Also, if you need to reinstall Mavericks, recovery mode requires you to download the entire 5.3GB installer again.) Finally, if you need to install Mavericks over Leopard-assuming you have the license to do so-a bootable install drive makes that process easier. (The OS X Recovery feature is a big help here, but not all Macs have it-and if your Mac’s drive is itself having trouble, recovery mode may not even be available. Also, if your Mac is experiencing problems, a bootable install drive makes a handy emergency disk. But there are a good number of reasons you might want a bootable Mavericks installer on an external hard drive or a thumb drive (USB stick).įor example, if you want to install Mavericks on multiple Macs, using a bootable install drive can be more convenient than downloading or copying the entire installer to each computer. Instead, it’s available only as an installer app downloadable from the Mac App Store, and that installer doesn’t require a bootable installation disc.

Mavericks (OS X 10.9) doesn’t ship on a disc.

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