drive as follows:
Double-click on the InstallESD.dmg file to mount it on your Desktop.
Open Disk Utility.
Select the USB flash drive from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Select the USB flash drive volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Drag the mounted disc icon from the Desktop into the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
When the clone is completed you have a fully bootable installer that you can use without having to re-download Mountain/Lion.
Note: The term Mountain/Lion used above means Lion or Mountain Lion.

How can I get a better driver for my 1394b Hostcontroller in my Macbook pro 2010 to solve the problem, that it is too slow under Windows 7 installed with bootcamp ?

How can I get a better driver for my 1394b Hostcontroller in my Macbook pro 2010 to solve the problem, that it is too slow under Windows 7 installed with bootcamp ?
WIndows can't find a better one than the installed LSI Conformed 1394 Hostcontroller

Read and follow the Bootcamp Installation instructions that you were offered to view when you ran Bootcamp Assistant.
Run Bootcamp Assistant again and select the option to download the Bootcamp Support software. Follow the instructions. Then boot into Windows and install the Windows Support software you downloaded and saved.

How do I make a boot disk?

How do I make a boot disk in OSX 10.4 something and have some tools like Disk Warrior on it? I found one program at versiontracker that does this but it doesn't work in .4, oh well ...... or I can just wait for several days til my DiskWarrior CD comes in the mail ....... but who can be without their computer that long in today's day and age? yup, you guessed it, my powerbook won't start up and I've tried lots so far ...... hoping dw will do the trick.

http://www.macosg.com/group/viewtopic.php?t=13956
-Bmer
Mac Owners Support Group
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How do I make a boot drive for my imac?

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