How to create a bootable flash (thumb) drive for Mavericks..

[MIDI Life Crisis]

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5856?view ... cale=en_US

[James Steele]

Wow! Good info. I wonder if you could then run the MOTU Audio Installer and install extensions on the USB drive? Might be a great way for people with PCI MOTU interfaces to see if they're going to be okay with the "power on the interfaces AFTER you boot" workaround for Mavericks?

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I'm trying to get this to work but can't find where the Mavericks.app is. Doesn't show up in Spotlight. I archived it to a DVD so I'll try bringing it back in the HD location. I may have deleted it for space.

[Gravity Jim]

MLC, I think OSX App Store installers delete themselves after a successful install. I think. ML did.

[adriano]

Hello forum,

I used diskmaker and worked like a charm and no messing with the terminal.
https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/39701/diskmaker-x

Adriano

[MIDI Life Crisis]

The only thing that bothers me is this:

On October 26, 2013, in Uncategorized, by Guillaume Gète

Due tu some outstanding bugs in DiskMaker X 3.0, I decided to remove it from the web site, so that I can work on fixes ASAP.

An updated version will be provided next week, hopefully squashing many of the bugs encoutered, especially :

- Not working on 10.6.x ;

- The disk is built, but you can’t see it in Startup system preferences or at startup when pressing option ;

I will also update the FAQ very soon to reflect some of the errors you may have encountered.

If you really need to build a boot key now, you can use Lion DiskMaker 3b3, but you MUST put the app in the /Applications folder. That’s the only known big issue.

I apologize for the bugs you may have encountered. Though I tested DiskMaker X many times in different configurations, it has difficulties to “fail gracefully”… I will also work on this.

Thanks for your patience.

If you can't see it in Prefs/Startup Disc or at boot using the opt key, then you can ONLY boot from it if your boot drive fails. Not exactly what I'm looking for...

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I pulled this from the Finale site. Works great and the drive appears in Startup disk!

Good stuff follows. HIGHLY recommended!

Downloaded the FREE Mavericks Installer program. Created a bootable USB key from that with the very easy method buried in OS X via a terminal command. MUCH easier than via Disk Utility. It is called createinstallmedia and was buried in there for the purpose of making a bootable installer drive.

Link to an Apple Support report on createinstallmedia:

support.apple.com/kb/HT5856?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

MacWorld article on how to use it. It is *easy* to make a bootable thumb drive this way.

http://www.macworld.com/article/2056561 ... drive.html

You need an 8GB USB key.

Here are the full instructions if my link fails to work for you (cleaned up for context):

"1. Download the Mavericks installer from the Mac App Store and make sure it’s in your main Applications folder.

2. Connect to your Mac a properly formatted 8GB (or larger) drive.

3. Rename the drive to Untitled. (It's not technically necessary to rename the drive, but the Terminal command I'm using here assumes the drive is named Untitled.)

4. Select the text of this Terminal command and copy it:

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


5. Launch Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities).

6. Paste the copied command into Terminal and press Return. Warning: YOU ARE ERASING THE THUMB DRIVE!

7. Enter your admin-level account password when prompted.

The Terminal window displays the progress of the process, in a very Terminal sort of way, by displaying a textual representation of a progress bar: Erasing Disk: 0%... 10%...20%... and so on. It then tells you it’s copying the installer files, making the disk bootable, and copying boot files. Wait until you see the text "Copy Complete. Done." which could take as long as 20 minutes, depending on how fast your Mac can copy data to your destination drive."

PLEASE NOTE:

The above, as you can read, assumes that your thumb drive is named Untitled. If you do not want to call it Untitled for this task that is fine. Simply substitute your chosen name for the word Untitled in the above command string. You may also rename it after it is finished. It will still function correctly. Just make certain that no alteration of spacing before or after it creeps into your string. Command line fun must be exact or spooky things happen to your computer...

After I made my boot drive I did a Time machine backup. Then I wiped the SSD completely as there was a *lot* of stuff on there from old versions of the OS, like Application Support files and prefs and about 25 gigs of photos, TV shows and Movies. And I have every email sent to me since 1998 lugged over from every computer I have ever owned. I decided to jettison everything and hand pick only the stuff I actually use or want to the fresh drive from the Time Machine drive.

[mikehalloran]

MLC, I think OSX App Store installers delete themselves after a successful install. I think. ML did.

Correct. You need to archive it after the download but before the install. You can download it again.

[Gravity Jim]

That terminal command did the trick with no fuss or bother! I had a 8GB thumb drive with a ML install on it, so I just updated it to a Mavericks install. Thanks for the hip tip.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Let's hope it never comes in handy! BTW, Pacifist is now Mavericks compatible should you want to extract on part of the OS...

http://www.charlessoft.com

[Gravity Jim]

Let's hope it never comes in handy!

Roger that! I never used it when it contained ML, and here's hoping the tradition continues. It's just nice to know it's in the desk drawer.

[bayswater]

The version pulled from the Diskmaker site wasn't necessary to create a 10.9 install USB key.