Mavericks - need for a boot USB drive?

Hi All - transitioned to Apple in the spring w/ a new MBPro & iMac, both came w/ Mtn Lion - a month ago I upgraded to Mavericks w/o a problem - made BUs for both computers and then did an install (did not make a USB Mavericks install disk as was recommended by many here).

Now, both computers are running Mavericks - I had made USB boot drives for Mtn Lion - so, what is the procedure to make a USB boot drive on these computers where Mavericks is already installed - thanks for any advice. Dave

Re-download the installer from the App Store and use DiskMaker X to make the bootable installer.

Download DiskMaker X for Mac - Make a bootable OS X installer disk. MacUpdate.com

lifeisabeach said:

Re-download the installer from the App Store and use DiskMaker X to make the bootable installer.

Download DiskMaker X for Mac - Make a bootable OS X installer disk. MacUpdate.com

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Thanks - will revisit those sites - Dave

Well, an additional question after re-reading various links; now, I understand 'how' to make this 'bootable' USB by re-downloading the OS installer from the App Store & using DiskMaker X, BUT is the only purpose of this 'flash stick' to re-install Mavericks?

As an example, if my MBPro SSD or the fusion drive on my iMac refuses to boot, will this USB drive allow me to boot into an OS and then examine and do 'diagnostics' on the dysfunctional drives? Will the computers be useable w/o doing a re-installation of the OS?

Sorry for the questions, but just would like to know (before needed - hopefully never!) what are the options w/ this bootable USB disk - thanks again for comments & help. Dave

RadDave said:

Well, an additional question after re-reading various links; now, I understand 'how' to make this 'bootable' USB by re-downloading the OS installer from the App Store & using DiskMaker X, BUT is the only purpose of this 'flash stick' to re-install Mavericks?

As an example, if my MBPro SSD or the fusion drive on my iMac refuses to boot, will this USB drive allow me to boot into an OS and then examine and do 'diagnostics' on the dysfunctional drives? Will the computers be useable w/o doing a re-installation of the OS?

Sorry for the questions, but just would like to know (before needed - hopefully never!) what are the options w/ this bootable USB disk - thanks again for comments & help. Dave

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Unfortunately no it won't, but that is why you make at least 1 backup of either machine a Bootable backup with either SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner . . . TimeMachine, only copies files to itself, where as both these Apps make a Bootable Clone of your Machine, and if the backup is from one Mavericks, then you can boot into another Mavericks machine as well.

TattooedMac said:

Unfortunately no it won't, but that is why you make at least 1 backup of either machine a Bootable backup with either SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner . . . TimeMachine, only copies files to itself, where as both these Apps make a Bootable Clone of your Machine, and if the backup is from one Mavericks, then you can boot into another Mavericks machine as well.

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Thanks TMac - that's what I thought! I'm doing Time Machine BUs on both computers + Carbonite on the iMac & a SSD external drive on the MBPro; of course, the latter are only backing up our personal files - I assume that if my computers 'crash' that I can bring back a new one w/ the TM backups + will have a secondary BU of our important files.

Now adding Carbon Copy Cloner would give me a 'bootable' disc + a way to completely duplicate my computer(s) - boy, just curious now 'how many' levels of protection are needed? - thanks again - maybe I need to also look into CCC! Dave

The USB drive though can be used to run Disk Utility and repair any hard drive. You can not repair with the drive mounted so running it from the Installer can be very important.

TattooedMac covered the rest of your questions.

dtravis7 said:

The USB drive though can be used to run Disk Utility and repair any hard drive. You can not repair with the drive mounted so running it from the Installer can be very important.

TattooedMac covered the rest of your questions.

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Hi Dennis - thanks - that was my question, i.e. being able to run Disk Utility once booted from the USB drive - I'll plan to make one - Dave

Cool, glad I mentioned it then!

I actually have a thumb drive with 2 partitions: one with a bootable installer, the other with a full running copy of OS X on it complete with various utilities on it to access in a pinch. The single biggest problem with running OS X off a thumb drive like this? It is slooooooww!

lifeisabeach said:

I actually have a thumb drive with 2 partitions: one with a bootable installer, the other with a full running copy of OS X on it complete with various utilities on it to access in a pinch. The single biggest problem with running OS X off a thumb drive like this? It is slooooooww!

