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getyup

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 2, 2011
294
0
Mine is still "On fedex vehicle for delivery" but this question came to mind, anyone get theirs yet care to comment?
 

getyup

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 2, 2011
294
0
So is it possible to re-partition and use the USB I made with the instructions to install from it, effectively gaining back 4GB of drive space? Seems strange they did this, reducing a hard drive 1-8% :-(
 

usman.rz

macrumors member
May 15, 2010
57
0
So is it possible to re-partition and use the USB I made with the instructions to install from it, effectively gaining back 4GB of drive space? Seems strange they did this, reducing a hard drive 1-8% :-(

The recovery partition is only 650MB. It doesn't actually have the Lion DMG in it, just some software that allows it to communicate with Apple's servers and then redownload the image if need be. It's automatically created as soon as you install Lion and can't be deleted.

I rolled my old MBA back to Snow Leopard before I returned it and I was still unable to delete the recovery partition. I didn't really try that hard though, so maybe I missed something.
 

getyup

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 2, 2011
294
0
The recovery partition is only 650MB. It doesn't actually have the Lion DMG in it, just some software that allows it to communicate with Apple's servers and then redownload the image if need be. It's automatically created as soon as you install Lion and can't be deleted.

I rolled my old MBA back to Snow Leopard before I returned it and I was still unable to delete the recovery partition. I didn't really try that hard though, so maybe I missed something.

Hopefully someone finds a way to get past that - knowing the smarts in this community, someone will come up with a way. That's so irresponsible of Apple to require internet connection to reinstall the OS. I'm really disappointed in that. Imagine if you're traveling and something goes corrupt, and you have to reinstall. Wowsa.
 

tom vilsack

macrumors 68000
Nov 20, 2010
1,880
63
ladner cdn
this is crazy!

-no usb recovery stick
-recovery partition only 650mb (not whole os,just system utilites)
-must! have internet connection in order to download lion for recovery

yes there's ways around this (all of which avergae users wouldn't know!)...timemachine,carbon coby,$29 download and "InstallESD.dmg" burn to dvd or usb,$69 usb in aug....

needing internet connection in order to reinstall osx lion=fail!
 

getyup

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 2, 2011
294
0
this is crazy!

-no usb recovery stick
-recovery partition only 650mb (not whole os,just system utilites)
-must! have internet connection in order to download lion for recovery

yes there's ways around this (all of which avergae users wouldn't know!)...timemachine,carbon coby,$29 download and "InstallESD.dmg" burn to dvd or usb,$69 usb in aug....

needing internet connection in order to reinstall osx lion=fail!

I agree with your comments 100%. My guess is Apple will be sending out a lot of those USB drives to complaining customers. Very strange, this has to be a first in the laptop industry. I've seen many use partitions, but never store the restore in the cloud, thats asinine.
 

usman.rz

macrumors member
May 15, 2010
57
0
I agree with your comments 100%. My guess is Apple will be sending out a lot of those USB drives to complaining customers. Very strange, this has to be a first in the laptop industry. I've seen many use partitions, but never store the restore in the cloud, thats asinine.

It's better in the cloud than taking 4GBs of my somewhat limited hard drive space. That said, that best option would have been to go with a USB, like the old model.
 

getyup

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 2, 2011
294
0
It's better in the cloud than taking 4GBs of my somewhat limited hard drive space. That said, that best option would have been to go with a USB, like the old model.

Yeah, a 4GB USB stick goes for about $5 RETAIL these days, likely 25 cents wholesale. Not sure why they'd make the decision, especially given how far behind the US is behind the broadband speeds in the rest of the world. The last thing I want to do when I'm stressed about something going corrupt and having to reinstall is having to sit and watch a slow download in a hotel or airport or even at home, hah
 

aristobrat

macrumors G5
Oct 14, 2005
12,292
1,403
Seriously man, if you actually travel to hotels with your computer's restore media, that puts you in the .01% club. lol

IMO, it's way more likely that people traveling will *not* have their restore media with them, and they're going to be more likely to find free WiFi than they are to find anyone that has the restore media made for their particular model of Mac.
 

getyup

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 2, 2011
294
0
Seriously man, if you actually travel to hotels with your computer's restore media, that puts you in the .01% club. lol

IMO, it's way more likely that people traveling will *not* have their restore media with them, and they're going to be more likely to find free WiFi than they are to find anyone that has the restore media made for their particular model of Mac.

Yeah hadn't thought of that.... ok you got me, lol. I guess I just need to get with the times and realize removable media is a thing of the past, and until the SSD price to space comes down, they gotta do what they can do. :)
 
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