Install Media for 10.7

[Slappy]

One of the more adventurous guys here wants to try and put 10.6 on one of the Minis we just got that shipped with Lion. I'm all for experimenting, but these things didn't ship with an install DVD for 10.7, so if/when things go horribly wrong, is there no way to re-install 10.7? I understand there's a Restore partition or something within Lion, but I haven't seen a way to extract that & burn it to a DVD or throw on a bootable USB.

[Joe]

You can boot to the restore partition but it still has to download 4+ gb of files from an Apple server to do the install. The Restore partition does not contain the install files. Just allows you to connect using DHCP so it can download the files. If you don't use DHCP on your network this will NOT work.

If you want something that will work you can do a full time machine backup of an existing machine to an external USB or Firewire drive. Then when you boot from the Snow Leopard DVD install disk (with the external drive hooked up) you can go into one of the menus and instruct it to install from the time machine backup. I've done this several times and it works great.

[Chilbear]

Better solution is to install Snow Leopard onto and external drive then select 10.6 from the startup and you should be good to go - leave Lion installed. On my work repair Firewire drive I have partitioned off and installed a full OS 10.5 I believe but it worked even though my Aluminum Intel was at 10.6. YMMV with Lion as only this personal machine is on Lion, no production machines.

[Diddler]

Want Adventurous.  Mountain Lion on on old unsupported macs

http://osxdaily.com/2012/02/18/install-os-x-mountain-lion-developer-preview-on-old-unsupported-macs/

[WharfRat]

Lion creates an installer on your machine
then
removes it as soon as install is complete.
You need to:
download the install
then find the installer package on your drive
and save it to DVD or flash.
Then it will work forever.

(InstallESD.dmg) and (Install Mac OS X Lion)

you do not need all of the little files flying around.

MSD

[Farabomb]

 

[Joe]

Lion creates an installer on your machine
then
removes it as soon as install is complete.
You need to:
download the install
then find the installer package on your drive
and save it to DVD or flash.
Then it will work forever.

(InstallESD.dmg) and (Install Mac OS X Lion)

you do not need all of the little files flying around.

MSD

If it came with OS X Lion pre-installed it is not there when you get the Mac.

[david]

Can you get a copy of Lion if it came pre-installed?
Is just doing a backup is the only recourse?

[Joe]

Can you get a copy of Lion if it came pre-installed?
Is just doing a backup is the only recourse?

No, you boot to the restore partition and re-install from there but like I said, it has to download the whole thing each time you need to re-install. If you do a time machine backup as soon as you boot your new Mac you can avoid that by restoring from the time machine backup.

[Slappy]

Thanks Joe! That sound like the least painful route if he's serious.

There may be one other option, given that there's a copy of Parallels floating around here. Apparently we could install a Server version of 10.6 alongside Lion and Parallels will treat it like a dual boot OS. I'll post results if this actually comes to pass.

[Joe]

Yes, you can install Snow Leopard Server in Parallels and run both Lion and Snow Leopard Server simultaneously. Stock up on ram though and expect little quirky things from Parallels. One thing I found with Parallels is that it is fine if you don't have to work from it a lot. If you need to use the guest OS a lot you are better off installing it on it's own box.