Make a Macbook Bootable USB drive

[Voyager02]

Hello everyone

I better say a bit about the MacBook Pro Air, (not mine)  The recovery files on the hard drive were seemingly  corrupted so the whole hd partitions have been deleted as far as I can see..     Please don't ask as I haven't got a clue how this happened as it's not mine, The man is away in Aussie-land working so I was just asked if I can get it fixed seeing as I fix Pc's.. 

 

Oh! I have also tried the recovery where you connect the Mac to internet and it's supposed to download all the files and then fix/install the OS X on the laptop again.. but it only connects for a short while the stops with an error number or something.. 

 

So can some of you clever people show me in 1.2.3 steps please how to make a "bootable usb pen drive" for a Mac-pro air on my windows 7x64 pro computer.   I say somewhere that I had to downloaded the latest installer which is this I think, ( Mountain_Lion_10.8_InstallESD.dmg )  I then seen somewhere, someone said that I had to install the same OS that was on the laptop in the beginning.

 

hope you can follow the way I lay thingsout as I can follow what I say better.. 

 

 

If someone can help as I will be very grateful indeed.

 

Graham

 

 

0: Can you tell me as to which programs I need to use as we, I go along..

 

1: How do I partition the MacBook's hard drive,  sizes/names of partitions etc.:   I have a Sardu usb with loads of programs on it that I can use to boot the Mac and maybe fix the HD if there's no other way. 

 

1: Pendrive which size!  I have 4, 8, 16, 32, 64gb

 

2: What and how do I format pendrive (in windows 7 x64) so it will boot in the MacBook Pro - Air after the files are transferred to it.

 

3:  How do actually I make the usb pendrive (again in Windows) so it will boot and install OS X on the MacBook Air Pro....   I mean can I use the above .dmg.

 

 

[offroadaaron]

10 hours ago, Nessie said:

MacBook Pro Air

 

10 hours ago, Nessie said:

Mac-pro air

 

10 hours ago, Nessie said:

MacBook Air Pro

This doesn't answer any of your questions but "things" you name are not actually names. It's either a MacBook Pro or a MacBook Air or a Mac Pro!

 

 

Now that's out the way... The pen drive thing won't be easy (I don't think) the best way would be to connect via Ethernet and try and download it like you've been trying to do already. If you have another Mac around it'll be much easier.

 

 

Aussie-land

Also no one calls it that, that's just sounds weird.

[Bad Man Duke]

11 hours ago, Nessie said:

1: How do I partition the MacBook's hard drive,  sizes/names of partitions etc.:   I have a Sardu usb with loads of programs on it that I can use to boot the Mac and maybe fix the HD if there's no other way. 

 

1: Pendrive which size!  I have 4, 8, 16, 32, 64gb

 

2: What and how do I format pendrive (in windows 7 x64) so it will boot in the MacBook Pro - Air after the files are transferred to it.

 

3:  How do actually I make the usb pendrive (again in Windows) so it will boot and install OS X on the MacBook Air Pro....   I mean can I use the above .dmg.

 

 

1) Disk Utility often works just fine for this. Default is Mac OS Extended (Journaled) w/ GUID as the Partition Map. 1 partition is fine. When reloading a newer OS it will automatically create a new hidden recovery partition.

 

1a) 8GB minimum

 

2) Honestly, not worth the effort (IMO). Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) is the proper format.

 

3) I have never tried in Windows, but if you can boot into a working Mac (boot drive). Open Disk Utility and reformat the flash (pen) drive as Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) -- (use GUID as the partition map). Leave the name of the drive as UNTITLED.

 

(for the sake of simplicity, everything listed here assumes Yosemite is the intended installation, but other versions can be substituted)

 

You can download the Yosemite app installer from the App Store (if previously upgraded). Go to the purchase history and it should be listed there.

 

Once the download is completed, go to Spotlight and type: Terminal (hit enter)

 

You can run the following command (this example creates a bootable drive for Yosemite (10.10):

 

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app --nointeraction

 

You can copy and paste that string into Terminal and hit Return. Once complete, you have a bootable flash (pen) drive.

 

Yes, I know this is a little jumbled, but it's been a long day, and I am going off of memory here...

 

 

Again I have never tried to create this under Windows, and maybe it can be done but to be honest the amount of effort you will need to put into it just isn't worth it. Path of least resistance, get access to a working Mac.

 

For you reference, here is a long winded article that goes into much more detail: http://www.macworld.com/article/2367748/os-x/how-to-make-a-bootable-os-x-10-10-yosemite-install-drive.html

Edited December 16, 2015 by Bad Man Duke

[Voyager02]

12 hours ago, offroadaaron said:

 

 

This doesn't answer any of your questions but "things" you name are not actually names. It's either a MacBook Pro or a MacBook Air or a Mac Pro!

 

 

Now that's out the way... The pen drive thing won't be easy (I don't think) the best way would be to connect via Ethernet and try and download it like you've been trying to do already. If you have another Mac around it'll be much easier.

 

 

Also no one calls it that, that's just sounds weird.

Excuse me... but I just did ok  and I know quite a few people who call it that...

 

Oh! and it's a MacBook Air..... I am not acquaint with Apple computers so please just bear (grrr) with me... ok :)