This email from Steve follows on from the last email a reader sent in.
Along the same lines, the user is concerned that they will have no bootable media for a clean install of Lion. It has been noted on several other blogs that OS X Lion does create a separate recovery partition to enable clean installs from a working system. In the event of a total hard disk failure where the only option is a full re-install it does seem to be the case as Steve points out that the official reinstallation procedure involves first installing Mac OS X Leopard.
OS X Daily has a great overview of Lion’s clean install and Snow Leopard requirements. It should be noted that the article refers to the developer previews of Lion so certain details may change once Lion is officially released. In review:
- You need Mac OS X 10.6.6 or greater to download Mac OS X 10.7 Lion from the Mac App Store
- The Mac App Store is why 10.6.6 is listed as a system requirement for 10.7
- Lion requires Snow Leopard to download, but Lion does not require you to upgrade over an existing Snow Leopard installation
- Once you have downloaded Lion from the App Store, you start the installation process within Snow Leopard (unless you use an unofficial boot DVD)
- The OS X Lion Installer allows clean installs on new hard drives or new partitions (see image at the very top of post) if the target installation drive is blank
- You can also unofficially create your own bootable Lion installation DVD and perform a clean install through that (it’s not supported by Apple, but this would remove the Snow Leopard requirement completely)
- Unless Apple removes the ability to change the target disk for Lion to install on, or removes the dmg file from the downloaded package, all of this should stay the same
Over to the email!:
On Jun 20, 2011, at 9:57 PM, xxxx wrote:
Steve,
I’m really exited about Lion, but I’m a bit anxious about the absence of any physical media in the event of a crash where I need to do a clean install. Will Lion still provide a way to make a bootable image in the event that I need to start from scratch?
And Steve’s response which has led to some debate:
From: Steve Jobs
Subject: Re: Lion clean install
Date: June 21, 2011 7:55:05 AM PDT
To: xxxxYou can clean install Snow Leopaard [sic] first.
Sent from my iPhone
via: MacRumors.com
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This is the third email I’ve seen from Steve since WWDC. It looks like Steve must have sat through some discussion meetings since the emails he has replied to clarify items such as the discontinuation of MobileMe and the App Store installation of Mac OS X Lion.
Emails From Steve Jobs.com reader Andreas Dantz was kind enough to write in about a recent email he received from Steve.
With the removal of any physical media installation method for Lion, Andreas wondered how a clean installation would work if he bought a new hard drive. Would he need to first install Snow Leopard and then upgrade Lion on top of that? Or would there perhaps be an alternative to this?
Andreas wrote:
Dear Mr. Jobs,
I just wanted to know if there will be a way to install Lion on a new HDD/SSD without previously installing 10.6?
Regards,
Andreas Dantz
Steve’s straightforward reply:
Sorry, no.
Sent from my iPhone
So just in case you thought there may be an alternative physical media installation method. Sorry, no, Apple was serious when they said that Lion would only be available through the App Store. This is pretty interesting since it means that Steve must have sat through the meetings where they discussed the implications of this move to a download only upgrade.
Full size email screen shot:
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It looks like after the recent WWDC announcements Steve looks to be back responding personally to some user emails. What a nice guy! It was great seeing him personally introduce some new things such as the new iCloud features.
Emails From Steve Jobs.com reader Mike was kind enough to write in to let us know that he received a response from Steve (in under 15 minutes, no less!) to a question that he had in regards to the new version of OS X Lion. OS X Lion will only be available via the Mac App Store and it was announced that you will be able to install OS X Lion on multiple computers on authorized computers that have your Apple ID. That was a great deal which normally would require the purchase of a family pack for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. As Mike found out, you will however need to purchase Lion separately if you use 2 different Apple ID accounts.
Michael J. M. wrote:
Hey Steve!
Hope you are feeling well. I have a question about upgrading to Lion that I haven’t seen addressed anywhere.
I know that if I have multiple Macs in my house with the same Apple ID I can purchase Lion once and upgrade all of them. But my wife and I have separate Apple IDs. Do we need to purchase Lion twice in order to install on both of our Macs?
Sent from my MacBook
Steve Jobs” wrote shortly after:
Yes.
Sent from my iPhone
Full size screen shot:
UPDATE, Thursday July 21: OS X Lion is now out and a lot of people are finding this page through Google. To install OS X Lion on multiple computers you can just sign in with the same account via the Mac App Store on different computers. You do not need to pay for the software multiple times if you do this.
