Bootable USB THumb Drive?

[Mark F]

I have noticed that Premium Member Harryb2448 has the following at the end of all of his posts:

Hang on to those original install discs like grim death! Using OS X.7 or later make a bootable USB thumb drive before running Installer!

I'm told that my new iMac will be coming with Yosemite already installed (so I won't be running Installer) and without any Yosemite cd's. How do I go about making a bootable backup USB thumb drive of Yosemite for "just in case"? I'm currently running Snow Leopard 10.6.8 on my old iMac so if Yosemite has changed where things can be found, please give more detailed guidance.

Thanks and Happy Holidays to all.

 

[harryb2448]

You may well be able to go into the App Store and download another copy. It will be in the Applications Folder. Download DiskmakerX which will format an 8GB thumb drive and install it. Otherwise when OS 10.11 or whatever comes along, do it then.


http://liondiskmaker.com

 

[RadDave]

You may well be able to go into the App Store and download another copy. It will be in the Applications Folder. Download DiskmakerX which will format an 8GB thumb drive and install it. Otherwise when OS 10.11 or whatever comes along, do it then.

DiskMaker X

@ Mark - agree w/ Harry, i.e. if you can DL the Yosemite installer from the App Store, then you should be able to make a bootable USB drive - a tutorial HERE; but keep in mind that there will be a 'Recovery Partition' on your HD that you can boot into - of course, your internal drive must be able to boot, so a reason to have other options.

Now since you already have been using Apple computers/OSs, I assume that you have used a backup policy, i.e. at least Time Machine; however, as additional insurance, a bootable clone drive is desirable - I'm using CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner), a recommendation here - so once your new Mac arrives, quickly put a backup/recovery plan in place. Dave

 

[Slydude]

That should get the job done but I have a different idea I'd like to suggest. The cost will depend upon whether you have an external hard drive around or whether you would have to purchase one.

When you get the Mac set the preferences the way you like make any settings changes etc. Once that is done make a bootable clone of the system. With that in place you could boor from that drive and get the system up and running easily. I ran one of my Macs like that for three or four days while waiting for a replacement drive.

The two most commonly recommended pieces of cloning software on the forum are SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner.