create emergency startup disk

Question

create emergency startup disk

I'm running System 10.8.5, which I downloaded from Apple (No disk). How do I create a create an Emergency Startup Disk?

Mac Pro (Mid 2010), Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Jan 12, 2015 8:51 AM

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Answer 1

keg55

Level 6

11,755 points

Jan 12, 2015 9:34 AM in response to Pamela Veenstra

Use the OS X Recovery Disk Assistant (free download). You only need a 4GB USB thumb drive. This will create a Recovery HD for the OS you are running on the thumb drive. You can boot from this anytime using the Option key at restart and selecting it.

If you are looking to create an OS X Mountain Lion installer, you can take a look at this link. An 8GB USB thumb drive would be adequate.

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Answer 2

kahjot

Level 4

2,463 points

Jan 12, 2015 7:18 PM in response to Pamela Veenstra

It's also helpful to have a bootable external hard drive. You can clone your current system to one, using SuperDuper or Caron Copy Cloner, or do a clean install of Mountain Lion, then add your disk utilities such as Disk Warrior, Data Rescue, etc.

Making backups of your OS installers on flash drives is an important safeguard.

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