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How to build a bootable USB Installer

Is there a way to do this but from a Windows Machine with Windows 7,
because i dont have access to Mac os X ?

Regards.
 
Hyldig said:
http://i.imgur.com/WEP4FE5.png

Anything specific you wanna see? Alot of files and folders on it :)
Click to expand...
Everything looks right... Just curious, is your flash drive GUID or MBR format? Open Disk Utility, click on your flash drive on the left, and see what it says at the bottom next to Partition Map Scheme if your aren't sure.

SalahDyne said:
Is there a way to do this but from a Windows Machine with Windows 7,
because i dont have access to Mac os X ?

Regards.
Click to expand...

My assumption is that you are going to try to use this with a hackintosh. You will have to find some way of manipulating dmg filetypes and HFS filesystems. There are probably apps out there. Just google around, and good luck. It's not easy.
 
Dalton63841 said:
Everything looks right... Just curious, is your flash drive GUID or MBR format? Open Disk Utility, click on your flash drive on the left, and see what it says at the bottom next to Partition Map Scheme if your aren't sure.



My assumption is that you are going to try to use this with a hackintosh. You will have to find some way of manipulating dmg filetypes and HFS filesystems. There are probably apps out there. Just google around, and good luck. It's not easy.
Click to expand...

Can i do it from the recovery menu ?
 
Dalton63841 said:
Everything looks right... Just curious, is your flash drive GUID or MBR format? Open Disk Utility, click on your flash drive on the left, and see what it says at the bottom next to Partition Map Scheme if your aren't sure.
Click to expand...
Hmm says not formated in Disk Utility, and Unknown if i look it up in system information
Trying repartitioning and setting it to MBR
 
Last edited:
Not having any luck with this. When I open the OS X Install ESD image, all thats in there is the Packages folder and nothing more. Any idea why I don't see an Installer app or anything like prior versions of OS X?
 
Zorn said:
Not having any luck with this. When I open the OS X Install ESD image, all thats in there is the Packages folder and nothing more. Any idea why I don't see an Installer app or anything like prior versions of OS X?
Click to expand...

Inside InstallESD.dmg you will see BaseSystem.dmg IF you have hidden folders showing.

Make sure you can see hidden folders and files, and then if you still don't see BaseSystem.dmg, change your Finder view to List. It may just be off to the side where you can't see it.
 
Dalton63841 said:
Inside InstallESD.dmg you will see BaseSystem.dmg IF you have hidden folders showing.

Make sure you can see hidden folders and files, and then if you still don't see BaseSystem.dmg, change your Finder view to List. It may just be off to the side where you can't see it.
Click to expand...

Hidden folders are showing and all I have is BaseSystemResources.pkg and BaseSystemBinaries.pkg . Sort of confused how to start the install process, not really even needing to make a USB install drive.
 
Zorn said:
Hidden folders are showing and all I have is BaseSystemResources.pkg and BaseSystemBinaries.pkg . Sort of confused how to start the install process, not really even needing to make a USB install drive.
Click to expand...

Where did you get your installer from? That is unlike everyone else. Are you just wanting to upgrade your system? If so just run the Install Mac OS X DP1.app. No need to go digging through it.

EDIT: Just so we are clear, the BaseSystem.dmg is not inside the Packages folder where all those .pkg files are. Inside InstallESD.dmg there will be a BaseSystem.dmg and the Packages folder.
 
Dalton63841 said:
Where did you get your installer from? That is unlike everyone else. Are you just wanting to upgrade your system? If so just run the Install Mac OS X DP1.app. No need to go digging through it.

EDIT: Just so we are clear, the BaseSystem.dmg is not inside the Packages folder where all those .pkg files are. Inside InstallESD.dmg there will be a BaseSystem.dmg and the Packages folder.
Click to expand...

Interesting. Perhaps the issue is in my download source. I do not have any Install Mac OS X DP1.app, which has always been present with any other developer betas I've used in the past.
 
when trying to restore basesystem.dmg to my flash drive I get "Could not restore - Resource busy"

help? :confused::confused::confused:
 
Dalton63841 said:
I was asked to build this. I could have sworn it used to be done the same way, but whatever. Here you go:

1. Show hidden files by opening /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app and typing the following:

2. Right click Installer.app file and click Show Package Contents, Open Contents folder, then look in SharedSupport folder. You will see InstallESD.dmg.
3. Mount InstallESD.dmg.
4. Copy the BaseSystem.dmg file out to somewhere convenient.
5. Do not mount BaseSystem.dmg. Just open Disk Utility and restore it to a flash drive.
6. When that's done look in the flash drive you just restored to and go to /System/Installation/. In that folder you will see a white icon with an arrow called Packages. That's a broken alias. Delete it.
7. Now go back to your InstallESD.dmg file. Inside is a folder weighing in at about 4.5GB called Packages. Copy that folder onto the flash drive in place of where the alias was.
8. Go ahead and hide the hidden folders again by going back to the Terminal and typing:

9. Done. Boot from the flash drive and get to work.

As per usual, don't blame me if you screw up. If you somehow need these instructions simpler don't be afraid to ask. Lots of smart people around here.
Click to expand...

