Create bootable drive with Mountain Lion using a PC

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Create bootable drive with Mountain Lion using a PC

Hello there!

How are you? I hope you're doing epicly great! Anyway, I was wondering if there's anyway I could create in a PC a bootable pendrive to install Mountain Lion in my Mac. I can't do it on my mac because it can't start up, it stays on the grey screen with the apple logo and the spining gear. I already tried to start up in Safe boot but nothing works. Most probably it's a software issue and not a hardware one, I removed my Hard Drive and conected it into a PC and with a software called "HFSExplorer" I was perfectly able to read and backup all the data from my hard drive. I have alredy copied DMG file into my PC, I just need to figure out how to make my pendrive bootable for Mac. I can't burn the DMG into a DVD, because my macbook's cd drive is not working. All my hopes lies on my 16 GB Pendrive.

Your help will be greatly appreciated,

I'd actually hug you.

Regards!

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Dec 4, 2012 8:17 AM

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Answer 1

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babowa

Level 9

78,103 points

Dec 4, 2012 8:33 AM in response to JackLovesTea

Sorry, but we cannot discuss this type of situation because Apple's software license specifically states that you can only run Mac OS on Apple hardware. Your post may well be edited or removed by the hosts.

As for your Mac, have you tried booting it with your install disk? Or from a bootable backup on an external drive?

FWIW, you posted in the Mountain lion forum, but your profile shows Snow Leopard. If you have Mountain lion, have you tried using recovery mode (Command + R while restarting)?

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Answer 2

JackLovesTea Author

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Dec 4, 2012 9:05 AM in response to babowa

Thank you very much! I wasn't trying to install Lion on a PC or anything. I just want to create a bootable Pendrive from a PC because I can't do it in my Mac, but yeah I understand.

I can't boot with my installation disk because my CD Drive is not working. And yes, I curretly have Snow Leopard installed on my Macbook. But before I had this problem I got Mountain Lion from the Apple Store and before I could install it, my macbook stopped working; it can't start up, the interface remains with the grey screen, the apple logo and the spinning gear. I've already tried to start up in Safe boot and single-mode but it's not working at all. Fortunately I was able to make a backup of Lion and all my files afterwards, and as I think it's a software issue and not a hardware one,one of the solutions for now is try to create a bootable Pendrive with Mountain Lion, format the hard drive and install the new Operative system. So, that's why I posted into OS X Mountain Lion > install & setup. I would first try to do this from another Mac, but I don't know anyone using Macintosh, all my friends uses PC, so that's why I'm resorting to these options. I think I should try to get an external CD drive to reinstall Leopard and proceed afterwards with Lion once my macbook it's working again.

Anyway, thank you so much for your reply and help!

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Answer 3

babowa

Level 9

78,103 points

Dec 4, 2012 9:37 AM in response to JackLovesTea

What year is your Macbook? Had you done a hardware test by chance? Hard drives do fail - they all do sooner or later.

Since you can't get it to boot up, you do need the install disk - call Apple and give them your serial number, they'll send you replacement disks. Make sure you tell them you need both - I believe it's disk 2 that contains the hardware test. When you get them, try to boot into disk 1 first, if that does not work, try disk 2 (after inserting the disk, hold Option when booting and the AHT should show up) - run the extended test at least twice and see if there are any messages. Those are the only things I can think of short of having an external bootable clone (they've gotten me out of trouble several times).

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Answer 4

Dec 4, 2012 10:31 AM in response to JackLovesTea

Confirm your Macbook against the Mountain Lion hardware compatibility list:

If your Macbook is hardware compatible, then reinstall Snow Leopard (10.6.3) on your MacBook. Upgrade it back to 10.6.8, and then re-download Mountain Lion to your Macbook. When it offers to continue installing Mountain Lion, cancel. You will need a minimum of 4GB of memory in your Macbook.

Download Lion Diskmaker. It will automatically look for the Lion or Mountain Lion installer in /Applications. It will then step you through creation of a bootable Mountain Lion USB stick. I have used Lion Diskmaker and it is slick.

Now, you can use that USB stick to boot into the Mountain Lion installer and put it on your Macbook. Installs from the USB stick are data destructive; so have a backup of your home directory. PowerPC applications are not supported in Lion or Mountain Lion. So, you might want to look here for compatibility.

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Answer 5

JackLovesTea Author

Level 1

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Dec 7, 2012 12:42 PM in response to babowa

Hello there!

My macbook is from late 2010. I haven't done any hardware test, but I've connected my Hard Drive to another computer to backup all my files and it was succesfully recognized. Anyway, I already found the problem why I can't boot with other devices or start up in Safe Boot. The Firmware of my macbook has an EFI password, I don't remember it, I don't even remember I had enabled this password, I have an idea how it could be though. I investigated and the only way to unlock the password if you forget it, is going to an apple store and let them do the dirty work, sothat's what I'm going to do if I can't remember the password. It should work after this, and I'll be able to reinstall Snow Leopard. Anyway, thank you very much for your help, it was really helpful!!

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Answer 6

JackLovesTea Author

Level 1

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Dec 7, 2012 12:45 PM in response to VikingOSX

Hi! Thank you, I already found the problem as you can see. I'll do what you said to install Mountain Lion, thanks for the help!!

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