Installing Mountain Lion onto an external hard Drive

Hi
I am running snow Leoprd and what to keep this as my main OS on my internal HD due to work, I want to install Mountain Lion onto an external Hard Drive and boot and run from an external HD as opposed to my internal
I will be likely to be using a thunderbolt connection for the external HD
Has anyone had any experience with this and any tip or faults?
I will be using Logic mainly]

Works just like installing on an internal drive. Just be sure to choose the correct target before clicking on the Install button.
If you have sufficient space on your internal hard drive you could also make a partition on it in which to install Mountain Lion. This will be faster and more convenient that an external drive.

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After installing Mountain Lion doesn't external hard drives mount or stay mounted. Anybody else with this major problem?

After installing Mountain Lion doesn't external hard drives mount or stay mounted.
I have tried resetting my Mac's PRAM but the problem still remains.
Even USB memory sticks are unmounted efter a few seconds.
Anybody else with this major problem?

I have the same problem, although mine has not been solved by ESET update, finder settings, PRAM & SMC resets or anything else.
Don't get it, my external hard drive still works on both my housemates computers - one macbook pro (with snow leopard) and one dell, just not on mine with mountain lion.
Any ideas for me guys?

How to install windows 8 onto an external hard drive connected with usb 2.0?

How to install windows 8 onto an external hard drive connected with usb 2.0?

Transfer win 8 from inside hd to external hd.
Cloning Win 8 is also OK.
Aomei Backupper can do the above.
In additional, Do you know Windows to Go?
http://www.disk-partition.com/features/windows-to-go-creator.html

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.

I have Mountain Lion OS Install CD downloaded onto my external hard drive, how do I use this to upgrade from Leopard

Current computer that I just bought used is operating on Leopard 10.5.8
I have Mountain Lion OS X CD installation files downloaded on my external hard drive from another Mac that I have owned.
How do I use my external HD to download and Install Mountain OS X wizard.
Is the only way to do this to buy a copy of snow leopard and then once upgrading to that, plug in my external HD and then access the Mtn install file as I would if I had the installation CD?
When I try to access the install file from my external HD, i get to the installation window and then when I am to select a hard drive to install it on I receuve a red exclamation mark error that says it can not be written to the HD. Why is this? Because I'm not on snow leopard but rather leopard?

As you have the installer on a DVD, you can do a trick that consists in formatting the hard drive, and then, install Mountain Lion.
First, make a backup of your files with Time Machine > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427 I recommend Time Machine because it will be easier to restore your files later.
Then, insert the DVD with Mountain Lion and hold the C key while your Mac is starting, so you will see a window with different options. Open Disk Utility, choose Macintosh HD in the sidebar, go to Erase tab and erase the drive.
After erasing the drive, you can install Mountain Lion. Close Disk Utility and install it. During the initial setup, it will ask you to restore your files, so plug the external drive with the backup and follow its steps. Note that PowerPC apps aren't compatible

Cant install mountain lion on a new hard drive 2011 mac pro 17"

for some reason I bought the infamous 2011 mac pro, and the hard drive kept having IN/OUT problems and after it destroyed half day of work, I decided to get a new hard drive, *blue WD 500g" but i have tried EVERYTHING and i just cant install mountain lion on it.
1.- i tried forcing the recovery mode so It would connect to the internet and download mountain lion but after 10 min or so i trows the -2002f error at me
2.- I tried to use the old hard drive that i put on a external hard drive reader so I could get the recovery partition but i just keep restarting the installation no reason given
3.- downloaded the mountain lion and tried to installing it on the system hard drive of the laptop trough a computer running snow leopard but dosn't let me.
4.- tried the same thing on target mode without success
5.- using the recovery partition I used disk utility to se of the partition was locked but it was not
6.- created a different partition to see if it would install it there didn't work.
i just don't understand why
any toughs?
if you answer this you would be a personal hero of mine
cheers

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.

