Boot from USB instead of DVD

You do not want to burn a DVD or CD when installing a new operating system or running some maintenance tools? Me not, too!

Espacially, when you want to install something large which normally requires an expensive dual layer DVD or even when no DVD drive is available at all, it makes sense to use a USB device. On a Mac, this can be a standard USB stick or an iPod having the appropriate capacity.

Also using a USB device is really fast und produces less noise.

Ok, here is my short step-by-step guide for you how to make it work:

Note: Doing that will erase ALL data on your media!

Step 1: Open the Disk Utility from the Application / Utilities folder and select your destination USB device. Then go to the “Partition” tab and change the scheme from “Current” to “1 Partition”.

Step 2: Click the options to select the partition mode. To make it bootable on a Mac “GUID Partition Table” is required. Check this radio button and confirm with “ok”.

Step 3: “Apply” the settings and confirm to “Partition”.

Step 4: Finally, we need to select that image file to be placed on the USB device. This can be a DMG or ISO file. You can use the Disk Utility tool, to create such images from your DVDs. You can start the process by clicking on “Restore”.

Note: Do NOT copy discs or any other media you are not allowed to!

Drop me a comment, if that guide helped you out.