Hard Drive Upgrade, 2011 Macbook Pro

Hello technophiles!

I work with video a lot and I'm considering upgrading my hard drive. I have spotted a 1TB SATA hard drive on ebay and I'm tempted.

I have heard that my macbook pro (bought in September) has "internet recovery", whereby if you install a blank hard drive it will automatically connect to the net and download and install OS X Lion, which sounds convenient given that the machine came with no operating system install disc. I have all my data backed up onto an external hard drive.

Does anyone have any experience of internet recovery? I'm guessing its not as straightforward as it sounds.

If its not an option, I've heard you can buy a USB from Apple with OS X Lion on it and then boot from that to install. Is this the best way to go?

Thanks in advance.

I've had to use the internet recovery several times in fact. Once you get the hard drive installed, you boot the system and when you hear the boot chime, you hold down the "option" button. It will then show you the internet recovery option. You will then connect to your network and verify your apple id. I've personally had better results using a hard line connection. After several minutes (depending on your connection speed), it will bring up the Lion installation screen and you follow the steps like normal. Once Lion is installed, you have several options on to migrate your data to the new drive. Time Machine or Migration Assistant will both work great.
Good Luck :Blushing:

Thanks Macaddict4life. I've done the install & held down the alt key but nothing's happening - just a white screen and I cant even hear the new drive spinning. Have I got a dud Hard drive? I bought one new from OWC in the end :-(

Edgar, did your MacBook already have Lion installed? Also, do you have a 2.5" sata external enclosure to test the drive with? If you find that the drive is functional, just make sure that the cable is properly inserted on the hard drive in your macbook. One more thing. If you do have an external enclosure, you can just clone your original drive to your new one using Carbon Copy. Eliminating the use of the Internet Recovery

Thanks, I'll try that. I just found a thread suggesting that the new MacBook pro doesn't come with internet recovery though. That could explain it!

All new machines pre-installed with Lion come with the ability to restore from the internet via the Apple servers.

Thanks Chscag. New since when though? I bought my machine in late September, read somewhere that IR was only introduced to MacBook pros in September. I'm guessing I've got one of the old stock. I'll ring the shop where I bought it.