How To Make OSX Lion Bootable USB Flash Drive

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Step 1: Download OS X Lion from the Mac App Store.

Step 2: Once downloaded, go to the Applications folder and find the copy of Lion you just downloaded.

Step 3: Right click on the downloaded file and select “Show Package Contents”.

Step 4: Go to “Contents” and jump inside the “SharedSupport” folder and you’ll find a file titled “InstallESD.dmg”. Copy this over to the desktop.

Step 5: Plug in a USB flash drive to your Mac having at least 4GB memory. We highly suggest going ahead with an 8GB one just to be on the safe side.

Step 5: Now open up “Disk Utility” and drag InstallESD.dmg from the desktop to the left-hand sidebar. Select the attached USB from left side and click on “Partition” tab.

Step 6: Select “1 Partition” from the Volume Scheme dropdown menu. Choose “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” from the left.

Step 7: Now click on “Option” at the bottom. Select “GUID Partition Table” and press OK. Now click on Apply at the bottom right to start formatting.. (NOTE: This is will erase all data on your USB flash drive)

Step 8: Once the drive has been formatted, click on “Restore” (it’s right next to where you clicked on “Partition in Step 5).

Step 9: Choose USB drive you plugged-in in Step 5 as “Destination” with the InstallESD.dmg file as “Source”.

Step 10: Click Restore and type in your password. This will create the intended Lion bootable USB flash drive

Step 11: Reboot your Mac with the USB drive plugged in. Hold the “Option” key on your keyboard when you hear the iconic OS X startup chime. You can now boot into your Flash drive from there.

Step 12: Follow the on-screen instructions to install OS X Lion.

You may then follow Steps 11 and 12 to install Lion on all your Macs.

Apple will make $69 USB flash drives of Lion available at Apple Stores in August. If you made your own flash drive following our guide, you just saved $40, my friend. Pat yourself on the back for a job well done!

If USBs aren’t your thing, you can follow our guide on how to make OS X Lion bootable DVDs.

SOURCE:
www.redmondpie.com/how-to-make-your-own-os-x-lion-bootable-usb-flash-drive-tutorial/

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Installing OS X From a USB Drive

The installation files sit at 6.2gb on the Snow Leopard DVD, so you’ll probably need a drive that has at least 8gb available.

After you’ve gotten the correct USB device, connect it to your Mac and prepare it with the Snow Leopard installation files by following these steps:

Open Disk Utility and select the Flash Drive

Follow above instruction to create a GUID partition.

Select the Erase tab on the right and then set Format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

Name the partition you’ll be creating Snow Leopard or OS X Install so you can keep track of your installation device. After you’ve done this, click the Erase button.

After Disk Utility finishes erasing your old data on the flash drive and setting it as a new partition, it will be ready for the Snow Leopard install files. Select the Restore tab at the top and then drag the Snow Leopard DVD to the Source field. Select your USB device for the Destination file. Click Restore and wait for the restoration to finish (about 20 minutes).

If the restoration worked correctly you should be able to open your USB device and see the Leopard installation files. If you try and click the Install OS X Snow Leopard icon, you’ll get the message below telling you you can’ install OS X from this volume. IGNORE the message. The next steps will walk you through the installation steps.

Now that the installation files are successfully on your USB device, be sure to remove the Snow Leopard installation DVD from your drive. Next, restart your Mac and when it first starts to reboot, be sure to hold down the option (alt) key on your keyboard. After a few seconds at least two volumes should appear for you to select from for installation. One of those will be the USB drive we just prepared. Select it.

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Creating a bootable OS X installer in OS X Mavericks
With OS X Mavericks, you can create a bootable OS X installer which can be used to install the operating system while started from removable media, such as a USB flash drive.

Before being able to create a bootable OS X installer, you'll need to do the following first:

Use the Mac App Store to download the OS X installer app.
Mount the volume you wish to convert into a bootable installer. This could be removable media such as a USB flash drive or a secondary internal partition.
You can then use the createinstallmedia tool to convert the volume from step two into a bootable installer based off the installer app from step one. To learn how to use createinstallmedia, use the following command in Terminal:

/Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia
For example, assuming you have a volume mounted at /Volumes/MyVolume and the OS X installer app is at /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app you could erase /Volumes/MyVolume and convert it into a bootable installer with this command:

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app

You may need to adjust the path to the OS X installer app in the above command.

Note: createinstallmedia is an advanced option for system administrators and as such, requires some knowledge of the command line in order to be used properly. It is only intended to be used with the version of OS X installer app it came with.


SOURCE:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5856