# Lost Recovery CD - What Now?



## neenja (Sep 22, 2008)

Bought a macbook pro 15" in feb (converted from windows and will never look back!) and I some how managed to lose my recovery cd's 

Anyone know what I'm supposed to do to get a replacement? Will it cost money? Is there anyway I can get a new one without paying?

Any help will be appreciated.. thanks!


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## SGilbert (Sep 22, 2008)

Call Apple.  Very likely they will replace your DVD's for free or a very nominal cost.


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## neenja (Sep 23, 2008)

are recovery discs needed? in terms of pcs, i had to reformatted every so often.. do i need to do that with my mac?


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## SGilbert (Sep 23, 2008)

Just like insurance, you hope you'll never need it, but it can save your skin quickly and easily if you ever do.  You can take the gamble, if you choose to.

If you think you can "hold out", the next OS--10.6--should be out after the 1st of the year.  It'll be a paying upgrade, though.  It will provide you with a new "insurance policy"


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## Satcomer (Sep 23, 2008)

neenja said:


> are recovery discs needed? in terms of pcs, i had to reformatted every so often.. do i need to do that with my mac?



The install disk will have a menu system and in the menu system is Disk Utility so a user can boot from the install disk and try to repair the installed hard drive or reformat it (before the install happens).

So call Apple and see if you can get a replacement.


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## Doctor X (Sep 23, 2008)

SGilbert said:


> If you think you can "hold out", the next OS--10.6--should be out after the 1st of the year.



Have they really got the "bugs" out of 10.5? 

Here I am happy with 10.4.11 reading the responses.  Anyways, to the actual question, YES.  Seriously.  

Here is a situation: one of your RAM chips starts acting up.  You may get a kernal panic or two.  What is happening--for it happened to me--is that errors are accumulating in your volumes . . . and . . . stuff!  So, lo and behold, you will have your system die.  You will need--after replacing the RAM chip--to at least clean re-instal.

They are one of those things where if you do not have you are going to REALLY wish you did.  

--J.D.


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## fryke (Sep 23, 2008)

In the ideal world we live in, you can keep your system backed up with an external harddrive via TimeMachine. (Comes with the system.) Should you ever live through what earlier would've been called hell (i.e. your main system harddrive fails completely), you can be back up running in a matter of half an hour to maybe an hour by booting from the original installation disk and a replacement harddrive.

While your system shouldn't "go bad" just by using it (unlike Windows with added malware and stuff), bad things can still happen to your system. Maybe someday something goes terribly wrong with a software update. Maybe you accidentally remove very important system files. Maybe you forget your password. Or, as laid out before, your harddrive dies. You'll _want_ to have the system installation disks then.

Oh, and again: You _definitely_ want an external harddrive for the sole reason of a TimeMachine backup.


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