Mavericks Install DVD

No, the point is that Apple is phasing out supplying software via any physical means and no longer expecting that all or even most users will need to install sofware from an optical drive.

And don't be certain that Apple will continue to offer their own DVD drive indefinitely. They've dropped devices and features in the past long before people thought they should, including RS-232/422 serial ports, parallel ports and floppy drives. It would not surprise me at all if they discontinued their own SuperDrive in the not-too-distant future.

Regards.

For Audio & Multimedia production users the idea of having to download your OS & Apps everytime your system needs a clean out is just insane! Apple are going to loose a lot of users over this & rightly so. The App store is unreliable at best & downloading software like Logic pro X is completely impractical for most users. This is the beginning of the end for Apple, dumb move, really dumb move.

The simplest way, and safest way, as mentioned is to download Mavericks once, copy it to a flash drive and use that one flash drive to install the OSX download on all other computers. Use a few flash drives if you wish.

Cheers

Pete

I followed the DVD instructions, but when I mount the .iso and launch the installer app it aborts with a message that "this is not a supported way to install OS X". I tried to boot a VM off the iso under Parallels 9, but that never got beyond a black screen.

Are these "normal" observations, to be expected - or would I ruin a perfectly good DVD if I burned the iso?

As to the whole optical disk debate: I prefer to use opticals for this kind of installer. They're cheaper than thumb drives (at least here in France), probably more reliable, and they don't have that temptation factor when you're in urgent need of some external storage ...

I'm pretty sure the superdrive in my MBP will outlast the laptop itself, are there enclosures that I could put it into when the time comes?

(to think I gave away a perfectly good external FW dual-layer DVD burner just because it was too voluminous for the new place I moved into...)

But the purpose of making the iso file is just to burn it to dvd. It is not meant for any other purpose.

If you are just trying to make a virtual machine of mavericks in parallels, you just drag the .app file you downloaded from the mac app store into parallels which then makes its own bootable dmg file of it and then you can install the virtual machine with the dmg file that parallels created.

I have made a bootable dvd from the iso and have tested it out. It works but just be aware that it is much slower to boot than from a usb.

Well, Paralllels exposes disk images like an actual disk to the guest if you ask it to, so in theory it should boot off it (I've installed numerous Linux VMs that way, with a downloaded iso).

Anyway, I'm feeling very stupid - my old Toast copy doesn't recognise the .iso, and when I right-clicked it to select the Burn command, I ended up with a copy of the .iso on a DVD (that's ripe for the trash bin now). What couldhave gone wrong?!

I've done nothing *to* the .iso, only done things with it. Anyway, I burned the DVD as per your instructions, but it doesn't seem to want to boot. Are your sure there isn't something like a "bless" to do on the sparseimage before converting it?

I also used the app store's updater app to update an external clone of my hdd. Can't say the update process has improved; earlier versions proposed to do a clean install or an upgrade and IIRC didn't require to reboot the machine if you weren't installing to your boot disk. But I was most disappointed by the fact that after logging in the machine immediately started to make a local TM backup without asking permission first ... after more than 30 minutes staring at the "Setting up" spinner I logged in over ssh (whew, that worked), disabled local TM backups, and then (again 30min later) did a shutdown because something was still setting up. Bummer ...

I wouldn't have posted the instructions if they didn't work.

I made my own bootable dvd with it and tested it out and installed mavericks successfully from it. It takes a long time to boot up though. Like 20 minutes or so. That's why I said before that a bootable usb is better.

Also if you are able to get the dvd working, it won't install the recovery partition. You will have to do that separately with the script file I linked to before - whereas a bootable usb made with the createinstallmedia command will install that automatically.

Unfortunately createinstallmedia won't make a proper bootable dvd installer for mavericks. I've tried that too. It will boot but not install.

So at the moment you have to make the iso file and then burn it to dvd with disk utility.

