Apple Releases Utility to Create Lion Recovery USB Key

[tkermit]

Haven't you seen their commercials for the past 5 years?

Make that 25.

"on a particularly bright day in Cupertino, California, some particularly bright engineers had a particularly bright idea: since computers are so smart, wouldn't it make more sense to teach computers about people, instead of teaching people about computers?
[...]
so easy to use, most people already know how
[...]
They called it Macintosh."

 

[thetoad30]

Are you referring to the issue of replacing the optical drive with an SSD.

Obviously, this is not considered a sanctioned user serviceable upgrade.

Can you provide a link to describe the issue if you are talking about a different issue?

No. I was referring to replacing the actual hard drive, not the optical. I will look for a link.

The following is a link to the DIY guide for upgrading a MacBook hard drive.

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/MacBook_13inch_HardDrive_DIY.pdf

Maybe I wasn't clear before, but I was trying to say that for my 2007 Macbook, the HDD was definitely not on the list of approved changes. Maybe things have changed since then? I don't know.

I do remember this document coming out. It was after a bunch of people
were posting online how to change the HDD. This was posted after either iFixit.com showed how to do it, or some other site (I can't remember).

The following is a link to the user guide for late 2007 MacBook.

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/MacBook_Late2007_UserGuide.pdf

As shown in the following, the warranty is only voided if the user causes damage while attempting the upgrade.

Note that the image you posted, along with the user manual, does not include anything regarding the HDD. The memory was obviously okay to change (and if I said it wasn't then I was obviously wrong), but the HDD for what I recall was a no-no, until that document you posted came out. I do remember that it was NOT at the same time of release as the computer I had, though.

 

[thetoad30]

Make that 25.

"on a particularly bright day in Cupertino, California, some particularly bright engineers had a particularly bright idea: since computers are so smart, wouldn't it make more sense to teach computers about people, instead of teaching people about computers?
[...]
so easy to use, most people already know how
[...]
They called it Macintosh."

Well... okay... you proved my point better than I could.

 

[schweig]

Is it Machine Specific?

I was just wondering: once I make the bootable flash drive can it be used to recover any Lion machine? I have three Macs and would like to have one flash drive for all of them. Hmmmm...

 

[skylerr]

I was just wondering: once I make the bootable flash drive can it be used to recover any Lion machine? I have three Macs and would like to have one flash drive for all of them. Hmmmm...

Yes, you can.

 

[barkmonster]

im pissed now! nowhere on apples website did it say that it would reformat the drive or erase all other data! alls it said was make sure you have 1gb of space on it! this is bs, this is madness!

https://forums.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=298174&d=1312843578

Looks like a very clear warning in friendly red letters to me

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

Eh, disregarding the inaccuracies in your post...

Which "inaccuracies"?

 

[JetBlack7]

Do I need a new USB? Or can I use the Snow Leopard and make a recovery disk from there?

 

[LeiQQ]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

What I have yet to receive is a method to download lion to a machine that does not have snow leopard installed. I have a Mac mini with snow leopard server that I want to do a clean install on with lion. The app store requires me to purchase both the lion upgrade and lion server upgrade. The only option for me is to buy snow leopard do a clean install and then install lion. So pointless. Well another way is to buy the USB but why do that? Why not let me download lion, create an installation DVD or USB, wipe the drive and do a lion install?

 

[munkery]

Maybe I wasn't clear before, but I was trying to say that for my 2007 Macbook, the HDD was definitely not on the list of approved changes. Maybe things have changed since then? I don't know.

I do remember this document coming out. It was after a bunch of people
were posting online how to change the HDD. This was posted after either iFixit.com showed how to do it, or some other site (I can't remember).

Note that the image you posted, along with the user manual, does not include anything regarding the HDD. The memory was obviously okay to change (and if I said it wasn't then I was obviously wrong), but the HDD for what I recall was a no-no, until that document you posted came out. I do remember that it was NOT at the same time of release as the computer I had, though.

The first page of the DIY guide has a similar disclaimer as the user guide has for memory upgrades.

Read the first page of the DIY guide.

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/MacBook_13inch_HardDrive_DIY.pdf

 

[alFR]

Anyone successfully made a Lion Recovery SD card and booted from it in a MB/MBP built-in SD reader?