Can I dual boot windows 7 and mountain lion with an external hard drive.

I have Mac OSX mountain lion installed and running on my 2TB external hard drive. Boot camp says that I have to use the default flash storage that came with my computer.. Is there a way to put it on my external hard drive if I partition it? I also am having a problem when I tried to use the default storage the setup would not let me format it to NTFS

By default, Boot Camp formats the drive with FAT32. That's because Windows XP could be installed with FAT32 so, in order to write on that partition on Mac OS X, Boot Camp used it instead of NTFS.
If you want to install Windows 7 (it's the only version that your Mac supports), you will have to format the Boot Camp partition in NTFS manually. To do it, just start the Windows installation as usual but, on partitioning screen, choose "BOOTCAMP" volume, press "Drive options" and then, Format, so the partition will be formatted in NTFS and you will be able to install Windows

How do I re-install Mountain Lion on a new hard drive (replacement)?

I have an older iMac 24" (2007) that has been up-graded to Mountain lion. I want to replace my hard drive with a bigger one (has 500Gb). How can I re-install Mountain Lion on my new drive? I have Time Machine on this machine.

Install 10.6 and 10.8 onto the new drive exactly how you did it on the old drive, except that you won't need to pay to redownload 10.8. Alternatively, if you kept a copy of the 10.8 installer, you can just rerun it.
(72891)

I am trying to re-install mountain lion on a new hard drive on a mac pro but get a backward slash with a circle

I am trying to reinstall mountain lion in a mac pro with a new ssd drive but will not let me. It gives me a back slash with a circle. I have 2 optical drives, first is a blu-ray and the second is a super drive. could that be the cause?

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.

Installing Windows 7 onto an external hard drive?

So I got a 2TB external LaCie hard drive and my question is: can I install my copy of Windows 7 onto it using bootcamp? I rarely use Windows7 so I just want to be able to plug in the external hard drive and boot from it whenever I need to use Windows. I've seen mixed answers on this so I just wanted to get it clarified. Thanks!

What kind of connection is the external hard drive? If it's USB, probably not because Apple's CSM-BIOS implementation doesn't support USB boot. Firewire should work.
And also what Apple hardware? The 2011 minis have an SD slot that purportedly does support booting Windows or any other OS. I have a 2011 MBP8,2 with such an SD slot but haven't attempted an OS install or boot from it.

How do I install Mountain Lion AND format the hard drive?

I want to do a completely clean install of Mountain Lion.
I had Snow Leopard installed, upgraded to Mountain Lion (by buying it from the App Store) but how do I tell it to format the drive and then install Mountain Lion?

pforkes wrote:
I want to do a completely clean install of Mountain Lion.
I had Snow Leopard installed, upgraded to Mountain Lion (by buying it from the App Store) but how do I tell it to format the drive and then install Mountain Lion?
Snow Leopard would have needed to be installed on a properly formatted drive, so I don't understand why you would need to format it again to that same format.
Cheers
Pete

Mountain Lion destroys 3 external hard drives any reason why?

New Mac Book Pro Retina, Mountain Lion OS a all updates. Each external USB hardrive including the main back up 3TB external
blows apart with a message you can no longer read or write to this drive, the exteranl, back it up immediately. Go to do that
it rebooted and now that drive as well as 2 others are not accessible.
I have put 2 of the externals on my older Mac Book and I can get them to mount, and had to buy a new 4TB exteranal for
backing up the older externals. I don't dare put that new one on the Mountian Lion new Mac Book Pro
as I already lost years of work on the 3TB drive that will not mount at all. Something is terribly wrong
with this box or the OS Anyone have any guidance? I dread having all my externals and I have many that hold scads of my
work, etc. The 3T may not be repairable as I can't get it to be seen by any other G5Duo or Mac Books 2 different ones
all run on Snow lepoard
Help?

