[GUIDE] Make your own Mavericks USB stick

Assuming you got Mavericks through the app store, you have an app called "Install OSX Mavericks.app" sitting in /Applications.

Step 0 is to back the install app up since it likes to delete itself once the install is done. Step 0a is to make sure you aren't installing Mavericks on a "real" machine but rather on a test box. Now that those items are behind us, it turns out it's a little bit more tricky to make your own USB stick. In Lion and ML, all you had to do was restore InstallESD.dmg to a usb stick. In Mavericks, there are a few more steps...

1) Set finder to show hidden files
2) Pick the install app in finder and "show contents"
3) Navigate to InstallESD.dmg in (contents/sharedsupport) and (optionally) copy it out someplace for yourself to work on.
4) Mount InstallESD.dmg and look for basesystem.dmg (which is a hidden file and the reason for step 1 above) Restore basesystem.dmg to an 8GB USB stick.
5) Find a sym link (in /system/installation) to packages and replace it with the real packages folder copied from InstallESD.dmg.
6) (optional) Set finder to hide hidden files

That's it. You now have a Mavericks DP1 install/recovery USB stick. I successfully installed Mavericks on a test machine using the USB stick I created using these instructions.

Source: 9to5mac.com

I really wish Apple would put everything you need to do a restore in the recovery partition(I really should find the time to go poke around in Maverick's recovery partition to see if the have already done this). I would still make myself a stick just in case a HDD crashed completely, but even if it didn't crash completely I don't want to sit through a restore from the Lion or ML recovery partition because so much has to come down over the internet. The up side is you don't need a software update afterwards. The down side is a recovery that could get done in 20 minutes can take a lot longer depending on the speed of your internet connection. I had posted this in another thread but as more developers and eventually users install 10.9, this needs its own thread.

benwiggy said:

It's unlikely that Apple would put the entire OS onto a Recovery Partition.
1. Downloading ensures the latest version and security updates are already included.
2. Setting a partition to a fixed size would limit the size of the OS, (without re-partitioning everyone's hard drives).

While Mavericks is still in beta, I wouldn't think you would need this, as builds will be updated very regularly. And if something did go wrong, you would be more likely to want to restore 10.8 than a previous build of 10.9.

Click to expand...

I agree. Once Mavericks is out of beta, I'll scrap my DP1 USB stick and make one for the released OS. I think I might still have one lying around for ML DP1 and I really should wipe it and reuse it.

I agree with point 1 except that if I'm in a hurry to recover, I'd rather get it over with and let software update run afterwards. Sometimes a person needs a bit of data and a recovery stands between that person and getting a specific task done. It's always best to err on the side of giving the user the ability to control how they spend their time. Apple has historically given me a lot of control over how and when I must spend time on my Macs and iThings and I'd hate them get in the habit of putting security updates (or whatever) in my way when I urgently need to get to a wedding rehearsal or print a boarding pass for an overseas flight.