Lion Recovery Assistant

I am a little confused by the new Lion Recovery Assistant. First of all, I did make a USB bootable drive using the installation image that was downloaded prior to installing Lion from the Mac App Store.
My understanding is that with one of these, I could reinstall Lion on my Macs anywhere in the world, with or without an Internet connection.
But then I heard about this Lion Recovery Assistant. I foolishly used that same USB stick to with the Assistant.
Do I have the same thing? A way to restore a crashed Mac without an Internet connection. It is annoying to me that Apple thinks that you will always be around WiFi. What if you are on a cruise ship with an exorbitant Internet fee?
Second question, since the USB stick is now hidden in finder and disk utility, is there anyway to restore it back and go with the full install?
Thanks in advance.
MS

From a slightly different perspective - I downloaded Lion from the App store last year and installed it on a 2010 MacBookPro. I now want to do a fresh install to hopefully rectify an issue identified in Repair Permissions, that it says cannot be repaired. When I use Command + R the only choice I get is Mountain Lion on Apple's Internet recovery which Apple says (correctly) I do not have and will not permit me to use it unless I presumably buy it.
While in this mode I can see in Disk Utilities that there is a partition with a recovery disk on it, however, when I am using the computer normally the partition doesn't show in Disk Utility. Can anyone throw any light on this?
I have an installer on a USB stick that I created using Lion Diskmaker. If I reinstall from this will it write over the top of the existing version or, as with earlier versions of OSX, not allow me to install it as there is already a later version installed?

Similar Messages

Is there any way to recover files on a corrupted drive if I can book to Lion Recovery Assistant?

Is there anyway to recover files from a corrupted drive if I can boot to the on-disk Lion Recovery Assistant? Unfortunately Apple replaced my screen in December and wiped my hard drive. I restored my files from Time Machine but have not done a backup since December because Time Machine sees the computer as new. I started trying to find a way to reconnect to the existing backup with hopes of not having to do a full back up all over again. There are a number of files that I need from the last 2 months.
My mid-2009 17" MacBook Pro froze last night and I had to press the power button to turn it off. When the computer restarted, it boot into Lion Recovery Assistant. Disk Utility reported errors like "invalid b-tree node size" and "invalid record count".
- I restarted and ran fsck overnight. This morning I looked at the computer and it said that the drive could not be repaired.
- Genius Bar did a quick scan and said I needed a new hard drive.
- I called Apple Care and they had me start in Lion Recovery Assistant and run Disk Utility. Disk Utility again reported that the drive cannot be repaired.
- I tried using target disk mode and connected the MacBook to my iMac. The iMac can see the drive in Disk Utility but cannot mount it.
- I tried DiskWarrior from the iMac and it cannot rebuild the drive. It does not even attempt.
- I tried the demo of Data Rescue and it could not read the drive (using target disk mode).
I realized that if I can boot the computer to the Lion Recovery Assistant then the drive is still functional (corrupted but still functional). Disk Utility shows the custom name I assigned to the partition (I changed it from Macintosh HD).
Any suggestions?

I was finally able to recover my data using DiskWarrior!
After taking my laptop to a data recovery company and quoted $449 to recover my data, I decided to try one more time. The technician did a free diagnosis and said the drive was still functional. I explained everything that I tried. He said that they normally use Data Rescue and recommended that I wait a few minutes after starting the application before attempting to scan.
Using another computer, I installed Lion to a 16GB flash drive and installed DiskWarrior, Data Rescue, and Remo Recover. Remo Recover ran the day before for more than 24 hours and although it "saw" the data, the it only presented a fraction of the data I needed. I booted my laptop from the flash drive and first tried Data Rescue Demo. It estimated 3500 hours to scan a 500GB drive. That worked out to be about 145 days. I cancelled and tried DiskWarrior hoping that since I had purchased it, I would get some value. This time DiskWarror did the scan and in less than 90 minutes it found pretty much everything! It seems that it does not run properly with highly corrupted drives using target disk mode. At the end of the scan, it mounted my internal drive so that I could preview the rebuilt directories and copy what I needed to an external drive!

Lion recovery assistant over TM?

