“Apple has released the Gold Master build of the next version of of its Mac OS X operating system to developers, meaning that 10.7 Lion could see release to the public as early as next week, exclusively through the Mac App Store,” John Brownlee writes for Cult of Mac.
“For users looking to upgrade, this is uncharted territory: the first OS X upgrade to be delivered digitally,” Brownlee writes. “To help you prepare for Lion and guarantee your machine is one hundred percent ready to upgrade the second Lion drops, we’ve put together this handy guide.”
Brownlee writes, “Here’s how to prepare your Mac for Lion, and do it right.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lava_Head_UK” for the heads up.]
It felt like ground hog day!
Dejavu all over again.
Doesn’t matter, since the article is fairly useless. The only worthwhile advice is to make a backup before updating — duh.
Nope repair permission is necessary !!
I wish they would release Lion on a DVD that I could buy at a store because my internet is not broadband out here in the sticks. This is utter BS in my opinion. If I had DSL or a Cable Modem then Heck yeah I would download it off the App Store.
Come on Apple, give us a choice. Its people like me and my family that help build your Company and Wealth.
Totally agree. A software firm I worked at figured out how to get customers to do updates by coming to the website an doing downloads or by having the software phone home when the person logged in, with the option to do updates, Those customers that had modems, got discs. We updated the software on a monthly basis and we had to do only half of the customer list at a time. This was small compared to what Apple is doing, but if/when I have to reinstall Lion, I am not going to be able to go to a website to do a download, if the machine needs the OS replaced.
Apple needs to rethink this strategy. It doesn’t work for me.
Think “School of the Gifted” from Farside.
Overnight download.
I used to do this with movies and ass-loads of music back in 2000-2001 when I first got my Cube and was on dial-up. My PC friends were amazed that I would get a sustained 9-14 K/sec download speed, and, even more impressively, that the connection would never stall or disconnect. Wake up in the morning and it would be done.
Not the best solution, but I bet it would work. Heck, even let it go through the next workday and night if you need to.
Very good points.It will also affect peeps in the third world with low bandwidth. This could be the beginning of the great digital divide. Come on Apple!!
I guess I missed something. Aren’t DVDs and CDs digital? How about calling it “online” distribution? That would be “accurate,” and differentiate the distribution method from “hard media,” which is all but dead.
I had a failed install on Preview 2 and 3. I recovered by repairing permissions and restarting the installs. I learned my lesson and repaired permissions before GM and all went well.
I say that it is imperative that permission and disk repair be done before any Lion install otherwise it will be a global catastrophe for most users, especially those who are less technical than myself.
…OPTICAL DISC VERSION?
Even though I have 100Mb fibre optic broadband, I would still prefer a disc.
Also, when I prefer I am going to have to delete old Blizzard games like Diablo 2. Apple should sell Rosetta compatibility in the App Store for those that want it.
Wow. If someone was doing all of those steps, it would be easier to:
1. Make a cloned backup using Carbon Copy Cloner. Also have a Time Machine backup if possible.
2. Boot from cloned backup, and download Lion from App Store.
3. Erase internal drive using Disk Utility.
4. Run Lion Installer and do a clean install of Lion on internal drive; restart from Lion.
5. Reinstall latest (Intel) versions of apps you actually still plan to use with Lion.
6. Transfer user data you actually still need from backup, using Migration Assistant or manually.
Hmmmm…..I’m contemplating your solution……
So, the clone should be on an external drive?
Yes. USB or FireWire would work, as long as it is large enough to hold the content of your current internal drive. You cannot erase the internal drive, unless you boot from another drive.
I think it is safer to have both a bootable clone and a Time Machine backup, because it’s remotely possible that your backup drive will decide to fail at the exact time you are doing the upgrade. If there are two independent backups on two drives, the probability of both failing at the same time is “remotely” squared. 🙂
NOTE: Lion creates a small hidden partition during installation that is called “Recovery HD.” It is bootable and is selectable if you start up into Startup Manager (hold Option key during startup). Going forward, it will serve the same purpose as previous Mac OS X installation disc, except that it runs much faster than an optical disc.
Because it is a separate bootable volume (partition), if another clean installation of Lion becomes necessary, you can do so using the “Recovery HD.” Boot from it and use Disk Utility to erase the main partition, then run the Lion Installer.
You’ll probably want to have a clone backup too, but it provides another method in the future (if you happen to only have a Time Machine backup the next time).
Re: Recovery HD.
I had heard (and read) something like that, but I wasn’t really sure what exactly that was until I read your post.
Thanks!
I thought the broken link to [blank white screen of perpetual introspection] was a bit of a joke on us — as in, “all you need to prepare is nothing.”
Or on a Mac Pro simply install it on a new fresh empty drive after making a disc image on a USB 2 Flash Drive. Then use migration assistant or manually bring stuff over from the Snow Leopard volume. Looks like we’ll get the Lion launch news in another 93 minutes from England where they are rumored to start downloading @ 1AM or 5pm Pacific, 8pm Eastern time.
The best option is not to upgrade till all the kinks are worked out.
After having my photo “missing” and apple always slow to recognize it mistake , taught me a lesson.
Becoming too bug is not always good .
Apple I guess is concentrating on iPhone iPad to do a good job on other prOgrams.
Don’t look now, but your profile photo has gone missing again.
On my MBP I’m going to install it on my external drive and give it a complete checkout to make sure I won’t FUBAR my internal drive.
I think I am going to wait until the smoke and mirrors clear…
Might even wait for an official update…
I have always been an early adopter but I am hesitant this time.
Cheers…
That’s it, forget it I’m getting a PC with Windows7. this is just to much for me
I know bad joke, I would rather re instal each bit of data one at a time than run a Winblows system. I also just realized I’m not that funny. Oh well!!!
Ouch! 442 Intel Apps and 432 PowerPC Apps. This will NOT be fun.
Well 10.7 can’t come soon enough for me and I can’t wait to start studying for the Lion Certification course, making it my 7th Mac OS Cert.
I’m sorry, but I want a DVD. I’ll stick with snow leopard for as long as possible.