As far as the older drives go, all may not be lost.
It is possible that the USB interface in the box may
be somehow hosed and the drive itself may be fine.
You could pull the old drive out of the case and use
one of the many USB->SATA adapters and hook up to
the another computer. This would at least tell you if
you have lost all your data. Make sure you get one
with external powering like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002
Or if somehow the drive is corrupted, at least try to use
some recovery software to get te data back. If the drive
is good, you can put it in another case. If you have that
much at stake, you have nothing to lose but a few bucks
(price of a good meal soewhere) by trying this.
BTW, what brand are these HDDs? Mountain Lion in and
of itself should not be causing the drives to be unreadable.
There may be a serious hardware issue with the MBP.

How do I install Mountain Lion on a new hard drive

Bit of a novice here.
13inch MacBook Pro mid 2009 unibody user. Upgraded to Mountain Lion via download. I need to upgrade my HD for more space. No longer have the install CDs that came with it.
How do I go about installing the OS on the new HD?
Many thanks.

As an additional thought:
You may want to consider contacting Apple for replacement install disks anyway for whatever OS it came with because:
Your license for Mountain Lion purchased at MAS is not transferable - it is forever tied to your Apple ID (and the machine ID). If you sell/gift your Mac, you will need to erase the Mountain Lion and reinstall the original OS; otherwise the buyer will have an illegal copy and will not be able to reinstall (because the Apple ID is not the same as it was when purchased).

How do i intall mountain lion on a new hard drive

How do i do it?
I bought a new 13" MBP a few weeks back and have now got my SSD. I realise that Apple no longer give out OS install discs and i don't have mountain lion purchased on my app store as it came with my laptop. So how do i install mountain lion on my new hard drive without having to buy mountain lion.

Option 1 - Newer Mac's like your come with internet recovery. Which means if your drive fails or is corrupted or in your case your install a brand new drive, internet recovery will let you reinstall the OS you are eligible for. So replace your drive and boot your system with cmd + R keys pressed down for 15 secs or so and your machine hooked to the internet. This will install ML from apple in your case.
Option 2 - Clone or backup (your entire system using time machine) your hard drive to a external USB disk. Replace your drive and then restore the new drive from the clone or backup.
Check this site for related articles .... http://nyacomputing.com/category/os/mac-os-x/

Hard drive died... How do I reinstall Mountain Lion onto an external drive?

I have Time Machine and two extra external drives but now I cannot boot from the Hard Drive to reinstall Mountain Lion. I have a recovery partition from TechTool but it does not include Time Machine or the App Store. My computer boots into the TechTool disk but my hard drive is not shown. Disk Utility does not see my hard drive either.
Any suggestions?
TIA

Sorry, I'm confused.
The recovery partition from Tech Tool, this is on the internal HD or on a CD/DVD?
Is this the same thing as the TechTool disk that your computer can boot into?
Where is the Disk Utility that cannot see your hard drive? Is it on the Apple recovery partition on your internal drive? Are you saying that Disk Utility on your Apple recovery partition cannot see your boot partition?
It sounds like your internal boot partition won't work, but the internal drive itself is OK (i.e., Disk Utility, on your Apple recovery partition, doesn't see the normal boot partition), or at least OK to the extent that the Apple Recovery partition can run.
If you install Mountain Lion on your external drive and use it as the boot drive for your computer, it will be very slow, and you won't be happy. I'd forget that idea.
Assuming I am thinking correctly about your situation, I would try to repair your HD. Your options would be:
a safe boot Mac OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode? and then disk utility
boot into single user mode and see if you can repair your hard drive Repair Your Hard Disk in Single User Mode | Everything Macintosh
internet recovery OS X: About OS X Recovery
recovery disk assisant, if you have made one already OS X Recovery Disk Assistant v1.0
If none of that works, then I'd try and wipe the entire drive and start over. I'd try to do that from internet recovery. Hopefully one of your external drives has backups on it.
If that doesn't work, then I'd replace the drive.

Installing Mountain Lion onto an external hard Drive

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