Internet Recovery Lion or ML

[Jony Mac]

I still haven't upgraded my MacBook Air to ML, but my other Macs are. My question is if I upgrade my mid 2011 MacBook Air to ML, that shipped with Lion how will that effect the Internet Recovery feature?

If I use Internet Recovery does it go straight to Lion as it shipped with it, or will it use ML? I'm thinking about what happens if I sell this or give it to a family member. Does my seat of ML stick or my AppleID stay tied to that machine?

 

[Mrbobb]

If u Internet Recovery now, Apple will download Lion to you.

Once u upgrade to ML, then the upgrade procedure will override your recovery partition and from now on Internet Recovery will look for ML.

I recommend the following if u intend to ever give this machine to somebody else and want him to have a clean OS:

Don't Internet Update to ML, INSTEAD, download ML but DO NOT INSTALL. The clean ML image will be in the download folder and the procedure says to move it to the Application folder. Before you do, make a second copy of this image and safeguard it somewhere, on a usb stick, whatever, then you will have a clean ML image should you ever want to give the machine away. Then proceed with upgrade as normal.

In the future, when u wanto clean install and obliterate everything that's there before, boot into the Recovery partition, use the disk utility to format the receiving drive, THEN tell install to source from the clean image.

 

[Jony Mac]

If u Internet Recovery now, Apple will download Lion to you.

Once u upgrade to ML, then the upgrade procedure will override your recovery partition and from now on Internet Recovery will look for ML.

I recommend the following if u intend to ever give this machine to somebody else and want him to have a clean OS:

Don't Internet Update to ML, INSTEAD, download ML but DO NOT INSTALL. The clean ML image will be in the download folder and the procedure says to move it to the Application folder. Before you do, make a second copy of this image and safeguard it somewhere, on a usb stick, whatever, then you will have a clean ML image should you ever want to give the machine away. Then proceed with upgrade as normal.

In the future, when u wanto clean install and obliterate everything that's there before, boot into the Recovery partition, use the disk utility to format the receiving drive, THEN tell install to source from the clean image.

I guess my concern would be giving or selling the machine with a copy of ML I purchased. Is there no way for me to upgrade to ML, without preventing the machine to go back to Lion. If you wipe the whole disk, Internet Recovery is there to download the OS. I'm not concerned about the recovery portion at all.

My though was since upgrade to ML, then when I want to get rid of this, wipe the whole disk..partition and all. Then boot into Internet Recovery. I'd assume Internet recovery would restore the OS the machine shipped with. I'm trying to validate if that is the case or not.

 

[Mrbobb]

I 'd assume Internet recovery would restore the OS the machine shipped with. I'm trying to validate if that is the case or not.

Negative. It would nice. Like an option "reset to factory."

But an OSX purchase is like 20 bux. This ain't Windows.

 

[macbookfan]

When you upgrade to ML it will upgrade the recovery partition. The thing you see when you hold option key when you start the computer.

However you can force the computer to re-download the original shipped os. to do so you must hold command + R at the time of boot.

 

[Jony Mac]

That's exactly what I want. I already own ML on my other machines, and I know you can use this license on all your personal macs.

I wanted to make sure if I sold / got rid of it I could still let the new person get the OS installed that shipped with it, and not have an OS that's tied to my AppleID.

This is why I don't care about recovery partition. In the end I'd wipe the whole disk and want to downloads Lion.

If I'm reading this right this is possible correct?

 

[theSeb]

When you upgrade to ML it will upgrade the recovery partition. The thing you see when you hold option key when you start the computer.

However you can force the computer to re-download the original shipped os. to do so you must hold command + R at the time of boot.

Can anyone confirm this is the case? It certainly wasn't when ML was released earlier in the year and I tested it many times on various Macs. All of them would reinstall Lion via IR after an update to ML. (this was back in the few weeks after ML was released though)

 

[Brian Y]

Can anyone confirm this is the case? It certainly wasn't when ML was released earlier in the year and I tested it many times on various Macs. All of them would reinstall Lion via IR after an update to ML. (this was back in the few weeks after ML was released though)

If you do a normal recovery (i.e. command + R), it will boot into the Mountain Lion recovery partition, and will re-install Mountain Lion. If the machine did not ship with mountain lion, you will need to put in your Apple ID and password (or one that has bought mountain lion).

If you boot into Internet Recovery (command + opt + R I believe), you boot a small EFI interface, which downloads a recovery console to the machine. This will always reinstall the shipped version, and doesn't need a username/password.

 

[theSeb]

If you do a normal recovery (i.e. command + R), it will boot into the Mountain Lion recovery partition, and will re-install Mountain Lion. If the machine did not ship with mountain lion, you will need to put in your Apple ID and password (or one that has bought mountain lion).

If you boot into Internet Recovery (command + opt + R I believe), you boot a small EFI interface, which downloads a recovery console to the machine. This will always reinstall the shipped version, and doesn't need a username/password.

Indeed. *Facepalm*

I completely misread this entire thread. I shall blame the flu and keep my mouth shut now.

I somehow read the earlier posts that the IR in EFI has been updated to load ML. *facepalm*

 

[Jony Mac]

If you boot into Internet Recovery (command + opt + R I believe), you boot a small EFI interface, which downloads a recovery console to the machine. This will always reinstall the shipped version, and doesn't need a username/password.

Thank you. This is exactly what I was after.

 

[Weaselboy]

If you do a normal recovery (i.e. command + R), it will boot into the Mountain Lion recovery partition, and will re-install Mountain Lion. If the machine did not ship with mountain lion, you will need to put in your Apple ID and password (or one that has bought mountain lion).

If you boot into Internet Recovery (command + opt + R I believe), you boot a small EFI interface, which downloads a recovery console to the machine. This will always reinstall the shipped version, and doesn't need a username/password.

Exactly. This is the correct answer.

Here is a long article that goes into the difference between normal recovery and Internet recovery.