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How to create bootable USB from Lion to El Capitan ?

Lyndon92

Lyndon92

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 26, 2022
50
66
I'm making a recovery USB for every old Macs I can have.
I created a lot of partitions on my 64 GB usb key, and with Carbon Copy Cloner I could make a Tiger / Leopard / Snow Leopard from some ISO I download on Macrepository.
But once arrived to Lion, CCC will say to me "Some bin are missing, this usb key won't be bootable"

I'm looking since already some days, googled everything possible, but I can't find a reliable way to make Bootable USB for : Lion / Mountain Lion / Mavericks / Yosemite / El Capitan

These versions of MacOS are not available anymore on the App Store, so it's a bit difficult.
Disk Utility is a pure **** since Catalina, it doesn't help.

Does anyone know to create a bootable USB from Lion ?
Thanks
 
Lyndon92 said:
I'm making a recovery USB for every old Macs I can have.
I created a lot of partitions on my 64 GB usb key, and with Carbon Copy Cloner I could make a Tiger / Leopard / Snow Leopard from some ISO I download on Macrepository.
But once arrived to Lion, CCC will say to me "Some bin are missing, this usb key won't be bootable"

I'm looking since already some days, googled everything possible, but I can't find a reliable way to make Bootable USB for : Lion / Mountain Lion / Mavericks / Yosemite / El Capitan

These versions of MacOS are not available anymore on the App Store, so it's a bit difficult.
Disk Utility is a pure **** since Catalina, it doesn't help.

Does anyone know to create a bootable USB from Lion ?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Apple makes installers for 10.7 through Sonoma, except for 10.9 Mavericks, available here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102662
 
bogdanw said:
"App Store links and mas-cli Id's for macOS Installers from Lion to Ventura" https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...acos-installers-from-lion-to-ventura.2378889/
Click to expand...
I got the Mac OS Lion installer in my app and now I'm trying to understand how to use the script to make it bootable usb

chrfr said:
Apple makes installers for 10.7 through Sonoma, except for 10.9 Mavericks, available here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102662
Click to expand...
Yes but they don't indicate how to make it bootable usb , that's my problem
 
Hi, thank you for your answer but Disk Maker X won't run on Sonoma. I'm using M3 iMac now so I have no choice
 
If your Mac is running Sonoma, try the new app named "Mist". (on github)
It can both download the installer from Apple AND create a bootable flash drive from it.

I'm not sure if it goes "far enough back" for Lion, however.

Final thought:
Lion was not a well-regarded OS.
I'm thinking that most folks "moved up" to 10.8 "Mountain Lion" as soon as they could.
 
Mist work for download the older versions, but not for create bootable usb
 
"Mist work for download the older versions, but not for create bootable usb"

OK.
Then...
Try BOTH of these:
"Install Disk Creator"
and
"DiskMaker X".
 
After using Mist to download a Lion install app to a Monterey Desktop, I was unable to create a USB installer using Disk Utility, as in the link provided by @bogdanw above. However, I was able to use the terminal to create a USB installer easily enough. With an erased USB stick plugged in and mounted as Untitled, open a terminal, and:
Code: 
cd ~/Desktop/'Install Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5_11G63.app'/Contents/SharedSupport
sudo asr restore --source InstallESD.dmg --target /Volumes/Untitled --erase --noverify --noprompt
diskutil renameVolume /Volumes/'Mac OS X Install ESD' 'Install Mac OS X Lion'
You may need to set Full Disk Access for Terminal.app first. I verified that the resulting USB stick boots, but didn't proceed with an install. You mileage may vary.
 
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