Create a bootable Lion install drive for newer Macs

The solution

Fortunately, it's possible to create a bootable Lion installer even if your only Mac is a newer model, although doing so requires a bit more work.

Note: If you purchased Lion for another Mac, so you have a version of the Lion installer from the Mac App Store, you can use our original instructions for creating a bootable Lion-installer drive. As long as your downloaded installer is version 1.0.13 or later--select the installer in the Finder and use the Get Info command to check--there's no need to perform the procedure below. Those simpler instructions will create a drive that works with all current Lion-compatible Macs. (You can also copy the Mac App Store version of the installer to your newer Mac, or download it--all 4GB of it--from the Mac App Store directly to that newer Mac, and then run the installer. But because these may not be options if your Mac is having problems, it's still good to have a bootable installer drive.)

When you use Lion Internet Recovery to reinstall Lion, your Mac contacts Apple's servers, identifies itself, and requests the appropriate Lion-install data. Apple's servers verify the Mac model and then, assuming it's a Mac compatible with Lion Internet Recovery, provide the roughly 4GB of data for download. Once that data has been downloaded, Lion Recovery restarts your Mac, immediately installs the OS, and then deletes the installer data. The trick is to interrupt that process--safely--so you can grab the installer data and keep it. Here are the steps to take:

1. Boot into recovery mode by holding down Command+R at startup; you'll eventually see a Mac OS X Utilities window. (If this doesn't work, restart and hold down Command+Option+R, which should force your Mac into Lion Internet Recovery.)