I wish to upgrade my MacBook Pro's hard disk to Solid State Drive, and that requires an installation of OS X on the SSD drive before I can replace the hard drive.
The typical installation instructions are:
- Create a bootable partition on the SSD
- Hook up the SSD via an external adapter (for example, USB), boot up the MacBook Pro and start the recovery process.
- Select the SSD drive as the drive for OS X to be installed.
- Agree to the license agreement, log on using Apple ID (if required) and let "Install OS X" app download a copy of the OS over the Internet before installing it to the SSD
etc, etc, etc
The issue is without a very fast Internet connection, the installation process will take a very long time.
Are there any alternatives such as pre-downloading a copy of OS X, or cloning the content of the drive?
Best Answer
You can use Lion DiskMaker (which works for Mountain Lion as well) to make a bootable USB stick. This requires downloading the Mountain Lion installer, and a USB stick larger than 8GB. You can also burn a single layer DVD of the installer if you so desire (and, obviously, if you have an optical drive)