Cannot download Mountain Lion Mac mini 2012

I am guessing that the version with your Mac Mini may be a later version of 10.8.2 with drivers added in that are not present in the general release. You might have to wait until 10.8.3 is released.

Otherwise, you can clone your installation to an external drive, boot from that to wipe your hard drive and use your Restore facility to download and reinstall from Apple's servers. You might lose iLife by doing so, however.

antithema said:

Got recently the new mid (quad) mac mini 2012 and I am trying to download Mountain Lion to create a DVD for clean install.

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Why? Firstly, you can use the Recovery Partition to reinstall the OS. That's what it's for -- to replace a DVD.
Secondly, your Mac comes with a brand new OS image on disk. You don't need to put another clean installation in its place.

In 10 years of using OS X, I've had to reinstall the OS about twice -- and one of those probably wasn't necessary.
OS X keeps the System, third-party extensions and the user space all very separate, so you really only ever need to do a clean install if you actually start sudo rm-ming stuff in /System, /etc, /var...

antithema said:

I usually do a format and clean instal to the complete system every 1 or 1 1/2 year together with an upgrade (changing to ssd in this case sometime in the future). I previously downloaded and created mountain so disc on my MacBook Pro but now I cannot even download it. You said that mountain lion is somewhere on the system. Can I create a Mac OS disc from there?

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Seriously, a wipe and clean install of your disk is not only a massive waste of time, it's also a strain on the life of your hard drive. What problem do you think you are eliminating by doing this?
On my old iMac, I installed Leopard on top of Tiger, then Snow, then Lion, without wiping and starting over. Just a straight install on top of the existing data. Never had any problems.

From Lion onwards, OS X creates a partition on your system disk called a Recovery Partition. It's essentially a bootable disk with Disk Utility, Terminal and a installer. However, it connects to the internet to get the latest/correct version.
Machines released since Lion also have Internet Recovery, which is a very basic installer held in Firmware, in case the Recovery Partition isn't there.
Read the Apple Support docs for more information.

Just ordered a mini myself. This might work:


http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20110831105634716

benwiggy said:

Seriously, a wipe and clean install of your disk is not only a massive waste of time, it's also a strain on the life of your hard drive. What problem do you think you are eliminating by doing this?
On my old iMac, I installed Leopard on top of Tiger, then Snow, then Lion, without wiping and starting over. Just a straight install on top of the existing data. Never had any problems.

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What do you have against fresh installs? If the guy wants one for whatever reason just let him!

I do always make fresh clean installs when new OSs are launched. Why? Because I WANT TO. I know it's not necessary. I just do it. Helps me have everything organized.

Doing that, I'm compelled to make regular backups and when a new system is released I got a reason to format de drive and get rid of s.h.i.t I don't want anymore and that I forgot I had there.

A format doesn't harm your drive. A complete wipe (writing 0s to all blocks that is) might end up causing some damage if done too regularly because of useless and excessive usage of the disc, but a "format" just deletes and installs again. When you "erase" your drive with Disk Utility it just takes 10 seconds. All data can be recovered using the proper tools. So you're not even actually wiping it. So tell me, how does this damage the disc?

You don't feel the need to make fresh installs. Fine. But understand some of us find it useful for our own reasons.


EDIT: Just to clarify for the OP, I wouldn't recommend a fresh install when the machine is new… I wouldn't even recommend it when upgrading the OS. I'm just saying I like to do it for reasons that have no link to performance whatsoever.

dasx said:

What do you have against fresh installs? If the guy wants one for whatever reason just let him!
EDIT: Just to clarify for the OP, I wouldn't recommend a fresh install when the machine is new.

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So, you ARE telling him not to do a clean install, then?

If anyone wants to do a clean install every year, every new OS, every 10 minutes: that's fine with me, and I'm not preventing them.

However, I'm merely pointing out that there are very few benefits of doing so, other than the nice clean smell of fresh bed linen.
Will there be a few Kb here and there of files that may not be necessary? Perhaps.
Is that worth a couple of hours of reinstalling the OS, then reinstalling apps that run off installers, and then cloning back your user account -- where most of the cruft is stored anyway? I'm suggesting "no".

Rewriting all your data -- OS, apps, and user files -- on a regular basis is very likely to have a deleterious effect on a drive, of any kind.

I'm just pointing out the disadvantages: I have yet to hear of any advantages. But of course: anyone is free to do anything.

All the best

benwiggy said:

So, you ARE telling him not to do a clean install, then?

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Ahhhh. Wasn't fast enough to quote what you had previously said, as that wasn't ironic at all.

I'm telling him that I wouldn't do it for the reason he presents. (new machine that is). I can understand people doing clean installs on Windows when your OS is full of stuff of the vendor (i.e Dell's or HP's), but in OSX that's pointless.

If he has some other reasons then be my guest.

benwiggy said:

Rewriting all your data -- OS, apps, and user files -- on a regular basis is very likely to have a deleterious effect on a drive, of any kind.

I'm just pointing out the disadvantages: I have yet to hear of any advantages. But of course: anyone is free to do anything.

All the best

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On a regular basis? Yes.
New OS aren't released on a regular basis AFAIK.

benwiggy said:

However, I'm merely pointing out that there are very few benefits of doing so, other than the nice clean smell of fresh bed linen.
Will there be a few Kb here and there of files that may not be necessary? Perhaps.
Is that worth a couple of hours of reinstalling the OS, then reinstalling apps that run off installers, and then cloning back your user account -- where most of the cruft is stored anyway? I'm suggesting "no".

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Well… the thing is you don't clone it… It's like making a fresh install and then using Time Machine to back up your system. Meh.

I backup regularly those folders I want to keep. (script backing up on different external drives depending on what is being backed up). When fresh installing, I just create new folders and put its stuff inside. (Some Documents folders mainly).

As for the last part, Yes. In my case it is. 2h every 1 year is nothing when it helps me reorganize my whole drive.