Step 1, Download Mac Lion Installer from App Store. Latest versions of Mac are only available through App Store.Step 2, The download can take some time depending on your internet connection. Don't worry if you lose connection halfway through download, it will resume as soon as you are re-connected to App Store.Step 3, Make a backup of the installer you downloaded from App Store and save it on your desktop. Under no condition should you work on the original installer file.
Apple uses its App Store to distribute its software, like new Mac operating systems. It’s convenient, but sometimes it can take a while for a download to finish. And if you have multiple Macs, it’s inefficient to download the new OS to each and every Mac. That’s why I like to make a bootable external drive for the sole purpose of installing the Mac operating system. When I need to tend to a bunch of Macs, it’s much faster to use a bootable drive instead of going to each Mac, launching the App Store, searching for the operating system, downloading it (after entering my Apple ID), and then running the installer. You can create a bootable USB flash drive with the macOS Sierra installer that’s now available. The installer software will take up nearly 5GB of storage space.
Here’s how to create a bootable macOS Sierra installer drive. Macworld also has bootable-install-drive instructions for:. Download the macOS Sierra installer Launch the App Store app, then look for macOS Sierra in the store.
(.) Click on the Download button, and your Mac will download the installer to your Applications folder. If it automatically launches after download, quit the installer. Keep the installer in the Applications folder. If you’ve already upgraded your Mac to Sierra, the installer is removed from the Applications folder. You can download it again if you go to Purchased in the App Store. Look for macOS Sierra in the list of apps that you’ve bought, and click on the Download button.
If it automatically launches after download, quit the installer. Get an external drive You can use a USB flash drive or a hard drive with room for the installer software. I’ve used different drives with success, including a VisionTek 120GB USB 3.0 Pocket Solid State Drive ($83 on ) and an old 8GB Iomega Micro Mini Hard Drive. Don’t worry if the drive isn’t formatted for the Mac. The drive will be reformatted automatically as part of the process. Change the name of your drive to Untitled; you need to do this for the steps below.
The quick and easy way The process detailed below involves the Terminal. If your really don’t want to use Terminal, there are a couple of free apps you can use. is a straightforward way to create a boot disk. I was able to make a macOS Sierra external USB boot disk in a few minutes, and the installation worked without a hitch. Also works with older versions of OS X.
is a popular app. It also supports older versions of OS X. Use the Terminal to create a boot disk So you have your external drive, and the Sierra beta installer is in place. Now you’re going to use Terminal to create a boot drive. If you’ve never used Terminal before, don’t worry. This is pretty easy. Here are the steps to create a macOS Sierra beta boot disk.
(.). Connect the external drive to your Mac.
(In the Terminal command you will use, I use Untitled to represent your external drive. If your drive is named something else, you need to change Untitled to the name of your drive.). Launch Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app).
Copy the following: sudo /Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia -volume /Volumes/Untitled -applicationpath /Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app. Go back to Terminal and paste the copied code at the prompt.
Terminal will ask for a password. This is your user password.
Terminal doesn’t display characters when you type it in. Terminal will tell you that it will erase your drive. To confirm that you want to continue, type Y and hit Return. You’ll see that Terminal erases your drive. When that part is done, your Mac may ask you if you want to use the drive for Time Machine. Click Don’t Use. Terminal will copy the installer file to your drive.
This will take a few minutes. After copying, Terminal is done. You should see Terminal display a “Copy complete” and Done notice. You can quit Terminal and your drive is ready for use. How to boot from the installer drive. Plug your external drive into your Mac. Power up (or restart) your Mac.
Press down on the Option key while the Mac boots. After a few moments, your Mac should display the Startup Manager, which will show you the available boot drives. Click on the external drive and hit Return.
(You don’t need to select a network to proceed.). Your Mac will display an OS X Utilites window.
If you want to install Sierra and leave the data intact, select Install OS X. If you want to start over and wipe out the data, you need to go into Disk Utility to reformat the internal drive first, and then install macOS Sierra.
Hello folks Yesterday my new Mac Mini (Core i7 2,7 Ghz, 4 GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD6630M 256 MB) arrived. It replaces my old Mac Mini (Core Duo 1,83 Ghz, 2 GB RAM, Intel GMA950 64 MB).
One day I'll replace the 500 GB 5400 RPM HDD in this Mini by an Intel SSD drive (just like I did with my previous Mini). I'll do a fully clean install then (formatting the SSD drive in Disk Utility and then installing Lion on it from a bootable USB thumb drive).
The only problem is I can't seem to download Lion for free from the Mac AppStore (MAS) although I have bought a new Mac Mini which came with Lion pre-installed. I know how to create a bootable USB thumb drive with Lion on it when you download it from the MAS.
