How to make a OSX Lion USB install drive
July 3, 2011 (by Rashaad Sallie ) with Leave Comment
Hi all. This tutorial if for the FINAL version of Mac OSX Lion. Once you have Lion downloaded from the App Store it will want to install. Do not install just yet. It will however be available in your Applications folder. Once you have a bootable USB stick, you will not need to have the latest version of Snow Leopard as well. This is for a fresh install.
Please note that this tutorial applies to an external hard drive as well. I have a 160GB external that has 3 partitions. One for Snow Leopard install DVD, one for Lion install DVD and the rest for storage of applications and updates.
Requirements:
1. Mac OSX install App from the App Store
2. Running version of Snow leopard or earlier OSX
3. Minimum 8GB USB Stick or 5GB partition on an external USB Drive. (For this tutorial I will be using a 16GB KingMax partitioned into 5GB for Lion and 11GB for other stuff).
4. Some time and a Coke 
5. Some knowledge of Disk Utility.
How To:
1. Download Mac OSX Lion from the App Store. It will then be available in your Applications folder and should be about 3.7GB.
2. Using Disk Utility, format your USB stick and name it OSX Lion Install (or anything cool)
Disk Utility
3. Right click the downloaded Mac OSX Lion install app and select SHOW PACKAGE CONTENTS. Then navigate to CONTENTS —> SHARED SUPPORT —-> and double click / mount InstallESD.dmg
4. Once mounted, open Disk Utility again – if you closed it. Select your USB Stick and in the tab on top tab select RESTORE.
5. Drag and drop the mounted Mac OS X Install ESD to the SOURCE input, then drag and drop the newly named OSX Lion Install partition to the DESTINATION input (see pic below). Click RESTORE and drop down will appear asking if you want to Erase, choose ERASE. You may need to enter your password.
6. The copy process will start. Should take about 10minutes.
6a. Please note that the partition will be renamed to Mac OS X Install ESD. You can rename back to OSX Lion Install if you want.
7. Once the process has completed, restart your Mac and hold down the ALT key before the Apple logo appears. You will now be able to select the new OSX Lion Install partition. Select it using your keyboard and hit ENTER. Enjoy Lion.
I wish you all the luck and please don’t forget that if you lose any data, you cannot blame me – you on your own here.
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