Chapter 38. Creating an Emergency USB Drive

It’s a good idea to have a bootable emergency drive on hand, just in case disaster strikes your Mac. An emergency drive can help you repair the hard disk, reinstall the operating system, and restore from a Time Machine backup to get your computer back fast.

With previous versions of OS X, you could have used the installation DVD to fix problems. But Lion was Apple’s first operating system sold in the App Store as a digital download—no physical disk is provided. What’s a maintenance-minded Mac user to do?

Create your own bootable OS X USB drive, of course! It’s easy, and if you’ve already purchased OS X and have a USB drive that’s 1GB or larger, it’s completely free. Carry it in your pocket or put it on ...

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