How to make OSX boot disk using a USB thumb drive? The final answer?

Well guys I am getting really conflicting information about possibility to use USB thumb drive for boot up drive for OSX! Some people say yes, some say no, some - not sure.
Here is the question formulated as straight as possible:
A Mac user wants to create OSX 10.6 boot-up disk on a USB thumb drive, so it can be used to start the Mac instead of using manufacturer’s CD. Also, (thumb drive’s size permitting) the Mac user must be able to install software on it, as it is done on the internal HD.
The computer is MacBookPro , Intel based , OSX 10.6
The USB thumb drive is 16 Gb brand new .
So,
what the EXACT steps will be, to properly Mac format the thumb drive with OSX disk utility and then install on it the OSX 10.6 from the manufacturer's grey CD that comes with the Mac?
Could someone, who has practical experience and is absolutely sure about the exact steps provide the final answer, please?
Thanks in advance to old hands & pro Mac Users willing to clarify this topic !

Hi
The instructions to make a bootable USB are [here|http://macs.about.com/od/diyguidesprojects/ss/usbflash.htm]
I have made a bootable USB following the above instruction and also had enough space to install a few utilities. It works fine for me.
I usually like to check disk health of my MBpro intel via disk utilities off the USB after booting from it. Not that this is a recommended way or anything, just that I like to do it that way.

Similar Messages

How I make a boot disk

Hello.
I'm an absolut Linux beginner and I tried to install archlinux on an external HDD, because my internal windows drives are dynamic logical Volumes and this doesn't work with Linux.
After the installation from the CD I noticed that I cannopt boot from USB HDD because of the BIOS.
How I make a boot disk (floppy) now ? The wiki guide doesn't help because if I boot from the installation CD I don't have the command fdformat and the command pacman - S grub works neither.
Can you help?
Best Regards
BX-8017
Excuse by bad language please, I'm not english!

Ok,
I found a grub boot disk on the net, it was a super grub boot disk. I deleted nearly all files and just copied my files from /boot/grub in the grub directory of the floppy disk. I used the windows tool "explore2fs" to get acces to my boot partition with the grub directory.
Her is my menu.lst:
# (0) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux
root (hd2,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sdc1 ro vga=773
initrd /kernel26.img
# (1) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux Fallback
root (hd2,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sdc1 ro vga=773
initrd /kernel26-fallback.img
# (1) Windows
title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
It doesn't work, because the hd 2,0 is not found from grub. (Selected disk does not exist)
It seams that grub is not recognizing my usb hdd at start up ?!?! but this cannot be, because during the installation process it is.
Many Thanks
BX-8017
PS The possibility to boot Arch with the Windows Bootmanager is interesting. Maybe we can discuss this later.....
Last edited by BX-8017 (2007-07-18 15:36:57)

Using a usb thumb drive with a mac

So, I'm a recent windows user and when using a USB thumb drive, if you erased something, it would automatically update the thumb drive and show the right amount of free space.
I've noticed with the mac, if you delete an item, it doesn't update, and you need to go into disk utility and format in order to show the appropriate amount of free space.
Is there an easier way to do this?
I searched for a few minutes on this topic, but couldn't seem to find anything. All apologies if I missed it.

Choose Empty Trash from the Finder menu, or from the menu which appears when you control-click or click and hold on the Trash icon in the Dock.
(38516)

Can I use a usb thumb drive for Time Machine?

Can I use a usb thumb drive for Time Machine backups?

Hello,
Yes you can use a (large) thumb drive. The most common format for a Time Machine backup drive is Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
Hope this will help.

Can I use a USB thumb drive with iPad

Can I use a USB thumb drive with iPad2

What do you want to do with the thumb drive?
If for picture/movie files, You can use a USB flash drive & the camera connection kit.
Plug the USB flash drive into your computer & create a new folder titled DCIM. Then put your movie/photo files into the folder. The files must have a filename with exactly 8 characters long (no spaces) plus the file extension (i.e., my-movie.mov).
Now plug the flash drive into the iPad using the camera connection kit. Open the Photos app, the movie/photo files should appear & you can import.
 Cheers, Tom

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 to create a Mac OS X Lion USB thumb drive installation bootable drive on a brand new Macbook???

Hi,
As Apple have decided not to give with new laptops USB thumb drives for installation of OS X Lion (as they did with Snow Leopard), since people on the go might not have access to high speed internet when the system crashes, plenty of tutorials have surfaced about "How to Make a Bootable Mac OS X Lion USB Install Key"
Such as
http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=16149
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2389178,00.asp
These all assume you have upgraded to Lion from Snow Leopard thus purchasing the Lion on the App Store.
Any ideas what people who have purchased brand new Mabooks do? As the system comes preloaded with the OS X Lion and it's not considered purchased on the App store.
I think Apple's new policy to charge customers $69 for this thumb drive is wrong and outrageous since the price of the laptop includes a license for the OS!
Thanks,
Guy.