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Hi again! Please explain the 2 partitions (assume easily done w/ Disk Utility?) - what is the easiest way to put a full running copy of Mavericks on one of the partitions? I assume the USB drive boots first on the other partition or are both bootable? Of course, my other thought is that both my computers have USB 3.0 ports, thus I would expect the OS to run faster if I obtained USB 3.0 flash drives? Thanks for comments and explanations - Dave

P.S. BTW, we just spent 3 days on Wrightsville Beach in late October (weather was in the high 70s) - a yearly or even biannual visit (live in Winston Salem).

You clone your Mac install to one of the partitions and create the bootable copy on the other. When you insert the flash drive, format it (as always, this will erase all the data on the drive) and create two partitions in Disk Utility. This will give you two places to do what you want - one partition for a bootable backup and the other to create a bootable installer.

RadDave said:

Hi again! Please explain the 2 partitions (assume easily done w/ Disk Utility?) - what is the easiest way to put a full running copy of Mavericks on one of the partitions? I assume the USB drive boots first on the other partition or are both bootable?

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Well what can easily be done is make the USB installer first, then partition it with Disk Utility and make the installer partition as small as possible. Then boot off that; run the installer; and install to the second partition on the flash drive.

Of course, my other thought is that both my computers have USB 3.0 ports, thus I would expect the OS to run faster if I obtained USB 3.0 flash drives? Thanks for comments and explanations - Dave

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USB 3.0 probably won't make it faster. The limiting factor is the speed of the read/write operations on a flash drive. It's simply far slower than an HDD is. SSDs are faster despite using the same tech because they have a LOT of flash memory running in parallel.

P.S. BTW, we just spent 3 days on Wrightsville Beach in late October (weather was in the high 70s) - a yearly or even biannual visit (live in Winston Salem).

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It was 26 one day last week and snowing. Back to 70's a couple days later. The weather is crazy right now.

Thanks all again for your responses -

Sorry but considering my options for the 'cloning' - I've not yet DL Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) but read through the documentation this morning and also thinking about using an external HD w/ 2 partitions (as described below in a message that I just left CCC) - assume that there would not be a problem partitioning this OWC 1 TB drive so that I can clone my computers into different partitions. My concern is whether this drive will boot? The person I talked to from OWC seemed not to be sure, especially for the SSD in the laptop. So still gathering information - thanks again. Dave P.S. thinking about the $123.99 HD.

Hello - in the spring we bought an iMac & MBPro - both upgraded to Mavericks; Time Machine is backing up both, but I would like to also have a 'bootable' clone - the iMac has a 1 TB Fusion Drive & the laptop a 256 SSD; all USB 3.0 ports; my plan was to use CCC to clone both computers, so debating between a USB vs. external HD option? Flash memory is still expensive so I was considering a 1 TB external HD from Other World Computing (pic attached) - just came off the phone w/ them asking whether their HD would 'boot' from my clone(s) - did not receive a definitive answer. So hoping you can help, i.e. can I clone both computers onto different partitions (probably would do 750 GB & 250 GB sizes) onto this drive, and will it boot? Any information or advice would help greatly. Thanks. Dave

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Sorry to be a PITA -

BUT, trying to resolve this issue for myself; so, just to leave a couple of more questions please - today, using the Mavericks DL installer & DiskMaker X, I made a bootable USB drive onto an old 8 GB unit on my MBPro - had a couple of 'hiccoughs' but booted into the USB drive successfully, so seems to have worked! NOW, I have another 8 GB USB drive and would like to make a second one as a backup - does it make a difference from which of my 2 computers, i.e. I had to enter my MacBPro's password (different on my iMac) to make the first one? I'm assuming no difference - thanks.

Concerning my previous question about cloning w/ CCC, looking at my 2 computers this evening there is a total of about 120 GB on both drives - I don't expect this to increase by a lot, so the second question is whether to buy an SSD external drive of up to 500 GB capacity to perform this 'dual' cloning - again any advice greatly appreciated. Dave

Dave, if you make 3 or 4 Partitions on a 1TB Drive, when you plug it in to the Mac, hit Option and startup, it will show you all 4 Partitions (if they are all bootable) plus the Machine Drive and a Bootcamp Drive if you have one. So if they are Bootable, and you click Option as you start up, you will see them on the screen and you can pick which one you want to boot too.

That help or make sense ?? I think i confused myself

TattooedMac said:

Dave, if you make 3 or 4 Partitions on a 1TB Drive, when you plug it in to the Mac, hit Option and startup, it will show you all 4 Partitions (if they are all bootable) plus the Machine Drive and a Bootcamp Drive if you have one. So if they are Bootable, and you click Option as you start up, you will see them on the screen and you can pick which one you want to boot too.

