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Fresh [Lion] install. How?

adamvk

adamvk

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 29, 2008
1,308
0
Phoenix, AZ
So, I've taken out my Superdrive and I just bought a SSD to put in place of it. I want to do a fresh OS install. I do have access to an external optical drive, although I'm not yet sure if it will work on my Mac. But anyways I have Leopard Discs, and Snow Leopard upgrade discs, and then I bought Lion on the Mac App store. Do I have to install Leopard, then install Snow Leopard, and then download Lion from the App store? That seems like a ton of work, is there an easier way? Thanks!
 
0

0dbu

macrumors newbie
Mar 10, 2012
7
0
This would be a little time consuming and I am assuming that you have an external drive. Make a partition on your external drive to backup a bootable copy of Lion. Next, install Carbon Copy Cloner (excellent program, it's free but donations are encouraged), and clone your hard drive to the external drive. Then go into system preferences and click on startup disk, you should see the bootable clone on your external drive, select it. Shut down computer and install new hard drive. When you restart the computer it will boot from the external drive. Once it boots, open up disk utility and partition your new hard drive, after that open up Carbon Copy Cloner and clone your backup back to the new hard drive. After that, if you want to do a fresh install of Lion, restart while holding down command+r, open up disk utility, erase your hard drive and then install Lion again.

Again, this is time consuming, but I am fairly new to Mac's and this is the only way I can think to do it efficiently, of course you could do it the way you mentioned in your posts, but they would probably take the smae amount of time, give or take...
 
adamvk

adamvk

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 29, 2008
1,308
0
Phoenix, AZ
simsaladimbamba said:
Do you have the Lion Recovery partition?
OS X Lion: About Lion Recovery
Lion Recovery Disk Assistant



Anyway, if you don't, and your firmware hasn't been upgraded yet to have Internet Recovery, the just install Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and after that the whole Mac OS X 10.7 Lion shebang.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if I have Lion Recovery...I'm assuming so? Everything's up to date on my Mac. Anyways what exactly would that accomplish? And I couldn't do a fresh install with Snow Leopard though since it's only an upgrade disc, right? I would be installing this on a fresh SSD, so there's no Leopard on it.

0dbu said:
This would be a little time consuming and I am assuming that you have an external drive. Make a partition on your external drive to backup a bootable copy of Lion. Next, install Carbon Copy Cloner (excellent program, it's free but donations are encouraged), and clone your hard drive to the external drive. Then go into system preferences and click on startup disk, you should see the bootable clone on your external drive, select it. Shut down computer and install new hard drive. When you restart the computer it will boot from the external drive. Once it boots, open up disk utility and partition your new hard drive, after that open up Carbon Copy Cloner and clone your backup back to the new hard drive. After that, if you want to do a fresh install of Lion, restart while holding down command+r, open up disk utility, erase your hard drive and then install Lion again.

Again, this is time consuming, but I am fairly new to Mac's and this is the only way I can think to do it efficiently, of course you could do it the way you mentioned in your posts, but they would probably take the smae amount of time, give or take...
Click to expand...

Hmm, yea that sounds like it might take slightly less time though. Thanks!
 
simsaladimbamba

simsaladimbamba

Guest
Nov 28, 2010
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located
adamvk said:
And I couldn't do a fresh install with Snow Leopard though since it's only an upgrade disc, right? I would be installing this on a fresh SSD, so there's no Leopard on it.
Click to expand...

To create a Clean Install (formerly known as Erase & Install) of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard (the 29 USD Upgrade DVD is a fully working retail version of Mac OS X and does not need a prior installation of Mac OS X on the Mac), follow one of the following guides:

MacBook, MacBook Pro: Replacing the Hard Disk Drive, transferring data to the new HDD

the guide includes:
  • 0. Identify your MacBook or MacBook Pro
  • 1. Getting a new HDD
  • 2. Guides to replace the internal HDD with a newer one
  • 3. Transferring data from the old HDD to the new HDD
  • 4. Using the optical disk drive (ODD) slot for placing an SSD or HDD inside the MB/P (OPTIBAY)
​
 
alexreich

alexreich

macrumors 6502a
Jan 26, 2011
638
26
You need to create a bootable USB installation of Lion using a 3rd Party application, or you can buy a Lion Installer from Apple for $69 (which is a total ripoff).

