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USB Reinstall - HowTo ?

drsox

drsox

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Apr 29, 2011
1,751
232
Xhystos
I have a Lion USB stick from Apple, but I am struggling to see how to use it !
In the recovery etc screens to reinstall Lion, the only alternative seems to be to connect to Apples' servers and use them.
What/Where do I do to use the USB stick instead of waiting 2 hours for a download ?

Thanks
 
Thanks, I tried that.

The USB drive shows up on the option to use screen, but all I then had was a white screen with a NoEntry sign. Is my USB drive defective ? It's a brand new item direct from Apple with OS X Lion on it.
 
Don't think any of the 2011 Macs pre-installed with Lion are able to boot to USB devices. Tried on every kind of 2011 Mac except Mac Pro at work and it just doesn't work.

Have to restore from the Recovery partition AKA Apple's servers unfortunately. The Apple Lion USB flash drive is for units that were pre-Lion.
 
Thanks. Didn't know that. Now I wonder why I was sent this by Apple if it doesn't work on the MBA I bought !
Can I move the USB contents to a DVD and reinstall from that or does the limitation apply to any USB connected device ?

UPDATE : I had look at the contents of the USB stick and the install screen says :

" This version os Mac OSX 10.7 cannot be installed on this computer"

What do I do if I want to to reinstall Lion without a 2 hour internet session ?
Is there NO equivalent of the install DVD ?
 
Last edited:
drsox said:
Thanks. Didn't know that. Now I wonder why I was sent this by Apple if it doesn't work on the MBA I bought !
Can I move the USB contents to a DVD and reinstall from that or does the limitation apply to any USB connected device ?

UPDATE : I had look at the contents of the USB stick and the install screen says :

" This version os Mac OSX 10.7 cannot be installed on this computer"

What do I do if I want to to reinstall Lion without a 2 hour internet session ?
Is there NO equivalent of the install DVD ?
Click to expand...

There is no equivalent of a install DVD for Lion other then the Jump Drive you have. I would suggest to take it to the Apple Store and either have the Genius or you to download Lion.

Hugh
 
drsox said:
Thanks. Didn't know that. Now I wonder why I was sent this by Apple if it doesn't work on the MBA I bought !
Can I move the USB contents to a DVD and reinstall from that or does the limitation apply to any USB connected device ?

UPDATE : I had look at the contents of the USB stick and the install screen says :

" This version os Mac OSX 10.7 cannot be installed on this computer"

What do I do if I want to to reinstall Lion without a 2 hour internet session ?
Is there NO equivalent of the install DVD ?
Click to expand...

Sure this is a way ... not sure why people cannot find this stuff ... but here is one way: macworld hints

What kind of machine exactly are you installing Lion on anyhow? It has to be 64 bit for sure.

Did you erase your old disk first ( forcing it to erase thru disk utility ) before attempting this re-install?

Depending on how much bandwidth you have available it does not take anywhere close to 2 hours to download. Probably about 30 minutes at home on my relatively fast cable connection.
 
Hugh said:
There is no equivalent of a install DVD for Lion other then the Jump Drive you have.
Click to expand...

Ummm ... no ... you just have to know how to make it.

See my post in this thread with the url to macworld hints.
 
Thanks for the help so far. Yes, I did erase the drive completely as a first step. Download rates locally are just less than 1MBps. I guess it was >2 hours including the Bootcamp install time.

I'm doing this with a shiny new 13in MBA as a concept test that it can actually be done w/o the need for a lengthy internet session - I'll try the links suggested.

There aren't any Apple stores near here - only franchised resellers with interest to sell me something, so Genius's they ain't.

As a 2 week convert from Win7 it just seems odd to me that I can't get hold of something "physical" to keep - even if it is an install image that I can put in my NAS for safe keeping.
 
drsox said:
Thanks for the help so far. Yes, I did erase the drive completely as a first step. Download rates locally are just less than 1MBps. I guess it was >2 hours including the Bootcamp install time.

I'm doing this with a shiny new 13in MBA as a concept test that it can actually be done w/o the need for a lengthy internet session - I'll try the links suggested.

There aren't any Apple stores near here - only franchised resellers with interest to sell me something, so Genius's they ain't.

As a 2 week convert from Win7 it just seems odd to me that I can't get hold of something "physical" to keep - even if it is an install image that I can put in my NAS for safe keeping.
Click to expand...

Well if you are following the macworld hints article you end up with a file that is the most recent 10.7.2 Lion installer. It is a full install and with that you will not have to ( again ) download Lion.

You can burn that installer to a USB flash drive and use it like that as a full install "disk" or you can burn it to DVD and use it that way ( or do both ).

So you can end up with something physical that you can use to re-install you just have to know how to do it and I have no idea why so many people around here think that you cannot do that.

The macworld hints topic says for a new macbook air or for a new macbook pro but I think the documented approach works for any mac as far as I can tell.

It certainly worked for me on my new 2011 macbook air.
 
drsox said:
As a 2 week convert from Win7 it just seems odd to me that I can't get hold of something "physical" to keep - even if it is an install image that I can put in my NAS for safe keeping.
Click to expand...

