Creating: Lion Boot Drive

[ThE.MeSsEnGeR]

For those of you who would like to keep the Lion Installer in a safe place, or you don't want to download it various times due to its large size or internet limitations, or even if you would like to install Lion on a fresh, clean hard drive. This method is for you.

It was originally written on the website Egg Freckles, and I take no credit and/or responsibility in any damage done to your Mac or hard drive; prior, during or after the process. I just simplified the text for easy reading.


Here it goes:

• Purchase and download "Mac OSX 10.7: Lion" from the Mac App Store on any Lion compatible Mac running Snow Leopard. (Download size is about 4GB)
• Right click on "Mac OS X Lion" installer and choose the option "Show Package Contents"
• Inside the "Contents" folder, you will find a "SharedSupport" folder and inside it you will find the Lion boot disc image "InstallESD.dmg"

This is where the process changes depending on how you want to make your Lion Boot Drive, whether on an external hard drive or a standard 4.7GB DVD:

External Hard Drive:
• Launch Disk Utility. Select your external drive. Go to the "Partition" tab. Make a new 5GB partition solely for the Lion Installer and choose "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” as the format.
• Still inside Disk Utility go to the "Restore" tab. Drag "InstallESD.dmg" to the "Source" field, and drag your newly created partition from the left side of the Disk Utility window into the "Destination" field. Check "Erase Destination", and begin your restore. (This process will erase everything on that particular partition).
• Once Disk Utility's restoration is complete you will have a Mac First Aid Kit capable of booting and installing Lion clean.

DVD:
• Copy "InstallESD.dmg" to another folder like the Desktop.
• Launch Disk Utility and click the "Burn" button.
• Select the copied "InstallESD.dmg" as the image to burn, insert a standard sized 4.7 GB DVD, and wait for your Lion Boot Disc to come out.

After you get your Lion Boot Drive prepared, plug in the external drive or the DVD and:

• Restart your Mac while holding the "option" key, and choose "Mac OS Install ESD" as the startup volume.
• Once booted from the Lion Boot Drive (DVD or external drive) you will have the opportunity to run Disk Utility and erase your Mac's primary hard drive. From the "Erase" tab, select it and choose “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” as the format. Before you erase the drive confirm you have a known good backup then click "Erase…"
• With your Mac's primary hard drive wiped clean it is now time to begin installing Lion. Quit Disk Utility to go back to the Lion installer. Choose your Mac's primary hard drive as the destination, and continue with the OS installation process.



ENJOY THE NEW ROARING BEAST!

 

[Žalgiris]

Thanks.

 

[ThE.MeSsEnGeR]

Thanks.

you're welcome

 

[jack2]

thanks

and my steps was

1) make new partition for a Lion
2) inside SL, install the lion from InstallESD.dmg
3) back to SL copy InstallESD.dmg to my external hard
4) backup my files from SL
5) inside Lion, Erase SL partition "Optional"
6) resize the Old partition to Lion partition

now everything works fine with me

 

[ThE.MeSsEnGeR]

thanks

and my steps was

1) make new partition for a Lion
2) inside SL, install the lion from InstallESD.dmg
3) back to SL copy InstallESD.dmg to my external hard
4) backup my files from SL
5) inside Lion, Erase SL partition "Optional"
6) resize the Old partition to Lion partition

now everything works fine with me

yeah, you can do that too... either way, it depends on how each person likes to do it

I know I like it fresh and clean

 

[CoolMe]

Following this Method means that You can install Lion straight from the downloaded image? Without having to install SL first?

 

[Cougarcat]

Following this Method means that You can install Lion straight from the downloaded image? Without having to install SL first?

Yes, but you still need access to a SL mac to download the image in the first place.

 

[rmbrown09]

Yes, but you still need access to a SL mac to download the image in the first place.

That is, in a perfect and legal utopia.
You can get the image from third party sites I dare not name, even from a PC. You could even burn the image on a PC by changing the extension on the dmg to iso.

 

[cat40]

GUID partition

In some tutorials I see that it will be necessary to make the partition : GUID partition is this true? Because in this above tutorial i do not see it..