I'm trying to extract the InstallESD.dmg image so that I can create a USB key any time I want to in the future, to recover/boot my 2011 iMac. I would think this would be no problem at all, since the machine obviously is authorized to run Lion.

However, every time I try to run the installer in order to retrieve the image (following tutorials such as <http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20110831105634716&query=lion+usb> for example), I am stopped cold by the need to sign into the App Store with my Apple ID. Apple then checks to see if I've bought Lion - which I have not since it came with the machine - and refuses to let me proceed.

This is maddening, does anyone know how to simply and direct extract the InstallESD image from the recovery partition without requiring an App Store login?

And in case anyone mentions it, I do NOT have the installer as downloaded from the app store so I cannot just open the package to get the file - it's not available that way on the recovery partition.

I should also add that I've tried Lion DiskMaker and while it seems like a great concept, the AppleScript always crashes just before completion, and I don't trust the result.