Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
Does the 2011 mac mini have a hidden partition? How to restore the mini to factory setting?
Just press & hold the Shift key after you hear the startup chime and the Restore partition will show up in the Startup Manager.
The shift key still starts my 2010 Mini into safe mode rather than bringing up the Startup Manager. For that I still need to press and hold down the option key-—same as for previous Mac systems.. Holding down Command-R boots directly into the Recovery partition, bypassing the Startup Manager.
OP, restoring Lion shouldn't do anything to your files but things can go wrong. Make sure you have backups of anything important before restoring Lion.
I must have been really tired last night, you are correct on all counts! 😝
Thanks both! Got figured it out and restored Lion already. But the restore did not include iLife which was there before. Too bad that I didn't backup the Apps before the restore. Don't know where I should go to get back a free copy of iLife tho.
If you downloaded them through the MAS, then you can download them again for free. If they came on a new Mac, then they are on the Install DVD that came with the new Mac. Look for the bundled apps on the disk.
It came with the new 2011 mac mini. It was installed when I first turned it on. The package does not include any installation disk anymore...I guess it's because the new mini doesn't have an optical drive...
I think all new Macs do not have disks, regardless of Superdrive. Are you going to get the Apple ext Superdrive at some point?
Then I would speak to Apple Care or better perhaps, a local Apple Store regarding how to restore the bundled apps. Do they perhaps show as purchased on the MAS's Purchases page? If so they should download for free.
The App Store should let you dowload iLife. You might have to "accept" under purchased after signing in.
The App Store requires me to pay for the iLife. This morning I called Apple Support and they said it's an issue right now for all "Bundled Apps" coming from the newly purchase machine in case of fresh wipe+restore. They are going to escalate the issue and see how it goes...
How to restore 2011 mini to factory settings?
