Stripped down version of OS X for USB boot and imaging

USB 3.0 boots worlds faster then 2.0, even plugged into a 2.0 port(under a minute). In my environment I just create a base Image and stick Casper imaging utility in the Dock with auto-login enabled to an admin-admin account.

"Ulitmately we'd like something similar to the way the OS X Recovery Partition functions"

So use Disk Utility or asr to restore the Recovery Partition to a USB flash drive. Done.

And how would I run the Casper Imaging app from a clone of the Recovery Partition???

"And how would I run the Casper Imaging app from a clone of the Recovery Partition???"

Copy it onto your clone. Attempt to run it. If it crashes, try to figure out which Frameworks or Libraries are missing. Copy those from a "full" OS X install of the same version as your "recovery" version.

Rinse and repeat until you've found and copied all the required frameworks and libraries.

It will be annoying and time consuming.

It all depends on how small you want to get. I use Kingston DT160 32gb USB drives here and found they work great. They are USB 2.0 and they boot up nice and quick. We ordered 50 of them and dispense them to our PC service center.

What I did was basiclly image a new machine with 10.7.4. I then took out all the extra apps (garageband, itunes, iPhoto). I then set up the network preferences and all the unique attributes that would be needed for the work place. I also enabled remote login and remote managment to allow it to be controlled from anywhere so I can image machines remotely.

Have you looked into using Das Boot?

http://subrosasoft.com/software/freeware/dasboot-2-0

So I've been using a bootable stripped down OS but running DeployStudio locally and then deploys out image and various pkgs that get run on first boot. Initially was looking into doing this with Casper Imaging but too many variables to work through. Casper Imaging needs a full copy of your software repository on local drive and also needs to have connection to JSS. With DS I can build it locally server runs on external boot drive and images by connecting to localhost. I've managed to use their boot drive utility and "manipulate" their install to do what I want so it is very stripped down. Only draw back is - it's stripped down! This makes it hard to update.

So ultimately I've taken some notes from 1001 Mac Hacks and built a stripped down drive. It worked better for 10.5 and 10.6 but 10.7 and 10.8 a little more massaging. You have to login with an admin account for it rebuild the needed files. But it's been working without issue for all of techs in my org that use it.