Saifan Pilot wrote:
Any ideas what people who have purchased brand new Mabooks do? As the system comes preloaded with the OS X Lion and it's not considered purchased on the App store.
Recovery Partition http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718
For those Macs shipped with 10.7
Lion Recovery Disk Assistant
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433

Won't boot from Snow Leopard USB Thumb drive

I have a 2.4 ghz Quad Core Mac Pro with 14 GB of memory... I have created two thumb drives, one is a bootable image of the installation disk for 10.6.. the other has the 10.6 installed..
The start up menu recognizes them both and says i can start from either but when I try I get no further the the Grey Start Up Apple.... any suggestions would be apprecoated

They are both GUID but since they were from an Snow Leopard Install Disk.. I believe tey are at 10.6.3
I will try upodating the Drive with the full system.. but if that is the case then I am sort of uo thw water way with oiut a propulsion device for the Install Disk version

C55-A won't boot from DVD or USB thumb drive.

I'm trying to boot Linux Mint from a DVD or USB stick and this laptop just says that the media failed when trying to initilize either the DVD or USB stick. I've disabled secure boot in the bios thinking it was UEFI problem but it still won't boot. These discs and usb sticks work in other computers.
Not sure where to go from here, any advice would be much appreciated.

Try this.
In the UEFI, go to the Advanced tab, enter "System Configuration" and set the Boot Mode to "CSM Boot."
Always tell us which Satellite C55-A you have when you post here. There is a label on the bottom.
-Jerry

