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How to make a ML bootable disk AFTER installation

I installed Mountain Lion months ago and did not know to make a bootable drive at the time. Now I need one. Is there any way I can create one now or do I have to buy ML again to do it? Thank you.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Oct 17, 2013 9:23 AM

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Posted on Oct 17, 2013 9:36 AM

If by, "bootable drive," you mean an external hard drive, just make a clone with CarbonCopy cloner or Super Duper.

15 replies

Oct 17, 2013 9:53 AM in response to Lanny

I was talking about making a bootable copy of ML. But you make a good point. I can just make a clone of my drive and that should work. My goal is to use something else as a startup disk so that I can run Disk Warrior on my iMac. I am having major slow-down problems because of icloud trying to backup my contacts. Even after telling icloud not to backup my contacts it continues to try. This has been going on for 24 hours. That is another story altogether I suppose. Thanks again.

Oct 17, 2013 10:15 AM in response to anyid

anyid wrote:


...My goal is to use something else as a startup disk so that I can run Disk Warrior on my iMac...

A worthy goal and one I follow with every new Mac. Since you have ML, you should have a Recovery disk already in your iMac. First, get yourself a USB flash drive, 16GB+, and format it with a GUID partition table and Mac OS Extended (Journaled). With the flash drive plugged in, restart and hold down Cmd-R, which will take you into recovery mode. One of the choices will be to install Mac OS X; pick that but choose the flash drive as the destination and run the installer. Once that's done, boot from the flash drive and install DiskWarrior, and any other utilities you wish on it.


BTW, even with a USB flash "utility" drive, it's a good idea to have a complete, current, bootable backup.

Oct 17, 2013 11:17 AM in response to FatMac-MacPro

Good to know.... which I didn't. Thanks! I also didn't know I could download the ML installer again just like any other app as Eric Root recommended. That is downloading now so I'll make the bootable drive from that but thanks for the info. So I'll have a clone and a bootable copy of ML soon both with DW. I'm all set. Thanks all for your (collective) help.

Oct 17, 2013 11:28 AM in response to anyid

EVERYONE should have a bootable HD clone handy.



Some advantages of a cloned HD:

In case of an internal HD crash and failure, there is absolutely nothing quicker to getting back to 100% operation than having a HD clone handy to either boot from, or within 20 mins. installing and removing the bad HD. Nothing to install software-wise, and a speedy immediate return to your computer use and productivity.

If you do an option key startup at boot you can directly boot to your cloned drive externally and operate from same like normal.


Sandboxing: With the help of the Cloned Drive, you can perform sandboxing, or the testing of new software, their updates and applications before they are installed on your Mac system. Moreover, if there are issues with the system, you can troubleshoot them by booting off the Clone. Many people test new APPS or experiment with a secondary clone and never worry about a failure or serious issue since the internal HD is untouched and the secondary clone can be wiped afterwards if any major issue occurs in testing. This is an invaluable tool in many instances.

User uploaded file


If you sell you computer for purchase of a new one, you can take the clone you have on hand and install same or clone it to the new internal drive of your new Mac.


As it turns out one of the huge positive benefits of a clone is that people were seeing faster HD speeds; with APPS booting up from the clone than they had seen with the internal HD. The cloning applications in cloning the drive defragments the data to the clone and remove the “holes” in the cloning process.

With a small portable HD clone you can take your ‘computer’ anywhere to most any other current Mac and boot from your HD clone and have your entire system and its data immediately there for use. In case one is across the world and their macbook gets stolen, or damaged, with another Mac you can be up and 100% in the time it takes to boot to the new or borrowed Mac!

You can clone from your external clone to the internal HD/SSD in case of corruption.

The best thing that can be said, ideally, when your HD crashes with all its data is “so what, I’ve got a clone right here” and you can return to normal operation within seconds (by booting from the clone) or minutes (by swapping drives).

Oct 17, 2013 12:17 PM in response to Eric Root

I downloaded the software and made a copy to an external hard drive and copied Disk Warrior to it. When I use that as a startup disk it only gives me the options of using disk utility, restoring from backup, reinstalling the os or get help online. I don't see the desktop so I can't access disk warrior. Disk Utility by the way finds no problems, which of course does not surprise. I thought perhaps I needed to make a disk image of DW to add to the ML bootable disk but I tried that and it created an empty disk image. I'm failing miserably! I notice that most of the directions I can find online are for using a flash drive. I don't have an available flash drive but I do have this external hard drive. Is that not good enough for this purpose?

Oct 17, 2013 12:20 PM in response to anyid

anyid wrote:


...When I use that as a startup disk it only gives me the options of using disk utility, restoring from backup, reinstalling the os or get help online. I don't see the desktop so I can't access disk warrior....

Right, that's why I advised you to install ML on a flash drive rather than put the installer on an external. You'd have gotten a bootable mini SSD complete with a Desktop from which you could run DIskWarrior.

Oct 17, 2013 12:36 PM in response to anyid

anyid wrote:


...I don't have an available flash drive but I do have this external hard drive. Is that not good enough for this purpose?...

You could use an external HD instead but that would be a waste of space. If the HD is big enough, then a bootable clone is better, though depending on how big (and how full) your internal is and how the external is connected (e.g., USB 2.0), the clone could take quite a while. The flash drive is a quick and easy emergency utility that you hope you'll never need but will help your blood pressure if you do.

Oct 17, 2013 12:53 PM in response to PlotinusVeritas

good enough to boot from a drive other than my computer to use disk warrior. that is my goal. I am having slow-down issues due to icloud trying to backup my contacts. there are two processes that keep starting:

addressbooksourcesync

icloudhelper


I have to keep killing them to use my computer at all. They are sucking up all the CPU time. This happened when I said icloud could backup my contacts. I let it run for 12 hours but it never finished it. I tried unchecking the option in sys prefs yesterday which warned me that icloud was not done copying my contacts but I unchecked it anyway. I kill the process and it will eventually restart. In the mean time I am trying to run Disk Warrior but since I upgraded to ML my old copy doesn't work. I downloaded the new version and am trying to run it. That is why I am trying to create something else to boot from. I do not have a flash drive available, I wish I did. I do have this external drive that I do not need for anything else. I don't care about wasting the space as this isn't needed for anything else. I initiated the process of cloning the drive when I posted the last message. I hope this will work. I've been trying to get my computer back for a day and a half. Like you said, it'll take some time but hopefully it'll suit my needs in the end. Thanks again for all the information everyone.

Oct 17, 2013 1:01 PM in response to anyid

anyid wrote:


...I do have this external drive that I do not need for anything else. I don't care about wasting the space as this isn't needed for anything else...

Since that's not an issue, and since a clone would carry over all the processes which are causing you so much trouble in the first place, doing a fresh install of the OS on the external and then adding the latest DiskWarrior would get you what you need. And if you then get a USB flash drive, you could clone the fresh install to it and then use the external for the backup clone you really should have too.

How to make a ML bootable disk AFTER installation

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