Some iTunes users likely to be inconvenienced

As is traditional with any new and significant update to an operating system, reports and discoveries are being posted throughout the Mac community regarding Lion, the latest version of Mac OS X. One issue in particular that stood out as being quite obscure but potentially important was a post from Online Tech Tips regarding changes for third-party Network Attached Storage (NAS) drive users, along a step-by-step guide on how to do a clean install of Lion from About.com.

The site reports that NAS drives, such as HP's Media Smart Server, may not connect properly under Lion unless they already support the latest version (2.2) of Netatalk, an open-source Apple File Protocol (AFP) file server that is used to allow Macs to connect to non-Time Capsule NAS drives for purposes such as Time Machine backups and iTunes or iPhoto library serving. NAS drive manufacturers are slowly releasing updates that fix the issue, but not all manufacturers have caught up yet.

Synology, QNAP, Buffalo and HP MediaSmart Server users all report issues, but all of the mentioned companies report that a fix is coming soon. In the case of QNAP, forum users have posted some possible workarounds until a permanent fix is issued.

As of this writing, Netgear and LaCie have both recently updated their software to support Lion, and users of those products should check the links to download the new version.

About's Tom Nelson has posted a four-page, step-by-step guide to creating a "clean" install of Lion on a connected hard disk, SSD or even thumb drive. Users are cautioned that Lion will create a new, 650MB "recovery boot" partition on installed drives, and that a minimum of 8GB of free space is required. The report also details the procedure for creating a bootable Lion DVD disc if users want to clean-install Lion on the current startup disk.

After first backing up any important data and then erasing the target disk, the report mentions the method by which users can show all eligible disks and change the target from the default (the boot drive) to a different one. The Lion download is normally located in the user's Applications folder on their startup drive.

by MacNN Staff