Part 3: Putting It All Together

MacStudioA Blueprint Series Part 3: Putting It All Together

RAW SCRIPT:

Script: Blueprint Series Part 3

If you've been following along, Glad to see you back for our third and final Part from our Blueprint Series, "Putting It All Together".

Options Available:

Option 1:
Reinstall of Mountain Lion 10.8.2
This is what I call an upgrade, it basically Reinstall Mountain Lion on top of your Original Mac OS X,

Preserving all user or users and associated folder currently on your Mac system...only way to get a completely clean install is by erasing the Macintosh hard drive first (Option 2).

Option 2:
Clean install of Mountain Lion 10.8.2.
N.B: If you want a completely clean install of Mountain Lion, then you need to erase the Macintosh hard drive first...then perform the clean install...IE: you might do this if you are going to sell your Mac or just want a clean system like new.

Option 3:
Restoring A System Image File.
What was created in Part 2

What You Will Need:

1. An Intel-Based Mac

2. Mac OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2 USB Boot Disk…created in Part 1.

That will care of Options 1 and 2.

3. And Finally, An External USB Hard Disk containing a System Image File to Restore…created in Part 2.

As Always and Particularly in this case, Don't forget to make a backup of your Hard Drive or Hard Drives, especially when using the Disk Utilities Application.

So Let's Get Started

As we will be demonstrating Options 1,2,and 3, Make sure to connect your USB Mountain Lion 10.8.2 Boot Disk and your External USB Hard Disk.

Now simultaneously Press the "Option" and "Power" Button until you hear...

the start-up "Boing" sound, then release the "Option" and "Power" Buttons.

Now click on the Orange Icon…which is basically your USB Boot Disk, and click on the up arrow, which will launch the OS X Utility screen.

So onto…

Option 1: Reinstall Mountain Lion 10.8.2
Click/Highlight Reinstall OS X, then press the Continue Button, Now navigate to where you want to install Mountain Lion, locate and click on the Macintosh HD to Reinstall Mountain Lion 10.8.2, agree to the terms and begin the Reinstallation process (this took approximately 30 mins. on my Macbook Air)

Option 2: Clean Install of Mountain Lion 10.8.2
In order to perform a clean install we must first erase the Macintosh HD, highlight Disk and press the continue button

Now from the Disk Utility Windows and on the Left Panel, click on the the Macintosh HD, press the Erase Tab to erase the Macintosh HD, this will only take a few seconds.

After that's completed, quit or close the Disk Utility windows, which will return you back to the OS X Utilities windows, now repeat Option 1.

Option 3: Restoring A Mountain Lion 10.8.2 System Image File,
Perform Option 2, up to the point of erasing the Macintosh HD.
(Do not quit the Disk Utility).

Now Click the Restore Tab, then click the Image Button and locate you External Hard Disk and click folder where the System Image is located, in our case it's in the DiskImage Folder.

Now Click and drag the Macintosh HD to the Destination box, now Click the Restore Button, confirm that you want to erase the Macintosh HD and replace it with the System Image File, press the Erase Button and the System Image restoration will commence,

We'll just Time-lapse this again instead of you having to wait.

Amazingly, this process took only 3 mins. to restore, compared to a reinstall or clean install of Mountain Lion 10.8.2, which takes approximately 30 mins. or longer.

And that's it, thank you very much for watching the Blueprint Series, parts 1,2 and 3 it you have any comments or feedback please comment below.

Peace.

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Part 2: Creating a Mountain Lion 10.8.2 System Image File

MacStudioA Blueprint Series Part 2: Creating a Mac OS X System Image File

RAW SCRIPT:

Script: Blueprint Series Part 2

Hi…I’m Serge Siou and Welcome to MacStudioA

If you've been following our Blueprint Series, Glad to see you back for Part 2, Creating A Mac OS X System Image File.

Some basic facts about a Mac OS X System Image File:

1. A Mac OS X System Image File is a backup and recovery file of your Mac OS X Operating System, in our case Mountain Lion, plus any Mac App Store updates that usually has to be performed from a clean install and any
Third-Party Applications that you install on your Mac, included on it.

2. An image file only takes minutes to restore a Mac System back to the way you originally customized and configure it, compared to taking hours from a clean install, where you have to perform all updates and application installations all over again.

