Apple's going the way of a disc-less life. We're okay with this, but just because there are no discs, doesn't mean your hardware and software won't fail. Things happen, people cry, and it usually results in resintalling OS X. Fortunately, Apple has included a Recovery HD partition on newer MacBook Airs and Mac minis. When you boot into this partition, you get the same features as booting into the Mac OS X Install DVD, but you also get other options to help get your Mac back in working order.
To boot into the Lion recovery partition, hold down the Option key on your Mac while restarting. When you see the screen above, use your keyboard or mouse to select “Recovery HD,” then click or press enter on your keyboard to begin booting into this partition.
When you have successfully booted into the recovery partition, you'll see a screen that lets you select your language. Follow along from this screen.
You can then restore your machine from a Time Machine backup, Reinstall Mac OS X, Get Help Online, or open Disk Utility. Mac minis and MacBook Airs will also give you the option to Reinstall Mac OS X from the internet. This will take a while, though, so you may consider making a bootable copy of the Lion installer on a DVD or a flash drive for a quicker restore.
Clicking on the Get Help Online option will give you a fully functioning copy of Safari, allowing you to look up documentation or help information online. You can even connect to a wireless network if needed.
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