That help or make sense ?? I think i confused myself

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Sorry TMac - probably much more confusing to me!

Now as to making the 'bootable' USB Mavericks OS drives - done! And fine -

So, what's left is just to use CCC to clone both of my Mavericks computers - would like to do that w/ 2 partitions onto an external HD, either a mechanical or a SSD - at the moment just have about 120 GBs to clone and don't expect to need much more than double that - SO, can I obtain a 500 GB external drive (just doubling my estimate in case) for this purpose?

Thanks for the input - Dave

Yea a 500GB drive are obtainable, but i bet you could get a 1TB for around the same price. They are relatively cheap these days, and i would look at Western Digital, as that who i use the most, and they mostly come plug and play without having to Format them before you use them.
I would say go 1TB and do 2 partitions on that. I say 1TB because you will be surprised how quick it will fill up, especially if you do regular B/ups.
You can get them from Best Buy or stores like that in the US or online stores like OWC ~ macsales.com or Crucial.
Here is a Macworld Article to help in Partitioning a Ext HD for you.

PS : Don't get a SSD Ext HD, if they exists they will be WAY $$$$$$ So just get a normal Ext HD and use that. I have a 2TB TimeCapsule that Automatically updates with Time Machine OTA and then i do a weekly B/up of my machine with SuperDuper (paid version because it gives me extra powers) and use the Smart Update with that, so i have a backup of a backup. I also have a Bootable Thumb Drive if the SD backup fails so i have all my bases covered lol

Hi TMac - not sure that Western Digital is a good choice @ the moment - just been reading about some problems w/ the newest OS - as example HERE - but below is a nice little 3.0 USB unit from OWC operating @ 7200 rpm - the 1 TB model is just $124 w/ a 3-year warranty - unfortunately as I stated on the previous page and after discussing on the phone whether the unit would boot into a Mac after a CCC cloning, the answer was 'not sure' - WELL, I'm willing to take a chance but was hoping that one of our members could be supportive. Thanks - Dave

RadDave said:

Sorry but considering my options for the 'cloning' - I've not yet DL Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) but read through the documentation this morning and also thinking about using an external HD w/ 2 partitions (as described below in a message that I just left CCC) - assume that there would not be a problem partitioning this OWC 1 TB drive so that I can clone my computers into different partitions. My concern is whether this drive will boot? The person I talked to from OWC seemed not to be sure, especially for the SSD in the laptop. So still gathering information - thanks again. Dave P.S. thinking about the $123.99 HD.

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If you clone a bootable partition properly, the clone will boot also.

RadDave said:

BUT, trying to resolve this issue for myself; so, just to leave a couple of more questions please - today, using the Mavericks DL installer & DiskMaker X, I made a bootable USB drive onto an old 8 GB unit on my MBPro - had a couple of 'hiccoughs' but booted into the USB drive successfully, so seems to have worked! NOW, I have another 8 GB USB drive and would like to make a second one as a backup - does it make a difference from which of my 2 computers, i.e. I had to enter my MacBPro's password (different on my iMac) to make the first one? I'm assuming no difference - thanks.

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You want to make 2 bootable installers? That seems like overkill considering you can re-download and re-make it at any time. You can even reinstall from the Recovery partition. But if you insist... it doesn't matter which Mac you make it from. In fact, you could just clone one of the thumb drives to the other. The password requirement has nothing to do with the installer itself... it's just confirming that you are an admin user of that particular Mac.

Concerning my previous question about cloning w/ CCC, looking at my 2 computers this evening there is a total of about 120 GB on both drives - I don't expect this to increase by a lot, so the second question is whether to buy an SSD external drive of up to 500 GB capacity to perform this 'dual' cloning - again any advice greatly appreciated.

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Using an SSD just for a backup will be more expensive than using an HDD, although it may be more resilient to damage from being dropped or tossed around. I agree with Tattooed Mac... for the money, if you go with an HDD, you may as well get a 1 TB drive. If your preference is indeed an SSD, then 500 GB will be much more affordable.

As a side note... you may as well make a small 3rd partition and make a bootable installer on that.

RadDave said:

Hi TMac - not sure that Western Digital is a good choice @ the moment - just been reading about some problems w/ the newest OS - as example HERE

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The problem isn't WD's drive, but their software. You can use their drives without their software, and in fact I'd recommend against using their software even if it wasn't buggy. There is just no need for it. That said, I'd recommend using a drive of your own choice in an enclosure of your own choice. If going with a full 3.5" drive, get an enclosure with a fan. External drives without fans seem to die awful quickly due to excessive heat building up.