Formatting a W7 laptop without CD

[Barry Scott]

The internet recovery is new with Lion. Initially it only worked on new Mac's but they've definitely added it to the Macbook Pro's that were launched at the beginning of 2011. Not sure about other older Mac's. There is still a hidden recovery partition that it will restore from but if that's fucked (or you've installed a new blank hard drive) then it falls back to recovering via the internet.

Is that using the option key on boot or something? I'm genuinely curious, because surely if the OS is fucked, how does it connect and what not?

I've not long bought a new Macbook Pro, although it's running Snow Leopard, so if I find the balls to move to what I hear is a worse OS, it sounds like a nice feature. (Although saying that I've never had any OS problems, so I can't imagine when I'd need it. Still, it's a nice shiny gimmick!)

[jonny72]

Restart and hold down command-r, this will bring up a utility menu which includes restore / recovery.

Not had any major issues with Lion. Thought it did trash my Time Machine backups (it couldn't backup and I had to start afresh, losing all the old backups in the process). I held off a bit until the main software I use had been updated, as there were some compatibility issues at first.

[Barry Scott]

That's the other thing, I've heard stories of CS5 going a bit mental.

If I'm honest though, the only thing I like (that I've noticed or been told of) is the reversed (natural?) touchpad thing.

Launchpad and Mission Control seem quite pointless - I don't use the dock and use LaunchBar for all App related shenanigans. I have a feeling it's just where I've not really looked into it, so have too little knowledge to really know anything for sure!

[oxford_fan]

Thanks all, particularly johnny, the F11 worked.

Its goodbye the HP G62 and hello MacBook Pro.

[jonny72]

The reverse scroll is confusing to begin with, but a lot more natural when you're used to it - same way iOS works.

The thing with Launchpad, Mission Control and the new gestures is that you need to spend time getting used to them and using them in your workflow. I can't be bothered with most of them, the only new one I use a lot is the two finger side swipe in Safari to go backwards and forwards.

[Barry Scott]

I saw that, but was puzzled by what's wrong with the current 3 finger back and forward?

Have you ever tried LaunchBar or Alfred? If you like a good workflow, the shit they do, especially LaunchBar (I've not used Alfred beyond a quick poke, but it looks its equal), is incredible.

http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/index.html

http://www.alfredapp.com/

Also, I recently bought Keycue (also seen in the video below), that's superb for getting familiar with all your shortcuts. It's taught me many I didn't use, which saves clicking.

http://www.ergonis.com/products/keycue/

[jonny72]

I saw that, but was puzzled by what's wrong with the current 3 finger back and forward?

Didn't know there was one before, my last Macbook didn't support gestures so its all new to me.

Can't be bothered with any of those helper apps. Don't tend to use shortcuts much either. It's fine if you primarily only use a few applications or have some very defined workflows but neither apply to me.