Hi All, Since we still seem to be getting posts on this topic, let me just state that the MacWorld article Dane originally cited contains a comprehensive discussion of all the different suggestions that have been offered in this thread (e.g., Gordon's suggestion of using The Apple Recovery Assistant, John's suggestion of DiskMaker X, etc.). I'll also note that the author of the article, Dan Frakes, reported a few instances where DiskMaker X version 3 didn't work perfectly for him. So if you receive a message, such as the utility alerting you that it couldn't properly name the drive it was creating, and want to know what is going on, you can check this article.
Also, Josh may be thinking of the steps outlined for using Disk Utility to prepare the USB thumb drive for creation if the bootable installer. That step does, indeed, write over the partition contents on the USB thumb drive on which you are installing the bootable media. None of the steps, if followed correctly, overwrite and erase your hard drive, although that is something that is possible to do under Disk Utility run with Admin privileges if your drive went completely bad and you wanted to restore contents from a bootable clone hard drive (which is presumably attached to your system so you can work from that hard drive in cases where you need to perform drastic surgery on your computer's internal hard drive. If you use any of the individual methods to create a bootable Mavericks install drive without problems, you may not need or want to read this article. However, if you encounter issues midway, or need to know about other preparation procedures to take before upgrading (especially the recommendation that you create a bootable clone of your hard drive before proceeding using programs like Carbon Copy Cloner, or SuperDuper!), this article contains links to that information. I'll just end by pasting in the paragraph with reference URL link to this article from Dane's original post. This article has been continuously updated since its original appearance in MacWorld when Mavericks was first released. The Install Mavericks is extremely comprehensive and even has sections which deal with those earlier 2007 model mac machines which won't run Mountain Lion and above. <http://www.macworld.com/article/2056561/how-to-make-a-bootable-mavericks-install-drive.html> HTH. Cheers, Esther On Jan 20, 2014, at 8:13 AM, Gordon Smith wrote: > You missunderstand me I think. This has nothing to do with Disk Usility at > all. It simply creates a bootable disk with the currently installed > operating system as its base. As for erasing your hard drive, that is not > possible. OS X will not permit you to erase the current boot device. > > Kind Regards > Gordon Smith > Information Technology Accessibility consultant > Providing Support For Young People Living With Sight Loss: Advice On > Accessible Information Technologies And Braille Transcription Services. > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Josh Gregory > To: OS X & iOS Accessibility <mac-access@mac-access.net > Date sent: Sun, 19 Jan 2014 15:36:27 -0500 > Subject: Re: How to make a bootable Mavericks install drive | Macworld > > You could, but the only way that I know of using that method is disk utility, > if you do it before you do disk utility, you will erase the hard drive and > not be able to get back into it. I've done that. Not good. > > Sent from my iPhone > > On Jan 19, 2014, at 3:19 PM, Gordon Smith wrote: > > Forgive my late entrance conffth thread. But can you not just use the Apple > Recovery Assistant? That works well and is totally accessible. I have > Mavericks, Mkain Lion and Lion bootable USB keys here which were created used > Recovery Assistant. I guess it's just a case for horses for courses. > Kind Regards > Gordon Smith > Information Technology Accessibility consultant > Providing Support For Young People Living With Sight Loss: Advice On > Accessible Information Technologies And Braille Transcription Services. > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Dane Trethowan > To: OS X & iOS Accessibility <mac-access@mac-access.net > Date sent: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 00:32:28 +1100 > Subject: Re: How to make a bootable Mavericks install drive | Macworld > > Back after a curl I'll look it up now and thanks for the info, Google Is Your > Friend. > <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net ---> To reply to this post, please address your message to mac-access@mac-access.net You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Mac-Access forum at either the list's own dedicated web archive: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html> or at the public Mail Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/mac-access@mac-access.net/>. Subscribe to the list's RSS feed from: <http://www.mail-archive.com/mac-access@mac-access.net/maillist.xml> As the Mac Access Dot Net administrators, we do our very best to ensure that the Mac-Access E-Mal list remains malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free. However, this should in no way replace your own security strategy. We assume neither liability nor responsibility should something unpredictable happen. Please remember to update your membership preferences periodically by visiting the list website at: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/mac-access/options/>
