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Apple Shipping Lion Recovery USB Keys, Not Available For Purchase Yet

I made my recovery disk out of an SD card rather than a thumb drive. We have only one computer in the house that doesn't have an SD slot, and that's my wife's 11" MBA. For her, I have an SD card reader.

I've test booted all of them using the bare SD card in the SD slot. They all boot fine that way.

The only downside is that since I used the InstallESD from the lion installer, it won't fit on a 4 GB card. I had to buy an 8.

One nice advantage to SD cards is they have a write inhibit switch on them just in case something goes horribly wrong. Not all USB drives have that.
 
I just called them. I told them that I'd like to have some media to restore if my install goes sour or my HDD fails. It took the guy about 10 minutes to find the document that said he could send me one. He then said that he'd put in "customer is experiencing issues installing Lion." Then he took down my address and told me I would be receiving the drive within a couple of days.
 
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)

"we don't think these aren't the $69 thumb drives…"

You dont think they aren't? 11hours after the OP and that's still not been fixed? C'mon!
 
1) I'm still in awe that Apple even took the time to give the Apple touch of design on a simple USB key. Definitely one sexy looking USB key.

2) Is there any difference between this and the recovery application they released a couple of days ago?
 
KnightWRX said:
Again guys, it's all flair and no substance. I have one, the build quality really sucks on these.
Click to expand...

Funny. The idea that Apple is even creating a "recovery" disk/tool confirms or suggests that Lion is problematic. However, the crowd here seems to be missing the point and simply covets these as cool Apple trinkets or products.

Is there anything the Apple mob wouldn't want with an Apple logo on it?:confused:
 
nickofari said:
Funny. The idea that Apple is even creating a "recovery" disk/tool confirms or suggests that Lion is problematic. However, the crowd here seems to be missing the point and simply covets these as cool Apple trinkets or products.

Is there anything the Apple mob wouldn't want with an Apple logo on it?:confused:
Click to expand...

My dog.... Yeah, that's pretty much it. :D
 
Call me old school but I don't even want to think about installing Lion unless I have some kind of physical media.

I will wait for these drives to become available for purchase before thinking about jumping to Lion.
 
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nickofari said:
Funny. The idea that Apple is even creating a "recovery" disk/tool confirms or suggests that Lion is problematic.
Click to expand...

Uh ? Where did you get this bit of logic from ? Every OS I've ever known had a recovery strategy and vendor tools for it. It has nothing to do with the level of "problems" the OS might have.

Problems happen, and when they do, you don't want to be left out in the cold.
 
KnightWRX said:
Again guys, it's all flair and no substance. I have one, the build quality really sucks on these.
Click to expand...

How does the build quality of a USB stick suck? Does it fall apart when you hold it in your hands? Does the Apple logo peel off? :p
 
I took my LaCie key and just made a bootable Lion Installer drive...

iamaKey_angle.jpg


It actually impresses my friends and clients when I take it out of my keychain and plug it into their computers... ;-)

I know there is a utility to make a bootable recovery Lion flash drive but I made mine before the utility came out.

I just took all the files from the InstallESD.dmg image (including the invisible ones) and copied them to the key (GUID partition of course)

The nicest thing about this is that my key is 8GB so I made two partitions. In one I have the Installer and the other one I keep for the upcoming updates. I actually carry iTunes 10.4 on the key which is not included in Lion.

So, cent by cent, If you already own Lion, you can spend less money on a better bigger and cooler flash drive...
 
unobtainium said:
How does the build quality of a USB stick suck? Does it fall apart when you hold it in your hands? Does the Apple logo peel off? :p
Click to expand...

The plastic gets shredded and scratched pretty bad the first time you insert it into a USB port because of the lack of a metal guide. The keys look like crap after the first use.
 
can you hear me now

emaja said:
Close enough.

Getting all hot and bothered about how the darn drive looks is silly.
Click to expand...

Wrong. Many, many people buy APPL because of the form factor. Steve will tell you that it IS how it looks!!

example: iPhones on AT and T. We bought them because they looked good, not because we could make a phone call.
 
louis Fashion said:
Wrong. Many, many people buy APPL because of the form factor. Steve will tell you that it IS how it looks!!

example: iPhones on AT and T. We bought them because they looked good, not because we could make a phone call.
Click to expand...

No, many people buy a Mac because it just plain works. It's a bonus that it looks nice, but it is certainly not the primary reason that I - and many others - have bought Apple products.

It is statements like yours that make Apple users sound like superficial sheep.
 
I tried to talk Apple out of FD Key for my late 2010 MBA 11" on the basis that it came with a leopard key. No dice! They said that If I rebooted with a command R that the recovery program would come up. Sure enough it did.

(I had already made a 8 GB FD key (Sandisk) and it worked as well.)

I tried it on my late 2009 (CMD R) with Lion installed on it and it also had the recovery disk on it as well.)

The DVD's I made with Lion recovery really are slow booting up compared to the built in disk recovery and the 8 GB FD, I made.
 
iMikeT said:
2) Is there any difference between this and the recovery application they released a couple of days ago?
Click to expand...
Yes there is.

The recovery utility that Apple released only allows you to access the tools required to download (off the internet) the Apple Installer Image to use for Reinstalling Lion. Which means each time you boot to it, it will have to re-download several gigs of Lion data. The total process over a broadband connection can take over 5 hours from full download to installation completion. Kind of stupid if you ask me.

However this offering by Apple is OSX Lion Installer on the flash drive, it's the full software on a stick if you will. If you install or reinstall OSX Lion a lot, this is better for you as the complete process can be completed within an hour.


Personally, unless you want to own another Apple novelty device (an Apple USB Flash Drive), this is a bad deal. You can make your own using your own choice of flash drive for a lower cost.
 
isoMorpheus said:
I think it's very nicely designed as well, the clear choice of black silver and grey gives outline and an elegant silhouette. The placement of the ring and the logo are proportionate, the ring to the lower edge, the logo to the metal strips. And of course the thinness and the fact that it's taped to the card. Everything is unconventional, not excessive, yet remains elegant.
Click to expand...

I appreciate the legs of the lingering lube that allows for less painful insertion when we have to pay $70 (that's Seventy!) for this.
 
So is it confirmed this is different than the 70 dollar drive?
Can you wipe this and use it as a regular flash drive.
Is Apple giving these to everyone for free?
 
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