3. A Mac OS X boot disk is required to restore an image files.

4. And finally, you need two individual hard drives in order to create a System Image File, one being the Macintosh Hard Drive and the other, an Internal or External Hard Drive.

So let's get started

What you will need:

Some required devices required when deciding to create a System Image Backup under the Mac OS X environment.

1. A Mac (Intel based-Mac)

2. A Separate Internal and External Hard drive.
(In our case, We'll be using a USB 3.0 External hard drive)

if any of your Mac system has two individual Hard drives,
(not two different partitions but two individual hard drives) then an external hard drive is not required, but good to have for portability)

Basically for a System Image Backup to work and do it’s job effectively, you need to create it on a completely separate hard drive from the main Macintosh hard drive.

The External hard drive can have separate partitions, as long as it has enough space to create a System image file.

Consider reserving at least 100GB to start with on your Internal or External Hard drive.

So in our case, we will be assuming that you will be using an external hard drive,

As always, don't forget to back-up your hard drive or drive when ever using the Mac Disk Utility Application.

To check what applications is currently on your Macintosh Hard drive, click on LaunchPad…

Everything shown in the yellow box and any additional third-party applications that you install on your Mac system will be included on the Mac System Image that you create.

As you can see some of the third party applications will be included on the Mac OS X System Image File, plus Applications from the Mac App Store, like GarageBand, iMovie and iPhoto.

TOP TIP: Before creating an Image File, make sure to check if there is any updates currently available from the Mac App Store.

[additional notes to maybe include:
(incidentally, make sure to download all Mac Store Apps update Apps by launching the Mac App Store and click on the Updates tab to show current updates available…usually from a clean install GB, iM and iP has to be updated).]

At this point, We'll insert our External USB External Hard drive,

This is where the Mac OS X System Image will be copied too.

Once loaded,

We need to launch the Disk Utility application,

click LaunchPad and go to the Other Folder,

click Disk Utility to launch it,

Now, on the Disk Utility Taskbar,

Click File then scroll to New,

Now scroll and click on "Disk image from Folder…"

You will now be presented to Select the Folder to image
which is basically the Macintosh HD.

As I have many Hard drives and Partitions, I usually go to where all my Devices are as shown, which in my case is named "iSerge's Macbook Air"

Now click on the Macintosh HD icon,

then click the image button,

We now need to give our image a name,

I usually name them with the Date the image was created

then choose where to copy the System Image too,

in our case, it's our External USB Mac partitioned HD

then click the down-arrow to expand the Mac External HD

at this point, for easy cataloguing,

we can create a folder where the image will be copied to,

this is purely optional, I just do it for better cataloguing.

In our case, I'll create one called "LatestMacImage"

Once done...click on the Folder just created to make sure it's selected and click on the Save button

You will now be promoted to enter your Admin Details

do so and click the OK button.

for the Image to start being created.

Depending what you choose to include on your system image file, determines how long the image process will take.

in our case, it took about 45 minutes

We'll just Time-lapse it by 10,000 percent

After the System Image is created, click once on the dmg file in the left panel for this demo it's the file "MacOSXImageDec222012.dmg"

We now need to "Scan Image for Restore", If you forget to do this, you will be prompted to do so when doing an actual System Image Restore.

On the left-hand panel of the Disk Utility Window, click on the
System Image File just created ("MacOSXImageDec222012.dmg"),

Then go to the Disk Utility Taskbar and click on the "Images" tab, then scroll and click on "Scan Image for Restore…"

You will then be promoted to Enter you Admin Details

Do so, then click on the "OK" button and the Scan process will begin.

Once again the scan will take some time, in our case, it took 16 mins.

We'll time-lapse this again by 10,000 percent.

And that's it, your Mac OS X System Image is now ready for Restore.

You can check that it has indeed been copied to your External USB Hard Drive and also Get info about it's content.

We can now close all open folders/windows,

and proceed to Part 3 from our Blueprint Series: Putting It All Together.

If you have any question about Part 2 please comment below.

Hope to see you back for Part 3.

Peace.

