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Purchased mid-2012 MBA from eBay, seller says its preinstalled with Lion?

B

bobbytallant

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 6, 2010
375
38
Hi guys

I am expecting a delivery of a mid-2012 MBA 11" tomorrow that I purchased from eBay.

The seller says that it will come with Lion on it after he 'completely erased everything'. Is this right? He says he did claim the free upgrade to mountain lion, but he also thinks I will also be able to claim the upgrade on the MBA, but use my own Apple ID or something.

I would have thought when he erased his data etc, there would just be a clean version of mountain lion left on it..

Anyone know what the likely case/scenario might be (I know nobody can answer for sure lol - just the likely case please!)?

Thanks
 
GGJstudios

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
bobbytallant said:
I am expecting a delivery of a mid-2012 MBA 11" tomorrow that I purchased from eBay.

The seller says that it will come with Lion on it after he 'completely erased everything'. Is this right?
Click to expand...
Yes, Mid-2012 MBAs initially shipped with 10.7.4.

You can find specs on all Apple products:
  • By visiting EveryMac.com (includes pre-installed OS)
  • By using Mactracker
  • By entering your serial number here to find specs for your model.
 
B

bobbytallant

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 6, 2010
375
38
GGJstudios said:
Yes, Mid-2012 MBAs initially shipped with 10.7.4.

You can find specs on all Apple products:
Click to expand...

Thanks yeah I knew that they did - I just thought once you upgrade the OS on that particular machine, it will remain on it, even after wiping/restoring etc.. hmm could be £13.99 upgrade cost for me lol
 
Weaselboy

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,136
15,597
California
bobbytallant said:
Hi guys

I am expecting a delivery of a mid-2012 MBA 11" tomorrow that I purchased from eBay.

The seller says that it will come with Lion on it after he 'completely erased everything'. Is this right? He says he did claim the free upgrade to mountain lion, but he also thinks I will also be able to claim the upgrade on the MBA, but use my own Apple ID or something.

I would have thought when he erased his data etc, there would just be a clean version of mountain lion left on it..

Anyone know what the likely case/scenario might be (I know nobody can answer for sure lol - just the likely case please!)?

Thanks
Click to expand...

It depends on how you wipe the machine. If it came with Lion and you install ML, then do a command-r recovery boot to the internal drive you can only format Macintosh HD and reinstall ML because the recovery partition is the ML version. But if you boot from an external drive you can format the entire drive and get back to Lion. It sounds like this is what the seller did.

You will not be entitled to the free ML upgrade on this machine. Gonna have to fork over the pounds.
 
K

KPOM

macrumors P6
Oct 23, 2010
18,026
7,868
The free updates were tied to the Apple ID, although technically the license was only for the serial number of the machine that it was installed on. That said, normally the installation routine for Mountain Lion replaces the restore partition, so there's a chance that with CMD-R you'll be able to reinstall Mountain Lion if it isn't there already.
 
B

bobbytallant

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 6, 2010
375
38
Weaselboy said:
It depends on how you wipe the machine. If it came with Lion and you install ML, then do a command-r recovery boot to the internal drive you can only format Macintosh HD and reinstall ML because the recovery partition is the ML version. But if you boot from an external drive you can format the entire drive and get back to Lion. It sounds like this is what the seller did.

You will not be entitled to the free ML upgrade on this machine. Gonna have to fork over the pounds.
Click to expand...

Ah interesting - I suppose £13.99 in the grand scheme of things is not the end of the world.

So there definitely is a way to wipe the machine/data, but preserve the new OS for hypothetically a new user/owner to inherit (the command-r route)? I will be selling my rMBP soon you see and would like to keep ML on so the new owner can have it (its a shame my seller did not go to this length lol).
 
J

Johnny Alien

macrumors member
Nov 17, 2012
98
0
If it's not there and it's unavailable with the partition restore then contact Apple and they may help you. A friend of mine was able to get a redeem code for ML when it had been claimed by another Apple ID.
 
Weaselboy

Weaselboy

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Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,136
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California
bobbytallant said:
Ah interesting - I suppose £13.99 in the grand scheme of things is not the end of the world.