I just read about the Lion Recovery assistant download (which I just downloaded) and I'm wondering if that would be a better way to do a restore (on a new computer or HD, etc) than Time Machine.. Or if that is used with Time Machine?
Can I plug my same external in which I have my TM backups on and set up the recovery assistant on it? I've been told to ONLY have my TM backups on the external.
Will I use the recovery assistant AND time machine if I ever want to do a full restore? Or just one or the other.
Thanks

If I'm reading you right you are talking about the Lion Recovery "DISK" Assistant.
Is that correct?
If so that file is just to create a copy of the Lion Recovery HD, which is on you internal hard drive, on a USB stick lso incase your internal drive fails you can boot off that and reinstall the OS to a New Hard Drive, and or do maintenance on the drive without booting to the internal drive.
It does not replace TM for doing backup or restoring the system other then allowing you to use TM to reload an already created backup.

Trying to select option in Lion Recovery Assistant

Hi There,
I'm trying to do a fresh install of Lion on my Mac Mini using the recovery assistant, however when I boot up using Option r into the 'Mac OS X Utilities' screen that has the 4 options to select from, I can highlight any of the options however it doesn't allow me to select them or press continue (using my keyboard or touchpad)? Any ideas how to fix this?
I'm the only user set up on my mac mini so am guessing it's not to do with not having sufficient permission?
Thanks,
Steve

Thanks for the help. I actually got things going after I realised that going into Lion recovery mode messed up my trackpad and keyboard settings. Once I sorted these out it all seemed to work fine.
I appreciate your help though.
Steve

Booting Lion Recovery Assistant From Thumb Drive

I'm wondering if I can boot the Lion "Recovery Disk Assitant" from a USB thumb drive with an early 2008 MacBook Pro with an installed but unformatted hard drive. I do have a Time Machine backup to finish the job. I'm not sure the laptop's firmware will allow a USB boot up with the thumb drive. Does anyone know if that should be a problem? I'm assuming the "Recovery Disk Assistant" would take care of the formatting and get me started. The old hard drive is working but I need more capacity. I want the new drive to have the recovery partition so I am concerned about losing it if I were to clone the old hard drive which also has a cloned bootcamp partition. I would rather be sure by letting the new Lion installation take care of partioning issues.

The OP has a 2008 MBP, which is not new enough for this.
Lion Internet recovery in the absence of a recovery partition on disk has to be done via the Mac's firmware. All new Macs have this capability, and there are EFI firmware updates available for a number 2010 and 2011 Macs, but there is no such EFI firmware update available for a 2008 MBP.
from
Computers that can be upgraded to use Lion Internet Recovery
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011)
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011)
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2011)
iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011)
iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011)
MacBook (13-inch, Mid 2010)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010)
Mac mini (Mid 2010)
MacBook Pro (15-inch and 17-inch, Mid 2010)
iMac (21.5-inch and 27-inch, Mid 2010)
MacBook Air (11-inch and 13-inch, Late 2010)

How to create Lion recovery boot usb WITHOUT recovery partition?

I give up. I can't find the answer to this. So, I'll just ask and hope.
I have a mid-2011 mini that was upgraded to Lion. However, it had a Bootcamp partition running Windows 7.
Apparently, whoever upgraded my machine didn't create a recovery boot disk before upgrading.
So, I have no recovery partition and apparently no ability to create a recovery boot usb without one.
Apple's ******** support policy is to completely wipe the hard drive and reinstall everything--which is simply not going to happen.

Eric. wrote:
Have you tried this?
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433
I made one on a USB flash drive.
Problem with that solution is that:
Note: In order to create an external Lion Recovery using the Lion Recovery Assistant, the Mac must have an existing Recovery HD.
If you kept a copy of the installer, then open it up, and restore the InstallESD.dmg to an empty partition or flash drive. Do note that doesn't give you the Recovery HD, but you won't need one since you can reinstall w/o downloading anything but additional components from Apple's servers.

Alternative Lion recovery?

Yesterday, lion stopped booting on my Macbook pro 2011 and since then I have been nothing short of miserable. Google suggested that I should use the Internet Recovery on my Lion but the downloading has been awful! The Internet Recovery showed me 200 hours initially(dial-up?) but then after half an hour came down to 8 hours. A 4gb file normally takes around 4-5 hours on my 2Mb connection so I was satisfied with 8 hours. I left it around at midnight and went to sleep but when I woke up at 6, the progress bar had barely moved and the download time was showing 25 hours, and after some time the downloading restarted and it was again showing me 11 hours. I left it again but after 3 hours the progress bar had barely budged. Then it restarted again. Then finally it downloaded through a professional grade internet connection at my office but that also took around 4 hours. Is there any way to create a bootable lion installer usb to prevent this mess again for a clean install? Where does internet recovery store the Lion installer? I know about Time Machine and i will definitely keep a backup now but can I burn a disc or a usb with the lion installer? I have seen this problem occuring with a guy on these forums who had a 20 Mb connection and still it took him forever to download.

