Cav9mm
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Best way to do a clean install of Lion

Bought my Mac Book Pro last year.

 

It shipped wth Lion. I want to basically re-image it now and start again but was wondering if there is any way around having to download the 4GB install package?

 

Any tips?

 

Thanks in advance.

Posted on Jun 24, 2012 5:40 AM

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Cav9mm

Q: Best way to do a clean install of Lion

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  • by Barney-15E,

    Barney-15E Barney-15E Jun 24, 2012 6:58 AM in response to Cav9mm
    Level 9 (50,903 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 24, 2012 6:58 AM in response to Cav9mm

    There isn't really an easy way to do what you want.

    Since it shipped with Lion, that copy of Lion is licensed to the Mac it is on. To reinstall, you use the Lion Recovery partition or Internet Recovery if your MBP is capable (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4904).

     

    If you completely erase the drive, you will remove the recovery partition and would only be able to recover using Internet Recovery. To just erase the main partition, boot into the Recovery HD (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718) and Choose Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. From there, you can erase just the Macintosh HD. Then, go back to the recovery HD and install Lion.

     

    If you search the web, you may find ways to save a copy of the installer, but I'm not sure it is possible with a pre-loaded Mac. Regardless, you will have to download Lion somehow, or fork out $69 for the USB stick, but I'm not sure it will work with your Mac.

     

    Now, the $64 million question: Why do you think you need to "re-image" your Mac? It is normally not necessary, and, in your case, a collosal time-waster if you really don't have issues that require it.

  • by woodmeister50,

    woodmeister50 woodmeister50 Jun 25, 2012 4:02 AM in response to Cav9mm
    Level 5 (5,664 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 25, 2012 4:02 AM in response to Cav9mm

    Since your MBP shipped with Lion, your only route

    is to download via Recovery HD.  If you want to

    completely wipe the internal drive, get a USB stick

    and create a Recovery HD on it using Lion Recovery

    Assistant.  BTW, this is something that should be done

    with any Mac running Lion in case of hard disk failure or

    corruption.

     

    Again, as Barney-15E asked, why do you want to do this

    in the first place.  This not something commonly done or

    needed except in severe circumstances (disk corruption, etc.).