OS X Lion USB Thumb Drives Start Arriving

Announced and on sale this past Tuesday, Apple's new OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive has shipped, and is beginning to be delivered. It is OS X Lion 10.7 Build 11A511s, and almost identical to the InstallESD.dmg inside the Lion App. Simple DVD/USB creation instructions for this were published back in June by TUAW.

Until now, a clean 10.7 install required the $29 Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard DVD then the $29 OS X Lion Upgrade App, for a total of $60. The USB drive is $69, and allows users to skip 10.6 altogether. It also allows a complete network-free install of 10.7 without the need for a Mac App Store account.

The OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive will soon be the recommended installation media for custom builds, but we need a bit of time to test it first, and develop a direct method to boot it. Until then, the xMove + MultiBeast method will work with it. Stay tuned for further development.

-tonymacx86 & MacMan

Related Posts: 
OS X Lion Installation USB Drive Now Available
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34 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looking forward to...

Anonymous said...

Keep up the good work Tony and team!

Anonymous said...

Whoot Whoot! Now to back up my SSD and get ready to install Lion... Again!

Anonymous said...

can't wait for this... This will make the most easiest method installing a hackintosh. Thanks tony and co.

lonetree said...

Tony & co you guys are awesome

Shantanu Paul said...

@Tony
I don't know where you got the wrong info but this still requires 10.6.6 or later installed. You cannot skip SL altogether.

Read the Requirements on the Apple page.

Also see here: http://www.insanelymac.com/apple-makes-os-x-lion-available-on-usb-thumb-drive/

Otirb said...

This is going to be awesome- easy installs ftw

Anonymous said...

You can install Lion without SL installed in the disk. the only reason to have SL in the disk is for download Lion from the appstore.. I did that already.. Donwload Lion in my Hp DV7 hackintosh and made a bootable USB, then install Lion in a fresh empty disk on my PC. Work like a champ..

Axe Dye said...

i never thought apple would go down the microsoft route. Not the higher price for the OS but seriously for $70 I should get at least 2 USB sticks, one for the keychain or something and one someplace safe. $30 for the os i understand but seriously apple that means the flash drive is being valued at $40 which is what a 16GB or cheap 32 GB costs. Throw in a blank cheap 4GB drive at least to promote why discs are spacious because it's robbery what this product is.

Anonymous said...

Its like being a beta tester through out. We will never know the shelf life for this.

cs455 said...

i did a clean install of Lion on my MacBook Pro... completely erased the harddrive, installed Lion from the Lion startup disk i created.

Hoping this new process will be similar.

Jody said...

@Axe Dye: I agree that $70 is too much compared to the very inexpensive amount that the app store charges but MS charges >$100 for its OS on a DVD so I dont really think this can be compared to the microsoft route.

Anonymous said...

Look like the drive delivery is late...

Anonymous said...

It would be better to make iBoot first. More than a month have passed and there is still no way to boot OS in case of some issues.

tonymacx86 said...

@Anonymous-

We've had iBoot for Lion ready since day 1, but it won't boot this media yet. When it does, it will be released here.

Anonymous said...

TonyMacX86-

What media does iBoot boot for Lion?

Anonymous said...

For me, wanting to update a Core2 Duo Mini running 10.5 to 10.7, and having an iPhone with Verizon Personal Hotspot with a 2Gig limit, I had to get 10.6 and get the USB 10.7. After loading 10.6 and inserting the 10.7 memory stick, I found I needed to update to 10.6.6. How? Well by another BIG GIG download. Thanks Apple, Thanks Verizon, I am still screwed and will be with every upgrade. Just include a damn DVD. We will find a way to read it.
Roy

Drkstoner said...

@Tony did you say that you can use xMove on the thumbdrive to install 10.7? in a similar situation to the post before me limited connectivity but I would order the thumbdrive to bypass the DL

Anonymous said...

When will the new iBoot and MultiBeast 4.0 come?
That is all i care about.

Gr4ndstre4m said...

Thumb drive works with xmove flawlessly , I have a feeling the delay on releasing this method is ALOT of testing and the locking it down . Like iBoot Tony values his work . I'm sure they have had a few methods , I was excited for xBoot . And you guys don't need to rely on Tony and co you have been able to install lion since beta using XPC and have been able to use Chamelon for a few months now . Heck most of you guys can use Kakewalk , I just redid some of my builds for comparison . Just sit tight and relax , I'm sure they are stuck at the wall I hit retrofitting new methods to coldboot to Lion install media on other hardware . ( >|¥{>}£\€ you C-States ! ! !

Anonymous said...

well, he could release a beta like all the world do...

Anonymous said...

waiting for him to post it
hope you do it soon
i cant wait

Symo said...

Love your work tony,

Any ETA for iBoot with USB for clean easy install?

Mac Tune Up said...

Desparately waiting

Anonymous said...

aren't we all!!! i bet the site is getting massive amount of hits right now

Eric S. said...

Any status update on this, Tony? We're all excited for the prospect of a vanilla 10.7 install from Retail USB drive.

6fda7806-d43f-11e0-aa46-000bcdcb8a73 said...

i hope this gets release soon, alot of us gets pci config msg at boot after update

Anonymous said...

waiting for the new install method

Anonymous said...

It's a very long test period :S

Anonymous said...

any success yet?

Anonymous said...

i want lion!!!!

snow leo too old

Eric S. said...

Please for the love of all that's Holy, give us an official update on this... If it's not possible, fine! If we need to STFU and it's ready when it's ready... fine! But at least tell us something!

Oliver Sumpton said...

Any word on an install method for upgrading a SL hackintosh with an Official Lion USB?

tonymacx86 said...

@Eric & Oliver-

Thanks for your comments. Here's the deal. In the next day or two, we're releasing an xMove update that will allow installation from the USB Thumb Drive, It still involves an already working Snow Leopard installation, or working Mac to prepare the Installer Partition.

We are still actively testing and working on new methods that will not require access to Snow Leopard 10.6 to install Lion from the USB Thumb Drive. There is no ETA for this as of today.

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