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xXSL1MXx

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 24, 2009
48
0
Ok so basically I'm in need of assistance. I bought lion the day it came out on an iMac. I then signed into my MBP and installed it there. My MBP needs an archive install of Lion but I don't have the copy of it on disk! To make it worse, I can't use recovery hd because I don't have the account information any more! IS there any way I can some how burn Lion to a DVD or USB and then load it on my MBP by hitting option? My MBP won't boot completely, I just get a spinning wheel and Apple logo forever! What CAN I DO???:confused:
 
Ok so basically I'm in need of assistance. I bought lion the day it came out on an iMac. I then signed into my MBP and installed it there. My MBP needs an archive install of Lion but I don't have the copy of it on disk! To make it worse, I can't use recovery hd because I don't have the account information any more! IS there any way I can some how burn Lion to a DVD or USB and then load it on my MBP by hitting option? My MBP won't boot completely, I just get a spinning wheel and Apple logo forever! What CAN I DO???:confused:

From your post it sounds like you have one Mac that won't boot and one Mac that boots Lion just fine. On the good Mac, you can make yourself a Lion install USB. Apple makes a usb utility available for free. It uses the Lion recovery partition and makes a recovery USB. I think it will work on 4GB or possibly even a 1GB USB. The down side is Apple's official method requires downloading a crapload of stuff over the internet. Another down side is Apple's utility wipes your usb even if it's a 1 TB HDD with your only backup on it. Use a small USB stick, not your TM backup destination volume!

While we're talking about downloading a crapload of stuff, I should mention that I've heard, but never actually gotten it to work, that you can hold down option and click install on Lion in the app store and it will download it again. This is good because you can do "show contents" on Install OSX Lion.app and browse around inside for InstallESD.dmg. From this you can use Disk Utility to make your own recovery USB on any 8 GB or larger USB stick and this time it won't require downloading much other than the 10.7.2 combo update after you are done.
 
From your post it sounds like you have one Mac that won't boot and one Mac that boots Lion just fine. On the good Mac, you can make yourself a Lion install USB. Apple makes a usb utility available for free. It uses the Lion recovery partition and makes a recovery USB. I think it will work on 4GB or possibly even a 1GB USB.

I downloaded something from Apple, it was an app and installed it on a USB. It was small and all it was, was an extra Recovery HD, just on a USB. TO reinstall I need to enter my Apple ID info. I don't have that! Is there another way? If I download Lion from a torrent, its not illegal right since I already paid the $30? Can't I just download it from a torrent and install it on a USB and boot from the USB?
 
I downloaded something from Apple, it was an app and installed it on a USB. It was small and all it was, was an extra Recovery HD, just on a USB. TO reinstall I need to enter my Apple ID info. I don't have that! Is there another way? If I download Lion from a torrent, its not illegal right since I already paid the $30? Can't I just download it from a torrent and install it on a USB and boot from the USB?

On your other computer, you can just hold down option and redownload Lion. Once it's downloaded, you can right click and find the InstallESD.dmg, copy that to your desktop and then put in your USB thumb drive. Go to Disk Utility on the good computer and select the drive and navigate to the restore tab in Disk Utility. Select the InstallESD.dmg to the USB drive. It will erase whatever's on the USB drive and put InstallESD.dmg on the thumb stick. You can restart the bad computer, hold down option to boot from the USB and install Lion.
 
On your other computer, you can just hold down option and redownload Lion. Once it's downloaded, you can right click and find the InstallESD.dmg, copy that to your desktop and then put in your USB thumb drive. Go to Disk Utility on the good computer and select the drive and navigate to the restore tab in Disk Utility. Select the InstallESD.dmg to the USB drive. It will erase whatever's on the USB drive and put InstallESD.dmg on the thumb stick. You can restart the bad computer, hold down option to boot from the USB and install Lion.

Tried, also requires me to enter the ID info. I've just decided to do what you said but get the file from a torrent. It's downloading...
 
Ok, So i successfully downloaded the install file and made a bootable USB. Its the same as recovery hd, except this allows me to reinstall without entering ID info. If I press reinstall mac os x lion, will that delete everything or will it take me to select options? I pressed it and it immediately started with the spinning circle and I canceled it right away. I don't know if it's starting the actual process or if it's just taking me to an "options" screen. Does anyone know?
 
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