Lion USB bootable not showing as option in startup manager

[energizedmortal]

Macbook pro 15 inch 3.1 early 2008

Does not show Lion USB bootable flashdrive as option in startup manager (but does show up at startup disk).

Goal: clean Lion os install on one primary partition. DVD drive does not read Lion DVD I burned. I do not have self powered external hard drive.

So far the only way I was able to install OS X Lion was to partition hard drive into 2, 1 partition for Lion install, 2nd partion to restore the USB Install ESD to in Lion recovery disk utility which does show up as an option in startup manager once on hard disk.

However, I want to boot directly from USB so I can wipe both partitions and have one hard disk partition and perform clean install.

Things I have done to 8 gb USB:
made guid partition table
formatted USB mac os x extended journaled
did restore of Lion Mac OS X Install ESD
Note: rEIFt does show a bootable 4gb usb windows 7 option but not the 8gb lion install usb.

Any suggestions?

 

[Orlandoech]

Sounds like you didnt make the USB correctly;

http://osxdaily.com/2012/02/17/make-bootable-os-x-10-8-mountain-lion-usb-install-drive/

 

[energizedmortal]

Sounds like you didnt make the USB correctly;

http://osxdaily.com/2012/02/17/make-bootable-os-x-10-8-mountain-lion-usb-install-drive/

that is exactly how i created the USB but for Lion not Mountain Lion.

 

[Orlandoech]

that is exactly how i created the USB but for Lion not Mountain Lion.

And its Partitioned as a OS X Journeled? Not Fat,ExFat,NTFS, etc.?

 

[energizedmortal]

^ Correct.

If I choose it from startup disk , it starts up normal and does not initiate setup.

 

[Orlandoech]

Very odd. What if you select it as a start-up disk from sys-prefs then reboot? same thing?

 

[energizedmortal]

Very odd. What if you select it as a start-up disk from sys-prefs then reboot? same thing?

same thing

it actually will boot into setup that i copied onto hard drive as opposed to USB setup.

im going to try sata to usb with external 2.5 hard drive. If not may have to go with external dvd rom.

 

[minifridge1138]

What options do you see if you hold the 'option' key as the computer boots?

 

[energizedmortal]

At the moment I see Recovery HD , normal HD, and Mac OS X install hd when pressing alt/option which are all the one internal hard drive I have.

 

[energizedmortal]

Resolved

Powered external drive worked. So beware some macbook pro 3.1 core 2 duo are capable of NOT booting from a bus powered thumb drive.