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Is it difficult to install on MacBook Air?

powerbook911

powerbook911

macrumors 601
Original poster
Mar 15, 2005
4,008
393
I use my MacBook Air (11-inch model) for only casual web browsing, email checking, etc.

Therefore, I was considering paying the $100 to join ADC and get Mac OS X Lion to put on my Air only, just to test out and enjoy.

However, I have a question. How would I install it on a MacBook Air 11-inch considering there is no superdrive, and I do not have a thumb drive large enough to put it on?

Can I use Remote Disk, or will that not work since you have to boot into the installer?

Many thanks. Just want to get some clarity before I plop down the money.

I apologize for the novice question. I'd have no issue getting it installed on my other Macs. And I use the remote disk feature to install software on the Air like Office, but just not sure that will work with a OS that it needs to boot from?
 
I used a 4GB USB thumb drive (costs around 10€ nowadays, maybe even less for less sophisticated ones) and it worked well on my MB. I don't know if it works via Remote Disc, but I doubt it somehow.
 
simsaladimbamba said:
How then, if you didn't use an external drive? Did you use your already existing partition of Mac OS X to install Lion onto?
Click to expand...
All you need to do is copy "Install Mac OS X" to anything. I copied it to my old iPod nano and used that to install Lion on my iMac and MacBook.

And a fresh installation with everything checked used up around 9 GB of space, so the Air should be more than sufficient to run it on.
 
Hey,
This may sound like a noob question but how do you boot from USB to install OS X on the MBA? I have a flash drive i could use but i thought the bootloader didn't support USB loading?

Thanks.
 
linkandzelda said:
Hey,
This may sound like a noob question but how do you boot from USB to install OS X on the MBA? I have a flash drive i could use but i thought the bootloader didn't support USB loading?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

When you hear the chime on boot press and hold the ALT key until a menu pops up. Then just select your usb drive.
 
Yeah you can do a clean install. Providing you have created a partition on your drive, you can dual boot snow and lion.

If you've not already done so, use disk utility to partition your drive.
 
PBF said:
Yes, the installer simply updated my Snow Leopard to Lion.
Click to expand...

The installer does not required USB or DVD to install. Create a partition and run the installer in Snow Leopard. Literally took 10 minutes to boot into Lion from when the download ended. Simplest install ever.
Recommendation: DO NOT simply install over snow leopard. Remember, this is a beta version. There will be issues for you sooner or later. It's much easier to work on a stable OS if you need to than have to rely on a beta version.
 
msjones said:
Yeah you can do a clean install. Providing you have created a partition on your drive, you can dual boot snow and lion.

If you've not already done so, use disk utility to partition your drive.
Click to expand...

Oh right, i was planning to have just lion installed, rather than a dual boot. I hope thats still possible xD.
 
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