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How to get copy of lion for new MBA!

T

turbotoes

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 24, 2010
138
0
France
My MBA arrived this morning, so I popped along to the mac app store to see whether I could download a copy of lion to stick on a USB key for future use, or purchase a second copy to download later, but Mas won't let me do either! so how do I get my hands on one?
It seems crazy to me that you can't download an os that you have bought the right to use? I refuse to be reliant on my dogslow dsl connection to reinstall lion if I ever need to.
Has anyone got an answer before I go off searching for an "alternative download location? " :(
 
turbotoes said:
My MBA arrived this morning, so I popped along to the mac app store to see whether I could download a copy of lion to stick on a USB key for future use, or purchase a second copy to download later, but Mas won't let me do either! so how do I get my hands on one?
It seems crazy to me that you can't download an os that you have bought the right to use? I refuse to be reliant on my dogslow dsl connection to reinstall lion if I ever need to.
Has anyone got an answer before I go off searching for an "alternative download location? " :(
Click to expand...
I feel the same way. The last thing I would want to do when having an emergency reformat is to wait 5hrs to download 3.7GB of Lion on my slow DSL. Just like with any backup strategy, it's best to get your backup ready BEFORE you need it so I'd much prefer a USB Flash drive that I can make right now.
 
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I've got go out in a bit, but when I get back I'll phone apple and see what they have to say.

Tara
 
The MacBook Air's build of 10.7 is slightly later than the retail build. Even if you could buy a copy it won't work as the MacBook Air won't boot off an older build of OS X.
 
I guess it depends on how fast your internet connection is. I did a clean install of Lion on a new 11" MBA (to see how the process worked and to check out the recovery features).

I booted to the recovery partition, punched in my WiFi password, and Lion downloaded in about 45 minutes. The actual OS install completed within 15-20 minutes (no optical media plus crazy fast SSD = quick and effortless install).

I was kind of annoyed that I was unable to customize the install (to remove excess drivers and unneeded languages), but I am thinking that Apple left them out anyway (to make the download smaller in size) - and will prompt a user to install them when needed (at least for drivers, etc).
 
Sowelu said:
I was kind of annoyed that I was unable to customize the install (to remove excess drivers and unneeded languages), but I am thinking that Apple left them out anyway (to make the download smaller in size) - and will prompt a user to install them when needed (at least for drivers, etc).
Click to expand...

My install experience was similar to yours. I had a working machine in about an hour on Comcast cable. DSL will be slower though, possibly much, much slower.

But I'd say you are right about the printer drivers (languages aren't really "that big" these days and easily compressible as text). 10.6 allowed for you to install no printer drivers and download them as needed. 10.7 carries on this tradition for a few more things in on top of that (like Java).
 
I thought I read that once you download the Lion release, you can open or inspect the package and there is a dmg image in there that you can copy to USB disk - does anyone else recall that?
 
TheRealDamager said:
I thought I read that once you download the Lion release, you can open or inspect the package and there is a dmg image in there that you can copy to USB disk - does anyone else recall that?
Click to expand...

Yes, but you need to be on Snow Leopard for this to work, basically you copy the DMG before you let the OS start the upgrade from SL to Lion, i.e. this method will not work on devices that come with Lion already installed.
 
The new air and mac mini have the ability to launch restore preferences where you can download Lion directly to the air for restore purposes. Not sure about getting it into a USB though.. it auto installs I think
 
Just boot to the Lion restore partition why do you people want a physical copy of this crap?
 
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Krevnik said:
.....But I'd say you are right about the printer drivers (languages aren't really "that big" these days and easily compressible as text). 10.6 allowed for you to install no printer drivers and download them as needed. 10.7 carries on this tradition for a few more things in on top of that (like Java).
Click to expand...

As I understand it the language packs you can add on, the new voices, they are all in excess of 500MB each. I do mean voices, that may not be the same thing you are thinking of, but certainly thats the case for the extra voices/language packs you downlaod, I would think the defaults would be similar.
 
cleric said:
Just boot to the Lion restore partition why do you damn people want a physical copy of this crap?
Click to expand...

Don't you get that some people have rubbish Internet connections?

3.5 gigabytes on my connection is at least five hours! That's fine to download overnight, but not to get my laptop usable if I mess things up (or decide to install a bigger ssd at some point in the future)
 
Seriously, what the hell was wrong with the previous MBA's restore USB? Simple and elegant. Customisable install as well. Not exactly costly to produce nor utilising obsolete optical tech.

What is this obsession with everything being DL-only or cloud-based? Does Jobs realise the majority of us don't have blazing fast 50mbps+ connections?

Or is just another way of cutting costs? Won't be long before unboxing a new Mac will reveal just the unit itself and stickers that say "Requires AC power lead" etc.
 
Rather than worrying about a restore disk, why don't you just image the entire drive? Besides if something fails to the point of having to reinstall won't that mean leaving the MBA with Apple for a while anyway?
 
-even with made .dmg dvd/usb of retail app store version...it wont work with latest mba
-lots of us have slower internet speeds (mine would take 5+ hrs)
-as of now... carbon copy,superduper seem best way to go

here's hoping aug retail usb stick for $29 (edit: $69) will work with latest mba (and allow custom install)
 
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tom vilsack said:
-even with made .dmg dvd/usb of retail app store version...it wont work with latest mba
-lots of us have slower internet speeds (mine would take 5+ hrs)
-as of now... carbon copy,superduper seem best way to go

here's hoping aug retail usb stick for $29 will work with latest mba (and allow custom install)
Click to expand...

That will actually be $69 if you want a retail USB.
 
tom vilsack said:
-even with made .dmg dvd/usb of retail app store version...it wont work with latest mba
-lots of us have slower internet speeds (mine would take 5+ hrs)
-as of now... carbon copy,superduper seem best way to go

here's hoping aug retail usb stick for $29 will work with latest mba (and allow custom install)
Click to expand...

I think the retail usb stick will be $79. I made my own this morning with the stick for last macbook air.
 
cleric said:
Just boot to the Lion restore partition why do you people want a physical copy of this crap?
Click to expand...

Not all of us have access to 50MBit FIOS 24/7. I'll frequently take my MBA to my mountain cabin with no internet access. I'll also bring my trusty USB SL backup that came along with 2 portable HDs for backups so I can still work on my DSLR pics after a SSD crash (these do happen BTW). On these new MBA's I would be basically up poop creek until I get home again!
 
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