Restore the InstallESD.dmg onto the HFS+ formatted USB (GUID). Select Recovery HD from the Startup Manager.įor detailed information on this update, please visit: About OS X Recovery Disk Assistant. There are many (inofficial) workarounds: Since they are all the same, Im sure that youre familiar with it: Open the package contents of the Lion installer from the Mac App store to get the InstallESD.dmg. To access OS X Recovery, reboot the computer while holding the Option key. When the OS X Recovery Disk Assistant completes, the new partition will not be visible in the Finder or Disk Utility. Insert an external drive, launch the OS X Recovery Disk Assistant, select the drive where you would like to install, and follow the on screen instructions. To create an external OS X Recovery, download the OS X Recovery Disk Assistant application. Note: In order to create an external OS X Recovery using the OS X Recovery Assistant, the Mac must have an existing Recovery HD. The OS X Recovery Disk Assistant lets you create OS X Recovery on an external drive that has all of the same capabilities as the built-in OS X Recovery: reinstall Lion or Mountain Lion, repair the disk using Disk Utility, restore from a Time Machine backup, or browse the web with Safari.

Maybe you could share exactly what MacBook Pro version this is.and we can verify what macOS versions are compatible with it (if you don't already know).Built right into OS X, OS X Recovery lets you repair disks or reinstall OS X without the need for a physical disc.

Do you REALLY need to install macOS 10.7 Lion on this older MacBook Pro.or will a slightly newer macOS work too? If you can't get a macOS installed via Recovery.then the 2nd & very common route to go is make a bootable USB thumb drive macOS installer (the macOS version is up to you.as long as that version is compatible with this MacBook Pro). Thus Lion & Mountain Lion should be available for free.Īnyways. This used to be an issue doing a macOS reinstall on really old Apple computers (the solution was users still needed to purchase these macOS versions many years later).īut according to Wikipedia.as of last year (June, 2021).Lion & Mountain Lion were finally made freely available for all users. macOS 10.7 'Lion' was one of the last macOS versions users had to purchase (10.8 Mountain Lion was the last pay-for macOS).

Os x lion recovery usb