Daniel Hruska I'm sure many of you prefer a clean install of your system over upgrading from OS X Snow Leopard or Lion. But Mountain Lion is only distributed virtually through the Mac App Store, which does meet the requirements for convenience, but some still prefer physical installation media. In addition, MacBook Air owners do not have the option to burn an installation DVD and must rely on a USB stick.
You will need:
- Supported Mac running OS X Snow Leopard version 10.6.8 or OS X Lion.
- OS X Mountain Lion installation package downloaded from the Mac App Store.
- a blank double-layer DVD or USB stick with a capacity of at least 8 GB.
Creating an installation DVD
- Go to your applications folder, you will see an item here Installing OS X Mountain Lion. Right click and select an option View package contents.
- After opening the package, you will see a folder SharedSupport and a file in it InstallESD.dmg.
- Copy this file to your desktop, for example.
- Run it Disk Utility and click the button Fire.
- Select a file InstallESD.dmg, which you copied to your desktop (or elsewhere).
- Insert a blank DVD into the drive and burn it.
Creating an installation USB stick
Warning: All data on your USB stick will be erased, so back it up!
- Go to your applications folder, you will see an item here Install Mac OS X. Right click and select an option View package contents.
- After opening the package, you will see a folder SharedSupport and a file in it InstallESD.dmg.
- Insert the USB stick.
- Run it Disk Utility.
- Click on your keychain in the left panel and go to the tab Delete.
- In the item Format select an option Mac OS Extended (Journaled), to the item Name write any name and click the button Delete.
- Switch back to the Finder and drag the file InstallESD.dmg to the left panel in Disk Utility.
- Double tap on InstallESD.dmg
- A volume will appear Mac OS X Install ESD, click on it to switch to the tab Restore.
- To item Source drag from the left panel Mac OS X Install ESD.
- To item Target drag your formatted keychain.
- Then just click the button Restore.
Now you have the installation media ready. We have described how a clean installation is performed in this manual.
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If the Mac is connected to the Internet, then recovery is also possible directly from it, depending on the purchased system in the App Store, so I don't see much point in this, maybe just saved time for downloading.
Well, if you have three macs to install and not the fastest connection, then it's a priceless option ;-)
Well, the attempt ends with Invalid argument :-/
I have the same problem.
ugh, invalid argument….
Similar to me, but after disconnecting and connecting the USB, everything is correctly recorded on the USB :O
It is so. It also gave me an invalid argument and after removing the USB and plugging it back in, everything runs fine. The installation went correctly.
When even ejecting and inserting doesn't help?? Is a reboot still a solution?
I want a clean install, but I don't even have an 8GB USB and a DVD isn't enough.
So should I install and then delete the disk in recovery mode?
You forgot to add that it's supposed to be a double layer DVD, so back to Tesco again :/
Is it not necessary to give the GUUID disk table and especially not the MBR?
Hello,
I want to ask if I upgrade to ML, will I keep all the apps including their settings?
I am a graphic designer, so programs like adobe suite are a must for me and I would hate to lose my settings and data.
Thank you for answer!
An important reminder that is missing in most instructions - when installing on a DVD, you need to have 4,8 GB of free space, so you must use a double-layer DVD, otherwise the installation will fail. Unfortunately, a 4 GB flash drive is also not enough.
It can also be put on a single-layer DVD: http://www.hightechdad.com/2012/07/25/how-to-create-a-bootable-mountain-lion-os-x-10-8-installation-dvd -or-usb-drive/
I want to ask, if I downloaded the installation to an external drive, can I return the data there, or should I put it on a USB and use it. For me, it would be a shame to unnecessarily throw away an external drive that has a large capacity.