How To Make OSX Lion Bootable USB Flash Drive

Discussion in 'macOS' started by abidullah, Sep 12, 2011.

  1. abidullah

    abidullah MDL Novice

    Sep 12, 2011
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    #1 abidullah, Sep 12, 2011
    Last edited: Sep 13, 2011
    Apple set free OS X Lion to the general public yesterday. The only way to upgrade to the new OS was by way of downloading it from the Mac App Store. Apple has received its fair share of criticism for making Lion download-only. This limitation makes it so that if you have multiple Macs at home, you have to download Lion on each PC (yes, they are personal computers after all) separately. We’re going to solve this issue for you today, by making a Bootable Flash Drive of Lion!

    The procedure requires a medium level of computer-related knowledge. You’ll need the following items:
    • Access to the Mac App Store and a working Apple ID so you can purchase and download Lion
    • An empty flash drive with at least 4 gigabytes of memory: An 8GB flash drive would be recommended.
    Once you are in possession of the abovementioned items, follow the guide written below!
    How To Make OSX Lion Bootable USB Flash Drive
    Step 1: Download OS X Lion from the Mac App Store.
    Step 2: Once downloaded, go to the Applications folder and find the copy of Lion you just downloaded.
    Step 3: Right click on the downloaded file and select “Show Package Contents”.
    Step 4: Go to “Contents” and jump inside the “SharedSupport” folder and you’ll find a file titled “InstallESD.dmg”. Copy this over to the desktop.
    Step 5: Plug in a USB flash drive to your Mac having at least 4GB memory. We highly suggest going ahead with an 8GB one just to be on the safe side.
    Step 5: Now open up “Disk Utility” and drag InstallESD.dmg from the desktop to the left-hand sidebar. Select the attached USB from left side and click on “Partition” tab.
    Step 6: Select “1 Partition” from the Volume Scheme dropdown menu. Choose “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” from the left.
    Step 7: Now click on “Option” at the bottom.Select “GUID Partition Table” and press OK. Now click on Apply at the bottom right to start formatting.. (NOTE: This is will erase all data on your USB flash drive)
    Step 8: Once the drive has been formatted, click on “Restore” (it’s right next to where you clicked on “Partition in Step 5).
    Step 9: Choose USB drive you plugged-in in Step 5 as “Destination” with the InstallESD.dmg file as “Source”.
    Step 10: Click Restore and type in your password. This will create the intended Lion bootable USB flash drive
    Step 11: Reboot your Mac with the USB drive plugged in. Hold the “Option” key on your keyboard when you hear the iconic OS X startup chime. You can now boot into your Flash drive from there.
    Step 12: Follow the on-screen instructions to install OS X Lion.
    You may then follow Steps 11 and 12 to install Lion on all your Macs.
     
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  2. newmax07

    newmax07 MDL Novice

    Oct 14, 2011
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    thanks a lot for this wonderful post
     
  3. ibebusiness

    ibebusiness MDL Novice

    Oct 17, 2011
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    shucks and I thought this was for "hackintosh's"
     
  4. RogerI

    RogerI MDL Junior Member

    Aug 9, 2009
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    How can i make OSX Lion bootable usB Flash drive using a PC notebook? Please.
     
  5. Madogg

    Madogg MDL Novice

    Jan 14, 2012
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    Thnx...
    thanks a lot for this wonderful post
     
  6. free1975yuly

    free1975yuly MDL Expert

    Aug 24, 2011
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    For my hackintosh is not working...
     
  7. Tito

    Tito Super Mod / Adviser
    Staff Member

    Nov 30, 2009
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  8. sebus

    sebus MDL Guru

    Jul 23, 2008
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    NO, it is your laptop that is useless...

    sebus
     
  9. sable

    sable MDL Novice

    Feb 10, 2012
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    I guess you could use MacDrive or Transmac to be able to format in HFS+ etc.
     
  10. catalinoo9

    catalinoo9 MDL Novice

    Aug 14, 2009
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    thanks a lot!!!
     
  11. sable

    sable MDL Novice

    Feb 10, 2012
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    Ah OK, myHack.app don't simply clone ! Now I need to learn how to launch an .app booting under Windows.
     
  12. peppe1945

    peppe1945 MDL Novice

    Jan 22, 2009
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    works for me
     
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  13. Mandy

    Mandy MDL Member

    Oct 15, 2010
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    #15 Mandy, Oct 26, 2012
    Last edited: Oct 27, 2012
    MyHack is great, I have used it and can testify from creating installation media to fixes of a working Mac OSX system. I have built and updated Snow Leopard, Lion and Mountain Lion on physical machines with the help of hardware compatibility bootpack and fixes from these forum sites.
    To add to links already posted you can register and share ideas on these sites osxlatitude.com, osx86.net, olarila.com.
     
  14. tripflex

    tripflex MDL Novice

    Jul 22, 2011
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    http ://blog.gete.net/lion-diskmaker-us/ works great
     
  15. junes977

    junes977 MDL Novice

    Nov 21, 2012
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    thanks a lot for this wonderful post
     
  16. Sabotag3-

    Sabotag3- MDL Novice

    Feb 8, 2013
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    Oh nice...

    I was looking for that.. Thanks !
     
  17. sebus

    sebus MDL Guru

    Jul 23, 2008
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