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General discussion

Install Lion from bootable 8GB USB stick.

Sep 20, 2011 3:04AM PDT
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/itdojo/install-os-x-lion-from-a-bootable-flash-drive/2927?tag=null

"Bill Detwiler shows you how to create a bootable USB flash drive and use it to install OS X Lion.


When Apple launched OS X Lion,
they did so exclusively through their online App Store. Two months
later, the company began selling USB flash drives loaded with Lion for
$69 (a $40 premium over the operating system's $29 download price).
Luckily, you don't need to spend the extra cash. In this week's TR
Dojo episode, I show you how to create a bootable OS X Lion install
drive, using your own 8GB USB flash drive."

Discussion is locked

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with the caveat
Sep 20, 2011 4:25AM PDT

that this applies to those who upgraded to Lion and got the installer. What about those who got new machines with Lion and no disks (I am one of them)? Can the recovery partition be used to create a bootable disk?

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Apple used to answer questions like that.
Sep 20, 2011 7:45AM PDT

Your question makes me think something is going bad now.
Bob

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Apple is actually pretty smart (sort of)
Sep 20, 2011 9:46AM PDT

They have released a Lion disk recovery assistant tool allowing one to create on an external drive a copy of the recovery partition from a Mac with Lion installed. The caveat of downloading the actual installer using that external recovery partition is still there, as I understand because it seems to be a clone of the recovery partition on the main HD.

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From what I've been told
Sep 20, 2011 11:09AM PDT

From what I've been told, and this is from Apple's provider support people, so a level or two above what the average person has access too, the answer is no.

You can buy a dongle off Apple, but that basically just helps if you have a corrupted restore partition, or maybe you had to replace the HDD. It doesn't contain the full OS, and IIRC, it only works on the Mid-2011 models which shipped with Lion. You still have to download the OS image and install it.

AASPs can buy a different dongle which will install the entire OS without the Internet, BUT from what I'm told it's a one shot deal. The installer will lock itself to a given unit. That might be a viable solution for individual customers, but it's completely useless if you're dealing with multiple units.