Trying to create Snow Leopard boot partition or USB drive

[Totally]

Hello!

I wasn't sure where to put this thread since my original idea doesn't exist. I was going to put it in the OS X section under the old versions, but the forum only goes back to Lion and my question is about 10.6 snow leopard.

I have a mac mini which I have factory restored from the apple store onto 10.6.8. I'm typing this post from it right now. I haven't installed any software on it yet. I want to create a boot partition on an external hard drive or a boot USB drive so that in the future if I would like to clean factory restore back to Snow Leopard, I can without needing to go to the Apple Store, as much as they loving seeing this antique haha.

I've done some googling and it seems like all the instructables require a Snow Leopard DVD. I don't have that. Is there a way to get what I am after without it? Basically I want a way to make a factory restore to Snow Leopard for this computer without having to go to the Apple Store if I want to do it.


Thank you for the help!

Cheers

 

[redheeler]

You can image your install as it is now to your USB drive using the Restore tab in Disk Utility. Create a partition on your USB drive which you will erase with the Snow Leopard install (make sure it is formatted with the GUID partition table and Mac OS Extended (Journaled) if you want it to be bootable), go to the Restore tab, drag your Snow Leopard partition as the source and the new partition as the Destination, like below:

and hit Restore.

In the future when you want to restore your Mac mini to the clean install it's on now, simply boot from the USB, go to the Disk Utility Restore tab, and switch the source/destination drives so the install on the USB drive is the source.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"I have a mac mini which I have factory restored from the apple store onto 10.6.8. I'm typing this post from it right now. I haven't installed any software on it yet. I want to create a boot partition on an external hard drive or a boot USB drive so that in the future if I would like to clean factory restore back to Snow Leopard, I can without needing to go to the Apple Store, as much as they loving seeing this antique haha."

Here's what I'd suggest.
I've done this myself (when I first got my late-2012 Mini in January of 2013).
You want to do this before you add anything else to the computer-in-question.

1. You'll need a USB flashdrive of sufficient capacity. I would suggest 16gb.

2. You'll need CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper (either will work in demo mode FREE, and that's all you need).

3. Once you have both of the above, do this:
a. Initialize the flashdrive
b. Launch CCC (or SD)
c. Set your internal drive as the source, and the flashdrive as the target
d. Let CCC (or SD) do its thing and clone a copy of the internal drive to the flashdrive.

When done, you will have a bootable and cloned copy of your internal drive (with only a clean copy of the OS on it).

Now, if you ever need to re-install the OS, you can just "re-clone" from the USB flashdrive to the target drive.

 

[chrfr]

Hello!

I wasn't sure where to put this thread since my original idea doesn't exist. I was going to put it in the OS X section under the old versions, but the forum only goes back to Lion and my question is about 10.6 snow leopard.

I have a mac mini which I have factory restored from the apple store onto 10.6.8. I'm typing this post from it right now. I haven't installed any software on it yet. I want to create a boot partition on an external hard drive or a boot USB drive so that in the future if I would like to clean factory restore back to Snow Leopard, I can without needing to go to the Apple Store, as much as they loving seeing this antique haha.

I've done some googling and it seems like all the instructables require a Snow Leopard DVD. I don't have that. Is there a way to get what I am after without it? Basically I want a way to make a factory restore to Snow Leopard for this computer without having to go to the Apple Store if I want to do it.


Thank you for the help!

Cheers

The process to capture an OS installer from internet recovery is somewhat complex, but it can be done:
http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-create-an-os-x-installer-from-apples-internet-recovery/

 

[Totally]

Thank you very much for the responses! I like the first idea best because it uses only disk utility so I am going give that a go later today. For the 3rd idea, does it work with snow leopard? I read through and it didn't make a note of which OS X versions it works with.

Thanks again!