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Apple updates EFI firmware on 2010 Macs: offers Lion internet recovery, not much else
Staring forlorn at that two-year-old MacBook, just sitting there in the corner? Well, there's good news; Apple's decided to furnish those 2010 models with a new EFI firmware update. Arriving on its MacBook Air (late 2010), iMac (mid 2010) and MacBook Pro (early 2010) models, it adds support for Lion's internet-based recovery feature -- something that's very useful for those optical drive-less MacBook Airs and Mac minis. The update also fixes a bug on Air models, where it would reset if the power button was pressed immediately after booting from deep sleep mode. You can consult your Mac's software updater for the new firmware -- it's out there now.
EFI Firmware Update brings Lion Internet Recovery to 2010-model Macs
Apple has released three EFI Firmware Updates for 2010-model Macs, including the iMac, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro. This update enables Lion Internet Recovery on those older Macs. Introduced in OS X Lion alongside the mid-2011 updates to the MacBook Air and Mac mini, Internet Recovery enables access to disk repair or OS X Lion installation options via a broadband internet connection. This is intended for use on a failed hard drive or a blank drive that's never had OS X installed on it. Together with a series of earlier firmware updates, all Macs introduced from 2010 onward now have access to Internet Recovery features -- with just one notable exception. Even the newest Mac Pro is still excluded from the support list for Internet Recovery. For both Mac Pro owners and those of you running Lion on a 2009 or earlier Mac, not having access to Internet Recovery isn't the end of the world. If you have a spare external drive, you can either build a recovery disk, or you can roll your own full Lion installer disk.
Lion Recovery restores Mac system software without drives (Updated)
Today, Apple introduced Lion Recovery as part of its OS X Lion distribution. Built into Lion, Recovery allows you to get your Mac back up and running after a catastrophic failure. By holding down Command-R during startup, Lion automatically boots from its recovery partition rather than its primary day-to-day partition. The recovery partition allows you to run Disk Utility, to erase your primary drive, re-install a fresh copy of Lion or restore from Time Machine. It also offers a built-in Safari web browser so you can search for help information online before applying the recovery tools. Lion Recovery can handle hard drive failures as well using a feature called Internet Recovery. Built into new Macs, including the newly released mini and MacBook Air, this new hardware feature will download and start Lion Recovery over any available broadband connection. Mac OS X has long had the ability to boot from a remote disk image via NetBoot, and restore the operating system via NetInstall (both based on the legacy bootp protocol, long present in NextStep and BSD). It looks like the new Macs extend NetBoot to the wide, wide Internet -- but Apple's write-up is pretty lean for the moment. Lion Recovery and Internet Recovery make physical install discs and dongles obsolete, allowing computers to restore themselves without having to hunt for extra equipment. [Updated to clarify that NetBoot is the likely underlying tech.]
