OS X Disc (Reformat)

[whatlifeforme]

If one purchases a macbook pro from the apple store, or online, do they normally receive a disc for the operating system to reformat their computer?

I purchased mine through my uni, and did not receive a disc with mine, so i don't know how i am suppose to reformat?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

OS X Lion: About Lion Recovery

There might be also some information in the User Guide, that should have come with your MBP, called "Problem, Meet Solution" or something like that.

 

[Nermal]

Unfortunately since about three months ago Apple no longer includes an install DVD.

Newer machines have "Internet Recovery" which is accessible by rebooting while holding Cmd-R. I suggest trying that key combination to see whether it works. If it doesn't, then you should install the 2.2 firmware update in order to add that functionality.

Edit: According to the article linked above, Cmd-R will boot into the recovery partition if it exists (I don't have one on my machine so I didn't know that). In that case you should go to Apple > About This Mac > More Info and take a look at "Boot ROM Version" in the right-hand pane. It should read "MBP81.0047.B1E" if you have the latest ROM.

 

[upaymeifixit]

Apple is getting rid of CDs/DVDs so they do not have Lion restore disks. You can buy Lion restore flash drives, but they do not come with the computer.

If it's Lion you can hold down option at startup and select the restore partition. More detailed instructions are in the link in simsaladimbamba's post above.