Making a recovery USB for use on another Mac

Question

Level 1

4 points

Making a recovery USB for use on another Mac

Hi,

I have my partners MacBook Pro (2011 model) running OS X Lion. Recently, the hard drive failed with "invalid sibling links". I've tried the suggestions for a fix for this (fsck_hfs, disk utility etc) but with no success. I also can't restore to a previous Time Machine backup or use the online recovery mode, since no target disk is found due to the errors.

Lion shipped with no recovery disks and of course I never got round to making my own recovery DVD/USB. I wanted to try to boot from these and see if corrupt segments could be fixed.

I also have a 2015 iMac running El Capitan. Is it possible to make an OS X Lion recovery USB on this machine and then use it to boot the MacBook? Would the App Store allow me to download the Lion Installer on a completely different machine?

Thanks

Kev

IMAC (RETINA 5K, 27-INCH, MID 2015), OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Nov 21, 2016 9:59 AM

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Answer 1

Kev Bliss1 Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 22, 2016 1:57 AM in response to Sonicray

Thanks for the link, but....

Searching the App Store for Mac OSX Lion/Lion Installer/Lion recovery etc etc returns nothings. Is this installer even still available?

Also, i don't want to purchase it again, it's already been purchased when it was on the MacBook Pro. How does the App store recognise this?

Shipping without any recovery media with the assumption you'd always have internet or the ability to always access any online recovery tools was a very poor decision Apple, not everyone's recovery issues fit the ideal mold.

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Answer 2

Kev Bliss1 Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 22, 2016 4:44 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

Hi, yes I have tried that and also to install a fresh copy of Lion at the Disk utility/restore from time machine/install new OSX window I always get when booting the MBP up, but each time, there is no HDD found to install or update anything onto. I assumed this is due to the initial errors about invalid sibling links corrupting sections of the HDD. If there is no drive showing up, is this something more sinister? Do I either need a new drive or to purchase DiskWarrior or something to fix the corrupt sections?

Thanks

Kev

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Answer 3

Kev Bliss1 Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 22, 2016 5:46 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

Thats correct, there is no hard drive visible.

Ok, thanks, I did suspect as much, but thought it may be able to be repaired if I could get a recovery disk/USB for it to read from.

Thanks again everyone.

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Answer 4

Sonicray

Level 5

4,556 points

Nov 21, 2016 10:42 AM in response to Kev Bliss1

http://www.macworld.com/article/1161069/software-system/make-a-bootable-lion-ins taller.html

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Answer 5

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,329 points

Nov 22, 2016 3:19 AM in response to Kev Bliss1

Have you tried Internet recovery (OPTION + COMMAND + R)? It should allow you to install the original OSX that came with the MBP, Lion.

Ciao.

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Answer 6

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,329 points

Nov 22, 2016 5:11 AM in response to Kev Bliss1

When you boot into the recovery partition, are you saying that there is no HDD showing where to install the OSX? If so, it appears that the HDD is faulty and needs to be replaced.

Ciao.

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