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Lion Clean Install Requires Snow Leopard Disk?

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MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,547
30,863



lionlogo1-150x150.jpg


In order to perform a "clean install" of Lion -- on a new hard drive or when restoring a machine to sell it, for example -- users will need to install Snow Leopard first, according to an email forwarded to MacRumors, purportedly from Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

We have inspected the raw header information included in the email and believe it to be genuine, but these emails must always be taken with a grain of salt.
On Jun 20, 2011, at 9:57 PM, xxxx <xxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

Steve,

I'm really exited about Lion, but I'm a bit anxious about the absence of any physical media in the event of a crash where I need to do a clean install. Will Lion still provide a way to make a bootable image in the event that I need to start from scratch?
Click to expand...
And Steve's typically short response:
From: Steve Jobs <sjobs@apple.com>
Subject: Re: Lion clean install
Date: June 21, 2011 7:55:05 AM PDT
To: xxxx <xxxx@gmail.com>

You can clean install Snow Leopaard [sic] first.

Sent from my iPhone
Click to expand...
If this is true, it seems likely Apple will continue to sell Snow Leopard for the foreseeable future for users upgrading from Leopard and to perform clean installs.

Apple still sells Leopard for users who wish to upgrade their pre-Intel PowerPC Macs. Leopard is $129 and only available through 800-MY-APPLE, not the Apple Online Store or the retail stores. The company could offer Snow Leopard in the same surreptitious manner.

Article Link: Lion Clean Install Requires Snow Leopard Disk?
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/06/21/lion-clean-install-requires-snow-leopard-disk/
B

BLACKFRIDAY

macrumors regular
May 23, 2011
224
0
Apple has gone crazy with this release?

What happened to user experience and ease of use? C'mon.
 
nagromme

nagromme

macrumors G5
May 2, 2002
12,546
1,196
About what I’d expect during this transition.

I expect new machines will start to come with a key disc or flash drive (like the Air), which may not have the full Lion (since that’s downloadable) but will take the place of the Snow Leopard disc for a vital purpose: getting the thing to boot when no usable OS is on the internal!

dukebound85 said:
such an elegant solution /sarcasm
Click to expand...

It’s a downloadable OS. Would you expect a new install on a non-bootable drive to not require any media at all? (I do think that will come in future, but there would have to be pretty advanced firmware to make the download happen.) Or would you expect it to require something other than the Snow Leopard disc that you had to have before you bought Lion anyway?

I suppose Apple could have a way to make your own emergency disc “just in case," but almost nobody would do it. So, for now, use Snow Leopard as the emergency disc.

It could be argued that OS’s should not be downloads; that it’s too soon to make that leap. Since I’m not a modem user, I disagree and welcome this (very slightly rough) transition away from coffee coasters! :)
 
F

fishmoose

macrumors 68000
Jul 1, 2008
1,851
346
Sweden
Maybe I'm missing something, but wouldn't the definition of a clean install rule out installing Snow Leopard and the upgrade to Lion? A clean install, in my mind, means installing the OS from scratch on your new system/drive.
 
iTim314

iTim314

macrumors 6502
Jun 5, 2005
337
6
U.S.
BLACKFRIDAY said:
Apple has gone crazy with this release?

What happened to user experience and ease of use? C'mon.
Click to expand...

For most users (who are not nearly as technically as the average MR poster) that is friendly... er.

I will be doing a clean install of SL before I download Lion.
 
G

guitargoddsjm

macrumors 6502
Feb 25, 2008
391
0
MA
This is just plain stupid. I'm not going to keep an album of previous OS releases on disk because Apple wants to toy around with the Mac App Store.

Isn't the point to move away from physical media?
 
T

Tom8

macrumors 6502a
Oct 28, 2010
848
71
It might not be brilliant, but it works. Just reinstall Snow Leopard and you can download Lion again for free from the Mac App Store with your Apple I.D. Makes sense to me...
 
G

gramirez2012

macrumors 6502a
Jun 21, 2010
663
12
Chicago, USA
You only have to do it once, because once Lion is installed, it will put a recovery partition on the hard disk. So you won't need a disc after the initial install.
 
longofest

longofest

Editor emeritus
Jul 10, 2003
2,925
1,693
Falls Church, VA
That is ridiculously stupid. How un-apple like

Edit: I had bounced around this and other options in a blog post just yesterday. For instance, Apple could still have physical media only at Apple Stores, or via special order.

I simply can't believe Apple is being this obstinate about being Mac App Store only
 
C

carlosap

macrumors newbie
Apr 22, 2008
24
5
mmm

:D

you can do that, or wait for some ISO release, USB install, etc.
From apple or from another respetable source as tpb
 
S

simon360

macrumors newbie
Apr 12, 2007
27
0
In the developer preview, the way to do a clean install (that I've used for every developer preview) is to create a blank partition, formatted as HFS+, and tell the installer to install Lion there.
 
inket

inket

macrumors regular
Dec 23, 2009
151
102
Steve Jobs doesn't know a thing about Lion. He only cares about iOS.

Yes, you can clean install Lion without Snow Leopard.
 
frunkis54

frunkis54

macrumors 65816
Apr 2, 2009
1,346
0
Its not that bad only have to add an xtra step of intallining 2 OS's on a new hard drive instead of 1.:eek:
 
Watabou

Watabou

macrumors 68040
Feb 10, 2008
3,425
755
United States
This is un-apple like. Come on apple, what's so wrong about physical medias? They can at least provide a USB for those who need it...
 
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