You picked the wrong day to try and install. iOS 5.1 was released yesterday and the Apple servers will be getting hammered as world+dog downloads the update.
You can create bootable installers for Lion; I have both DVD and USB ones. Instructions here:
http://osxdaily.com/2011/07/08/make-a-bootable-mac-os-x-10-7-lion-installer-from -a-usb-flash-drive/
http://osxdaily.com/2011/06/08/create-burn-bootable-mac-os-x-lion-install-disc/
It's also worth creating a Lion Recovery Assistant, in case your HDD hardware dies.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4848
I have the Recovery Assistant and the bootable installer on the same USB and it works well.

Can I use a SD Card rather than a USB stick when using Lion Recovery Disk Assistant

I'm using a MB Pro 2010, can I use a SD Card in the SD Card slot rather than a USB stick when using Lion Recovery Disk Assistant. I would like to use the 16GB chip with a single 1GB partition so I can dump a bunch of other backup stuff into the same chipper.

Yes, you could certainly do that, provided you have a card reader or an SD card slot available on both Macs and what you are copying is smaller than the capacity of your SD card.
But that's an awfully slow way to transfer GB's of files. 32GB SD cards cost anywhere from about $20 to $90 and of course the cheaper cards will be the slowest cards. Also need to consider that your iPhoto, iTunes and especially iMovie libraries may be larger than your SD card's capacity, and there is no easy way to 'split' them to save partial libraries and reassemble them on your new Mac.
A better solution is an external hard drive connected via FW or USB2. Much faster and without the capacity limit of an SD card. For example, you could get a 500GB OWC Mercury Elite Pro mini drive (5400 rpm) for $115 and after you are done using it for file transfer it would be a nice backup drive. Or build your own with an OWC mini case and a 500GB WD Scorpio 7200 rpm drive for about $120. Both support eSATA, FW400/800 and USB2.
Or you could just network the two Macs together and use the Finder to transfer files that way. Cheap, fast, and it works.

Lion Recovery Disk Assistant

Hi, i want to do a backup to my lion.
I have already installed lion and the installation was deleted. I can use this link: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433 Lion Recovery Disk Assistant
To make a DVD disc or USB flash disk of lion?
And how much memory it takes?
Thanks, liran

Boy, am I a day late!
Already discussion on it here.

How to stop lion recovery disk assistant from downloading?

Since I planned to upgrade the stock disk on my macbook pro I created a USB stick backup of the Lion OS using Lion recovery disk assistant. It built a bootable copy of my Lion OS. I replaced the drive, booted from the USB stick Lion, formatted the new drive with disk utility with one OSX partition, and bunch of Linux partitions for the planned dual/triple/etc. boot. I then used the recovery disk menu to reinstall OSX on the new disk. It took off and started the download just like while booting with R key or from the recovery partition AGAIN!. This is a 2 hour proposition and is totally ridiculous. I need to be able to reinstall without downloading Lion every time. Any ideas on how to stop this new Apple invention from doing this download?

If you read the Disk Recovery Assistant documentation all that it does is put a copy of the Recovery HD onto the flash drive. There is no OS on it to reinstall, hence the reason for the Internet download.
If you wish to have a true bootable installer flash drive for your system, then here's what is involved. Start by going to this link: Downloading Hardware Specific Lion Installers. Follow the instructions very, very carefully because this can be a bit tricky.
Once you have the installer application:
Make Your Own Lion Installer
1. After downloading Lion you must first save the Install Mac OS X Lion application. After Lion downloads DO NOT click on the Install button. Go to your Applications folder and make a copy of the Lion installer. Move the copy into your Downloads folder. Now you can click on the Install button. You must do this because the installer deletes itself automatically when it finishes installing Lion.
2. Get a USB flash drive that is at least 8 GBs. Prep this flash drive as follows:
Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
3. Locate the saved Lion installer in your Downloads folder. CTRL- or RIGHT-click on the installer and select Show Package Contents from the contextual menu. Double-click on the Contents folder to open it. Double-click on the SharedSupport folder. In this folder you will see a disc image named InstallESD.dmg.
4. Plug in your freshly prepared USB flash drive. You are going to clone the InstallESD.dmg disc image to the flash drive as follows:
Open Disk Utility.
Select the USB flash drive from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the USB flash drive volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Drag the InstallESD.dmg disc image file into the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
When the clone is completed you have a fully bootable Lion installer that you can use without having to re-download Lion.