Prepare an usb thumb drive, to boot windows 7 or 8 in UEFI mode

Purpose of this post:
Prepare an usb thumb drive, to boot windows 7 in UEFI mode and install the system in pure UEFI mode.
Why am I writing this:
I had a hard time finding out how to make a custom installation of windows 7 in pure UEFI mode, and avoid using the factory restore disks. After hours of research, experiments etc I finally got the point and found a solution. And I'm happy to share my research with you. I hope this will be of help. If something is not clear, or more information is needed, I will be glad to explain things further.
History:
As most of you already know, BIOS was developed for PC in early eighties and has remained unchanged in recent years. But, since 2000, Intel started working on a new firmware interface, called Extensible Firmware Interface, abbreviated EFI. And since 2005 United EFI Forum has been handling the responsibility for development, management and promotion of UEFI specifications. Bigger companies like Intel, AMD, Microsoft and Dell have already started to bring out their products in accordance to UEFI standards which has more stable, secure and easier to use interface.
How does UEFI works (in a nutshell):
Once you power on the UEFI based PC, the Pre-EFI is executed which initializes only the CPU, memory and the chipset. This followed by Driver Execution Environment (DEX) where other hardware is initialized.
Advantages of UEFI:
    It can integrate various drivers this will not require to load during booting so saves time.
   PC can connect to network without OS.
   Also integrated drivers allow rendering GUI based control panel which out dates the old school bluish BIOS screen.
   Not all the installed hard drives are scanned as boot drive is set during the installation of OS in UFFI.
   Applications like anti-virus and diagnostic tools can be stored on virtually any non-volatile storage devices attached to a PC.
For a system to boot and install in UEFI the partition table of the HDD should be GPT (GUID Partition Table), not the old school MBR (master boot record). GPT has many advantages, can have virtually an unlimited number of partitions (windows will allow only 128) and impressively big partitions.
Since UEFI has a lot of advantages why not having a system install and boot in UEFI mode? AFAIK new Lenovo notebooks/netbooks are UEFI capable and OS’s are already installed in pure UEFI mode.
So, let’s go now to the point. Do you want to have more control over your HDD? Let say, you have a 320GB HDD and you have divided it in two partitions, one of 50GB, for your Windows 7, and the remaining for your data. If something goes wrong and you need to restore your system to factory default, with the recovery disks, it will wipe your partition scheme, set the system to default and this way your data will be lost.
You may want to make a “vanilla” installation of windows from a USB thumb drive and avoid using factory recovery disks. Now here things get complicated. A standard preparation of the USB with Microsoft’s software (Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool), or other tools, will give you a bios installation, not a UEFI one. So for the system to boot, you will need to change some settings in bios, and changing it from UEFI to legacy bios. The installation will prepare the HDD in MBR partition table, and you will lose all the advantages of UEFI, described above.
Now this can be avoided, by properly preparing an USB to boot and install in UEFI mode. Here are the steps:
Step by step tutorial:
1.   In a windows computer, download a legal copy (although trial) of the windows 7 os. You can do this from here: http://www.mydigitallife.info/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-from-digital-river/
Be sure to download the same version that came preinstalled in your computer. For example, if you have a Lenovo x120e, with a Windows 7 professional, 64bit, download an iso image of the Windows 7 professional 64bit.
2.   Once downloaded burn the iso to a USB thumb (at least 4GB) using Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool.
3.   After preparing this, create a folder on your computer, name it whatever (i.e. W7pro64bit). Go to the root of your USB
and select all the files and folders there (9 in total) copy, and paste to your folder you created, W7pro64bit.
4.   Using windows format the usb again in FAT32. Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool, formats it in NTFS. We need a FAT32 formatted disk to achieve our goal. Formating again the USB in FAT32 will not touch the MBR of the USB thumbdrive. And after copying back the files (see step 6) the USB will still be bootable. (nice, and simple, isn't it?)
5.   Now go to the folder W7pro64bit and do the following:
a.   Browse to W7pro64bit\sources\ and open install.wim file. It’s a big file, and can be opened as an archive with 7zip (free software). Do not extract it, do not modify it, just browse the file with 7zip. Just to be sure you do not mess with that file, you can copy it somewhere else in your computer, and than procede.
b.   Browse this file (install.wim) to \1\Windows\Boot\EFI\ and locate the file bootmgfw.efi. Do not move, delete it, but just drag that file to the desktop. (if you have copied the file install.wim to another place in your computer, than you are safely do whatever you want with that file ) Close the 7zip program to release the install.wim file.
c.   Rename the file you just copied to the desktop from bootmgfw.efi to bootx64.efi.
d.   Now go back to w7pro64bit folder and browse \efi\Microsoft. Form there copy the folder boot and paste it one level up, on the folder: \efi. It will look like this: \efi\boot.
e.   Now copy the file you saved on your desktop and renamed (bootx64.efi) to \efi\boot (inside the boot folder you copied on step 5d
6.   Now go to the root of the folder W7pro64bit and select all folders and files (9 in total) copy, and paste all those files back to your USB thumb drive. (see step 4 for more info)
7.   Go to the computer that you are going to reinstall, and before restarting it, use the program ABR (activation backup and restore) to backup the license of your windows os. (use google to find ABR). Advanced Tokens Manager (ATM ) is great too. This link may be of help: Backup and restore W7 activation. After the program finishes its magic, it will create a few files inside the folder where the program itself reside. Copy these files to a new folder in your usb. Rename it to ABR so you will quickly find it later. (if you decide to use ATM, the procedure may be a little different. But you are smart enough to figure out how to use it)
8.   Backup to an external storage all your data before continuing.(reminder: are you sure you saved the license as explained in step 7, to a safe place? To a external drive, to another computer? If you are sure, than go on with step 9)
9.   Now restart your laptop, and enter your bios settings. Go to the boot settings, and set the computer to boot in UEFI only. Not both, not UEFI first, or legacy, BUT UEFI only. Save and restart.
10.   Press f12 (or the corresponding key for your machine) to choose the boot device and chose to start from the USB thumb drive with your windows 7 pro 64 bit.
11.   If everything is done correctly, your computer will boot from the USB.
12.   Follow the wizard and choose a custom install, not upgrade. At the disk partition window delete all the partition you see there until you have only one unallocated space.
13.   Select it, and click next to install windows, without making partition in this point. The installer will create a GPT partition table not a MBR since the USB booted in UEFI mode.
14.   Immediately after the first restart remove your USB thumb, and the installation will continue from the HDD. Wait until installation finishes.
15.   When you will be finally on your desktop, on the installed OS plug your USB go to the ABR folder and click on restore.exe. It will restore your license and your copy of windows will be activated.
16.   Now you can go in computer management/disk management and shrink the HDD to create your partitioning scheme. Make sure to leave enough space to your windows os. (30gb or more for extra programs you will install at your choice)
17.      Download from lenovo.com thinkvantage system update and update your system. Windows update too can install all the necessary drivers, if you need only basic drivers support.
Note: if tvsu will fail to work, see this:
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkVantage-Technologies/ThinkVantage-System-Update-Servers-down-the-wh...
It may look a looong tutorial, but once you do this for the first time, it will look a piece of cake.
Final words:
From now on, you can install windows 7 in UEFI mode with your special USB without changing your partition scheme anymore. If you have a data partition beside your os partition (see the example above), when you reinstall the system using your USB thumb drive, at the disk partition window chose the partition where windows is installed, delete it, and reinstall windows to the unformatted area. Your partition with your data will be intact and the installation will automatically mount your data partition to the system. And, all the scope of this procedure, you will always have a pure UEFI installation of the system, with all its benefits.
Have fun!
abvasili
Moderator note: changed subject to match new content. Was: Prepare an usb thumb drive, to boot windows 7 in UEFI mode
I'm just a volunteer. I like to help others where I can. Do my ideas work? I hope so. o_O
Who helped you today? Do not forget to thank him.
My hardware: TP x120e 0596-2ru. Windows 7, sp1, 64Bit, English, installed in UEFI mode.

