Hi Geoff, Just to further comment on Gordon's points about the "Partition" tab in Disk Utility. I think that to prepare your SD card (or a USB memory stick) for being a bootable volume, the preferred method is to use the "Partition" tab and create a new partition, which also deletes existing content in the process, rather than to use the "Erase" tab. Most USB thumb drives and SD media card come formatted for use with FAT32 files for Windows, since Macs can read these formats.
The distinction is that when you make a bootable drive for current Macs, you not only need to specify the format for files (e.g., "Mac OS Extended, Journaled"), but that you're using a "GUID Partition table" (for an Intel Mac) vs. an "Apple Partition map" (for an older PowerPC Mac, or for a device that is not being used as a startup device) vs. a "Master Boot Record" for devices used to start up DOS or Windows devices, or devices that require DOS- or Windows-compatible partitions. In order to get access to those options, you have to create a new partition by changing the popup button for the partition layout of your device from "Current" to "1 partition" (or however many you want). Then you can assign name, format, and size to your partition and press the "Options" button to select one of the three options I described above (GUID, Apple, or MBR). These changes take effect when you click "Apply". I believe that Carbon Copy Cloner lets you choose a menu item to "Create a Mountain Lion Installer", which takes care of all the selection options automatically, since it assumes you need this as a bootable drive, just as the default options to use it to make a bootable clone handles this preparation and the formatting settings. But it is possible to prep the drive manually as I described by using the "Partition" tab of Disk Utility instead of the "Erase" tab. HTH. Cheers, Esther On Aug 3, 2012, at 6:32 AM, Gordon Smith wrote: > Hi Geoff > > If you look around the dick utility tabs, you'll see a "Partition" tab. > There is an "Options" button just before the two cancel and "OK" buttons. > Pressing that will bring up a table of different partition types. In that > table just select the "Guide" partition type radio button and click OK. > Then, click "Apply" and then click "Partition". Your partition will then be > created. > > Gordon > > On 3 Aug 2012, at 17:06, Geoff Waaler <geoff.waa...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Hi Esther, Gordon and others, > > I ordered an 8GB SD card for this purpose before reading that most were > apparently using a thumb drive, so I don't have an easy way to test USB > connected media. > > Perhaps related, but I see no option to specify "guide" as a partition type > in the delete dialog of Disk Utility. After more experimentation I decided > that as Esther suggested, the Lion Disk Utility's "restore" dialog is > inaccessible for my purposes in that one can not copy or drag the desired > media to the target field. I tried opening the "InstallESD.dmg" file and > selecting the resulting mounted volume, to no avail. > > I created the desired installation media via CCC, and it appears to boot > properly, so ML should be installed later today. It sounds as though the > recovery tool that Gordon posted would have done the trick as well. > > Thanks to all for your suggestions and best regards. > Geoff > <--- 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> The Mac-Access mailing list is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free! Please remember to update your membership options periodically by visiting the list website at: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/mac-access/options/>