Also, what version did you do it with? 10.9 build 13A603 golden master? That's the only one I made my dvd for.

I haven't tested on the 10.9.1 full installer. So I'm not sure if it works for that.

Can you tell me if it is better to have the recovery partition or not? My MacBookPro is not booting up and I would like to try to make the reinstall system DVD/UBS drive but I don't want too loose all my software - I don't have any backups!

It wouldn't matter which way you do it, the OS will be installed over the current one.

Assuming nothing goes wrong, all of your personal data, settings and third party software will remain as they are. But computers and software aren't perfect. There's always a chance something will go wrong and you will lose data.

So, if you have to, go out and purchase an external drive. They're aren't that expensive, and are a heck of a lot less than the value of lost data.

Thanks for response that clears up that a bit, though I stopped at 10.4.11, never did 5 6 7 or 10.8. The MBP I bought is 2009 with Mavs already installed, and I have never purchased anything from the Apple App Store.

I am really confused about how the new 'downloading' of system software really works. For example I found the following excerpt in a MacWorld report about making reinstall drives of Maverick: - " ... There’s a catch here, however: What if you’ve never purchased OS X from the Mac App Store? For example, what if you own Mavericks only because you bought a Mac that shipped with it preinstalled? Recent Macs are designed to let you reinstall the OS using Internet Recovery. So if you buy a new Mac post-Mavericks, and you haven’t purchased Mavericks for another Mac, you can’t download the Mavericks installer from the Mac App Store. For Lion, I explained how to ..."

If I ask a friend with 10.9 to download the system installer or make an install USB from their own mac will I still be able to use that to try and fix my laptop? It's getting too complicated.

This is the MacWorld article I read- http://www.macworld.com/article/2056561/how-to-make-a-bootable-mavericks-install -drive.html

To add to Csound1's post. If you do have to go back to Snow Leopard (or any other earlier OS), then you have no choice but to erase the drive before you can move on to your own App Store obtained copy of Mavericks. Meaning, you also have no choice but to first backup your data before you do anything else.

Thank you Kurt and CSound1. The serial number confirms it as mid 2009 and it's the 2.53ghz model which according to the apple Tech Specs means it shipped with 10.5 - I don't see that for sale on the Apple website, though it is available on eBay. Would I have to install 10.5 first then 10.6 or could I just load 10.6 straight off?

Also do I have to purchase the 10.6 from Apple or can I do that from eBay, for instance is this the start of a purchasing certificate chain?

Assuming I can succeed in installing 10.5 or 10.6 to the drive is it possible I will retain my other software without going up to Mavericks, or is that going to be wiped at that point?

All my own fault of course: always kept several backup bootable drives and copies of data, very useful for moving it all around and cleaning up or starting from scratch. This is a relatively new purchase and I had not got familiar with 10.9 was a bit uneasy with the simple connectivity to other puters on the network and multiple desktops - perhaps best to wipeaway and begin again if for nothing but security as that has also been troubling me, indeed that is how this happened, by finding the "wheel" and "everyone" user or groups and deleting them or setting to no access, something along those lines has created a non starting drive. Oops.

You can install 10.6 on your Mac without 10.5, I would purchase the disc from Apple if it were my decision.

Your other software is not so simple, you can reinstall it from disks or the App Store, provided it was purchased by your account (just like Mavericks).

Once you have reinstalled everything I would suggest leaving permissions as they are.

There is no need to lose your apps and settings. Go out and buy that external disk if you haven't done that yet.

Initialise and partition it like the internal disk.

Then, grab a copy of Carbon Copy Cloner. Use it to make a clone of your internal disk on the external.

You can then boot from the external as if it were the internal (hold donw the Option key while booting)

Whatever method of upgrading you follow hereafter, you'll have the possibility to migrate your stuff as if it eere from an old Mac. The installer will give you the option but you can also do it manually, later.

I'd advise you to create an admin account that will not be your main account, first.