how to make a bootable mac osx flash drive from a pc for a mac computer

Make A Bootable Flash Drive From A Pc For A Computer Update To Lion
Make A Bootable Flash Drive From A Pc For A Computer Mac OS X Lion And

All you have to do is wait for your Mac to cease displaying its Copy in progress, please wait.

Its also extremely useful for keeping your basic setup consistent across multiple computers, if you find yourself switching hardware regularly; and Ive had fun in the past setting up a bootable USB keychain loaded with all the apps and files I need to turn any Mac-compatible computer into a viable media center quickly and easily.

Make A Bootable Flash Drive From A Pc For A Computer Mac OS X Lion And

With Mac OS X Lion and a new piece of free software, its easier than ever to create a USB keychain that you can boot from.

All you need is a few minutes, a copy of Lion, and a USB flash drive with at least 4GB of storage (though more is preferable).

Preparation The first step in getting Lion onto your USB drive is to obtain a copy of the OS itself.

Make A Bootable Flash Drive From A Pc For A Computer Update To Lion

Unfortunately, the file you download from the Mac App Store to your computer deletes itself after you update to Lion, so youll probably need to redownload the OS update.

Go into the App Store application and open the Purchases tab at the top of the screen.

From there, you should see OS X Lion as one of your previous purchases.

Click the Download button next to Lion, note the directory that it downloads to and wait for the download to finish.

During testing it took me about 50 minutes to redownload the 4GB or so of content that comprises Lion.

If you already own a copy of OS X Lion, you should be able to download a fresh copy at any time from the Purchases tab of the Mac App Store.

To streamline the process, download the free Lion DiscMaker app.

Downloading a third-party app just to handle this process is a bit of a bother, but Lion Discmaker enormously simplifies the process of installing Lion on a USB keychain.

Now, before you start formatting your drive, back up anything currently on your flash drive that youd like to keep--because this process will completely erase the contents of the USB drive and rewrite it with a copy of Lion.

You have been warned Creating Your Bootable Drive Lion DiscMaker makes this part of the process a snap.

Start the Lion DiscMaker app with your USB flash drive plugged in and with the Lion install file sitting inside your application folder.

The app will give you the option of creating a bootable drive out of either a DVD or a USB keychain.

Select the USB keychain option.

If you happen to own a Mac with a disc drive, consider creating a DVD backup of Lion.

I prefer keeping Lion on a USB keychain so that I can add files to the USB drive to customize the installation; but if youre just looking for a bootable copy to troubleshoot your hardware, feel free to go with the DVD option and save yourself a little cash.) Lion DiscMaker makes it easy to create a bootable thumb drive.

Once youve indicated that you want use a bootable drive, the app will ask whether youd like to use a USB thumb drive or some other kind of disk.

Select the USB thumb drive option again; and when prompted, choose the disk that youd like to install Lion to.

If youre using a thumb drive that has only 4GB of free space, Lion DiscMaker will remind you that you wont get a complete of OS X Lion package because there wont be room for the additional speech voices package.

Select Okay and then, to confirm that youre aware the volume will be erased, click the Erase then create the disk button.

The copy procedure will take a few minutes and will open a few windows in your finder automatically, but Lion Discmaker should automate the whole process.

How To Make A Bootable Mac Osx Flash Drive From A Pc For A Mac Computer