Anyone get the feeling that Apple is trying to consign the optical disc to an early death? The latest Mac Mini comes with no optical drive included, while its latest revision of OS X – Lion – can only be bought pre-loaded or as a 4GB download from the Apple Store.

Lion then installs its recovery files to a hidden partition on your hard drive – these files don't include the full Lion installer, which then has to be downloaded again over your wi-fi or wired network.

If your hard drive physically fails, then you're covered if you bought your Mac pre-loaded with Lion, as it has built-in capabilities to get online to recover the recovery partition (and subsequently the Lion installer files if you're installing from scratch as opposed to recovering a Time Machine backup).

If you bought OS X Lion as an upgrade through the App Store, however, your sole option – until now – was less palatable: install Snow Leopard from the disc, update it to 10.6.8 and then download the whole lot again.

Thankfully, Apple has seen the light and realised that this convoluted process is asking too much of upgraders. The end result is this: the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant. It runs on any Mac running OS X Lion with an existing recovery partition – all you then need is a USB disk – hard drive partition or thumb drive – with 1GB free space.

Plug it in, launch the utility, pick your chosen drive and click Continue to create the disk. Note that if you want to use the drive for uses other than a pure recovery disk, you'll need to create a 1GB partition on the drive using Disk Utility first – see this Apple KB article for details.

The end result is this: the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant. It runs on any Mac running OS X Lion with an existing recovery partition – all you then need is a USB disk – hard drive partition or thumb drive – with 1GB free space. Plug it in, launch the utility, pick your chosen drive and click Continue to create the disk. Aug 09, 2011  The Lion Recovery Disk Assistant lets you create Lion Recovery on an external drive that has all of the same capabilities as the built-in Lion Recovery: reinstall Lion, repair the disk using Disk Utility, restore from a Time Machine backup, or browse the Web with Safari. Note: In order to create an external Lion Recovery using the Lion Recovery Assistant, the Mac must have an existing Recovery HD.

Once done, you'll be able to recover Lion to a brand new hard drive without having to go through the whole palaver of installing Snow Leopard first.

Once the new, hidden recovery partition has been created the drive is ready for use. Should you ever need it, reboot your Mac with the drive plugged in, then hold down the [Option] key and select Recovery HD from the Startup Manager. You'll then have access to all the usual recovery options: reinstall Lion, Disk Utility, restore from a Time Machine backup and browse the web with Safari.

Verdict

An essential download for all Mac OS X Lion upgraders who want a recovery option that doesn't involve reinstalling and updating Snow Leopard first.

Recovery Disk Assistant for Mac OS X – How to Use

If you want to protect your Mac using OS X Lion or OS X Mountain Lion, the Recovery Disk Assistant can create a Recovery System on an external drive. This system has the same capabilities as the built-in Recovery System on your computer.

With a Recovery System created by the Recovery Disk Assistant on an external drive, users can repair the disk using Disk Utility, reinstall OS X, and restore the system from a Time Machine backup. Users can also browse the web with Safari.

If you cannot start your Mac with the built-in Recovery System, you can use the external drive. You can use this Recovery System in the event you have replaced the hard drive, and a new one does not have OS X installed.

Requirements: Mac using OS X Lion or Mountain Lion with a Recovery System on its startup volume, an external USB hard drive or thumb drive, and at least 1GB of free space on your external drive.

Note than owners of a newer Mac can use Internet Recovery to start up from an Internet-based version of the Recovery System. This method can be more convenient than using this utility. Users can also create a bootable OS X installer in OS X Mavericks or OS X Yosemite.

Also note that the Recovery Disk Assistant will erase all data on the external drive which you used to create the Recovery Disk. If you need that date, you should back it up before running the Recovery Disk Assistant. You can create a new partition on the external drive you have selected for a Recovery System. To create a new partition on the external disk, open Disk Utility, which is located in the Utilities folder in Launchpad. Select the drive that you would like to install the Recovery System on, and add a partition at least 1 GB in size. Click Options and make sure GUID Partition Table is selected. Make sure the format for the partition is Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and click Apply. Now, open Recovery Disk Assistant. Follow the on-screen instructions to create a Recovery System on the external drive.

To access the external Recovery Disk, connect the drive. Restart your MAC and hold the Option key. Select your external drive from Startup Manager.

See also:

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