How to create an OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion install drive. Purchase and download Lion from the Mac App Store (or use your up-to-date redemption code), and when the download is finished, the.
Pre-reqs for all OS X versions In all cases you need a 8GiB+ usb storage and you will need to erase it with Disk Utility (and be very careful not to erase the wrong one!). SD Cards: If you use an SD Card with a USB adapter, it probably WILL NOT WORK as a bootable USB mass storage device. I'd recommend you stop by walmart real quick to pick up a 32GB USB 3.0 flash drive for $12.99. Disk Utility. 7.95 GB Mass Storage / Card Reader.
Partition. Partition Layout: 1 Partition. Name: Install OS X. Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
Options. GUID Partition. Erase Once you've created the installation drive, you'll reboot the computer and hold down the option (alt) key until you see the list of options (generally including your hard drive, time machine, the default recovery partition, and your disk). Yosemite 10.10 This creates a bootable usb / sd card which shows up as Recovery OS X 10.10 and will still require WiFi to complete the installation (maybe just for verification, maybe it downloads the whole thing. Again, I don't know). Sudo /Volumes/Data/Install OS X Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia -volume /Volumes/Install OS X Yosemite/ -applicationpath /Volumes/Data/Install OS X Yosemite.app -nointeraction Mavericks 10.9 Same as Yosemite.
Requires WiFi during installation. Sudo /Volumes/Data/Install OS X Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia -volume /Volumes/Install OS X Mavericks/ -applicationpath /Volumes/Data/Install OS X Mavericks.app -nointeraction Mountain Lion 10.8 NOTE: Many people recommend, but it didn't work for me.
Just a year after Lion (OS X 10.7), Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8) is here. And just like Lion, getting Mountain Lion is as easy as downloading an installer from the Mac App Store—a few clicks (and some patience) is all it takes to install OS X 10.8 over your existing copy of Lion or Snow Leopard. But that doesn’t mean you should make the jump without any preparation, or that there are no important decisions to make along the way.
We've installed Mountain Lion more times than we can count—even more times than we installed Lion a year ago—in order to put together this guide to installing the latest Mac OS. In the articles below, we cover the requirements for running Mountain Lion; the things you should do to get your Mac ready; and the purchase and download processes. We walk you through the actual installation; recommend some post-install tasks; discuss some upgrade challenges; and help you decide if a 'clean install' is for you.
We've also got instructions for creating a bootable Mountain Lion installer drive, as well as for installing Mountain Lion over Leopard (OS X 10.5)—provided you have the appropriate license to do so. Finally, we've got a hands-on look at OS X Recovery (also known as recovery mode) and Internet Recovery. With this guide and $20 (for purchasing Mountain Lion), you should be able to make the transition to 10.8 painlessly. Click the links below to read on!