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I used the Up-to-Date program to update OSX to Mountain Lion.

Now I'd like to create a recovery disk, but I can't use the same code to redeem installation package, and from the Apple Store it seems that I don't own a copy of Mountain Lion and that I should buy it to be able to download it. How to get the InstallESD.dmg file?

Or how should I create a recovery disk without this file?

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The installer most likely created a Recovery HD while installing. You can use the Recovery HD Maker from Apple to create an external recovery disk. – duci9y Nov 4 '12 at 16:19
Probably I'm little lost, but with the Recovery Maker will I be able to install Mountain Lion on a new empty disk? On the apple web site they tell that it requires 1GB of space, but other guides that explain how to use InstallESD.dmg files suggest 8GB of USB pen drive. – mcmorry Nov 4 '12 at 17:48
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No, you won’t be able to install Mountain Lion from it. Instead, the installer will download the Mountain Lion files from Apple. – duci9y Nov 5 '12 at 9:01

1 Answer

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Apple's Recovery Disk Assistant

...enables you to create a recovery USB. While this recovery USB does not contain the installer image, it is able to install Mountain Lion (see 3rd paragraph).

You can download the official software from Apple here. Note that you can create the recovery USB only if you have a Recovery HD partition on your Mac. You can verify this in the Terminal using: diskutil list.

The Recovery Disk Assistant requires just 1GB because is does not store an OS X installer image (usually named InstallESD.dmg). Instead it will download the latest version of Mountain Lion right before the installation - if the recovery USB has been created in Mountain Lion.

You are still able to use the recovery USB without internet access if you just want to open Disk Utility from it for example.

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