Home Forums Mac Software Mac Operating Systems Lion on a USB stick

I think you are right.

Btw, Apple Store told me I can buy Lion and put it on a USB stick so I don't have to be online to install or reinstall the system. Yesterday the little iStat program OWC Computing had me install to check the internal temp a while back was picked up by ClamX as Adware. And my computer is waking up, bright screen, in the night again. I run out of patience with running these little bugs down. I think I'm gonna wipe the drive and not lay one system over another.


Note added by alternaut:
Because of a topic change, this (renamed) thread was started by detaching several related posts from Adobe Creative Suite and Mountain Lion.

I haven't found a USB stick yet that runs at the same speed as the internal drive. I've got three USB3 flash drives here, one of which is especially fast, but something about them just runs slower than a HDD when booted. Not sure why that is. I suspect it has something to do with individual file IO being slower while single large file copies do much better.

If you want to boot off another OS, the best option is to partition your hard drive and install both onto separate partitions. That works fine if you have the HDD space to spare. Otherwise, use an external hard drive. An external thunderbolt-connected SSD would be ideal. (I have a lacie rugged thunderbolt/usb3 SSD that works better than anything else I've ever had)

Can one of the moderators start a new string, maybe two posts back? We have changed topic here and now are discussing how to install a new system without being online.

I'm not sure why Apple would advise me to put the Lion installer on a USB stick. I have tried to install Snowy from copies and also disk images that are on an external drive and came up with errors. It's a matter of booting and installing using the same media, which used to be a DVD. They told me the whole installer is 7 something GB and advised an 8 GB minimum memory stick. (Don't have Thunderbolt, it wasn't invented yet.)

They advised the stick so you'll have an installer on-hand if you ever need to re-install, rather than having to go through the whole (large) d/l routine each time; the trick has been around since Apple eliminated DVDs.

I'm not sure why you had trouble with Snowy...possibly something about how you tried to do it.

By the way, I wasn't aware that you can still get Lion if your MBP can run a later version...App Store?

You linked to this thread, not the Apple Store.

Edit: I found your page at the Apple Store; thanks.


Edited by artie505 (06/09/15 08:42 PM)

Lion on a USB stick (with BBQ sauce)