Can confirm it works. Thanks for the help with this yesterday.
 
Dalton63841 said:
Either one will work. 8GB is plenty.

Leopard Installer: 8GB
Snow Leopard Installer: 7.5GB
Lion Installer: 5GB
Mountain Lion Installer: 5.5GB
Mavericks DP1 Installer: 6GB

I have a 64GB flash drive with every OS X Installer from Leopard to now on it. Each time a new OS comes out I make another 8GB partition on it.
Click to expand...

Hey I just did this as well thanks to your idea and I was just curious how you went about changing the name of each partition so you knew what you were looking at when you booted to it? I currently have tried changing it just in finder (to OS X 10.8 Install)but when I go to boot off of it it shows up as Mac OS X.. Any Advice?
 
Jab00 said:
Hey I just did this as well thanks to your idea and I was just curious how you went about changing the name of each partition so you knew what you were looking at when you booted to it? I currently have tried changing it just in finder (to OS X 10.8 Install)but when I go to boot off of it it shows up as Mac OS X.. Any Advice?
Click to expand...

There is no way to change it. They are given that title by the Mac's EFI. My installers are put on the flash drive in order, so the first yellow icon is 10.5, second is 10.6, and so on.

I will give you one tip though. If you use a huge flash drive like I did and want to use the excess space as a normal flash drive, you can keep the Installer partitions from mounting in Finder every time with one Terminal command.

After you build the installer, go into Terminal and type in:
Code: 
diskutil list
Take note of /dev/diskXsY replacing X and Y with the appropriate numbers for the installer partition on the flash drive. Then type in the following command using the numbers you just got from the previous command:
Code: 
sudo asr adjust --target /dev/diskXsY --settype Apple_Boot

That will make it a hidden partition just like the Recovery partition. It will still boot to the installer just like normal, but won't pop up in finder EVERY time you plug in the flash drive. You will need to do that command once for each installer partition.

If you need to make the installer partition visible again, just go back to Terminal and type:
Code: 
sudo asr adjust --target /dev/<disk> --settype Apple_HFS
 
Dalton63841 said:
5. Do not mount BaseSystem.dmg. Just open Disk Utility and restore it to a flash drive.
Click to expand...
I just did an upgrade install and my Mac mini is deathly slow so I want to do a clean install but I'm having a little bit of a brain fart here.

When you say to "restore it to a flash drive" do you simply mean click restore and restore the BaseSystem.DMG straight to the flash drive or do I need to format the flash drive to +HFS, make a GUID partition, then restore?

When I made my copy of 10.8 on a flash drive I had to have the flash drive formatted to +HFS, make a GUID partition so it's bootable, then I could restore.
 
helios16v said:
I just did an upgrade install and my Mac mini is deathly slow so I want to do a clean install but I'm having a little bit of a brain fart here.

When you say to "restore it to a flash drive" do you simply mean click restore and restore the BaseSystem.DMG straight to the flash drive or do I need to format the flash drive to +HFS, make a GUID partition, then restore?

When I made my copy of 10.8 on a flash drive I had to have the flash drive formatted to +HFS, make a GUID partition so it's bootable, then I could restore.
Click to expand...

Well someone else did there's in MBR and they said it worked. To be on the safe side though, it is probably best to make sure it is a GUID partition scheme.
 
I have found the basesystem.dmg and I try to restore that file to the flash drive and nothing happens. Anyone else having this problem?
 
Dalton63841 said:
There is no way to change it. They are given that title by the Mac's EFI. My installers are put on the flash drive in order, so the first yellow icon is 10.5, second is 10.6, and so on.
Click to expand...

Well I did a little digging last night and found this line of terminal code that may be useful to you
Code: 
sudo bless --folder "/Volumes/Mac OS X Lion Install ESD" -label "Lion Install"
Where you can change the "Mac OS X Lion Install ESD" to the current name of your drive and the "Lion Install" to what you want your drives to appear as.... As far as I can tell it hasn't messed with the drives in any way except making them identifiable!
 
Jab00 said:
Well I did a little digging last night and found this line of terminal code that may be useful to you
Code: 
sudo bless --folder "/Volumes/Mac OS X Lion Install ESD" -label "Lion Install"
Where you can change the "Mac OS X Lion Install ESD" to the current name of your drive and the "Lion Install" to what you want your drives to appear as.... As far as I can tell it hasn't messed with the drives in any way except making them identifiable!
Click to expand...

That's awesome! Thanks.
 
tehjak3 said:
I've followed your guide, and it's worked great to create the bootable USB but I'm currently having some problems with the installation. I get to the point where I choose what disk i'm going to install to, and then it just comes up with "Signing into the App Store" which I've provided an image of below. Any ideas?

http://i.imgur.com/s0rrqG0.jpg
Click to expand...

You didn't follow the guide to the letter.

I had this problem, turned out I missed the bit about replacing the alias.
 
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