I need help w/ creating Lion Flash drive

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If you don't already have a copy of the Lion installer application:

Unfortunately, the link for getting specific hardware versions has disappeared. So basically:

1. Get yourself a spare hard drive freshly erased or with a freshly erased partition of around 8 GBs or more.
2. Boot to your Recovery HD. Select Reinstall Lion from the main menu.
3. From the beginning screen select your spare partition/drive as the target destination then begin the download.
4. At the end of the download you will observe an Install button for you to click. Now this is important - as soon as that gadget appears you must abort the installation process. There are only two reliable ways to do this quickly: a. yank the cable for the drive from the computer; b. pull the power on the computer - shut it down quickly.

This will result in your finding a folder on the drive that contains InstallESD.dmg that you can now use to create a bootable USB flash drive installer based on the special build for your model. Use it until the next public release of Lion appears or you move on to Mountain Lion.

If you do not stop the download process immediately upon its completion you will end up with an installer that always boots to a non-functioning installation progress window instead of the normal main menu.

Make Your Own Lion Installer

1. After downloading Lion you must first save the Install Mac OS X Lion application. After Lion downloads DO NOT click on the Install button. Go to your Applications folder and make a copy of the Lion installer. Move the copy into your Downloads folder. Now you can click on the Install button. You must do this because the installer deletes itself automatically when it finishes installing Lion.

2. Get a USB flash drive that is at least 8 GBs. Prep this flash drive as follows:

1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

3. Locate the saved Lion installer in your Downloads folder. CTRL- or RIGHT-click on the installer and select Show Package Contents from the contextual menu. Double-click on the Contents folder to open it. Double-click on the SharedSupport folder. In this folder you will see a disc image named InstallESD.dmg.

4. Plug in your freshly prepared USB flash drive. You are going to clone the InstallESD.dmg disc image to the flash drive as follows:

1. Open Disk Utility.
2. Select the USB flash drive from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Check the box labeled Erase destination.
5. Select the USB flash drive volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
6. Drag the InstallESD.dmg disc image file into the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.

When the clone is completed you have a fully bootable Lion installer that you can use without having to re-download Lion.

SMART is not supported for external drives. Please read my instructions carefully.

There is no SMART status provided for an external drive or a USB flash drive. Just ignore it and continue on.

Instead of dragging the InstallESD.dmg into the "Source" field in Disk Utility, try the following:

- Mount the InstallESD.dmg by double clicking it in Finder

- Drag the mounted disk "Mac OS X Install ESD" into the "Source" field in Disk Utility

- Click "Restore"

This worked for me.

were u ever able to resolve this issue?

i was rstoring to factory settings and had already erased hard drive thinking no biggie will restore off net. Go to reinstall lion and app store saying i didnt purchase. i suppose i just upgraded, and then installeed mointian lion (purchased) and my computer is confused. I have no install disc, and only have a PC and internet and flash drives. Do you know where to get a copy of lion osx over the net. or apple id Mac Store purchase i can get via PC. i have discs coming from APPLE, but 2 days out. TYVM

Sorry for the confusion I have a blank flash drive and a PC, Internet accessible I do not have my operating system disc. I have tried Internet recovery. Since I had already deleted my hard drive I cannot do a Mac HD Recovery. Basically I need a backdoor way and to install lion onto a USB drive via A pc. I