I understand that a Late 2011 15-in. Macbook Pro (MacBookPro8,2) comes preinstalled with Lion. My friend is interested in getting a refurb unit from the online Apple Store. He wants to know if he could install Snow Leopard on it.

yes

Thanks, broad.

A curious follow-up question: since there is no install disc for Lion, when you buy a MBP that is preinstalled with Lion, how would one do a clean install of Lion if it comes to that? Is the Lion USB thumbdrive installer included with the machine?

Thanks, broad.

A curious follow-up question: since there is no install disc for Lion, when you buy a MBP that is preinstalled with Lion, how would one do a clean install of Lion if it comes to that? Is the Lion USB thumbdrive installer included with the machine?

Internet Recovery.

Internet Recovery.

This wouldn't be cool for my friend. He lives in a small town in northern Ontario where high speed Internet is not available.

Internet Recovery.

IOW cart it off to a Mac dealer if you do not have an extremely fast internet connection.

You can create your own recovery thumbdrive with Lion Recovery Disk Assistant. Highly recommend, USB drives are cheap these days, much cheaper than what Apple sells.

You can create your own recovery thumbdrive with Lion Recovery Disk Assistant. Highly recommend, USB drives are cheap these days, much cheaper than what Apple sells.

Yeah, just use Lion Recovery Disk Assistant:

Lion Recovery Disk Assistant v1.0 (http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US)

yes

To further this, while it IS possible, you have to get your hands on a 10.6.7 install disk or disk image; when you install 10.6.7 it will be all buggy, but most issues are sorted out by installing the 10.6.8 update.

You can create your own recovery thumbdrive with Lion Recovery Disk Assistant. Highly recommend, USB drives are cheap these days, much cheaper than what Apple sells.

Yeah, just use Lion Recovery Disk Assistant:

Lion Recovery Disk Assistant v1.0 (http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US)

Lion Recovery Disk Assistant just makes a bootable Lion Recovery HD on an external drive/USB. Still has to download the 3-4GB install package via the internet to do a (re)install.

Lion Recovery Disk Assistant just makes a bootable Lion Recovery HD on an external drive/USB. Still has to download the 3-4GB install package via the internet to do a (re)install.

Just to add to this, if one isn't careful with the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant install, one could loose any preexisting data as I understand Apple's method.

From their kb support article: OS X Lion: About Lion Recovery Disk Assistant (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4848#)

"The Lion Recovery Disk Assistant will erase all data on the external drive when creating the Recovery HD. You should either backup your data before running the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant, or create a new partition on the external drive."

I tried the Lion recovery on a 25 Mbps cable connection and it took SEVEN hours to download, I would characterize that as completely useless.

The only way to make usable Lion media is with the install image buried in the App Store download.

I tried the Lion recovery on a 25 Mbps cable connection and it took SEVEN hours to download, I would characterize that as completely useless.

The only way to make usable Lion media is with the install image buried in the App Store download.

I downloaded it in under an hour on a 10 Mbps connection at work a few weeks back. I think it really depends on the server load at the time, among other factors. It's not always fast, but certainly doesn't always take 7 hours to download.

I tried the Lion recovery on a 25 Mbps cable connection and it took SEVEN hours to download, I would characterize that as completely useless.

The only way to make usable Lion media is with the install image buried in the App Store download.

That seems a bit odd and super slow if that's your normal DL speed. Even an IPS's restricted speed of 10 Mbps should be able to do the Lion download faster than what you experienced, well in theory at least. ;)

Maybe you hit the Apple's server at a super busy time??

But I just experienced a 10.6.8 Combo Update download last week at a clients place with a basic ISP speed packet, and it said 8 hours remaining and I went home and that's about the time it took and I went back the next day to complete everything. Yes, I had forgotten to take my USB flash drive with me that has the appropriate updates for any install.

I'd hate to think how long it would take to download any 4GB + Lion install and any large Lion updates for her older but just compatible iMac. :(

I tried the Lion recovery on a 25 Mbps cable connection and it took SEVEN hours to download, I would characterize that as completely useless.

The only way to make usable Lion media is with the install image buried in the App Store download.

I did internet recovery today, took 35mins. 25mbps connection.