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Lion USB stick from Apple

KnightWRX

KnightWRX

macrumors Pentium
Original poster
Jan 28, 2009
15,046
4
Quebec, Canada
Has anyone gotten the retail Lion USB stick ? If so, I'd like to know what is included on it. Is it just Lion or did they put in all the extras like on the DVDs of yore (like XCode).

I have yet to see a post about it and searching around the net did not yield anything as far as the content of the USB stick itself.
 
KnightWRX said:
Has anyone gotten the retail Lion USB stick ? If so, I'd like to know what is included on it. Is it just Lion or did they put in all the extras like on the DVDs of yore (like XCode).

I have yet to see a post about it and searching around the net did not yield anything as far as the content of the USB stick itself.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure they don't exist. I think SL was the last OS to have physical media of any kind. You can make a USB key by extracting the DMG and writing it to a USB device.
 
KnightWRX said:
What site are you reading exactly ?

https://www.macrumors.com/2011/08/16/apple-starts-selling-69-os-x-lion-usb-thumb-drive/

It was on the front page.

I guess no one here bought it since no one can reply with the contents of the thumb drive itself.
Click to expand...

i read on another thread that it only contains the restore software. the same thing apple made available to download and that the drive was only a 1 gb drive. but on apples sight it sounds like it is a full operating system so now i don't know either.
 
Knight, I am ordering one in the next two weeks. I can let you know if some body beats me to it. :/

Hugh
 
nunes013 said:
i read on another thread that it only contains the restore software. the same thing apple made available to download and that the drive was only a 1 gb drive. but on apples sight it sounds like it is a full operating system so now i don't know either.
Click to expand...

I'd doubt very much that it is a 1GB drive with only restore software on it. It wouldn't quite make sense to make this available to people without proper broadband and then have it require ... broadband.

You're thinking of the Apple care shipped USB thumb drive :

https://www.macrumors.com/2011/08/04/lion-usb-keys-available-for-some-via-applecare/


Hugh said:
Knight, I am ordering one in the next two weeks. I can let you know if some body beats me to it. :/

Hugh
Click to expand...

Thanks! Though a few weeks is a quite the wait.
 
I got mine on Saturday. I don't have the MAS version to compare, but I don't think it's radically different.

I've installed it on my C2D MacBook to try it out, it's not going on my main machine yet. The install went fine, copied over quickly then restarted and took about half an hour or something.

It's basically a single volume called Mac OS X Install, and when you open it up in the finder it just contains a big install application icon to double-click.
OSXLionUSB-window.jpg

The application itself is only 14.6 MB, but there is 3.82 GB of data on the 4.19GB capacity drive. Mine was created Saturday, 16 July (!) 2011.

OSXLionUSB-volume-info.jpg

On the top level of the volume is an invisible file called BaseSystem.dmg which is 453.6 MB
There's also a folder called Packages, which makes up most of the data on the drive at 3.28 GB, and seems to contain most of the other stuff.

OSXLionUSB-file-list.jpg

So I don't think there's XCode included, no.

I don't know if there's much else I can tell you but feel free to ask.
 
nunes013 said:
i read on another thread that it only contains the restore software. the same thing apple made available to download and that the drive was only a 1 gb drive. but on apples sight it sounds like it is a full operating system so now i don't know either.
Click to expand...

Apple has two different USB install drives. The one you buy from the Apple Store contains the full Lion install. There's another one that a Genius may give you if you are not able to reinstall Lion from your restore partition. This one is as you have described it. It's also free, but you have to legitimately not be able to use your restore partition.
 
Porco said:
I got mine on Saturday. I don't have the MAS version to compare, but I don't think it's radically different.

The application itself is only 14.6 MB, but there is 3.82 GB of data on the 4.19GB capacity drive. Mine was created Saturday, 16 July (!) 2011.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Indeed, that's bunk. Guess I'll save the cash and just get it from the MAS. :(

Was hoping to not have to register to the MAS, but I need Xcode. Was hoping it would be included on the USB thumb drive. There's no point in not getting Lion from the MAS if I'm only going to have to register to get Xcode anyhow.
 
iThinkergoiMac said:
It just uses your Apple ID. Do you not already have one?
Click to expand...

Yes, I do have one, and yes I know it just uses that. I don't want to download and buy anything from the MAS. Call it a philosophical position.

But since I'll be forced to do so for Xcode anyhow, might as well save the 39$ for Lion.
 
KnightWRX said:
Yes, I do have one, and yes I know it just uses that.
Click to expand...

OK, I was just confused by you wording. To me, at least, "register for the MAS" implied creating an account, not simply signing in. You don't register for MacRumors every time you come to post here, do you? ;)
 
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