How can I copy the dmg installer file to a thumbdrive?

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Level 1

4 points

How can I copy the dmg installer file to a thumbdrive?

So we purchased a new iMac. The geniuses at the apple store installed Mountain Lion using their installation software. I want a backup copy of the installation files.

I was able to use unix/terminal to boot and display the boot disk and begin the installation process, which I intended to save to an external hard drive and copy the dmg file to a thumbdrive BEFORE the computer automatically restarted and deleted it. I even opened a microsoft word document thinking that without saving it would halt the restart process, but no. The computer restarted automatically without giving me the opportunity to copy the dmg file.

Does anyone have any ideas? Is there a unix command to halt the restart?

Thanks.

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Dec 31, 2012 3:48 AM

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Answer 1

Arc676

Level 1

136 points

Dec 31, 2012 3:52 AM in response to E_nmn_m

I believe that if you can stop the genius guy from initiating the install, you can copy the .dmg and then run the installer.

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Answer 2

BobHarris

Level 9

53,309 points

Dec 31, 2012 7:49 AM in response to E_nmn_m

What I did when I got a new Macbook Pro was to get a 16GB USB Thumb Drive (or was it 32GB) and used SuperDuper to clone the boot disk to the USB Thumb Drive. (Carbon Copy Cloner could also be used).

Now I have a bootable copy of my Macbook Pro while it was young and uncluttered with all my junk. The clone has all my extra apps, such as iPhoto, Garageband, iMove, etc... that is not part of the Mac OS X distribution, and you only get when buying a new Mac.

When doing an upgrade, I download the new version (Lion, Mountain Lion, future "Cat"), and they quit the installer before it does anything. Now looking in Applications, there is an "Install OS X Lion", or "Install OS X Mountain Lion", etc... I made a copy of that app on a USB Thumb Drive or DVD. There have also been instructions on the web about how to make this into a bootable DVD or Thumb Drive. I have not bothered with that, as I have my above mentioned original clone I can boot from, and there is always the recovery partition I can boot from as well.

If you wish to have the Mac boot back into the initial setup mode, you can remove the following file and reboot:

rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone

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