Just like Lion, Apple’s most recent version of OS X, Mountain Lion, has been made available in the app store. From Apple’s point of view this helps to dramatically reduce production costs, and these saving can then be passed to customers who reap the benefits of cheap upgrades. But what the online installer model fails to take into account is that many people have to work within monthly download limits put in place by their ISP – this is something that Lion DiskMaker can help with.
Whether you have a single computer to upgrade, or want to bring your entire fleet of Macs up to date with Mountain Lion, it is quite possible that downloading a large installer could push you over your monthly limit, possibly resulting in hefty charges. If you have more than one computer you would ordinary have to download the installer separately for each machine. You might think that you could simply copy the installer but this is not easily achieved.
Lion DiskMaker
The problem is that once you have run through the installer, it will be automatically deleted preventing you from using it again. With this in mind, you should ideally using Lion DiskMaker before you perform an upgrade to Mountain Lion as it means that you will only have to download the installer once. As well as saving your time and bandwidth, going down this route means that it is possible to upgrade computers that are not connected to the internet.
The app can be used to create your own offline installer disk using an 8GB USB drive, SD card or a dual layer DVD. If you don’t mind taking a hands-on approach, this is something you could achieve with OS X’s built in Disk Utility, but Lion DiskMaker simplifies the whole process and takes care of everything for you.
You can find out more and download a free copy of the tool by paying a visit to the Lion DiskMaker page.
This article originally appeared at softwarecrew.co.uk
