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Create a Bootable Mountain Lion USB Key Installer

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Mountain Lion is the second release of OS X to be delivered via the Mac App Store. Like with Lion, users can create their own bootable USB key installer to use as a recovery disk or to install Mountain Lion on multiple Macs without needing to download the 4GB installer multiple times.

Ars Technica has an excellent walk-through using either the Disk Utility application that is included on every Mac, or the newly updated Lion Diskmaker app that automates the process of creating a bootable install key.

The biggest catch to the whole process is to make a copy of the Mountain Lion installer before actually installing Mountain Lion, otherwise the installer will need to be redownloaded from the Mac App Store.

(Image via Ars Technica/Chris Foresman)

Article Link: Create a Bootable Mountain Lion USB Key Installer
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2012/07/25/create-a-bootable-mountain-lion-usb-key-installer/
The Lion Diskmaker link... well, the link isn't bad, I don't think, but the server it points to isn't happy...
 
Hi, sorry for the ignorance but does this method work for doing a clean install of ML and not just upgrading from an existing installation of Lion?
 
I'm feel like ranting...

"Create a Bootable Mountain Lion USB Key Installer"

No! I will not!
I fell for this with Lion and spent X wasted minutes of my life creating a USB key installer of Lion which I never used. :mad:

I'm letting is all hang out this time around; no ML USB key installer for me!

h1r0ll3r said:
Yay, I'm about 5 minutes too late since I already installed ML. Oh well.
Click to expand...

You got lucky in my opinion.
 
iSee said:
"Create a Bootable Mountain Lion USB Key Installer"

No! I will not!
I fell for this with Lion and spent X wasted minutes of my life creating a USB key installer of Lion which I never used. :mad:

I'm letting is all hang out this time around; no ML USB key installer for me!
Click to expand...

Yeah that'll show em'!
 
Unlike most of America I sadly do not have a true high-speed option for internet at my house. Thus I bring my MBP to work and use this method to generate an install package for my iMac at home. It's really the only way to do multiple installs if you don't have a good internet connection.

Reminder: you MUST copy the package before the actual install, but it's easy.
 
Can you download ML without installing it?

I have a Mac Pro in a temporary office without internet access and would like to install ML on a separate HD to test.

BUT my MBP is running SL and, without getting into the details, needs to stay on SL for now, but it's the only machine with internet access right now.

So I would like to be able to download ML without installing it, and then create a USB installer.
 
NY Guitarist said:
Can you download ML without installing it?

I have a Mac Pro in a temporary office without internet access and would like to install ML on a separate HD to test.
Click to expand...

Yes. I downloaded ML and made the ML USB Key installer. I then created a second partition on my Mac (leaving Lion on the first partition so that I can still run FCP7 and CS4.) I'm currently installing ML on the second partition.
 
I tried this method and at the very end got this error:

"Could Not Restore - Invalid Argument"

But when I removed the USB Key from my iMac and put it back into the USB slot, the installer was on it.
(I haven't tried to use it though, I had to go to work)

:confused:
 
Roc P. said:
Yeah like I said, I followed the directions completely.

This is what I did:

1. Source: DMG, Destination: Flash Drive (The brand name and capacity)


I didn't mount the .dmg
Click to expand...

Actually their guide is incorrect, and does not match number 1.

Restore the DMG not the volume created when you erase, but to the drive itself.

FYI. They have added a note that it works despite the error.
 
Interesting thread. After downloading ML but before installation can't you just run time machine and save it in there for future use?
 
Apart from this, what's useful to have for ML users is to install a Recovery drive partition on a USB stick. This is a bootable partition (Cmd-R at boot time) that can be used in emergencies.
 
Used the new Lion Diskmaker app/script and it worked like a charm. Super easy too. I was a able to do a full clean install and ML is running like a dream on my 09' iMac.
 
felipecerda said:
Hi, sorry for the ignorance but does this method work for doing a clean install of ML and not just upgrading from an existing installation of Lion?
Click to expand...

I have the opposite question. I did this last year with Lion and I believe that the ONLY option was to do a clean install. Can anyone who has used this method tell me what install options are available?
 
Variant said:
I have the opposite question. I did this last year with Lion and I believe that the ONLY option was to do a clean install. Can anyone who has used this method tell me what install options are available?
Click to expand...

I used this method (actually a very similar one, but creates the same type of boot disk), and upgraded both my Macs running Lion to Mountain Lion, not clean installs. If you were upgrading from anything but Snow Leopard, however, you would not be able to perform an upgrade, so perhaps that's what you were running into before?

jW
 
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