How to reinstall OS with no disk?

[colder]

Hi everyone,

Forgive me as I am new to the mac world!

I have a Macbook Pro which I bought as a refurb. I've ordered some memory to upgrade it to 8GB, and a hard drive to upgrade it to 500GB.

The booklet that came in the box tells how to physically replace the drive, and I've done a full backup with Time Machine to an external hard drive. But I'm confused about how the OS will get installed on the new (blank) drive since the MBP didn't come with a disk.

Does it retrieve it all from the internet? How does this work?

 

[Ccrew]

You're going to need a disc.

 

[colder]

You're going to need a disc.

Thank you. Is there a way to create one?

 

[heisenberg123]

Hi everyone,

Forgive me as I am new to the mac world!

I have a Macbook Pro which I bought as a refurb. I've ordered some memory to upgrade it to 8GB, and a hard drive to upgrade it to 500GB.

The booklet that came in the box tells how to physically replace the drive, and I've done a full backup with Time Machine to an external hard drive. But I'm confused about how the OS will get installed on the new (blank) drive since the MBP didn't come with a disk.

Does it retrieve it all from the internet? How does this work?

if you still have the original hard drive put it back in and use Carbon Copy Cloner to make your backup, this will include the OSX and when you put the new drive clone it back from the external to the new hard drive

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Thank you. Is there a way to create one?

you can only create if you bought lion in the app store, if it came pre-installed its not that simple

 

[rault18]

A friend of mine was on the same situation. He took the computer to the apple store and they just did it for him as he had the disk and all the parts.

You can create a bootable disk/thumbdrive however you need to have a copy of the OS.its only 29 dollars and you will have it for good. Def worth it

 

[colder]

if you still have the original hard drive put it back in and use Carbon Copy Cloner to make your backup, this will include the OSX and when you put the new drive clone it back from the external to the new hard drive

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you can only create if you bought lion in the app store, if it came pre-installed its not that simple

I haven't actually done anything yet. I have a fully functional MBP and the new hard drive I intend to put in it.

But I did not buy Lion in the appstore, it was pre-installed and came with no disks.

----------

A friend of mine was on the same situation. He took the computer to the apple store and they just did it for him as he had the disk and all the parts.

You can create a bootable disk/thumbdrive however you need to have a copy of the OS.its only 29 dollars and you will have it for good. Def worth it

Thank you!

Where can I buy a disk copy of the OS? I don't see it in the Store... except the $69 thumb drive, and that says you have to have Snow Leopard first

 

[heisenberg123]

I haven't actually done anything yet. I have a fully functional MBP and the new hard drive I intend to put in it.

But I did not buy Lion in the appstore, it was pre-installed and came with no disks.

----------



Thank you!

Where can I buy a disk copy of the OS? I don't see it in the Store... except the $69 thumb drive, and that says you have to have Snow Leopard first

if your still good look into Carbon Copy Cloner, some like it even better for backups than time machine and like i said it copys the OSX so it works as a bootable drive if your internal ever dies, will make what your doing as simple as 1 2 3

 

[balk]

You're going to need a disc.

Not necessarily. Depending on the model you own you may be able to do installation via internet. Take out the old drive, put in the new one and switch on the laptop. It will start Internet Recovery (if your laptop is new enough) after you connect to the web. Sit back and relax while Lion is downloaded. No need for a disc.

 

[heisenberg123]

Not necessarily. Depending on the model you own you may be able to do installation via internet. Take out the old drive, put in the new one and switch on the laptop. It will start Internet Recovery (if your laptop is new enough) after you connect to the web. Sit back and relax while Lion is downloaded. No need for a disc.

really? i was under the impression the built in recovoery partition was on the hard drive

good info if what your saying is true

 

[colder]

Perfect, thank you guys for being so helpful!

 

[balk]

really? i was under the impression the built in recovoery partition was on the hard drive

good info if what your saying is true

hmm, your statement made me do some research. I have only done a complete HD wipe followed by internet recovery so I was not entirely sure.

Luckily: https://www.macrumors.com/2011/07/2...-new-macs-install-os-x-from-blank-hard-drive/

 

[Nermal]

You may need this firmware update if you don't already have it. It adds Internet Recovery to "early 2011" models.

If the link doesn't work, hit reload. Apple's support site has been having problems recently.

 

[Ccrew]

You may need this firmware update if you don't already have it. It adds Internet Recovery to "early 2011" models.

And we're only assuming it's a current (2011) gen model. OP just said "refurb"

 

[colder]

It's an early 2011.


I ran a Time Machine backup, swapped the stock hard drive with the new/blank one, and restarted the computer holding Command-R. After what seemed like a long time, a globe appeared and a slow-moving progress bar appeared. After this a screen came up asking if I'd like to download and reinstall Lion, restore from another computer, restore from backup, or open the disk utility.

I wanted to restore from my Time Machine backup but the hard drive I'd just installed wasn't listed on the "restore to:" screen. It turned out I just needed to go into disk utility and format it. After this I was able to see it, and it rebuilt the system from my Time Machine backup. I'd say it took about an hour. After that my system booted normally with its new hard drive and maxed-out RAM.

Thanks for all your help!