Tip: How To Make a OS X Lion Boot Disk (real mac)

[Leon]

The first question that popped into my head after it was revealed that Lion would be a download only upgrade was "what if I need a boot disk?"

 

I've had too many hard drives crash, and had to reinstall too many operating systems to do without a physical boot disk. Plus I've never been one to tote around an external bootable hard drive. Thankfully creating a Lion boot disk is quite painless.

 

1. Purchase and download Lion from the Mac App Store on any Lion compatible Mac running Snow Leopard.

 

2. Right click on “Mac OS X Lion” installer and choose the option to “Show Package Contents.”

 

3. Inside the Contents folder that appears you will find a SharedSupport folder and inside the SharedSupport folder you will find the “InstallESD.dmg.” This is the boot disc image we have all been waiting for.

 

4. Copy “InstallESD.dmg” to another folder like the Desktop.

 

5. Launch Disk Utility and click the burn button.

 

Select the copied “InstallESD.dmg” as the image to burn, insert a standard sized 4.7 GB DVD, and wait for your new Lion Boot Disc to come out toasty hot.