All you need to make a bootable USB installer is:
-4GB or larger USB disk
-Install Mac OS Lion.app ($29 from the App Store, or free download if you purchased it already, or free if it shipped with your Mac)
-Lion DiskMaker application (free download from http://blog.gete.net/lion-diskmaker-us/)

You can also create a Lion installation DVD with that application, but USB is always better than optical disk.
 
adamvk

adamvk

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 29, 2008
1,308
0
Phoenix, AZ
alexreich said:
You need to create a bootable USB installation of Lion using a 3rd Party application, or you can buy a Lion Installer from Apple for $69 (which is a total ripoff).

All you need to make a bootable USB installer is:
-4GB or larger USB disk
-Install Mac OS Lion.app ($29 from the App Store, or free download if you purchased it already, or free if it shipped with your Mac)
-Lion DiskMaker application (free download from http://blog.gete.net/lion-diskmaker-us/)

You can also create a Lion installation DVD with that application, but USB is always better than optical disk.
Click to expand...

Will that do a full Lion install from nothing? I thought Lion was only an upgrade? Geez I'm confused haha.

I DONT have an optical drive.
 
simsaladimbamba

simsaladimbamba

Guest
Nov 28, 2010
22,670
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located
adamvk said:
Will that do a full Lion install from nothing? I thought Lion was only an upgrade? Geez I'm confused haha.
Click to expand...

Yes, it will allow you do a FULL or Clean Install. I did so. You can always test it via VM software, if you have one. I run Lion in a VM and I could install it from the DMG and could also make a bootable installer out of it and install Lion on a separate partition on an external HDD without any prior OS on that partition.
 
FrancoisC

FrancoisC

macrumors 6502a
Jan 27, 2009
546
281
Montreal, Qc
If you have the latest firmware installed, boot your system while holding cmd+option+R. This will start lion internet recovery, from which you can do a clean install.
 
M

madmacfan

macrumors 6502
Feb 19, 2012
282
2
London, United Kingdom
adamvk said:
So, I've taken out my Superdrive and I just bought a SSD to put in place of it. I want to do a fresh OS install. I do have access to an external optical drive, although I'm not yet sure if it will work on my Mac. But anyways I have Leopard Discs, and Snow Leopard upgrade discs, and then I bought Lion on the Mac App store. Do I have to install Leopard, then install Snow Leopard, and then download Lion from the App store? That seems like a ton of work, is there an easier way? Thanks!
Click to expand...

Yes but it involves gaining a copy of lion from a torrent site. Download the .dmg file with a bittorrent client, burn it to disc with disc utility, then boot from the newly burned disc to do a clean install of lion. it's far easier and more efficient than messing around with other methods, as I have had trouble in the past when using lion's internet recovery. You could mount the disc image onto a usb stick instead, that would also work.
 
insimbi

insimbi

macrumors 6502
Mar 27, 2008
356
37
FrancoisC said:
If you have the latest firmware installed, boot your system while holding cmd+option+R. This will start lion internet recovery, from which you can do a clean install.
Click to expand...

Will this work if I put a clean SSD drive in with nothing on it? Isn't the recovery partition on the hard drive I'm removing? How will that work?
 
M

madflava54

macrumors member
Jun 20, 2011
94
0
I just got a Macbook Pro as a gift. I was using a Macbook 7;1 that I had Lion installed on. I was refunded the $29.99 b/c I thought Lion was buggy when I first bought it last July. Anyways, I swapped my SSD from the MB 7;1 to the MBP. I used Lion Recovery Assistant and I don't think it did a single thing. I have all my apps and files loaded up on my MBP. I would like to do a clean install and start from scratch.
 
heisenberg123

heisenberg123

macrumors 603
Oct 31, 2010
6,496
9
Hamilton, Ontario
maybe im missing something but if you purchased Lion in the MAS, and the SSD is replacing the optical drive wouldnt that mean you have Lion still on yoru HDD? if so just re-download lion from your purchased tab in MAS and when you click clean install choose the SSD as the target

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madflava54 said:
I just got a Macbook Pro as a gift. I was using a Macbook 7;1 that I had Lion installed on. I was refunded the $29.99 b/c I thought Lion was buggy when I first bought it last July. Anyways, I swapped my SSD from the MB 7;1 to the MBP. I used Lion Recovery Assistant and I don't think it did a single thing. I have all my apps and files loaded up on my MBP. I would like to do a clean install and start from scratch.
Click to expand...

when your on that screen that says Clean Install, Safari Help, Disk Utlility

use disk utlility to format the hard drive than it will bring you back to the main screen where you do a clean install on the now empty hard drive and it will be as clean as the day it leaves the factory
 
M

madflava54

macrumors member
Jun 20, 2011
94
0
It only says Mac HD, Recovery HD, and Recovery HD with the orange USB symbol/logo. There is no option to clean install.
 
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