The steps below will guide you through how to Install OS X Snow Leopard from a USB Flash Drive. If you want to skip the steps and get your USB installation drive quickly, check out our pre-configured USB Snow Leopard Installation Drive. Read on if you’d like to create a USB Installation yourself.
Apple officially released Snow Leopard
At version 10.6, Snow Leopard, focused more on improving speed and performance than adding new features to OS X. With the operating system available to customers, individuals are ready for their upgrades.
Installing OS X From a USB Drive
Like other versions of OS X, Snow Leopard can be installed from a USB drive. This is especially beneficial to Macbook Air users looking to install the OS without a DVD drive. To do this, you’ll need to prepare your USB drive with the installation files. Like many of our other Mac Help articles, the steps listed below worked particularly for Snow Leopard but should also work for installing OS X from USB on Leopard.
The installation files sit at 6.2gb on the Snow Leopard DVD, so you’ll probably need a drive that has at least 8gb available. If you want your installation files to last against the elements, check out this 8 GB Water/Shock Resistant USB flash drive.
After you’ve gotten the correct USB device, connect it to your Mac and prepare it with the Snow Leopard installation files by following these steps:
NOTE:Depending on your flash drive, you may need to follow steps 5 – 7 on on installing onto a USB drive to make sure the drive is bootable before you get start.
- Open Disk Utility and select the Flash Drive
- Select the Erase tab on the right and then set Format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Name the partition you’ll be creating Snow Leopard or OS X Install so you can keep track of your installation device. After you’ve done this, click the Erase button.
- After Disk Utility finishes erasing your old data on the flash drive and setting it as a new partition, it will be ready for the Snow Leopard install files. Select the Restore tab at the top and then drag the Snow Leopard DVD to the Source field. Select your USB device for the Destination file. Click Restore and wait for the restoration to finish (about 20 minutes).
- If the restoration worked correctly you should be able to open your USB device and see the Leopard installation files. If you try and click the Install OS X Snow Leopard icon, you’ll get the message below telling you you can’ install OS X from this volume. IGNORE the message. The next steps will walk you through the installation steps.
- Now that the installation files are successfully on your USB device, be sure to remove the Snow Leopard installation DVD from your drive. Next, restart your Mac and when it first starts to reboot, be sure to hold down the option (alt) key on your keyboard. After a few seconds at least two volumes should appear for you to select from for installation. One of those will be the USB drive we just prepared. Select it.
- After the Snow Leopard installation software boots from your USB drive, follow the on screen instructions for installation. It took about 38 minutes to install Snow Leopard on my machine from the USB drive. I’m curious to see how this compares to the average Mac users, please leave a post in the comments letting us know how long it took on your machine.
- After the installation finishes, it will reboot your computer into your new upgraded version of OS X, version 10.6 Snow Leopard
This method works for installing OS X Snow Leopard onto a Mac from a USB Drive. It should also work for installing Leopard or other older versions of OS X on Intel Based Macs. Check back often for additional help and tips for your Mac.
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Related posts:
- Installing Snow Leopard onto an External Hard Drive
- Snow Leopard Parental Controls
- A Snow Leopard Is Coming!
- OS X Firewall
It seems that Snow Leopard works fine to install from a USB stick … Unfortunately I am not able to do the same for Snow Leopard Server! Snow Leopard Server seems to not like USB Stick installations. It worked with Leopard Server. Wonder what they have changed …
Hi I’m trying the USB based install for the first time, but I noticed you mentioned your install took about 38 min, it has been my experience that it takes around 50 min for a DVD based install on a Mid 2009 15″ Macbook Pro.
My time using your USB method was around 27 min, which is outstanding!
thanks!
Will it install on a normal pc hardware to
Unfortunately, unless you modify the version of OS X, it will most likely not run on PC hardware.
Hey I can and am using google, I want to do this but only have a macbook air and a windows laptop. any hints?
I am using this guide to install OSX 10.5 and followed the instructions closely. When I open the USB disk after completing and try to click on the install icon it doesn’t say “Can Not Be Used From Volume” but says “Restart to install” and gives me a restart button. When I restart and hold down the Option key it only shows the internal hard drive and not the USB. Any ideas?
Hi all, everything seems to be ok until after i choose the installation langage. I got a message that says: MAC OS X CAN’t be installed on that computer. I have an intel macbook, under 10.5.7 (or so). Must be working i think. Do you have any idea ?
I would add that it seems that it’s working on a more recent macbook intel. In fact on my computer everything seems fine except this message… Any idea ?
You write awsome article, bookmarked
Thanks for the help, worked great!
Dan, thanks for this overview!
I’ve run into the same issue as Adam, i.e. I’m having problems to get the disk to appear as a startup volume. Does the USB partition perhaps first need to be GUID formatted?
Mark – Some have reported that the usb drive needs to be GUID formatted. Depending on your flash drive, you may need to follow steps 5 – 7 on installing onto a USB drive to make sure the drive is bootable before you get start.
any way of setting up a usb drive to auto run blackra1n to reboot the iphone when in dfu? I am a trucker and dont allways have a pc with me and this damn thethered jailbrak bs sucks!!!
it has been around 30 mins after i clicked the restore button and the estimated time for copying the files says 15 more hours to go. i followed the whole process. any tips?
I can’t get passed select the Mac OS X Install Disk as the source in Disk Utility. I select Restore. I have my 8Gb HP Flash Drive connected. Disk Utility recognizes the flash drive but when I click on “Mac OS X Install Disk” on the left and attempt to drag it to the Source insert location, nothing happens. If I try to drag my Mac HD to the source insert location a Plus sign appears and I know it will be inserted. I don’t see that with the “Mac OS X Install Disk.” NO plus sign appears and the Mac OS X Install disk is not selected.
