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    query on recovery USB disc

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by paradigm, Jan 21, 2012.

  1. paradigm

    paradigm Notebook Deity

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    hi i recently acquired a usb recovery disc of an apple air-book 2011, and was wondering will it be able to recover my wife's MBP 2011 13"
     
    paradigm, Jan 21, 2012
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  2. masterchef341

    masterchef341 The guy from The Notebook

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    you'll need another reference, but I think not.
     
    masterchef341, Jan 21, 2012
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  3. paradigm

    paradigm Notebook Deity

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    ok....any paticular reason why not, i mean intel drivers and stuff should essentially be the same (its an intel ultra book)

    ... so anybody, any idea
     
    paradigm, Jan 21, 2012
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  4. kornchild2002

    kornchild2002 Notebook Deity

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    No, that won't work. First off, the MacBook Air didn't come with a recovery DVD so anything that you have is either user burned or came from Apple. Now, the DVD will work if it is just OS X Lion. It will not work if it was made specifically for the MBA.
     
    kornchild2002, Jan 21, 2012
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  5. gerryf19

    gerryf19 I am the walrus

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    No, it will not work.

    The recovery sticks are created to be hardware specific. Even though some things are similar, they are not the same. The most important component, the logic board, is drastically different.
     
    gerryf19, Jan 21, 2012
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  6. J.R. Nelson

    J.R. Nelson Minister of Awesome

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    On the plus side, you can download OS X Lion, either from another Mac via the Mac App Store, or at an Apple retail establishment, and put it on a USB stick and use that without issue.

    I'd say you could probably try using your MacBook Air recovery stick and see what happens, but it likely won't work - it likely won't even let you try. It's not going to melt your laptop though, and when it doesn't work you can just go find Lion.
     
    J.R. Nelson, Jan 21, 2012
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  7. paradigm

    paradigm Notebook Deity

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    just so you all know it is the actual USB stick that comes from apple for the MBA early 2011....model #1384
    and windows can see it is a 8GB usb disc
     
    paradigm, Jan 21, 2012
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  8. J.R. Nelson

    J.R. Nelson Minister of Awesome

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    No, we know what you mean; Apple started using the USB sticks in 2010.
     
    J.R. Nelson, Jan 21, 2012
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  9. kornchild2002

    kornchild2002 Notebook Deity

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    I think they were addressing me as I specifically said "DVD" instead of thumb drive. That came from their wording of "USB disc." Either way, it doesn't matter. The backup media that comes with Macs is made specifically for the Mac that is purchased. In other words, the DVD (or thumb drive) that comes with a 11" mid 2011 (there was no early 2011 MBA, only late 2010 and mid 2011) will only work with that MBA and other MBA's with the same exact configurations just as the Snow Leopard backup DVD that came with my early 2011 13" MBP won't work with any other MBP other than ones of the same generation. Even if my MBP came with a Lion backup disc, it would not work with my mid 2011 MBA.
     
    kornchild2002, Jan 21, 2012
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  10. paradigm

    paradigm Notebook Deity

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    aww sugar....... you see i spent inordinate amount of time having it formatted, as apparently MBP 13 2011, needed to have all operating systems installed (because inorder to troubleshoot the issue of slow bootup, the mac help ( which convinently expired at the end of dec. stated i needed to format and reinstall the entire OS.... in doing so the only way osx lion was going to be installed was to instal the 2 other OS's before it to be able to upgrade to Lion...atleast that is what the tech had to do......

    i don't ever want to go down that way....is there any way this USB can be used to restore, or if i download the OS...can IT be installed onto this drive so my wife has the option to format and reinstall the OS as intended
     
    paradigm, Jan 23, 2012
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  11. gerryf19

    gerryf19 I am the walrus

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    The downloaded OSX Lion needs to be installed over an existing copy of OSx 10.6.6. or later, if I am not mistaken.

    I think you're just better off hitting ebay for a snow leopard dvd and moving it to a flash drive and installing that.
     
    gerryf19, Jan 23, 2012
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  12. masterchef341

    masterchef341 The guy from The Notebook

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    The reason is, that even though much is essentially the same, that in the strictest sense, that leaves us with two machines which are, in fact, different.

    The macbook air USB reinstall drive will only have the drivers for that machine. It will lack the drivers for the components which are different. The installer will be aware of this, and will prevent you from attempting such an installation, as it wouldn't work.

    If you have another mac, I would log in to the app store using your wife's account credentials, purchase Lion, download it, and put it on a USB drive, and boot the macbook air from this drive.

    You can purchase a USB drive with Lion already on it from apple here: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD256Z/A

    but the digital download version is cheaper. Just google for instructions on how to put your digital download version of Lion onto a USB drive.
     
    masterchef341, Jan 23, 2012
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  13. gerryf19

    gerryf19 I am the walrus

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    ...but he cannot install that without first installing at least snow leopard. It is an update.

    I don't think there is any place you can get an OS X Lion install from scratch short of buying a laptop with it already on it.
     
    gerryf19, Jan 23, 2012
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  14. kornchild2002

    kornchild2002 Notebook Deity

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    You can make a bootable data DVD (or thumb drive) and perform a clean installation that way (thus bypassing the need to go from Snow Leopard and then to Lion). I believe the update needs to be downloaded on a Mac running at least Snow Leopard but other than that, there aren't any special needs for clean installing Lion on a compatible system.
     
    kornchild2002, Jan 23, 2012
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  15. masterchef341

    masterchef341 The guy from The Notebook

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    This is correct.

    This is not - although it certainly appears this way on the surface.
     
    masterchef341, Jan 23, 2012
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  16. gerryf19

    gerryf19 I am the walrus

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    Thanks for the clarification
     
    gerryf19, Jan 23, 2012
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  17. paradigm

    paradigm Notebook Deity

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    so ...in short no use of me even downloading the OS onto the Disc/ USB and using IT to restore Lion completely?
     
    paradigm, Jan 24, 2012
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  18. gerryf19

    gerryf19 I am the walrus

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    No, according to Masterchef, you should be able to do it.
     
    gerryf19, Jan 24, 2012
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  19. masterchef341

    masterchef341 The guy from The Notebook

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    masterchef341, Jan 24, 2012
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