If you follow the steps in the Macworld link johnhurley gave you, you will have the file InstallESD.dmg. You can use that file to make either a bootable USB key to install Lion fresh on any machine or use the same DMG file to make a bootable partition on any external USB hard drive.
 
Hugh said:
There is no equivalent of a install DVD for Lion other then the Jump Drive you have. I would suggest to take it to the Apple Store and either have the Genius or you to download Lion.

Hugh
Click to expand...

The restore thumb drive will NOT install Lion on Any of the new Airs (mid 2011). You will just get circle/slash.

s
 
swixo said:
The restore thumb drive will NOT install Lion on Any of the new Airs (mid 2011). You will just get circle/slash.

s
Click to expand...

Yeah I know that, thus why I was suggesting to take it to the Apple Store. But has he has stated that he doesn't live near any Apple Store. Also stated that he doesn't have the bandwidth to download the installer.

Sadly, I guess you are going to have to download the installer and follow the steps from MacWorld. Depending on your bandwidth it can take any where from to 30mins to 2 hours. :(

Hugh
 
Hugh said:
Yeah I know that, thus why I was suggesting to take it to the Apple Store. But has he has stated that he doesn't live near any Apple Store. Also stated that he doesn't have the bandwidth to download the installer.

Sadly, I guess you are going to have to download the installer and follow the steps from MacWorld. Depending on your bandwidth it can take any where from to 30mins to 2 hours. :(

Hugh
Click to expand...

No, read again and it will be apparent that I have installed by a download ( twice actually ). Just don't want to have to do it every time it might be needed.
 
Hugh said:
Yeah I know that, thus why I was suggesting to take it to the Apple Store. But has he has stated that he doesn't live near any Apple Store. Also stated that he doesn't have the bandwidth to download the installer.

Sadly, I guess you are going to have to download the installer and follow the steps from MacWorld. Depending on your bandwidth it can take any where from to 30mins to 2 hours. :(

Hugh
Click to expand...

i am in the same boat because my only option for internet where i am at is through usb. I have a 2011 15" MBP that came with lion, and i changed some disk permissions and was unable to boot, but the only way to download lion is from wifi? so what am i going to do? i too, already erased the HD and bought a lion thumb drive (havent recieved it yet so i guess ill be sending it back without even opening it). is there a solution if i dont have wifi, nothing on the HD, and a useless lion thumb drive without having to mail it to apple or home so a family member can go to the apple store.
 
bdodds1985 said:
i am in the same boat because my only option for internet where i am at is through usb. I have a 2011 15" MBP that came with lion, and i changed some disk permissions and was unable to boot, but the only way to download lion is from wifi? so what am i going to do? i too, already erased the HD and bought a lion thumb drive (havent recieved it yet so i guess ill be sending it back without even opening it). is there a solution if i dont have wifi, nothing on the HD, and a useless lion thumb drive without having to mail it to apple or home so a family member can go to the apple store.
Click to expand...

WiFi or hardwired internet connection, yes.

Surely you guys realize that you're clearly in the minority of users, yes? Especially bdodds1985...you have *zero* WiFi or ethernet connectivity anywhere close to you? Where are you at that requires you to use USB, of all connections, for your internet access?
 
bdodds1985 said:
i am in the same boat because my only option for internet where i am at is through usb. I have a 2011 15" MBP that came with lion, and i changed some disk permissions and was unable to boot, but the only way to download lion is from wifi? so what am i going to do?
Click to expand...

Did you take a look at my link for the macworld hints article?
 
jayhawk11 said:
WiFi or hardwired internet connection, yes.

Surely you guys realize that you're clearly in the minority of users, yes? Especially bdodds1985...you have *zero* WiFi or ethernet connectivity anywhere close to you? Where are you at that requires you to use USB, of all connections, for your internet access?
Click to expand...

afghanistan. when i want internet now, i have to go to the public computer tent. thanks
 
Last edited:
johnhurley said:
Sure this is a way ... not sure why people cannot find this stuff ... but here is one way: macworld hints

What kind of machine exactly are you installing Lion on anyhow? It has to be 64 bit for sure.

Did you erase your old disk first ( forcing it to erase thru disk utility ) before attempting this re-install?

Depending on how much bandwidth you have available it does not take anywhere close to 2 hours to download. Probably about 30 minutes at home on my relatively fast cable connection.
Click to expand...

UPDATE : Macworld link seems to work fine - at least now I have a InstallESD.dmg image safely in my OSX file on my NAS. How do I burn this to a DVD ? In Win7 I knew how to do this, OSX is still an unknown.
 
I Used it on my macbook pro that came with lion. worked great. bought it in october 2011. its the dumbest thing in the world to have to download a full operating system via wifi. apple really grinds my gears sometimes and im new to owning one... but minus the little disk permissions problem i ran into because its all new to me, i love my MBP. and now i have a lion thumb drive just in case. it shouldve came with one wether or not the computer has a recovery drive.
 
Yes, I agree. However OSX is miles better than Win7 and there is less nannying.
However, I still can't do what I want with folder locations so I'll have to continue with Win7 for most apps.

I guess Apple always wants to control the user options to limit having to deal with the problems of flaky users.
 
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