MacBook Pro Retina Lion OS Recovery

[wethackrey]

Yes there is. If you follow the process mac82 posted here it will grab the machine specific Lion installer for you and you can use that to make a USB key installer for yourself.

The same process can be found here. It is admittedly a grind, but it works.

Right. Which requires the use of a recovery partition. Which, if you don't have one, requires an Internet Recovery.

Again... Apple does not make available a way to obtain an appropriate OS installer for the Mid-2012 Macs. Can you cludge a way to interrupt the install process and get one? Sure. I've done that and have the installer on a nifty USB key in my briefcase. But I still maintain that it's ridiculous that Apple does not provide an OS installer for a new computer. It isn't that hard. Fix the App Store so it delivers the appropriate download.

 

[Weaselboy]

Right. Which requires the use of a recovery partition. Which, if you don't have one, requires an Internet Recovery.

You do have Lion Recovery in the firmware of your machine, so even with a completely blank drive (no recovery partition) you can still do an Internet Recovery.

Again... Apple does not make available a way to obtain an appropriate OS installer for the Mid-2012 Macs. Can you cludge a way to interrupt the install process and get one? Sure. I've done that and have the installer on a nifty USB key in my briefcase. But I still maintain that it's ridiculous that Apple does not provide an OS installer for a new computer. It isn't that hard. Fix the App Store so it delivers the appropriate download.

I completely agree. I was just trying to offer up a work around for you.

 

[Aodhan]

As soon as Mountain Lion comes out, I will be able to make a proper USB key to use for reinstalls. Until then I'm not going to worry about it. I have Time Machine, but that isn't very useful for a clean reinstall.

When I got my new MBP a couple weeks ago, I was really expecting USB media, or a DVD at least. Then when I tried downloading the Lion copy I bought a while back from the App Store and it wouldn't let me, I thought WTF? Internet Recovery is not good enough for me.

 

[wethackrey]

As soon as Mountain Lion comes out, I will be able to make a proper USB key to use for reinstalls. Until then I'm not going to worry about it. I have Time Machine, but that isn't very useful for a clean reinstall.

When I got my new MBP a couple weeks ago, I was really expecting USB media, or a DVD at least. Then when I tried downloading the Lion copy I bought a while back from the App Store and it wouldn't let me, I thought WTF? Internet Recovery is not good enough for me.

I couldn't agree more. Very often, for my work as a consultant, I find myself off in some odd corner of the planet. Pune India, is a recent example. If I have some calamity with my laptop drive, I can't count on being able to track down a fast Internet connection to Apple's servers to recover. That was the single thing that had me concerned about moving to a platform like the MBPr with no optical drive.

Since I now have a 2.5" Seagate GoFlex drive that's a clone of my internal SSD, including the recovery partition, along with an OS installer on a USB key, I'm pretty confident I won't have to fly back home if I have a problem. Of course having an SSD in place of a HDD as my working drive should make it less likely I'll have an issue to begin with.

 

[NathanA]

How did you get a working DMG file? Did you interrupt an Internet Recovery and grab the file?

Precisely.

-- Nathan

 

[jakeluck]

Just did the whole internet restore here on a RMBP. Shame on the cheap fruit company, no OS stick! no Internet restore from Ethernet!

There is an easier way to divide the disk into 2 partitions without nuking the whole disk. Here is how:

- Instead of selecting a whole different partition layout, select the main partition, and use either the Size text box or the resize widget at the lower right corner of the partition to resize the partition to a smaller size.

- then use the plus button to add a new second partition, adjust its size accordingly (repeat as many times as you have free space)

- click Apply. Disk Utilities will adjust both the partition table and the Recovery HD appropriately. In this case, it will move the recovery partition from the end of the disk to the middle. (see screenshot below)

I hope this will save someone a few hours and few gigs down the road.

Jake

 

[DC Hurricane]

As soon as Mountain Lion comes out, I will be able to make a proper USB key to use for reinstalls. Until then I'm not going to worry about it. I have Time Machine, but that isn't very useful for a clean reinstall.

When I got my new MBP a couple weeks ago, I was really expecting USB media, or a DVD at least. Then when I tried downloading the Lion copy I bought a while back from the App Store and it wouldn't let me, I thought WTF? Internet Recovery is not good enough for me.

I'm not quite understanding why ML would be any different than Lion in this case. Does Apple only allow you to install from one bootable version based on your machine?

 

[Aodhan]

I'm not quite understanding why ML would be any different than Lion in this case. Does Apple only allow you to install from one bootable version based on your machine?

The new MBPs and MBPRs have a customized version of Lion, so previous copies will not install or even download to the new systems. Which means we are out of luck until Mountain Lion comes out. Of course, we could always use internet recovery, but that just sounds terrible.

 

[markfsanderson]

MB Pro Mid 2012 OS Restore . . . .

All,
I've read some articles, links from this thread and etc. Is it true that there is no supported technique to restore a fresh copy of OSX 10.8.x to my MBP Mid 2012? Wow! I wish the world was as Apple wishes it . . . but in places like the Phlippines and other 3rd world countries internet access can be spotty, slow, unreliable, go away for days at a time and then be fine for a while. Am I alone, or am I the only one who doesn't understand why there isn't a media restore? The whole point of a portable/laptop is that its - portable! It will move from place to place. Some places don't have the infrastructure of let say, Dallas or Seoul . . .
So . . . I'm doing some heavy duty developing on my MBP Mid 2012 (totally maxed out machine) using a number of virtual machines . . and something goes boom in the night . . . On my older air . . .I just restore the OS . . .copy over my virtual machines from a USB drive and I'm up and running in hours . . . It seems like now - I'm screwed until I get a high speed connection for 6 or 8 hours . . . is this true?

Ouch! This internet restore is cool for iMacs, Pros and other 'stay-in-one-place' machines . . .but for portable/laptops - this is not good!

Any ideas? Any supported approaches? I paid more than 4K including tax for laptop, and I can't even use it on the road w/complete confidence w/out resorting to unsupported 3rd party hacks. Then that does beg the question - why didn't I buy a Dell - dude? (Sorry couldn't help the sarcasm)

Regards,
Mark F. Sanderson

 

[Freyqq]

you could have just used disk utility to shrink the first partition and make a second partition

 

[Weaselboy]

All,
I've read some articles, links from this thread and etc. Is it true that there is no supported technique to restore a fresh copy of OSX 10.8.x to my MBP Mid 2012?

You can use this process to snag the full installer for Mountain Lion then use the DMG you grabbed to make a USB install key that will work on your machine,