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Part 1: Creating a Mountain Lion 10.8.2 USB Boot Disk

MacStudioA Blueprint Series Part 1: Creating a Mac OS X Mountain Lion USB Boot Disk

RAW SCRIPT:

Script: Blueprint Series Part 1

This is the First of 3 Parts from our Blueprint Series:

Part 1 will show you how to create a Mac OS X USB Boot Disk using Mountain Lion version 10.8.2.

Part 2 will show you how to create a System Image File. And finally in Part 3, we'll be putting it all together using what we created in Parts 1 & 2.

So on to Part 1: Creating A Mac Mountain Lion 10.8.2 USB Boot Disk.

Let's Get Started

 "What You'll need"

 An Intel Based Mac System.

At least an 8 Gigabyte USB Disk (Make sure to make a backup you USB Disk as all data will be erased when creating the USB Boot Disk).

And finally, purchased copy of the Mac OS X Mountain Lion Operating System.

VERY IMPORTANT Make sure that you have a backup of your hard drive whenever you're working with the Mac Disk Utility program.

So; Assuming you have Mountain Lion, navigate to its location, in my case, it's in the Applications Folder.

Right Click on the Mountain Lion Icon and scroll to where it say "Show Package Contents"
Now Double-click on the Contents Folder,
then Double-click on the SharedSupport Folder,
now we'll just position the folder down here.

Next we need to load the Disk Utility Application,
go to Launchpad and click on the "Other Application" Folder,
and finally click on the "Disk Utility Application".

Now we'll need to insert the USB Disk in one of of the available USB sockets,
when it's loaded,
click on the 8 Gigabytes Flash Disk,
then click the Erase Tab,
then the other "Erase Button" here to start erasing the USB Disk,

you will be presented with a confirmation dialogue box, press the Erase button to confirm, takes about 15 seconds to format.

We next need to partition the USB Disk,
make sure that you USB Disk is still highlighted,
now click the Partition Tab.

This takes a few seconds to load.
Once loaded,
go to Partition Layout and click on the Current Drop-down list,
then click on 1 Partition,
now click on the Options Button,

This will bring up the Partition Options Available. As this is an Intel-based Mac, and by default, the GUID Partition Table button is already selected, so we just need to press the OK Button and click Apply.

Once the pop-up folder appears and when ready,
press the Partition Button,
This will begin to Partition the USB Disk in order for it to auto boot,
this will not take long, about 10-15 seconds (in my case). 

Now that the USB Disk is partitioned correctly, we are ready to copy the Mountain Lion 10.8.2 Operating system onto it.

 In order to proceed, MAKE SURE that the Untitled 1 Partition is highlighted,
not like before when the Description of your USB Disk was highlighted,
if you have renamed it, make sure the name is highlighted, incidentally; it makes no difference if you name the USB Disk or not, because it will be re-named for you automatically.

Remember the SharedSupport folder that was opened earlier,
well, click and Drag the InstallESD.dmg file to the Source Area of the Disk Utility window,
while in the Disk Utility window, Click and drag the Untitled 1 Partition to the Destination Area.

Now press the Restore Button to proceed,
you will then be presented with a Dialogue folder asking if you are sure,
press the Erase Button when ready,
you will finally be presented to enter your Admin details,
enter your name and password and press OK to begin the creation of your USB Mountain Lion 10.8.2 Boot Disk.

The process indicated that it will that about 1Hr and 28 mins, but took only 16 mins for me.

Once it's created, a pop-up folder will appear, showing the name of the boot disk, which has been named "Mac OS X Install ESD", along with all the files associated with it.

We can now close all opened folders and eject the USB Boot Disk, we'll come back to it in Part 3 of our Blueprint Series.
That's it, Part 1 done.

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In the i.Beginning

Once upon a time, let me think...Hmmm...June 2012, I purchased my first iPad, known as the New iPad, this is the latest Third Generation model, and  the fact that the Second Generation model was named the iPad 2, you would probably assume that the third generation model would be named...yeah...you guessed it, the iPad 3, no way José, it was just named the New iPad instead, go figure.

And so to the story, where was I, after purchasing 3 New ipads, the other two for my sons, and an Apple bluetooth keyboard and a Magic Trackpad, I guess you could say, this was the beginning of my life using an  Apple ecosystem device.

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