I wanted to create two partitions on my iMac w/ Lion using a Recovery USB i created using Lion Recovery Disk Assistant but I keep getting Partition failed message saying "couldn't unmount disk"

I have this recently purchased iMac that comes with a Lion but I wanted to have two partitions on the hard disk. I know that the Recovery HD partition is on the same hard disk so I downloaded the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant and created a Recovery disk using a USB. I boot up the system using the USB Recovery disk and run Disk Utility to create 2 Partitions on the hard disk but I get a Failed partition message saying "couldn't unmount disk". What could be the problem here?

admench wrote:
Thanks for your continued help Tony. Do you mean normal boot into the regular operating system setting i.e. no keys held down in bootup? I think I have tried this, with the same result.
Yes, that's what I meant. If that doesn't work, verify that you have a G.U.I.D. partition scheme (you probably do):

Tried to run Lion Recovery Disk Assistant, and now cannot access my external USB disk...

Greetings all,
I run the app after downloading it from Apple but it failed with a message that it could not use that drive. From then on, the drive is inaccesible. Disk Utility cannot repair it, it reports "incompatible filesystem". If someone has an idea on this I would be grateful as I have rather important personal and family info on this drive... It is a Lacie external USB drive of 1TB.

When did the file assistant fail saying it couldn't use the drive? If it's suddenly inaccessible, I can only assume it started the erase process before it failed?
So you know for future reference, review this link.
Excerpt from the above link:
System requirements
A Mac running OS X Lion with an existing Recovery HD
An external USB hard drive or thumb drive with at least 1GB of free space
How to use Lion Recovery Disk Assistant
The Lion Recovery Disk Assistant will erase all data on the external drive when creating the Recovery HD. You should either backup your data before running the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant, or create a new partition on the external drive.

How to recover using lion recovery disk assistant IN MAC MINI

how to recover using lion recovery disk assistant IF MY KEYBOARD AND MOUSE DOEST NOT WORK DURING BOOTING ?

Hello:
If my memory serves me correctly, the licence agreement that comes with a new system indicates that is good for one system....
Also, I do not think that something that would boot one type of processor would work on a different type.
Barry

Lion Recovery from a Remote Time Machine Disk

I maintain the time machine backup for my MBP on a large USB drive hanging off of my Mac Mini. Yesterday I decided to upgrade the internal hard drive on my system to a faster, higher-capacity disk.   I assumed that this would be very straightfoward given I had a complete time machine backup. Time machine has saved my bacon many times. It was slightly trickier than I expected so I am publishing this recipe in the hope that it helps someone else trying to accomplish the same thing.
The instructions below are in the context of a hard drive replacement.   Skip to step 5 if you are just looking for the recovery instructions.
One last caveat, I have not tried this procedure over WIFI. I did my successful restore over a GigE hard line.   It may or may not work over Wifi and I would bet WIFI greatly increases the odds that something unexpected might go wrong and it will probably take many times longer as well.
YMMV. RTFM.   Good Luck.
Before you start you need the following things:
     A USB Drive that you don't mind erasing.
     A tiny phillips screwdriver
     A T4 torx driver
Step 0: Run Lion Recovery Disk Assistant
     * download this from apple support http://support.apple.com/kb/dl1433
     * this creates a USB stick that boots up the recover tools.
Step 1: Make sure time machine backup is up to date
Step 2: [paranoid] turn off time machine
Step 3: Cleanly shut down laptop
Step 4: Follow instructions in user manual to replace hard drive
     * you can download your laptop user manual here - http://support.apple.com/manuals/#macbookpro
     * this required a very tiny phillips head screwdriver and also a T4 torx screwdriver/bit
Step 4a: Be prudent: carefully save your old hard drive in case something goes wrong.
Step 5: Make sure laptop is on wall power
Step 6: Boot to recovery USB stick
     * insert the stick, hold down option while booting
Step 7: Select "Restore From Time Machine Backup"
     * When you get to the "Select a Backup Source" dialog you don't see your time machine share or any way to connect to a remote drive.
Step 8: Mount your remote backup
    Open Terminal ( Utilities | Terminal... )
    Run these commands:
        mkdir /Volumes/tm
        mount_afp afp://[username]:[password]@[name of host system].local/[name of remote disk] /Volumes/tm
        you need to supply all of the arguments in brackets above
             eg. mount_afp afp://fred:[email protected]/TimeMachine /Volumes/tm
        You can test if this succeeded by running
               ls /Volumes/tm
        If you see the files you expect, then you successfully mounted your remote disk.
        Now attach the sparsebundle that contains your remote system backup.
            hdiutil attach /Volumes/tm/[MyMachine].sparsebundle
        If this works when run "ls /Volumes" you should see a directory called "Time Machine Backups" in the list. Once that is done quit
        the terminal application. When you do this you should see "Time Machine Backups" listed in the "Select a Backup Source" dialog.
Step 9: Select "Time Machine Backups" from menu
Step 10: Select the backup in time ( probably the most recent one from 10 minutes ago! )
Step 11: Select destination disk
Step 12: If your destination disk does not appear, format it with disk utility
     Utilities | Disk Utility...
     Select your new unformatted drive
     Give your new drive a super duper clever name and then click Erase
     Quit Disk Utility
      Select your newly formatted and cleverly named root drive
Step 13: Go have some fun away from your computer., my system took about 4 hours to restore ~300GB.
Some number of hours later your system will reboot itself to the login screen and you will be good to go. Obviously don't do anything silly in the intervening time like
       * Unplugging your laptop
       * Turning off the system that hosts your time machine backup
       * Resetting your network router