seanare wrote:
Thank you, as I noted here, your post was the key to my getting a Windows 8 SecureBooting setup on a W530.
In the case of Windows 8, I needed to copy the files away, reformat my USB key as FAT32 and copy the files back, and viola I was able to boot from my USB install media with the BIOS set to only boot UEFI. From there, there rest was easy (for Windows 8, the copying and renaming is not necessary, the key is having a FAT32 partition on the USB media, rather than an NTFS one; the EFI files are already in the right location).
Thank you again good sir.
You are welcome... and I'm happy that the change of the file system helps with windows 8 too. Thanks for confirming that.
abvasili
I'm just a volunteer. I like to help others where I can. Do my ideas work? I hope so. o_O
Who helped you today? Do not forget to thank him.
My hardware: TP x120e 0596-2ru. Windows 7, sp1, 64Bit, English, installed in UEFI mode.

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
Join Us @ MacOSG.com
iTunes: MacOSG Podcast
 An Apple User Group 
Disclaimer required by Apple Discussions Terms of Use: MacOSG - a non-profit Apple User Group - may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

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 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 to run a boot disk or flash card

как запустить загрузочный диск или флэш-карту, положить в первую очередь, но все же начинает с жесткого диска

Just insert your installer DVD (the one that came with your computer) and run Disk Utility from that to repair your drive.
The reason you could only verify and not repair when running DU from your boot drive is you cannot repair the boot drive while booted from it. Hence the requirement of booting from a different disk . A DVD is a disk, and the installer DVD is already a bootable disk. So no need to create one of your own (other than cloning the DVD as a backup of course).
And as steve359 says, yes, you should have backups. Using popular backup utilities like Carbon Copy Cloner and Super Duper to make bootable backups is convenient and of course you then have backups of your main drive in case it catastrophically fails.
Oh, and to answer the specific exact question of the title of this thread ("Re: How To Create A Boot Disk"), sort of tangential to the problem at hand, get yourself a small disk (even, say about 16GB to 32GB usb flash drive will do) and install the system on it (probably custom install to avoid needless crap). In the case of a usb flash drive, it won't be any speed daemon, but if that's all you got in some emergency, who cares?

How to move my boot disk to an external Thunderbolt disk?

So my wife and I both have Late 2010 iMac's. Her's died. We got a new thin-style iMac one and restored her from time machine. It was perfect - except for one thing. The 1TB disk drive that's not replacable in her iMac *****. It's just the 5400 RPM model and it's REALLY sluggish. She's been using it a year now, and complains about the speed of her computer.
I know there are USB3 and Thunderbolt disk options out there - so I'm thinking that perhaps moving her boot disk to an external thunderbolt disk makes total sense - a little big disk for instance, is light-years faster - and she'll be able to work better with that.
The question is - how do I move her boot disk over to an external drive? I'd also want to make sure the external disk is the default boot disk for this until it's time to replace the thing - is that possible?

This is meant to address several comments:
Of course, preferring a 7200 vs. 5400 rpm drive is a matter of personal preference (as is preferring an MBP over an iMac or whatever). My personal preference: the best quality (and that includes speed) I can afford/decide to spend for the intended task). I also do not buy drives that do not include their own power source.
And - to me - the 5400 is noticeably slower in everyday tasks. I had a malfunctioning external 7200 rpm drive; the mfr sent me another under warranty. I did not know that they had switched to 5400 rpm drives until I did my first clone to it. I was surprised that it seemed to take longer than usual, so I tested it: did one clone each from the same machine to two drives (same mfr, one 5400 and the other 7200) using CCC (did not use the machine or add/delete anything in between). The result: the clone to the 7200 drive finished in 38 minutes, the clone to the 5400 drive took 50 minutes. To me, that is a noticeable difference; I believe that cloning can be considered an everyday task.
The fact that the OP's drive is sluggish may, indeed, have another/different cause. I addressed his question whether or not he would be able to run his iMac from an external source. And yes, he can if he wishes to do so - I outlined the how-to steps.
For me personally, a 5400 drive will not do - for someone else, it might be just right. You may not perceive the difference in speed, but I do. Since that is a matter of preference and everyone has their own and is therefore entitled to their opinion - mine may be different than yours; however, that does not make it less valid.
That is my last post re. the differences of opinion; I'll be happy to discuss any technical issues related to the OP's concerns.

How to make OSX boot disk using a USB thumb drive? The final answer?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for