A friend has just bought a brand new Macbook Pro with Mountain Lion OS. We are going to install an SSD to replace the standard HD that it shipped with, however, it looks like Apple don't ship with the OS on DVD any more. They have informed him there is a backup of the OS on another partition of the drive that his MBP shipped with.
My question is, bearing in mind this MBP hasn't been used yet – there is nothing to back up, we just want to install his fresh OS on the new SSD drive, what is the best way to go about this?
Best Answer
Macs that shipped with Lion or newer come with a recovery feature which is part of the EFI firmware, so that if the hard drive fails, or you install a new hard drive without OS X, the computer can start recovery directly from the internet over a broadband connection.
To start Recovery, hold down the Command + R keys while booting. The interface is pretty straightforward after that and you should be able to figure it out.
Apple also has as support article on OS X Recovery, and one on which models can support internet recovery through a firmware update.