Sure, Apple OS X Lion (read our OS X Lion Review) is a frisky little feline now, but what happens in a year or two when your permissions are as tangled as a ball of string and your computer's lost the spring in its step? Or worse, what happens when, one day, your computer simply won't boot? These things happen, and they tend to strike at the most inopportune times.
With previous versions of Mac OS X, you could boot off the install disk and run Disk Utility to repair or reinstall the operating system. But now that Apple is treating OS X as an app, what's a Mac user to do when his or her computer needs a little TLC? Turns out that Apple has already untangled this cat's cradle.Lion's Recovery HD mode includes four key functions: "Restore from Time Machine," "Reinstall OS X," "Get Help Online," and "Disk Utility." It doesn't matter what Mac you're running—if you have Lion, Apple has a way for you to reinstall Lion via the Internet or clean up or clean out your Mac with the help of Disk Utility. For new MacBook Air and Mac Mini purchasers there's an added bonus: In case of emergency, Lion Internet Recovery will automatically dial up Apple's servers and restore Recovery HD so you can get back on your feet.
This article will spare you some technical reading—which I, unfortunately had to do—with a simple, hands-on account of using the new tech. I put a new MacBook Air through the paces to learn firsthand if Apple's new Recovery HD takes the teeth out of system restoration. (Hint: It does). I also use Lion Internet Recovery, included with the latest MacBook Air and Mac Mini, to resurrect a murdered Mac. It wasn't easy to test—it turns out that killing Mac OS X is no easy feat—but it was worth the trouble.
It's like booting from the disk, without the disk.
I chose to test with an 11-inch MacBook Air for three reasons: First, it's brand-new and features Apple's latest tech, namely Lion Internet Recovery; second, it has limitations—no disk drive, no Ethernet—that could help me identify issues with Apple's minimalistic approach; and third, I just wanted an excuse to play with it.
I chose to test with an 11-inch MacBook Air for three reasons: First, it's brand-new and features Apple's latest tech, namely Lion Internet Recovery; second, it has limitations—no disk drive, no Ethernet—that could help me identify issues with Apple's minimalistic approach; and third, I just wanted an excuse to play with it.
Getting to Apple's Recovery HD mode is dead simple: Simply reboot your Mac and hold down the Command (Apple) and the "R" (think "reboot") keys until the gray Apple appears on screen. It's easy to identify when you're in Recovery mode because you'll see a Mac OS X menu bar and a "Mac OS X Utilities" application with those four key options: "Restore from Time Machine," "Reinstall OS X," "Get Help Online," and "Disk Utility."
For the purposes of this article, I concentrated on "Reinstall OS X" and "Disk Utility" because "Restore from Time Machine," while useful, is not a new feature, and "Get Help Online" simply opens a recovery-mode Safari browser and points you to help resources at Apple.
Finding Lion in the clouds.
If Apple made it quick and easy to get OS X Lion, they've made it just as effortless to retrieve it when you're in a pinch. After I selected a reinstallation, Apple asked to check out my computer's credentials: "To download and restore Mac OS X your computer's eligibility will need to be verified by Apple." (From Apple's support documentation I learned that my eligibility was determined by my computer's serial number.)
If Apple made it quick and easy to get OS X Lion, they've made it just as effortless to retrieve it when you're in a pinch. After I selected a reinstallation, Apple asked to check out my computer's credentials: "To download and restore Mac OS X your computer's eligibility will need to be verified by Apple." (From Apple's support documentation I learned that my eligibility was determined by my computer's serial number.)
Because My MacBook Air had two partitions, one for OS X and one for Bootcamp (Windows), I had to select a disk onto which to install OS X. After clicking the Mac partition, I received a message that read, "Downloading additional components. Your computer will restart automatically."
Apple gave me an initial ETA of 35 minutes for the download and 37 for the installation. In real-time, however, the entire process took just 36 minutes. That includes booting into Recovery HD, downloading "additional components," reinstalling OS X, and rebooting to the login screen—fairly impressive performance, especially considering I had no choice but to use Wi-Fi.
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