Grey DVDs that were included with a Mac at the time of purchase cannot be used to make USB boot drives as they do not include drivers for Macs other than the computer it was shipped with. In this tutorial I will be creating a Snow Leopard USB install disk. The steps are the same to create one for Leopard.

I have done it once, but failed on many attempts because my USB Stick was not big enough. I heard you can make bootable images with SuperDuper. Also if you want bootable USB Snow Leopard do this: 1.

Get a Snow LEopard DMG or ISO or DVD 2. Open Disk Utility and select the Flash Drive 3. 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). Make sure that your USB is formatted as GUID so it will be bootable.

Hope it helps. Following a guide I found for making a 10.5 boot disk, I opened the packages on my SL install disk, and only installed CoreServices, Essentials, and Migration Assistant. Then I removed Asian fonts (~100MB). I end up with an OS that's less than 2GB. The disk boots, gets past the Apple logo, and then I get a grey screen with eternally spinning beachball. I understand that as a last resort, I can run the OS installer the normal way, and then choose minimal components, and end up with a bloated OS. But like I said, I'm trying to get it nice and tight if possible.

I was able to pare down my Mac OS to 3.5GB. Then I tried using disk utility to shrink the partition size to 'fit', but the smallest it would let me go is 8GB which is more than double.

It would be nice to be able to make a bootable 4GB DVD. I know it's possible, because my bootable Coriolis iDefrag volume is 1.87GB. Any idea how to get a partition size down to, say, 4GB? Following a guide I found for making a 10.5 boot disk, I opened the packages on my SL install disk, and only installed CoreServices, Essentials, and Migration Assistant. Then I removed Asian fonts (~100MB). I end up with an OS that's less than 2GB.

The disk boots, gets past the Apple logo, and then I get a grey screen with eternally spinning beachball. Excel amort table for mac. I understand that as a last resort, I can run the OS installer the normal way, and then choose minimal components, and end up with a bloated OS. But like I said, I'm trying to get it nice and tight if possible.

Any OSx86 installation guide can seem daunting at first glance, especially when trying to remember cryptic terminal commands and sorting through volumes of misinformation on the web. This guide requires no coding, terminal work, or Mac experience of any kind.

You will not need access to a Mac. In fact, it's easier and faster for me to install Snow Leopard with fully working components on my system than it is to install Windows 7.