Create Snow Leopard Install USB stick - easy and advanced version

[naquaada]

Hello,

 

it was interesting that chris1111 posted a method to create a Snow Leopard USB stick with Clover. However, he used an AppleScript that was incompatible to my system - I'm using Mavericks. And because compiled AppleScript programs are very incompatible with different OS X versions, it is not sure that his method of creating an Snow Leopard install stick works, depending on the system you are using.

 

Here are my versions, first the easy one:

 

1. Format an 8 GB USB stick with MBR and HFS+

2. Clone the Install DVD with the 'Restore' function on the USB stick

3. Install Clover or Chimera with a setup which is suitable to your system

4. To be safe, check out if the stick is bootable.

 

Get the device number of the stick by selecting it on the left side and using the 'Info' button in the toolbar. Let's say, it's disk5.

Open Terminal and enter sudo fdisk -e /dev/rdisk5. Enter your password, you're now in the interactive mode of fdisk. If fdisk is not found, try fdisk440.

Type p and press Return. You'll get an output like this:

 

 #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*1: 07 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [      2048 -  356777984] HPFS/QNX/AUX
 

If the first partition has an Asterisk * before a partition number, then it is bootable. If not, type these commands and press Return after every command.

 

update

f 1

p

 

Now the same line should appear, with the first partition marked as bootable. Type

 

w

 

you get this output:

 

Device could not be accessed exclusively.
A reboot will be needed for changes to take effect. OK? [n]

 

Type y and press Return. After this type q and press Return.

 

With the command help you get more information of the interactive mode of fdisk.

 

Now try if your stick boots, I did this very often and it works flawlessly.

[naquaada]

Now the advanced version. I have multiple OS X installations and don't want to use for each an single USB stick. So I bought a 64 GB stick. But before partitioning, the install images were prepared. The Snow Leopard Install DVD is a good example.

 

1. Create with Disk Utility a writeable image from it.

2. Get the tool 'Path Finder', the demo will be enough. Activate the function to display invisible files.

3. Use Path Finder's search function (not Spotlight!) and search for the suffix '.lproj'. These are the language files of the applications, kexts and whatever. Delete all you don't need, this saves space.

4. Go into the /System/Library/Installation folder and remove all unneccessary stuff. That's mostly languages and printer drivers.

5. Also check out in the root directory 'Optionall Installation Packages', I think there's Xcode on the DVD. Remove it, too.

6. Copy the largest installation packages to another drive: BaseSystem.pkg and Essentials.pkg. Delete them on the image.

7. Get the defragment tool 'iDefrag'. I don't know if the demo works.

8. Select the 10.6 Install image and use first 'Full Defrag', then 'Compact'. All data will be now be moved to the beginning of the image.

9. Copy BaseSystem.pkg and Essential.pkg back to its original place. Copy just one file at a time.

10. You could check now in iDefrag, all data are completely at the beginning on the drive.

11. Create a compressed image from the writeable image.

12. Use the 'Scan image for Restore...' function. Let's hope it works.

13. You now have a much smaller version of your installation DVD.

 

This method could be done with all OS X installations, including USB-Installers from AppStore-Versions. These are some sizes I could reduce my images:

 

Leopard: 3,6 GB (PPC comonents removed with Monolingual)

Snow Leopard: 4,5 GB

Mavericks: 5,7 GB

 

How to create a Multi-Installer-Stick? Well, I'm always using MBR, so fixed partition sizes are neccessary. Make them always abigger as neccessary. If you have bad luck, a tiny bit of will remain at the end of the image after defragging, so cloning won't work. You can try to copy the data by files. The disk Utility of Snow Leopard allows it directly from the program, just uncheck the 'Erase Disk' option.

 

How to make the partition bootable? I'm using a trick. If you are MBR with four partitions, all are primary. If you are using more than four, the first three are primary, the fourth is extended, and inside the extended partitions are logical partitions. But no matter, Disk Utility can handle this. But making a partition bootable with fdisk only works for the first three partitions. So I'm creating as first partition a data partition with enough space. There you can store kexts, updates and software, sorted for the version you need. on this partition also the bootloader will be installed, and you can use the same procedure to make it bootable like mentioned above. It may be useful to set the boot file directories invisible, it looks better. If you are using Clover, the Clover Configurator will find your config file even if it is invisible. If you are using Chameleon, you have to make the 'Extra' folder visible, at least for a while.

 

I have MBR-partitioned 64 GB USB sticks with three install images, two bootable installations and a data partition. It works really well and you don't have to search lots of USB sticks, neither for installation nor for a safety boot system if your main system crashes.