I've read online and saw that it appears to be impossible to install Lion on a clean/wiped/reformatted hard drive – is this true? I'd like to wipe my hard drive clean and then install Lion on it (new) and would prefer not to wipe and install Snow Leopard and upgrade to Lion.
Regarding the tutorials or detailed instructions on clean installing Lion – are there any that are (Most that I have searched online, including the one on Egg Freckles have been released [I]before[/I] the actual release date on Lion, and since I'm not that up to date on everything in the Mac world recently) detailed, and I'd like to know if there is a comprehensive (new) tutorial regarding the clean installation of Lion?
Best Answer
The best guide is all written up on Apple's support web site.
A high level Introducing Lion Recovery covers the basics and the About Lion Recovery knowledge base article gets into the details.
Some macs can use internet recovery to perform a one step / internet net boot / bare metal restore. All the rest require a [USB bootable recovery HD. Apple provides an official tool to make your own bootable USB device. Detailed instructions from About Lion Recovery Disk Assistant cover using an existing hard drive as well as a USB device to make your Recovery HD.
Once you are booted into recovery - use Disk Utility to erase / zero / repartition your drive and you now have a clean Lion install.
The following Mac models can perform a total internet recovery or use USB media.