Cant use OS X installer says "locked"

[greyhoundrick]

Hello Everyone,

I have a 2009 MBP running OS X 10.7.5 (Lion)

I recently replaced the HD with a SSD and the performance difference has been great.

I wanted to create another USB bootable drive and after creating it I wanted to "test" it to see if I could use it to boot up my MBP rather than using the internal SSD.

I created the USB bootable drive install and I believe all went well, however, when I plugged in the USB drive and powered on my MacBook Pro while holding the "option" button, I was presented with the OS X Utilities screen. I chose to re-install Lion but when I selected the "Mac OS X Install ESD, Mac OS X, 10.7.5" usb bootable drive I saw that it said that the drive was locked.

Ive tried to figure out by researching online how to "unlock" the usb flash drive, but no matter what I try I cannot do it. What I'm trying to accomplish is to have a thumb drive that I can use to boot my MBP in case of a SSD failure which would not allow me to use the Recovery Drive.

Can you tell me what you think the problem is and is there any way to "unlock" this drive? Ive got to believe there is a way, but I have no idea.

Thanks so much for helping me!

Rick

 

[IowaLynn]

Carbon Copy Cloner is easy to create bootable clone plus create another recovery partition, so unless you need a clean install... http://www.bombich.com and look for the older Lion version (3.x) of CCC

Lion DiskMaker - great method and number of tutorials on setting up.

 

[greyhoundrick]

Thank you Lynn. I appreciate your help very much.

Pardon my lack of knowledge, but I'm trying to get this

Ok, this is what i would like to do and maybe you can tell me the best way to accomplish it or if it can't be done. I would like to have a usb drive that will boot my 2009 MBP on demand instead of booting from the SSD that i recently installed that contains Lion 10.7.5

Thats basically all i want on the usb drive.

Right now I have the the "Mac OS X Install ESD" on my flash drive which contains the "Install Mac OS X Lion", Library, Packages, private and system folders.

When I plug that drive in and press option on a re-start I see three drives come up, SSHD, Recovery HD and Mac OS X (usb). I select the Mac OS X drive and the computer then displays "Mac OS X Utilities". I then choose "Re-install Mac OS X" and press "continue".

Continue again, agree to terms, agree and then I see the screen that allows you to select the disk where you want to install Mac OS X. My choices are SSHD and the usb. However, the usb says "This disk is locked". Thats where I'm stuck and after a number of hours I can't figure out what to do next.

My goal is to get a usb drive that will boot my MBP in lieu of the SSD in case I ever need to.

Thank you for your time and sorry I don't get this.

best to you,

Rick

 

[CoastalOR]

OP: Are you trying to reinstall on the Mac OS X usb while booted from it and is it a USB flash drive or an external drive (spinner) connected via USB?

EDIT: I'm sorry but I do not quite understand the situation yet. I think you made a bootable USB flash drive installer with Lion on it, but then you are trying to reinstall Lion on the USB you are booted from or are you trying to install Lion to a different drive?

 

[greyhoundrick]

OP: Are you trying to reinstall on the Mac OS X usb while booted from it and is it a USB flash drive or an external drive (spinner) connected via USB?

EDIT: I'm sorry but I do not quite understand the situation yet. I think you made a bootable USB flash drive installer with Lion on it, but then you are trying to reinstall Lion on the USB you are booted from or are you trying to install Lion to a different drive?

First off, thanks so much for your input and time! (Our oldest daughter lives in Portland by the way!)

Im new to this so pardon my lack of knowledge. Im trying to boot my MBP from a usb drive that I have installed "Install Mac OS X Lion" on. Im not sure what is "supposed" to happen when I do this, but what is happening is that when it comes time to install the Lion OS X onto the usb that I have plugged in (the one with the lion installer on it) the computer asks me which drive i want to install Lion on, the SSD or the usb. The usb one (which is the one i want to boot from) is greyed out and says that the disk is locked.

Im not sure why or what is supposed to happen, but I was thinking that if this worked correctly that I would be able to boot the computer from the usb drive and then get a default lion desktop which I could migrate into from a TM back up if necessary OR it would just boot the computer. Im not sure what happens when it boots from the usb drive, but I do know that when i did this in Yosemite on my friend's MBP that it booted from the USB and the Yosemite default screen came up.

Let me know what you think. Thanks very much!

Rick

 

[CoastalOR]

Here are a couple of links that should help:
http://macs.about.com/od/macoperatingsystems/tp/Os-X-Lion-Installation-Guides.htm
http://www.macworld.com/article/1161065/installing_lion_what_you_need_to_know.html

You can copy the Lion installer app to the Applications folder on you SSD, launch it, and select to install Lion on your USB drive (make sure you select the USB).

