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Will You Buy The "Super Rip Off" OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive ???

mrwonkers said:
I have just purchased a MacBook Air and a Mac Mini Server both of which come with no physical restore media like they used 2. My only option download Lion once a month or fortnight [machines used 4 AV/Production, restored after each job] or pay $75 Australian dollars for a restore stick that should have come in the box. Great Apple wants to transition to downloaded software only and we have to wear it - I have just spent 2 and a half thousand dollars on their machines and a now have to fork out for the OS on a super overpriced USB stick - and then still have to download iLife because you don't get that in the box anymore either.

This SUCKS! Not everyone has access to fast or cheap internet, I can see this being the future [but] - Now is too soon to roll this method out I feel, how do you guys feel about this Apple shenanigan?
Click to expand...

It appears you don't realize what the thumb drive is for...

First, if you have Lion machines, you do not need to buy the thumb drive. You download a small utility on Apples website and make your own with any thumb drive, not to mention Lion updates are deltas so no need to redownload the entire OS.

What the thumb drives are really for is for people who are upgrading from Leopard, not Snow Leopard. Instead of having to pay for SL, upgrade to it, and download Lion (which amounts to $70) they buy the Lion thumb drive for $70 instead and have the full OS to install.
 
Chrono

Sorry you are wrong!

The Apple utility is only to make a copy of the recovery partition. It does not make a thumb drive with the full OS install and deltas. If it did, that would be a pretty mean feat to squeeze it down to less than 1GB!

You still have to do the full 4G download each time you use it to reinstall.

So with respect before accusing others of not understanding the purpose of the thumb drive, be sure of the facts yourself, before misinforming others of things that are not correct.

As it stands there is not an official Apple solution to obtaining or making an offline Lion install for the new Airs and Minis.
 
So, I'm running into this problem too. I had made a USB Lion stick a month back or so and deployed it successfully on my 2010 MBA and 2010 MB white.

Since then I bought a 2011 MBA and am trying to do a clean wipe and use that same stick, but it tells me that I can't restore with that version of 10.7.1. Am I screwed? I was able to use that USB stick to boot it up and use Disk Utility to wipe the entire disk (including the recovery partition). But now can't use it to install Lion?
 
mrwonkers said:
I have just purchased a MacBook Air and a Mac Mini Server both of which come with no physical restore media like they used 2. My only option download Lion once a month or fortnight [machines used 4 AV/Production, restored after each job] or pay $75 Australian dollars for a restore stick that should have come in the box. Great Apple wants to transition to downloaded software only and we have to wear it - I have just spent 2 and a half thousand dollars on their machines and a now have to fork out for the OS on a super overpriced USB stick - and then still have to download iLife because you don't get that in the box anymore either.

This SUCKS! Not everyone has access to fast or cheap internet, I can see this being the future [but] - Now is too soon to roll this method out I feel, how do you guys feel about this Apple shenanigan?
Click to expand...

To some people apple can do no wrong. Their products are ineffable. For others, having no loyalty to one single company, it's much easier to see the BS that is put out there. I installed lion on top of S. leopard, but my macbook was far too weird. I made the backup DVD in case I needed to reinstall, but to my surprise, the DVD back-up of lion wouldn't load on my C2D (it did load on 2 other macs in my house - just not mine - there seems to be a problem with backups loading on C2Duos).

So I had to re-download the whole OS again - another hour and then do a clean install. If that's the convenience of "cloud computing" I want no part of it. At least not until we're reaching 1GB/3min download rates. And at the rate we're going, it'll be another 30 years before that's reality in the US. Give me a DVD with lion on it any day.

----------
dmk1974 said:
So, I'm running into this problem too. I had made a USB Lion stick a month back or so and deployed it successfully on my 2010 MBA and 2010 MB white.

Since then I bought a 2011 MBA and am trying to do a clean wipe and use that same stick, but it tells me that I can't restore with that version of 10.7.1. Am I screwed? I was able to use that USB stick to boot it up and use Disk Utility to wipe the entire disk (including the recovery partition). But now can't use it to install Lion?
Click to expand...

If you can get to disk utility, you can log in into the appstore and re-download Lion from there.
 
If you can get to disk utility, you can log in into the appstore and re-download Lion from there.
Click to expand...

I know, but I was hoping that one-time download and creation of USB stick would prevent the need for that.

