The Mac/iOS app store is the same thing as the Kindle or Nook stores, none of which allow transfer.

Wait, are you talking about iOS apps? Because every app I buy gets transferred to all three of my iOS devices.

Or are the apps tied to the computer I sync from? and if I replace that computer I can't transfer apps?

I think the point is that you can't sell me one of those apps. Or books.

So the reinstall is in the actual install step now. Whatever happened overnight didn't touch security. It's two hours of downloading something from the internet (that it doesn't keep), because it downloaded again this morning, and about 45 minutes installing.

WHY THE FUCK SHOULD I BE CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET FOR THE FIRST AND ALL SUBSEQUENT ATTEMPTS AT THIS?

I'm...that really chaps my ass. I love the internet, and plan to have its babies later this year, but that's neither practical nor fair. If all this shit had gone down in the airport on the way to Kenya, I'd pretty much have been up shit creek for a week and a half, and that's not what I bought my computer and the operating system for. I'm interested in some practicality here.

I think the point is that you can't sell me one of those apps. Or books.

Oh. Duh.

Okay, now I'm beyond pissed, because this isn't about me being clueless newb anymore. I followed the instructions EXACTLY, and now I'm at the "contact Applecare" stage of the entertainment.

Here's what Lucy (when I'm less mad, she gets a name that doesn't yank footballs away) told me to do:

Select Disk Utility and then click continue
Select your disk from the list on the left, and the click the erase tab
Select Mac OS Extended (journaled) from the Format pop-up menu, type a name for your disk (Mary), and then click Erase. After the disk as been erased, choose Disk Utility > Quit Disk Utility Select Reinstall Max OS X, click Continue, and then follow the instructions in the Mac OS X Installer to reinstall Lion.

Here's what the computer tells me:

Could not write installation information to disk. Contact AppleCare. [OK]

No, it's not freaking OK. Don't imply it is. You're wired to the Internet, Mary verifies just fine. I can repair for shits and giggles, but there are 3 folders and 2 files, and not much going on, including writing installation information to my brand new fucking laptop.

What would I have to do in order to be able to restore OS X Base System onto Mary? If I actually click on disk1, not OS X Base System, it gives me Restore Failure Could not validate source- error 254. If I pick OS X Base System like feels good and true, instead it tells me that The startup disk can't be used as a restore source. To use this disk as a source, restart your computer using the recovery system, and open Disk Utility again.

Is my problem that I'm trying to restore from the recovery system? So I'm SOL by definition?

Is there anything I can do that doesn't involve outside pants?

When you reboot using the Command-R combination you are booting from the OS X Base System drive, so you can't restore to that drive.

You should be able to do the Command-R reboot, which will get you to the restore screens. From there you can choose Disk Utility and erase the partition that is not the OS X Base System. Then you can quit Disk Utility and go and do the Reinstall OS X and let it do it's thing. I've done this dozens of times on machines here with no problems. If you are getting errors in this sequence then I suspect there might be a hardware fault somewhere underneath the surface.

That sequence as you described it did not work. It gave the error I described in the previous post. I repaired everything and its panties through the Disk Utility, but no luck.

I rebooted, and it came to a dejectedly flashing folder.

I rebooted back to command R, and it displayed a globe and said "internet repair". Whatever that was, it was the right thing. The install did not throw an error after that and ran through to the end. Which is good, because I was both putting on outside pants and calling AppleCare, pissed as fuck.

The amount of dependency on the internet is just...that is just not good. And I can't work out the ramification of some of these choices on the fly! What does allowing my Apple ID to reset my MacBook password mean? I'm assuming it gives me some way to get into my laptop should yesterday happen again, but it's not like they're explaining it before they ask.

Or maybe it was in the agreement that I pretended to read.

It sounds like the disk got well and truly toasted.

The internet repair is a last line. Basically if the disk is too far gone, or you install a new disk that doesn't have the repair image on it, then the machine will look for an internet connection, connect to Apple servers, and stream a clean install from there.

I found it pretty frustrating that in my attempts to get past the toast I made of the security credentials I ended up running four reinstalls of Lion and each one had a two hour pre-installation download of "components". There's really no way to make that more streamlined? Does every MacBook Pro sale assume such internet ubiquity, or are the Apple Store lines longer in other environments?

Still, I'm typing on the new machine now, and it's pretty and silky and it's all mine!

As long as I let it have Internet, it seems.

So, whenever I have had a new mac, I have not had much to setup. You are right that installation of a new operating system can take a bit, but for the most part, it did not take me that long on either of the two machines on which I installed Lion.

I am not sure WTF I will do about Mountain Lion because I have Lion on ONE computer and have Snow Leopard on the other computer I use a lot. I guess I'll have to get all on the same operating system soon.

If I'd done it right, I'd have been fine. It's just that the first time I completed it, I ended up with a login screen and no password to get past it. All the time and frustration and garbled posting was me trying to get past that.

I'm not going to use the migration assistant for anything, in the end. I'll get the hang of tweaking Lion myself, and hopefully end up with a tidier computer. I'll always have Time Capsules of the other box, and I might just copy over a few "popular" folders to the NAS so I can get to them from all the clients.