Level 1

52 points

Creating a Mavericks Bootable Install DVD

I have performed this procedure:

Creating a bootable OS X installer in OS X Mavericks

to create a bootable Mavericks installer on USB stick. I then discovered that my 2008 Mac Pro doesn't suppoort booting from a USB stick. Booting with the option key, the USB stick doesn't show up in the list of bootable media (it does show up on my MacBook Pro though, so the procedure did work).

I'm not sure how to think this procedure could be adapted to burning a bootable installer DVD - that since a DVD isn't an ordinary read/write volume like a USB stick (you can't just "write" a DVD like a USB volume; you have to "burn" it). Anybody have any thoughts on that?

Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.3), 8x2.8GHz, 2560x1600 Cinema HD

Posted on Oct 1, 2014 10:58 AM

28 replies

Oct 1, 2014 2:10 PM in response to mr88cet

If you did it right, the name of the USB stick should be "OS X Base System". It should be able to be mounted on any Mac running Mac OS X, and you should see a bunch of files including "Install OS X Mavericks.app".

If it won't boot from a USB stick that meets that description, you may need to do an SMC Reset.

mr88cet Author

Level 1

52 points

Oct 1, 2014 4:53 PM in response to lllaass

Oh oh oh. I just remembered: When I was diagnosing the Mac Pro problem a week or so ago, this approach had occurred to me, but I wasn't confident that it would work. Why? I guessed (don't know for sure) that the OSX installation for any given Mac is not necessarily identical with that for all Macs. That is, there would be some software installed for some types of Macs not installed for others, perhaps more swap space on some than on others, and so forth. If that is true, since I'm ... strongly insinuating at least ... to the installer that the Mac Pro's disk is a boot disk for the MacBook Pro, then it would presumably "gestalt" the MacBook Pro, and perform an installation appropriate for it, rather than appropriate for the Mac Pro. Thoughts on that?

mr88cet Author

Level 1

52 points

Oct 1, 2014 4:55 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I was not aware of the SMC and the potential need to reset it. I looked it up though, and I think I know what to do. I'll give it a try in the not-too-distant future. Thanks for the suggestion.

Oct 1, 2014 5:21 PM in response to mr88cet

The are only two types:

1) one that "shipped in the box" with a particular model Mac -- these are only good for that model Mac. The deficiency is the base Driver is ONLY for that model. The rest of the things you theorized about are adjusted automatically as the system starts up.

2) ones you "purchased", even for $0 -- these are good for any appropriate model Mac, because they contain "drivers for every appropriate model Mac".

Here is the wacky example: You bought a Mac that shipped with Mavericks. That would be a model-specific build. To install on another Mac, you would need to "purchase" another copy of Mavericks. Luckily, it is still on sale for $0.

mr88cet Author

Level 1

52 points

Oct 12, 2014 5:27 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

OK, sorry for the delay.

I finally got a chance to reset the SMC, which on this 2008 Mac Pro apparently consists of:

Shut down the system.
Pull the plug for 15 seconds (or more).
Plug it back in for 5 seconds (or more).
Boot it up again.

Upon booting it up, I plugged in the bootable Mavericks-install USB drive and pressed the option key. The first time, the boot didn't work; it just sit there forever. I hit the power button to shut it down, and then hit it again to power it up again. As before, it does show the built-in drives, but it still does not show the USB drive.

In other words, that doesn't appear to have helped. Hmmm...

mr88cet Author

Level 1

52 points

Oct 12, 2014 5:27 PM in response to mr88cet

("Pressed and held the option key," just to make sure there's no confusion.)

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Oct 13, 2014 8:04 AM in response to mr88cet

The 'stick' has to be 16GB and sorry but my Mac Pro is older, a 2006, and it does boot from USB2.

I used Lion DiskMaker. You can find it and instructions.

mr88cet Author

Level 1

52 points

Oct 13, 2014 8:12 AM in response to The hatter

So, you're saying that early Mac Pros will not see external USB devices as bootable if they are smaller that 16GB?

(Oh, I was also going to add that I verified again that the USB stick is bootable from my MacBook Pro.)

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Oct 13, 2014 8:16 AM in response to mr88cet

Nooo only that the INSTALLERs that work have had to be 16GB.

Getting a real DVD is even more trouble and with USB you can experiment over and over, and cheap.

Why limit yourself to slow USB? the installer can go anywhere! I use a TimeMachine drive, shrank and created a small 20GB volume and voila a fast easy local drive with my OS X Lion installer. Laptops and others may be limited but not us.

Not sure why you have trouble on Mac Pro and it works on MacBook Pro. Something different in how you created it?

mr88cet Author

Level 1

52 points

Oct 13, 2014 9:08 AM in response to The hatter

The hatter wrote:

Nooo only that the INSTALLERs that work have had to be 16GB.

Getting a real DVD is even more trouble and with USB you can experiment over and over, and cheap.

Why limit yourself to slow USB? the installer can go anywhere! I use a TimeMachine drive, shrank and created a small 20GB volume and voila a fast easy local drive with my OS X Lion installer. Laptops and others may be limited but not us.

Not sure why you have trouble on Mac Pro and it works on MacBook Pro. Something different in how you created it?

Well, again, no external devices are appearing in in the option-boot screen, but DVDs do, and thus my question. (Or at least no USB devices; I haven't yet tried to create a bootable FireWire device.)

The procedure I used to create the bootable Mavericks-installation disk is: Creating a bootable OS X installer in OS X Mavericks. Recommend by Apple on an AppleCare call.

Oct 13, 2014 10:06 AM in response to mr88cet

The Mac Pro 2008 model will boot with the "Full Retail" pressed, silkscreened Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard DVD available from the Apple online Store for about US$20. It contains 10.6.3, and can be updated with software Update to 10.6.8.

When running 10.6.8, you can upgrade to a purchased copy of 10.9 mavericks easily. The software will be downloaded to your Applications folder and installed from there.

This would eliminate all the distractions.

mr88cet Author

Level 1

52 points

Oct 13, 2014 10:58 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thanks for the suggestion, and yes, I do in fact have the factory Snow Leopard disk.

The AppleCare folks I chatted with, a few weeks ago when I had a problem that seemed to be a bad Mavericks update, but actually turned out to be a video-card failure, confirmed my expectation that I could do that. The downside is that they said that I'll have to waste the drive, install from Snow Leopard, upgrade to Mavericks, and then restore from a full backup or from Time Machine. That, since there are various files that have been updated for Mavericks and could cause problems even for short-time use with Mavericks.

So I'm thinking that'll be "plan B," in the event of disaster. "Plan A" will be to hook up the MacPro in target-disk mode and install it from the MacBook Pro.

In the meantime, I think I need to do any or all of the following:

Periodically, make sure the TM backups are going as usual, and also, that I can restore from TM, every now and then. I recently had a disk problem with my TM disk that didn't cause any problems for backups, but it just hung forever when I tried to restore anyting.
Once every couple months or so, do a full backup via Disk Utility (it's an almost-full 2TB RAID, so it takes about a day and a half to backup!).
Keep the ol' DiskWarrior maintence of the drive and its TM disk going, once a month or so.
Investigate the feasibility of installing an internal System Disk separate from the RAID, preferably a SSD.
Start saving up for replacement Mac Pro system! 😉

mr88cet Author

Level 1

52 points

Oct 14, 2014 7:56 AM in response to mr88cet

I guess I'll call this the solution, even if only so that I can mark this as resolved. I kinda doubt if any better answer will come up...

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Creating a Mavericks Bootable Install *DVD*