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Liquinn

Suspended
Original poster
Apr 10, 2011
3,016
57
If I upgrade to Mountain Lion; would I be able to downgrade to Lion from Mountain Lion in the future if I wanted to?

Thanks for any help.
 

WhackyNinja

macrumors 68000
Jul 6, 2012
1,840
437
Kissimmee, FL
How did you do it? I had no luck so far.

Well my friend its all simple. First get a USB drive (4GB at least) and download Lion Recovery Disk Assistant. http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433

After you downloaded the program, it will create Lion Recovery on a external disk, in this case your USB. When its done just restart your Mac, and hold down the Option Key to go to the Boot options. Select the USB that says Recovery HD (not the Hard Drive, the USB). It will boot to Mac OS X Utilities. Then just open Disk Utilities, and format your hard drive from there but don't forget to name it Macintosh HD. After that is done, close Disk Utilities and go to back to the main window in Mac OS X Utilities, then just click Install Mac OS X Lion and it will install it to your formatted Hard Drive.

Note: It will take about 30 minutes to just download Mac OS X, and I forget how long to install Lion, I believe about 20 minutes.

But once its done you should be able to boot to your primary hard drive that you formatted with Mac OS X Lion installed. All you have to do is get your stuff back (IE: Images, Music, Videos etc.) and install your apps from the App Store and install updates because it will recover to Mac OS X 10.7.3 not 10.7.4 so you will have to update. I hope this helped :) But remember do this at your own risk, and I cannot stress this enough lol...Back up EVERYTHING! Images, Music, and any personal things and then you shall be all peachy keen! :)
 

FightorFlight

macrumors newbie
Apr 30, 2012
6
0
Well my friend its all simple. First get a USB drive (4GB at least) and download Lion Recovery Disk Assistant. http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433

After you downloaded the program, it will create Lion Recovery on a external disk, in this case your USB. When its done just restart your Mac, and hold down the Option Key to go to the Boot options. Select the USB that says Recovery HD (not the Hard Drive, the USB). It will boot to Mac OS X Utilities. Then just open Disk Utilities, and format your hard drive from there but don't forget to name it Macintosh HD. After that is done, close Disk Utilities and go to back to the main window in Mac OS X Utilities, then just click Install Mac OS X Lion and it will install it to your formatted Hard Drive.

Note: It will take about 30 minutes to just download Mac OS X, and I forget how long to install Lion, I believe about 20 minutes.

But once its done you should be able to boot to your primary hard drive that you formatted with Mac OS X Lion installed. All you have to do is get your stuff back (IE: Images, Music, Videos etc.) and install your apps from the App Store and install updates because it will recover to Mac OS X 10.7.3 not 10.7.4 so you will have to update. I hope this helped :) But remember do this at your own risk, and I cannot stress this enough lol...Back up EVERYTHING! Images, Music, and any personal things and then you shall be all peachy keen! :)

Thanks for the guide but i can't boot from the recovery disk.
I've got a crossed circle instead the apple logo after selecting the drive.
I've checked the usb drive with another Mac and it worked.
is there something different i can do?
 

WhackyNinja

macrumors 68000
Jul 6, 2012
1,840
437
Kissimmee, FL
Thanks for the guide but i can't boot from the recovery disk.
I've got a crossed circle instead the apple logo after selecting the drive.
I've checked the usb drive with another Mac and it worked.
is there something different i can do?

Hmm. Not sure, Im a Mac Beginner myself, I don't know about any other way. Lemme check if I can find a site that helps with this here problem.
 

FightorFlight

macrumors newbie
Apr 30, 2012
6
0
I think i know why it's not working on my machine. I have a MBA 2012 and i've read in another thread that the Lion Recovery Update is not compatible with the Mid 2012 MacBooks.
I have created and tested the recovery update on a MBP 2008.
 

WhackyNinja

macrumors 68000
Jul 6, 2012
1,840
437
Kissimmee, FL
I think i know why it's not working on my machine. I have a MBA 2012 and i've read in another thread that the Lion Recovery Update is not compatible with the Mid 2012 MacBooks.
I have created and tested the recovery update on a MBP 2008.

Oooh that maybe it. Cause I have a MBP thats Late 2011 so yeah.
 
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