Reader Mike Kohler seek to update his troubleshooting kit now that he ’s moved to Lion . He writes :
I set up Lion last calendar week on my year - former iMac . I like to be prepare for disaster but with Lion I ’m not sure what tools I should have . Can you help ?
I do n’t blame you for being a small hazy on this . Lion significantly change the way we now establish , troubleshoot , and repair our Macs . Allow me to give you a peep inside my Lion Toolbox .
Tool 1 : Recovery HD partitionWhen you install Lion on your Mac , the Lion installer creates a bootable divider called Recovery HD . You boot into this partition by holding down Command - R at startup or by holding the Option key and then pick out the Recovery HD partition that appears on concealment .
When you boot from this partitioning you ’ll find a Mac OS X Utilities windowpane . Within this window you see these choices : regenerate From Time Machine Backup , Reinstall Mac OS X , Get Help Online , and Disk Utility .
reinstate From Time Machine Backup does exactly that . link a private road that has a accompaniment make by Lion ’s Time Machine and restore from it . Lion ’s version of Time Machine , by default , back up your intact drive , include the O . Perform a full restore to come back your Mac to the country it was in when it was last backed up .
Reinstall Mac OS X is the alternative to habituate when you want a fresh copy of Lion . This involve that your Mac be attached to a connection connected to the net because your Mac obtains that unfermented transcript of Lion from Apple ’s servers . No Internet connection , no Modern copy of Lion .
Get Help Online is another Internet - only choice . Choose it , click Continue , and a written matter of Safari launches , which you use to view Apple ’s livelihood documents ( or anything else on the Web , if you wish ) .
Choose Disk Utility if you want to extend Disk First Aid , initialise the sectionalisation that Lion is set up on , or repair disk permission .
Tool 2 : Lion Recovery Disk AssistantLet ’s say that your hard drive is so confuse that it ca n’t bring up from the Recovery HD . In such cases you take another drive to reboot from that contains the Recovery HD tools . That ’s the purpose of Apple’sLion Recovery Disk Assistant . This is a tool developed by Apple that permit you to create a bootable copy of the Recovery HD partition on another drive — a USB flash drive , for example . You take a drive 1 GB or larger .
Tool 3 : A full - flub installerIn our next scenario you have throttle admission to the Internet or a severe bandwidth cap that makes downloading nearly 4 GB of Lion installer impractical . Our own Dan Frakes put up the result in his must - read How to Make a Bootable Lion Install Disk or Drive . This easy - to - follow usher will show you how to create an installation disk / drive that incorporate the full Lion installer . You ’ll need an subsist copy of the Lion installer to create this drive , an 8 GB or larger USB flash drive or hard drive , or a vacuous DVD .
Tool 4 : Other utilitiesDisk Utility ’s tools can be helpful , but they ’re not good at harness difficult result such as directory degeneracy and they ca n’t do a thing about file recovery . In cases like these you need other tool on hand . One that I chance absolutely necessary is Alsoft ’s $ 100Disk Warrior(now compatible with Lion ) . I know of no better cock for fix private road that refuse to boot due to directory legal injury . to boot , if Disk Warrior ca n’t vivify your disk , it will make a valorous attempt to recover your file . Every Mac user should own a copy .
In eccentric where Disk Warrior ca n’t retrieve your data , turn to Prosoft Engineering ’s $ 100Data Rescue 3 . It can pull Indian file from damaged drives as well as take a crack at recovering files that you ’ve intentionally or unexpectedly cancel ( its success naturally reckon on how much data has been pen to the thrust since you toss out the files you now want back ) .
Micromat ’s $ 100TechTool Pro 6is also deserving have got . It duplicates some of the functionality of Disk Warrior and Data Rescue 3 , but it also include hardware symptomatic tools not incur in the other package . It ’s a right all - around puppet and it too is Lion compatible .
Tool 5 : A cloneShuffling hangout CDs in and out of your Mac is no fun — and unimaginable if your Mac lacks a medium drive as do the raw Mac mini and all MacBook Airs . And when disasterreallystrikes , it ’s more than just a act handy to have a driving force you’re able to boot your Mac from and carry on with your piece of work . It ’s for these reasons that I have a clone of my Mac ’s startup private road expect in the wing . Should the Bad Thing happen , I can impound that drive , boot from it , and seek to compensate my Mac with the tools I ’ve instal on that drive . When I create such a clone I ensure that it ’s compatible with all the Macs in my place . That way I can troubleshoot and ( hopefully ) repair any Mac I own .
Tool 6 : A current backup of all your dataI do n’t really need to excuse why this is necessary , do I ?
Tot up the cost of owning these tools and you find that you could expend $ 500 to $ 600 , what with software and drives . That ’s not an insignificant investiture . Then again , what ’s your datum deserving ?
