EFI Firmware Updates for MacBook Air, iMac, MacBook Pro Bring Lion Internet Recovery to 2010 Models

Apple has released firmware updates for 2010 model year MacBook Air, iMac, and MacBook Pro. The EFI update brings OS X Lion Internet Recovery, which is accessible by booting into Recovery mode and allows a user to reinstall OS X Lion, to each Mac from 2010.

The EFI Firmware updates are available to download from Software Update, or directly from Apple:

• MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update 2.3
• iMac EFI Firmware Update 1.8
• MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 2.6

Updating the firmware requires a reboot as usual and the Mac should be connected to a power source before proceeding. The MacBook Air update also includes a minor bug fix to resolve an issue where the machine could inadvertently restart if the power button is pressed when waking from sleep.

Apple describes Internet Recovery as follows:

If your Mac problem is a little less common — your hard drive has failed or you’ve installed a hard drive without OS X, for example — Internet Recovery takes over automatically. It downloads and starts Lion Recovery directly from Apple servers over a broadband Internet connection. And your Mac has access to the same Lion Recovery features online

For Macs that can’t use Internet Recovery, the Lion Recovery Disk tool helps to make a bootable USB device that can offer the same features, although if you want to have the most versatile troubleshooting toolkit, having a fully bootable OS X Lion install drive is ideal.