When done you will have a bootable USB drive with the Lion OS installed. Before starting make sure your USB is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). The Lion installer app (named Install OS X Lion, I believe) should automatically delete itself from the SSD Applications folder after completing installation so make sure you keep a copy of it somewhere for future use if needed.

EDIT: BTW, I grew up in the Scottsdale and Mesa area. I went back after getting out of the Army to complete college. I still have family in Apache Junction.

 

[greyhoundrick]

OK, after studying this a bit more I think I am learning what is happening and what is wrong...

The USB thumb drive that i created will allow me to "boot" the operating system, or to "load" it, but I cannot put the OS X on the boot drive and thats why its locked. The OS X has to be installed somewhere else.

If my MBP were to lose its ability to boot itself with the internal HD, would the USB thumb drive allow me to accomplish this? If so, when i get to the step where the MBP asks me to select the drive for the OS X to be installed "to" would i select the SSD (or a different HD) to receive the OS X?

2. If a HD crashes and had to be replaced would the process then entail my creating a USB boot drive, loading the OSX on a "new" HD/SSD that i would put in and then using the usb boot drive to boot the OS X from the new SSD?

I hope I'm making sense. If not i sincerely apologize.

3. (as it relates to Question 1) Would there ever be a scenario where the HD/SSD could not boot itself and you would have to use a USB bootable drive, but you would not have to replace the HD/SSD necessarily?
IOW, can a HD/SSD lose its ability to boot itself but still be useable after the booting process is accomplished by the USB thumb drive?

thanks again for the expertise!

rick
[doublepost=1457897936][/doublepost]CoastalOR, Thank you!

Is it possible to put the installer AND OS X on one thumb drive? Do you need to partition it if thats what you want to do?

When i went thru this entire process with Yosemite (on my friends computer) I "thought" i had the OS X on the thumb drive because I could boot up with it and then i would get a default Yosemite desktop.

that is cool that you grew up here in The Valley! Im involved with Arby's Restaurants and we know the owner/operators of the Arby's in AJ. Its one of the busiest Arby's in the State!

Take care and looking forward to your response (when you have time)

rick

 

[CoastalOR]

OK, after studying this a bit more I think I am learning what is happening and what is wrong...
The USB thumb drive that i created will allow me to "boot" the operating system, or to "load" it, but I cannot put the OS X on the boot drive and thats why its locked. The OS X has to be installed somewhere else.

1. If my MBP were to lose its ability to boot itself with the internal HD, would the USB thumb drive allow me to accomplish this? If so, when i get to the step where the MBP asks me to select the drive for the OS X to be installed "to" would i select the SSD (or a different HD) to receive the OS X?

2. If a HD crashes and had to be replaced would the process then entail my creating a USB boot drive, loading the OSX on a "new" HD/SSD that i would put in and then using the usb boot drive to boot the OS X from the new SSD?
I hope I'm making sense. If not i sincerely apologize.

3. (as it relates to Question 1) Would there ever be a scenario where the HD/SSD could not boot itself and you would have to use a USB bootable drive, but you would not have to replace the HD/SSD necessarily?
IOW, can a HD/SSD lose its ability to boot itself but still be useable after the booting process is accomplished by the USB thumb drive?

thanks again for the expertise!
rick

1. Yes. The bootable USB thumb drive with the Lion installer will allow you to boot from it and install Lion on your internal SSD or format and install Lion on a replacement HD. Just select the SSD or new HD to install Lion on.

2. You already have a bootable USB thumb drive that you can use to boot from and configure and install Lion on new SSD. You do need to have a external drive for frequent/routine backups of the internal drive so you can restore your files/data from the failed drive to the replacement internal drive. Use Time Machine or cloning software (my favorite is Carbon Copy Cloner) to make your backups.

3. You can use the USB thumb drive to boot and reinstall a fresh copy of the OS or use it to format the internal drive and reinstall the OS (clean install). Make sure you have a backup because formatting the internal drive will wipe all of your data.

 

[IowaLynn]

I use WD PASSPORT 1TB with partition boot from, cloned backed system, and the rest for Time Machine.

The scenario is possible and not an if, more like when it would be needed. Both bootable clone and/or TimeM backups.

USB 3 is not bootable on older Macs but USB2 is. And much slower. An external USB SSD is handy, OWC sells upgrade kits with new SSD (and RAM) along with empty USB case to swap out and do an upgrade/replacement