But that's the problem. I can't seem to download Lion from the MAS for free. When I open the MAS while holding down the Option key I can download Lion but it will charge me for it. Is there any way I can download Lion from the MAS without paying for it?
Since it already came with my new Mac Mini 2011 this should be possible I guess? And will I still be able to download the iLife '11 apps (iPhoto, iMovie and Garageband) for FREE that came with my new Mac Mini when I do a fully clean install as described above? Thanks in advance. П™‚ Greetings Jocau. Since the Mini is new, why not just clone the disk an external hard drive? Good idea any way because anything can happen to corrupt the internal drive at any time.
You can use Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper to create a bootable backup. Then, when you put in the new drive, boot from the external, format the internal, then clone back. Or, just get a USB or USB/Firewire enclosure, and when you install the new drive, put the old one in the enclosure, boot from it, and then format the internal then clone back. You can also create a recovery volume by: or create a Recovery HD and a clone.
After doing some research, it seems that there are only 2 WAYS to do a complete reinstall of Lion on the Mac Mini 2011 without paying for the Lion download in the Mac AppStore (i.e. Recreating every partition, also the Recovery HD partition, from scratch e.g. When installing Lion on a clean HDD/SSD). 1) COMPLETELY clone the Mac Mini 2011 HDD including all of its partitions to an external drive and restore it when you want to do a complete reinstall. 2) Use the LION INTERNET RECOVERY feature built-in into new Macs that ship with Lion (this feature is present in new Macs starting from the Mac Mini 2011 and Macbook Air 2011). OS X Lion: About Lion Recovery. Lion Internet Recovery If you happen to encounter a situation in which you cannot start from the Recovery HD, such as your hard drive stopped responding or you installed a new hard drive without Mac OS X installed, new Mac models introduced after public availability of OS X Lion automatically use the Lion Internet Recovery feature if the Recovery HD (Command-R method above) doesn't work.
Lion Internet Recovery lets you start your Mac directly from Apple's Servers. The system runs a quick test of your memory and hard drive to ensure there are no hardware issues.
Lion Internet Recovery presents a limited interface at first, with only the ability to select your preferred Wi-Fi network and, if needed, enter the WPA passphrase. Next, Lion Internet Recovery will download and start from a Recovery HD image. From there, you are offered all the same utilities and functions described above. As with the Recovery HD, reinstallation of OS X Lion from Lion Internet Recovery requires an Internet connection. See 'Supported network configurations and protocols' below.
Restoring iLife applications after Internet Restore of OS X Lion If you reinstall Lion on a new Mac that shipped with OS X Lion installed, on an erased or replaced hard drive, you can download iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand from the Mac App Store. After installation, start from Lion.
Double-click the App Store icon in the dock. Enter your Apple ID and password. Click Purchases. If you haven't previously accepted your bundled iLife applications within the Mac App Store, you should see your iLife applications appear in the Accept portion of the screen. Click Accept.
You may be asked for your Apple ID and password once again. Your iLife applications now move to the Purchased section.
These applications are part of the software that came with your Lion based computer. Your account will not be charged for them. Click Install to compete installation of your applications. Source: It's a bit sad that these seem to be the only 2 options. Lion Internet Recovery is the preferred one here since my monthly internet traffic limit isn't a problem (but my download speed is). This problem could have been easily solved by Apple by just checking the system specs or serial number when trying to download Lion from the Mac AppStore.
By using one of the 2 options in my previous sentence the Mac AppStore could see that I have a new Mac Mini 2011 that ships with Lion which would give me the option to download Lion from the Mac AppStore for free and eventually create a bootable USB thumb drive of it. An interesting little tid bit I found out recently about cloning. If you have a new Mini or a new Lion install, do your first clone to external drive using Disk Utility. Format the external drive to one partition GUID. Boot a Recovery USB stick created by any of the various methods and go to Disk Utility on it. Then, select your internal volume (not the drive).
Click the Restore button. If you selected the internal volume it should appear in the Source, if not drag it there. Then drag the desired volume you want for the clone to the destination.
Then press Restore. Two things interesting will result. One, automagically the Recovery HD will also get cloned to the external drive. You can verify this by going to terminal after rebooting and typing diskutil list You will find that an identical copy of the Recovery HD will be present as will your OSX volume.
The second thing, at least with Carbon Copy Cloner, you can then use it to update your OSX volume on that drive, and it won't go through a full clone if it is set up for incremental update. Apple Footer.
This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. Apple may provide or recommend responses as a possible solution based on the information provided; every potential issue may involve several factors not detailed in the conversations captured in an electronic forum and Apple can therefore provide no guarantee as to the efficacy of any proposed solutions on the community forums. Apple disclaims any and all liability for the acts, omissions and conduct of any third parties in connection with or related to your use of the site.
All postings and use of the content on this site are subject to the.