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Making a backup of Lion on USB

A

AnthroAndStargate

Golden Member
Does anyone know of a way we can backup/burn Lion on a NEW MacBook Pro/Air/etc. that comes with Lion preinstalled? Since you aren't downloading it from the app store I am not sure the USB trick would work on a brand new machine.
 
stlcardinals said:
I believe this should do the trick for you. I believe it gets the image from the recovery partition.

http://www.tuaw.com/2011/07/28/dear-aunt-tuaw-help-me-retrieve-the-lion-installer/
Click to expand...

I'm curious if BaseSystem.dmg is the same as InstallESD.dmg (from the Install Mac OS X Lion package in /Applications when purchased from the App Store).

Anyone care to do an MD5? 😀 (just do 'openssl md5 filepath' in Terminal). Here's the hash for InstallESD.dmg:

b5d3753c62bfb69866e94dca9336a44a
 
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what you do is just download lion from the app store and when it pops up to install you 7zip the installer.app - that way you have the whole package not just the disk image.

you can extract the installesd.dmg if you want but it's better to have it just as it is. i think by installing lion it deletes the .app so you have to grab it before you start the install
 
Emulex said:
what you do is just download lion from the app store and when it pops up to install you 7zip the installer.app - that way you have the whole package not just the disk image.

you can extract the installesd.dmg if you want but it's better to have it just as it is. i think by installing lion it deletes the .app so you have to grab it before you start the install
Click to expand...

Do you get to download it for free if you have a Mac that already has Lion on it, like a new Macbook Air? Wondering if they set that up in their system, or if you have to buy it separately.
 
Kaido said:
Do you get to download it for free if you have a Mac that already has Lion on it, like a new Macbook Air? Wondering if they set that up in their system, or if you have to buy it separately.
Click to expand...

New MacBook Air will auto-download Lion if there is only a bare drive in the system. Put in a blank drive and the EFI takes over from there, it connects to the internet, downloads and installs Lion. /Sex
 
So there is no way to backup the actual install file to a USB since the new ones use a diff version of Lion and have that EFI redownload/restore system? I have one of the glorious US based ISPs that caps broadband download speeds so re-downloading it could be a big pain!
 
Macbook air comes with lion on SDHC or usb - they don't give out media any more.

That's quite easy to copy
 
AnthroAndStargate said:
Oh I had no idea it came with an SDHC/USB physical copy, that is awesome!
Click to expand...

The new one doesn't. The 2010 model did, but the new one does not.

Like I said before, if you need to reinstall Lion, there is a recovery partition. In the event of catastrophic failure leading to drive replacement, the system will connect to the internet automatically and download/install Lion for you.
 
that sucks! well if the drive fails on the air - you are probably getting one reloaded by the apple store anyways. that 256gb ssd is not cheap .

problem is there are macbook air specific drivers that might be newer than the "for sale" copy of lion. I had this problem trying to reload generic snow leopard on an i7 macbook pro- no dice had to have the specific version for that macbook pro and it was 10.6.5 not 10.6.3(retail).

So if you replace your macbook air ssd - you might be in a bad position lol
 
Emulex said:
that sucks! well if the drive fails on the air - you are probably getting one reloaded by the apple store anyways. that 256gb ssd is not cheap .

problem is there are macbook air specific drivers that might be newer than the "for sale" copy of lion. I had this problem trying to reload generic snow leopard on an i7 macbook pro- no dice had to have the specific version for that macbook pro and it was 10.6.5 not 10.6.3(retail).

So if you replace your macbook air ssd - you might be in a bad position lol
Click to expand...

You can get the 64GB drive on ebay for about $120, the 128GB is ~$200 but the 256GB one is ~$450-500. There is also OWC which uses the Sandforce controller, but they are crazy expensive.

The Airs were rolled out with Lion, so 10.7.0 should work on them no problemo.
 
Out of curiosity, if you get Lion with an OEM (new Air) can you install it on your other Macs legally? I know technically you can do that with App Store purchases but not sure about the OS itself.
 
AnthroAndStargate said:
Out of curiosity, if you get Lion with an OEM (new Air) can you install it on your other Macs legally? I know technically you can do that with App Store purchases but not sure about the OS itself.
Click to expand...

Lion should be linked to your iTunes account, so there shouldn't be an issue.

However, this would be a bit of a change of pace for them. Traditionally, the media that comes with new machines is locked to only work on machines like it. So, install media that came with a 15" Sandy Bridge MacBook Pro could not be used on a Sandy Bridge or any other Mac Mini for example.
 
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