Quick answers.
1. no
2. yes
3. no
Your only option is to install Lion onto the mini and then set up the other accounts.

USB disk with Lion recovery partition + storage partition shared by Mac & Windows: Windows can't read it.

I have a Lexar Express Card flash drive (16GB). It works the same as any USB flash drive.
I use it to move files between Mac OS and Windows 7/Bootcamp: Drag files to it in one OS, reboot in the other OS, take the files back off.
Recently, I discovered the Lion Recvoery Disk Assistant, which allows you to create a Lion Recovery Disk on an external drive (just in case). So, I decided I would use a ~1GB partition on the express card for the recovery disk, and leave a ~15GB partition for the same file sharing I am used to.
This setup requires that the disk use a GUID Partition Map with a HFS+ file system for the recovery partition, and I use a FAT32 file system for the shared partition. The partitioning was done in Mac OS Disk Utility, and then I think the Recovery Disk Assistant modifies it further by adding an EFI partition.
When I try to access the disk in Windows 7, it says it needs to format the drive first (which it shows to be a ~200MB "volume" on a disk with ~15.4GB "capacity"). From what I have been able to find on my own, Windows 7 should be fine with a disk using a GUID Partition Map, and both OSs can use a FAT32 file system. So why does Windows only see the 200MB EFI partition at the first section of the disk, and not the other partitions, particularly the FAT32 file sharing partition?
The last thing I will mention is that the disk is being seen by Windows as a MBR/Master Boot Record partitioned device. I'm assuming this is the GPT/GUID Partition Table's protective partition's fault; the one MBR partition that keeps the GPT partitioning safe from software that doesn't recognize or know about GPT.
I'm asking on the Apple discussions because it's in Boot Camp and I'm primarily a Mac user. If anyone knows a better, Windows-focused place to ask, please say so!

You really need to search first as there are A LOT of post's with the same question. Different issues with different Models.
What model/year do you have and what OS were you using first? Snow Leopard (10.6) is the last one that came with a CD/DVD with the computer.
You insert the disk when it's done installing W7 and reboots into Windows then you insert the 10.6 MacOS Installer disk for the Windows drivers. Lion does it a different way.
PR7 wrote:
...........because I lost the OS X Lion install disk that came with my Mac)..........
Lion (10.7) is only a download now, there are no more physical disk's, (unless you pay the extra money for the USB installer thumb drive directly from Apple). So if your computer came with 10.7 Lion installed then you will not have a physical disk. There should be a "Repair Partition" that you use to boot to if you need to repair or to reinstall the Lion OS.
PR7 wrote:
However, when I log on my Windows account and I insert the bootable OS X Lion install disk, Windows doesn't read it. I can't even find the disk in Windows Explorer or even Right Click on the disk.
Please Help!
Thank You!!!
I don't believe the Boot Camps drivers are in the Lion download anymore, ( to keep the download smaller?), the only way you get them now is when you start BCAssistant, it will prompt you to download them onto a CD, or USB drive. You have to download and install the Boot Camp drivers separately. You then insert it when it's done, when Windows boots.

Lion Recovery Assistant

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