 

[lokiju]

Anyone successfully made a Lion Recovery SD card and booted from it in a MB/MBP built-in SD reader?

I want to know this also...

EDIT: Actually figured it out.

Pretty simple.

Just take a external USB SD card reader, put the desired SD card in there and attached to the system and then it'll let you select it when doing the utility.

After that you can stick it in your SD slot on your Mac and it will boot from it and work.

 

[The pSYION]

Does this software work for Lion Server? I had a world of nightmares with my new Lion server from the get go. I ended up using Target Disk mode to get everything sorted.... the new line of Macs only allow booting from "authorised" media.....

 

[heisenberg123]

so silly question but with this recovery usb key, can i put in a new hard drive, boot with the usb key plugged in and then i can install Lion on the new hard drive?

some things im reading make me think you need that recovery partition on your hard drive to make this usb key work which doesnt make sense

 

[ouimetnick]

so silly question but with this recovery usb key, can i put in a new hard drive, boot with the usb key plugged in and then i can install Lion on the new hard drive?

some things im reading make me think you need that recovery partition on your hard drive to make this usb key work which doesnt make sense

The USB key basically has the recovery partition on it.

Apple has send USB keys for free to customers that have issues downloading Lion from the App Store. They simply use that key, boot off it, and it downloads a fresh copy of Lion w/o the App Store.

The $69 key has Lion installed directly on it... no downloading needed. Same thing with the "home made" Lion DVD installer that you can boot off of.

 

[heisenberg123]

The USB key basically has the recovery partition on it.

Apple has send USB keys for free to customers that have issues downloading Lion from the App Store. They simply use that key, boot off it, and it downloads a fresh copy of Lion w/o the App Store.

The $69 key has Lion installed directly on it... no downloading needed. Same thing with the "home made" Lion DVD installer that you can boot off of.

ahh thanks, so this USB key i made will allow me to download Lion off the internet on a blank hard drive, but the one apple sells would let me install where i had no internet access?

 

[ouimetnick]

ahh thanks, so this USB key i made will allow me to download Lion off the internet on a blank hard drive, but the one apple sells would let me install where i had no internet access?

Correct. Or if you already have it downloaded, burn it onto a DVD (google it), and it will be just like a retail disc, with the full version on the disc.

 

[heisenberg123]

Correct. Or if you already have it downloaded, burn it onto a DVD (google it), and it will be just like a retail disc, with the full version on the disc.

ok thanks i will do that, sounds easier to have the full version for re-installing rather than needing a internet connection and using 3GB of bandwith

edit: looks like in the turtorials to make the bootable dvd i need the installer file, which i dont have my MBP came with lion pre-installed

 

[gnasher729]

The utility's notes don't appear to be complete, though: if it can be used on a new hard drive, why does it matter what type of Lion install you're creating it from?

If you bought a Macintosh with Lion, then you only have a license to use Lion on that single Macintosh. But if you bought Lion separately, then you have a license to install Lion on all Macs that you own and control. It seems that the Lion Recovery disk has exactly the capabilities that match your license.

----------

Also, if it's user-replaceable, then why in the world is there so much fuss about using non-Apple SSDs in the system? Why the big scandal regarding Apple not properly using SATA3 cables? Apple's official response has been that since drives are not user replaceable they won't "fix" the problem...

Some things are harder to replace than others. Replacing the hard drive in any MacBook, or in any recent MacBook Pro, is easy. Replacing the hard drive in a Mac Pro is more than easy; I don't think you need any tools at all. An old MacBook Pro was difficult. iMacs are difficult. Mac Mini is not difficult, but difficult to do without leaving any traces. I have replaced RAM on a Macintosh Plus, that wasn't difficult, it was frightening. And dangerous. My brother added an internal hard drive to one, that was difficult, frightening, dangerous, and required use of a Dremel.

 

[justinfreid]

If you bought a Macintosh with Lion, then you only have a license to use Lion on that single Macintosh. But if you bought Lion separately, then you have a license to install Lion on all Macs that you own and control. It seems that the Lion Recovery disk has exactly the capabilities that match your license.

That seems like it makes sense - but even if your license only extends to the Mac you purchased with Lion, you should be able to easily reinstall Lion on a new harddrive purchased for that Mac without having to hook it up to the internet.