Create a Lion recovery disk

Lion Disc Maker is a free tool to make a bootable hard copy of Lion. With it, you can perform a new installation of Lion without the need to download it again from the Apple Mac App Store.

Lion Disk Maker creates a Lion installation file from the Lion DMG file that you download from the Mac App Store. All you need is a USB stick or external drive of at least 4GB and Lion Disk Maker creates a bootable version of Lion.

How does it work?

Lion Disk Maker uses Spotlight to automatically scan your Mac for the Lion-installation file. Unlike Apple’s official Lion Recovery Disk Assistant all you need is the USB stick to restore Lion – no Internet connection is needed to re-download Lion unlike with Lion Recovery Disk Assistant.

What if I don’t have my Lion DMG file anymore?

No problem. You can simply re-download it from the App Store. Simply go into purchase history and click on OS X Lion while holding the option key to start a new download of Lion. Since you’ve already paid for it once, you won’t be charged for it again.

Lion Disk Maker is an excellent tool that creates a reliable bootable recovery disk for Lion. In contrast to Apple’s solution, it’s much better because it creates a hard copy of Lion which you can boot your Mac from.

Full localization support ! No more different versions for US or French, now the script will use the proper localization automatically according to your’s system language ! And if you wish to translate it in another language, please get in touch with me, the job will be VERY easy to do (juste a mere file to translate). Icons in dialog messages. Because, well… I just could. Full support for InstallESD.dmg files, in case you used this one instead. Smarter choice of eligible disk. Lion DiskMaker will try to detect if you use a small (less than 8,5 GB), removable drive, and will propose to use it automatically. You’ll still be able to change it though. Utilities folder is now automatically copied at the root of the Install disc, so that you won’t have to search in the subfolders for these tools (especially the Firmware Password Utility…). And yup, its name is automatically localized. When you open the disk, it will look beautiful now ! You will find the « Install Mac OS X Lion » application, Utilities folder, properly aligned with the neat background . Now THAT looks cool ! And it has a bonus effect: it appears in the Startup Manager, so you will know you have to choose this one. And because we thought we could make it even cooler… A nice custom icon for your disk ! Won’t work for DVDs, sorry ! I also worked-around an issue with Lion DiskMaker failing when a Mac has two DVD drives or more connected to it. Thus, now the first drive considered will always be the first internal one. If you want to use another, just change the needed parameter in the script by opening it with AppleScript Editor. And a few small issues fixed.

Changes

• Full localization support ! No more different versions for US or French, now the script will use the proper localization automatically according to your’s system language ! And if you wish to translate it in another language, please get in touch with me, the job will be VERY easy to do (juste a mere file to translate). Icons in dialog messages. Because, well… I just could. Full support for InstallESD.dmg files, in case you used this one instead. Smarter choice of eligible disk. Lion DiskMaker will try to detect if you use a small (less than 8,5 GB), removable drive, and will propose to use it automatically. You’ll still be able to change it though. Utilities folder is now automatically copied at the root of the Install disc, so that you won’t have to search in the subfolders for these tools (especially the Firmware Password Utility…). And yup, its name is automatically localized. When you open the disk, it will look beautiful now ! You will find the « Install Mac OS X Lion » application, Utilities folder, properly aligned with the neat background . Now THAT looks cool ! And it has a bonus effect: it appears in the Startup Manager, so you will know you have to choose this one. And because we thought we could make it even cooler… A nice custom icon for your disk ! Won’t work for DVDs, sorry ! I also worked-around an issue with Lion DiskMaker failing when a Mac has two DVD drives or more connected to it. Thus, now the first drive considered will always be the first internal one. If you want to use another, just change the needed parameter in the script by opening it with AppleScript Editor. And a few small issues fixed.