I just got a new macbook pro, and I want to swap out the internal hard disk with an SSD. My machine did not come with install media, so I was planning on trying to make some based on the recovery partition.
I have already used sudo chflags nohidden BaseSystem.dmg
to get to the BaseSystem.dmg file on the recovery partition, but it is only 456.6MB, far to small to contain the (4.3GB? 4.75GB) Mountain lion install disk image. Where is the disk image hidden?
(I have blank DVDs of both sizes, but no erasable USB sticks.)
Best Answer
You don't need to worry about having to copy any data, making USB sticks or having the media present. Use Mountain Lion's Internet Recovery procedure, all files is downloaded and installed on the new drive without having any files.
You replace the HDD and start with Command-R...
See OS X Internet Recovery for more info about the procedure, quote:
Regarding "Where is the [OS X] disk image hidden?", the Recovery Partition is a minimal bootstrap that connects to a wi-fi network to download the complete OS X 10.8 install, that's why it is so small. See here for further info: About OS X Recovery.