Lion Installer icon on dock after download - burn a DVD?

Hi baltwo,

Thanks for the reply.

I'm not even ready to install it yet (gulp - if ever - I'm slow on the uptake on this, but I did want to get it while the getting was free.)

baltwo wrote:

You can safely remove its Dock icon. Rather than burning the Install Mac OS X Lion.app to disc, CONTROL-click on it->select Show package contents, drill down to the SharedSupport folder, mount the enclosed InstallESD.dmg, and use Disk Utility to restore it to DVD or an empty volume (partition) at least 4 GB in size. That gives you a bootable installer that doesn't get blown away when you do install Lion. Additihonally, if you copy it elsewhere, the copy remains intact after installing.

I think I get what you are saying, but "drill down" ?

I'm just about to re-partition my HD collection for tertiary backups of our MBP and my brand new iMac and our dellminis. I'll make a 4GB partition for what you suggest above. I did the same with SL (I think/hope I did it correctly) a while back.

Is the procedure the same for a HD partition as you describe for DVD? mount it - where?

"Additihonally, if you copy it elsewhere, the copy remains intact after installing" - sorry, I don't know what you are saying here.

Thanks,

Mrs H

kisuke3 wrote:

this happened to me way back...

on your 2nd question, you can make a bootable USB if you wish there have been discussions on how you can do that. DVD?not sure.

Bootable USB - of course, I had forgotten that that was a much simpler option. I made one for SL and can do the same for Lion if I remeber how I did it (and also I can make a bootable partition as baltwo describes above).

I have no reason to think my install is corrupt - it looks like a good installer should look - I'm not testing it though since I don't actually want to install Lion. I'm not sure what you are suggesting in your "this happened to me" paragraph. Since I used a free redeem from the uptodate program, I don't think I have the option to re-download - and I'm not sure why I'd want to...

Mrs H.

Thanks, very helpful information.

I don't see the package thing yet - but I haven't clicked on the installer that I downloaded - as I said I don't want to do the install anytime soon. I'm sure it'll be there - just like every other install I've download.

"...part of its installation is to delete itself when the job's done." Is this always been the case with installers? After I've downloaded and installed an update (say) the package is still there in my download folder where it lived before I did the install.

I've always saved those packages - to reuse just in case.

Your screen shot makes everything you said clear.

Thank you,

Mrs H

One last thought/question:

if I am going to repartition my HD, what size volume will the install of Lion need? The installer package is 3.7GB - I think you are saying don't just copy that to the volume, but open it and install it there to make that a bootable volume? Am I right here?

So - a tiny - 10GB volume reserved for Lion when I get around to opening it - and just put it as is on the volume now??

Mrs H

In fact, I saved a tiny 30 GB volume partition for Lion on the external.

For the time being, can I just drag and drop to copy "Install Mac OS X Lion" from the Application folder on my iMac into the new partition on the HD? I think yes, but I just don't want to do something that will make the original disappear - I trust this is nothing fancy, just another installer.

Mrs H

baltwo wrote:

A separate 4-10 GB partition for a RESTORED InstallESD, mounted image, will suffice and allow you to boot with it and install the OS elsewhere. It's not where you install Lion.

You can drag & drop the installer onto the 30 GB partition, but why? If that's where you'll be installing Lion, I wouldn't. Save it elsewhere.

Get a bootable, ext HD, preferably FireWire,

and make a bootable backup/clone before updating.

I'm the queen of bootable backups. I use SuperDuper and LaCie d2 Quadras with firewire 800 cable. I also have 2 rikiki go's - LaCie's mini mobile USB2 HD, one of which lives in our safe deposit box with backups of the computers and dups of the photo files.

In fact, I have 4 backups each for the MBP and the iMac,

I just wanted to make a copy and save the Lion installer for later use on one of the backups separately from sitting in the app folder on the iMac - and hence in its backups.

Really I don't intend to upgrade to Lion any time soon (I'm a bit slow on the updates - our MBP still runs happily in Tiger so we can access old and necessary apps and our scanner)

I haven't had a chance to check your links yet, thanks for supplying them. I just wanted to get back ASAP and clarify.

So, in my situation, drag and drop of installer for the time being is a fine thing to do? That's not ultimately where it would be installed.

Mrs H

PS I've seen several threads about troubles with LaCie HDs and Lion. A bit worrisome - but as they say, folks who write here are the ones with the problems/issues - not the millions who are just cruising along fine with no problems.

baltwo wrote: