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Do new Mac Pros come with installation CDs?

M

mustgroove

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 14, 2006
203
12
Now that Lion has arrived, do new Mac Pros (or any other Mac I suppose) come with installation CDs like they used to, or is everything supposed to be handled by the Lion recovery partition?

So if you were to buy a brand new Mac Pro, but wanted to reinstall from scratch using a brand new hard drive (other than the one that originally shipped with the machine), how would you go about doing that?
 
philipma1957 said:
how would i handle it?

i would have a few clones of the lion osx and just put one in a bay and boot.

it is the fastest way to recover bar none.
Click to expand...

+1

It's the way I've recovered G4/G5/Mac Pro towers for many years. Firewire/USB HDD is the next best option.
 
I just received my Mac Pro 5,1. There was no DVD re-installation disks. Unlike with my SL iMacs and MBP there were disk.

I went to the Apple store and called Apple. They stated that you can boot from the recovery partition. I asked it the drive fails and I had replace the primary drive with the recovery partition on it, then what?

I was told bring it to the Apple store and the Genius's will re-install the HD. If you have Apple Care then it will be done for free. Then log into Apple and do a NetBoot, then you can download all of your Applications once verified or recover your applications through Time Machine. If, no Apple Care then there will be a fee for this procedure.

I stated that you are not understanding, you have lost everything from the primary drive with all data, now what. Reply was bring it to us. I just shook my head.

I was not very happy with this response.

So, now I'm looking into how to create a bootable DVD with my OSX Lion image that I have saved and create a Recovery Applications Disk.
 
Last edited:
It's all on us now.

Apple's washed their hands of it.

They're too busy focusing on the mobile space.
 
K15 said:
I just received my Mac Pro 5,1. There was no DVD re-installation disks. Unlike with my SL iMacs and MBP there were disk.

I went to the Apple store and called Apple. They stated that you can boot from the recovery partition. I asked it the drive fails and I had replace the primary drive with the recovery partition on it, then what?

I was told bring it to the Apple store and the Genius's will re-install the HD. If you have Apple Care then it will be done for free. Then log into Apple and do a NetBoot, then you can download all of your Applications once verified or recover your applications through Time Machine. If, no Apple Care then there will be a fee for this procedure.

I stated that you are not understanding, you have lost everything from the primary drive with all data, now what. Reply was bring it to us. I just shook my head.

I was not very happy with this response.

So, now I'm looking into how to create a bootable DVD with my OSX Lion image that I have saved and create a Recovery Applications Disk.
Click to expand...

superduper is free just clone the oem hdd and that is it.

in fact if you have a mac pro and you don't have a bootable clone you are (fill in an adjective)

If you were working for me and ran a mac pro and did not know about cloning for bootable backup you would not be working for me any more. this is basic so basic
 
Cindori said:
download dmg from torrent site -> burn. you own Lion, so it's not pirating
Click to expand...

What can we do when the new Mac Pro's come out needing an updated version of Lion which isn't available?

There will be no drivers for the current hardware, meaning we won't be able to boot.

Are we then forced to make a bootable clone? Seems like a pain, I'd rather just put the HDD that comes with it in slot 2 and put my SSD in slot 1 and get on with it.

Besides, I always re-install the OS when I get a new Mac, I've had a few problems when the OS was cloned in the "factory".
 
Blue Sun said:
What can we do when the new Mac Pro's come out needing an updated version of Lion which isn't available?

There will be no drivers for the current hardware, meaning we won't be able to boot.

Are we then forced to make a bootable clone? Seems like a pain, I'd rather just put the HDD that comes with it in slot 2 and put my SSD in slot 1 and get on with it.

Besides, I always re-install the OS when I get a new Mac, I've had a few problems when the OS was cloned in the "factory".
Click to expand...


OSX has supported new SB CPU and ATI 6000 since 10.6.8, so yeah... it's also not hard to add/replace drivers to a install image
 
philipma1957 said:
superduper is free just clone the oem hdd and that is it.

in fact if you have a mac pro and you don't have a bootable clone you are (fill in an adjective)

If you were working for me and ran a mac pro and did not know about cloning for bootable backup you would not be working for me any more. this is basic so basic
Click to expand...

What he said. You're making this way more complicated than it needs to be.
 
mustgroove said:
Now that Lion has arrived, do new Mac Pros (or any other Mac I suppose) come with installation CDs like they used to, or is everything supposed to be handled by the Lion recovery partition?
Click to expand...

Here is one way ( documented by someone else ) ... macworld hint

That gives you a complete up to date ( as of now ) 10.7.2 installation disk ( or usb flash disk ). If you keep doing it when new updates come out you could have an install disk set that stays current with operating system patches etc.
 
Internet recovery

From 2011 and upwards there is also an internet recovery function in case you also lost the recovery partition what could happen if you would swop your hard drive.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718

johnhurley said:
Here is one way ( documented by someone else ) ... macworld hint

That gives you a complete up to date ( as of now ) 10.7.2 installation disk ( or usb flash disk ). If you keep doing it when new updates come out you could have an install disk set that stays current with operating system patches etc.
Click to expand...
 
fighting cloners

I think one of the reasons Apple doesn't want to sell physical media any more is to prevent people like Psystar from selling hackintosh hardware.

IIRC what Psystar was doing was discussed during the trial. They claimed they were legal because they were buying retail copies of OS X. But then the truth came out --- yes they were buying retail, but no they weren't installing off retail disks for each computer, that would have been too time consuming and expensive. Instead, they were copying hard disk to hard disk. That's what they got slapped down for.

So, the "first sale doctrine" wasn't really put to the test. Apple dodged a bullet. Because if Psystar had simply installed each copy of OS X individually off retail media, Apple might not have had a case.

Still, you can presumably buy OS X Lion on USB for $70. Maybe Apple figures that's expensive enough that potential cloners won't try an approach like that again.

Disclaimer: IANAL and these ramblings are probably *wrong*.
 
K15 said:
I was told bring it to the Apple store and the Genius's will re-install the HD. If you have Apple Care then it will be done for free. Then log into Apple and do a NetBoot, then you can download all of your Applications once verified or recover your applications through Time Machine. If, no Apple Care then there will be a fee for this procedure.
.
Click to expand...

JUST STICK A DISC WITH THE COMPUTER - 'ohh but the future is optical-less' oh you have to download everything.. its a big bag of hurt having to put a cd into a machine..

To The OP - i got my new lion mp back to SL by connecting my newly deleted / installed 10.6.5 SL MBP via firewire 800 and booted the mp into Target disc mode (turn mbp on, have mp off, connect FW cable, turn mp on, hold 't' down, now open disc utility on the mbp, select the orange mp hdd icon, choose restore, eject mp, turn mp off, disconnect fw cable, reboot, fresh 10.6.5 installed, then just update to 10.6.8
 
Phantom Gremlin said:
I think one of the reasons Apple doesn't want to sell physical media any more is to prevent people like Psystar from selling hackintosh hardware.
Click to expand...

This has nothing to do with it. It has everything to do with Apple walking the walk with their new distribution method "The App Store".
 
If you have the money to spend on a Pro then spending an extra $69.00 for the OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive should not be an issue. I think all the new Apples should come with this automatically, but what can you do...
 
Slow Programmer said:
If you have the money to spend on a Pro then spending an extra $69.00 for the OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive should not be an issue. I think all the new Apples should come with this automatically, but what can you do...
Click to expand...

Or you could buy your own $5 USB drive and create an OSX Lion USB Thumb Drive (tm) by using the disk image that comes with the install file from the App store.

Then you have another $64 to use at the bar with your mates.
 
Slow Programmer said:
If you have the money to spend on a Pro then spending an extra $69.00 for the OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive should not be an issue. I think all the new Apples should come with this automatically, but what can you do...
Click to expand...

I _chose_ to pop for the Apple Flash Drive, because it was worth it to me. I didn't let price stop me, but that's not to say I don't find it outrageous. It seems that at $40.00 Apple would still make a nice profit without ripping into us.

I have several other Sandisk Cruzer drives for various reasons when out and about, sure I could have dedicated one to 10.7, but having one from Apple that is obviously Lion at a glance worked for me.
 
vitzr said:
I _chose_ to pop for the Apple Flash Drive, because it was worth it to me. I didn't let price stop me, but that's not to say I don't find it outrageous. It seems that at $40.00 Apple would still make a nice profit without ripping into us.
Click to expand...

I lucked out, and my MP shipped with SL and therefore I got a free app store code for Lion whenever I am ready to pull the trigger. I don't plan to upgrade for a while yet, but I am waiting for a great deal on USB flash drive during Black Friday sales and make my own installation USB.

I would not pay ANYONE $69 for anything when there is a easy DIY $7.00 option.
 
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