My other thought was, and tell me if this would or would not work, is to do that download of Lion, install and setup a generic user name with no personal info, and then create a TimeMachine backup of it. Then, if I ever need to restore, it's a semi-USB reinstallation. Could that work as well?
 
Course I wouldn't.
Is it some kind of ploy to get people to buy from MAS? I mean, I bet the overwhelmingly vast majority of Macs in the wild have optical drives. Why not release it on disc like last time?

Bah! Silly things like this keep pushing me towards Microsoft.
 
Typswif2fingers said:
They :)apple:) didn't make so much money because they played nice...

Apple has mastered the art of relocating the exchange medium from the accounts of their customers to their own, to such high level that one feels the "pleasure" whilst being fleeced... :D
Click to expand...

Kudos for the best humor and honesty yet!

So funny & well said. Your post is the best I've read in ages.

I'm also laughing at myself cause it's my wallet they're fleecing too.

They've done it for years :)
 
iBreatheApple said:
If it's shiny and has an Apple logo, then yes.
Click to expand...

It's this kind of attitude that Apple has so successfully programmed into the brains of the masses.

No wonder Apple can command the prices they do.

Even more amazing is once they give their money to Apple, then they brag about how much money Apple has.

It's all due to years of Jobs worship. Total belief in the church of Apple.

It's a miracle :)


/sarcastic humor laced with some truth
 
dmk1974 said:
I know, but I was hoping that one-time download and creation of USB stick would prevent the need for that.

My other thought was, and tell me if this would or would not work, is to do that download of Lion, install and setup a generic user name with no personal info, and then create a TimeMachine backup of it. Then, if I ever need to restore, it's a semi-USB reinstallation. Could that work as well?
Click to expand...

Well, I was able to restore from a TM backup which I guess is the good news. However, I was not able to access the Lion download from my USB stick. Nor can I install that official Lion Recovery program since it's not detecting a restore partition.

Are there any other options that will allow me to get a clean install an have that restore partition back on my hard drive? Thanks.
 
JimboMac said:
Chrono

Sorry you are wrong!

The Apple utility is only to make a copy of the recovery partition. It does not make a thumb drive with the full OS install and deltas. If it did, that would be a pretty mean feat to squeeze it down to less than 1GB!

You still have to do the full 4G download each time you use it to reinstall.

So with respect before accusing others of not understanding the purpose of the thumb drive, be sure of the facts yourself, before misinforming others of things that are not correct.

As it stands there is not an official Apple solution to obtaining or making an offline Lion install for the new Airs and Minis.
Click to expand...

How and I wrong exactly? I listed what the official Apple thumb drive was for. How was that incorrect? The custom thumb drive program is to reinstall Lion without needing Snow Leopard (I mentioned nothing about never having to initially download Lion, just that once its installed its delta updates), and the USB stick is for people who want to upgrade to Lion without installing Snow Leopard first.

If the OP is having trouble due to slow internet or expensive internet than he has no choice but to get the USB drive, but nothing about my statement was incorrect. I was trying to let the OP know the thumb drive is NOT a necessity in most cases.

EDIT: After rereading I can see where you think I meant that you can make the thumb drive without re-downloading Lion at all, this was not my intent (since you have to download it once) I simply wanted the OP to know it wasn't necessary to purchase a $70 device to reinstall the OS.
 
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jsm4182 said:
If you have to restore the machines like that so often wouldn't it be easier to use something like Carbon Copy Cloner to create a copy of a clean install on an extra drive, then copy it back to each computer after each job? Not only would you not have to redownlaod all that software every time but it should be faster and have everything already configured and set to go.
Click to expand...

This. It makes no sense to reinstall EVERYTHING once a month. Just keep a disk image and reload that as necessary...
 
And just clarify the official Apple 'make your own USB key' does not make a full installation either. All it creates is a copy of the files that reside on the recovery partition on a 1GB USB key.

EVERY TIME you want to reinstall Lion, you must have an internet connection and go through the hassle of downloading a 4GB install file.

It would make sense to have us just do this the once, but oh no, Apple think we all have super fast connections and don't mind waiting between 1 to 7 hrs for the install file to arrive.

I do wish they would sort this so that those with slow internet connections, can have an official alternative.
 
i made my own with a disk image of Lion and it works perfect. it already show itself super useful on a MBA3,1 i restore earlier.
 
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