So there definitely is a way to wipe the machine/data, but preserve the new OS for hypothetically a new user/owner to inherit (the command-r route)? I will be selling my rMBP soon you see and would like to keep ML on so the new owner can have it (its a shame my seller did not go to this length lol).
Click to expand...

Yes, if you have ML on your machine just command-r boot and that takes you to the Recovery HD on your internal drive. Start Disk Util and format Macintosh HD then reinstall the OS. This will give you a clean install of Mountain Lion.

Two issues though. Technically ML in this case is licensed to you and it would violate Apple's EULA for you to give it away with the machine. That said, it is pretty much unenforceable from Apple's perspective. Second issue is is the new owner ever had to reinstall the OS for any reason they would be asked for your AppleID before they would be allowed to redownload.

If I was handing it off to a friend or relative, I would be inclined to just leave ML... but if you are selling on eBay or some such I would get it back to the default Lion if that is what it came with just to avoid any hassles with the buyer later.
 
B

bobbytallant

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 6, 2010
375
38
Weaselboy said:
Yes, if you have ML on your machine just command-r boot and that takes you to the Recovery HD on your internal drive. Start Disk Util and format Macintosh HD then reinstall the OS. This will give you a clean install of Mountain Lion.

Two issues though. Technically ML in this case is licensed to you and it would violate Apple's EULA for you to give it away with the machine. That said, it is pretty much unenforceable from Apple's perspective. Second issue is is the new owner ever had to reinstall the OS for any reason they would be asked for your AppleID before they would be allowed to redownload.

If I was handing it off to a friend or relative, I would be inclined to just leave ML... but if you are selling on eBay or some such I would get it back to the default Lion if that is what it came with just to avoid any hassles with the buyer later.
Click to expand...

Thats a great tip and some great advice thank you.

Hypothetically, as I have a rMBP with ML on it now, is there any way I can get ML off it as a bootable disk/usb drive that I could then install on the MBA, hypothetically?
 
J

Johnny Alien

macrumors member
Nov 17, 2012
98
0
bobbytallant said:
Thats a great tip and some great advice thank you.

Hypothetically, as I have a rMBP with ML on it now, is there any way I can get ML off it as a bootable disk/usb drive that I could then install on the MBA, hypothetically?
Click to expand...

No. I asked Apple about making a recovery USB and they told me I couldn't do it.
 
Weaselboy

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,136
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California
bobbytallant said:
Thats a great tip and some great advice thank you.

Hypothetically, as I have a rMBP with ML on it now, is there any way I can get ML off it as a bootable disk/usb drive that I could then install on the MBA, hypothetically?
Click to expand...

You can't directly make a USB installer from the rMBP OS install, but if you got ML for the rMBP from the App Store you can easily redownload that and make a USB installer.

If you did not get ML for the rMBP from the App Store, but rather it came with it, you can use this process to capture the ML installer and make a USB key.
 
B

bobbytallant

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 6, 2010
375
38
Weaselboy said:
You can't directly make a USB installer from the rMBP OS install, but if you got ML for the rMBP from the App Store you can easily redownload that and make a USB installer.

If you did not get ML for the rMBP from the App Store, but rather it came with it, you can use this process to capture the ML installer and make a USB key.
Click to expand...

Yes I got it from the App store as I was eligible to upgrade for free to it, having purchased the rMBP before ML was released.

Is there a guide (preferably an idiot's guide!) that shows me how to make a USB installer?

Actually I have just looked at my Mac App store purchase history and I see it there with a download option - incidentally I also see Lion there too from the year before when I purchased that. I wonder if they are there when accessed from another mac then I can just download ML as normal lol, surely not..

Thanks
 
J

jbzcar

macrumors regular
May 11, 2012
211
0
bobbytallant said:
Yes I got it from the App store as I was eligible to upgrade for free to it, having purchased the rMBP before ML was released.

Is there a guide (preferably an idiot's guide!) that shows me how to make a USB installer?

Actually I have just looked at my Mac App store purchase history and I see it there with a download option - incidentally I also see Lion there too from the year before when I purchased that. I wonder if they are there when accessed from another mac then I can just download ML as normal lol, surely not..

Thanks
Click to expand...

Most painless and simple method: http://blog.gete.net/lion-diskmaker-us/ :)
 
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