OS X Lion Recovery Lets You Boot From Apple's Servers

Apple's OS X Lion allows users to boot and restore their broken computers from the web, with a new tool called Lion Recovery. The system usually boots from your notebook or desktop's hard-drive, triggered by holding down Command-R during startup, but if your disk is corrupted or you've loaded a new disk without a OS X installed, you can also do the same thing from a version of the OS on Apple's own servers.

Among the features offered include Disk Utility, which can check and repair a hard-drive, erase it, and reinstall a fresh copy of Lion, and the ability to restore a Mac from a Time Machine backup. If there's an internet connection on offer, Lion Recovery will connect to Apple and offer access to its online support forums, too.

Lion Internet Recovery is built into new Macs, starting from today's refreshed MacBook Air and Mac mini, and will be a new feature on all models moving forward. For more on OS X Lion – which is available as an upgrade now from the Mac App Store – head over here.

[via Twitter]