???? help ????
Hey Juan – Are you using a retail version of the install disk?
This post was extremely helpful to me I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. For me it took 45 minutes to install on a 2007 Macbook base model
Thank you a ton,everything work great i even not see error screen. It is very easy to install and much faster from usb, 20 minutes for installation on same spec mac (like you have) Thank ones again bro.
Thanks for the tip! It worked perfectly
Worked like a charm – to about 40 minutes on an older (2007) mac book pro. However, the disc worked fine on a late 2008 build macbook pro.
I currently have a DMG file of Snow Leopard on a flash drive that has been formatted correctly in order to boot from. I want to install Snow Leopard on it so I can boot from the flash drive to troubleshoot some problems with my MacBook Air. If I am running the installer from the flash drive, is it possible to install the OS on the flash drive itself when I am presented with the disk selector screen?
Gary – If the flash drive is large enough, create a second partition with Disk Utility. IF its not, I don’t believe you’ll be able to install on to the disk you’re installing from.
I keep getting this:
“Could not find any scan information. The source image needs to be imagescanned before it can be restored.”
The legit .dmg file was downloaded from a server at work.
Advise appreciated.
Found the answer elsewhere, sorry for the disturbance!
Hey there,
I was wondering if I can also use the USB stick with Snow Leopard on it to install the required “MAC” drivers on a Bootcamp (Windows 7) partition? Or will I need the DVD?
Thanks in advance for any replies!
The drive should function just like the DVD, so it should be able to install the Bootcamp drivers. I haven’t tested this, but let us know if it does work.
On macbook pro late 2008, 2,4gHZ, 2GB RAM, IT TOOK EXACTLY 30MINUTES.
Hello,
Thank you very much for this article, it’s been a big help.
However, I have one quick question. After doing this and installing Mac OS X, will I be able to erase my flash drive and use it like normal again? I’m 98% sure that I will be able to, but I just want to make sure, because I really like this flash drive and it would be a shame to render it unusable because I didn’t do my research.
Thanks!
Rebecca – Just format it with disk utility when you’re finished and it will be just like new.
great article.
It worked fine on my almost 4-yrs-old Macbook Intel,2GB RAM, about 40 min
hy, is it normal to take 7 hours just to copy the .dmg file from my hdd to my usb flash(corsair) when i press restore. it’s been over an hour now since it started copying….it hasn’t jammed but it’s going very slowly(2-3% till now). i first formated my flash choosing zero-data….if it makes any difference. any idea what i should do….i really need to make it work tonight.
jst a very small question
as i only want to upgrade not to loose all my data so as installing via usb is it a new installation or jst a upgrade?
plz reply as i hve my usb sorted but only loking for an upgrade.
If you don’t format your hard drive during installation, it will just be an upgrade.
hello Dan
am a total novice to mac systems pls i need you help on this where can i get the MAC osx Snow Leopard 10.6 download online and how will i get to Disk Utility …..
thanks in advance…..
You’ll need to buy the software. It can be purchased at Best Buy, Apple Stores, or Amazon.com.
Disk Utility is an application on the OS X install disk. Follow the steps of this guide.
Hi, I utilized a SanDisk 2.0 USB memory stick along with Snow Leopard Retail Part no MC223Z/A to reinstall a Macbook (pre aluminium model) and it was taking a while to restore the DVD image to the flash stick. However, went for a couple of beers and a good look at the local girls, and she was ready when I returned. A bottle of pepsi and a Hawian Pizza later and it worked a treat.
Hi Dan,
Will this work on PPC based Macbooks. I have an old PPC MAcbook which I want to upgrade to Leopard. I know Snow Leopard will not work.
Dude, honestly, thanks so much.
My MBP’s optical drive is messed up so I couldn’t use it to install Snow Leopard, which I got for my birthday from a fellow mac-buddy. So, Instead of waiting until tomorrow morning to receive a phone call from Apple support, I thought I would just google how to install snow leopard on my MBP using a flash drive.
So far, so good. Nice and simple, clear steps and it’s going smoothly. The estimated “restoration” time started out at 2 hours but it’s dropping. (BTW if you’re wondering, I’m using another friend’s mac to do all this.)
Anyway, before I get carried away, I just want to say thank you.
Travis
39 min
I wanted to try this method b/c the optical drive (in my white MacBook, bought in the summer of 2008) won’t read the Snow Leopard disk. (The first time, I thought the problem was with the disk, but the second time it happened with a different disk, it seemed like it must be my computer.) Everything works fine til I try to restore Snow Leopard on the flash drive, and I get the message “Restore Failure: Input/Output Error.” Any advice?
Thanks for this tut.
23mn on a MacBook 1st generation, with a SEAGATE Momentus 7200.4 – 500 GB – 16 Mo
Thank you for this nice article! Worked like a charm.
I have referred to your article from my blog-entry about dual booting Ubuntu/OSX without RefIT Cheers! Lajos
Hello, I am having the same issue as Juan, when I try to drag the OS X Install DVD from the left to ‘Source’ it does nothing. I am using a MAC OS X V10.6 RETAIL version DVD item MC223Z/A. I am able to take my newly formatted and partitioned USB drive and drag it into the ‘Destination’ area. Any ideas?
Thanks a lot !
can you format the computer using this method?
It dosn’t work in my machine that is macbook with 4g ram and 500gb hard(upglade myself) os s 10.5.8
I used a image file not a dvd and followed your instruction until ‘5′ it tooks about 7hours more making a snow usb stick.
and at ‘6′ i selected my usb volume and than it didn’t appear instruction for installation. just white screen with prohibition sign.
How do I solve my problem?
I made it with bootcamp. It tooks 43 min // same process/ // thanks for tut!!