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Bought a Macbook and want to factory reset it

S

swindmiller

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 21, 2011
48
0
A friend of mine bought a used a MacBook at an estate sale and I have been given task of resting it to factory settings, and it came with no media. I think I know what to do but want to verify with someone first ;)
Right now it has Mountain Lion (10.8.5) on it but I believe it came with Lion (10.7). When I boot it up with the Option key held and choose the recovery drive it asks for an Apple ID that Mountain Lion was purchased with...don't have one. If I boot with Command-R it wants to install Lion (10.7) but wont because 10.8.5 is already on it.
I "think" I need to boot with Command-R and choose the Disk Utility and wipe the main partition and then install 10.7 and if he wants to he can buy Mountain Lion or whatever later to upgrade. Just to get it up and running for now I will just use 10.7.

Do I have it right? Will I be prompted for the "old" Apple ID at any point using this method? I don't want to wipe the partition and then while installing 10.7 get stuck and now have nothing :D

Thanks,
 
Model is a1342 just says MacBook. Year I think is 2009...how can I tell for sure?
 
This model (Macbook 13" Mid 2010) came with Snow Leopard 10.6.3 at first, then SL 10.6.4, then with Lion 10.7.2.

(source : Mactracker)

If it came with Lion, and has been updated, it should be able to use Internet Recovery.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4904

Internet Recovery will allow you to erase the WHOLE disc (including the 10.8 Recovery partition), then download and install the original OS (Lion 10.7.2).

To do an Internet Recovery, do a Cmd + Alt + r boot.

Once you have access to Disk Utility, erase the WHOLE disc (not "Macintosh HD" only), then choose re-install Lion.

(no Apple ID is needed).
 
swindmiller said:
A friend of mine bought a used a MacBook at an estate sale and I have been given task of resting it to factory settings, and it came with no media. I think I know what to do but want to verify with someone first ;)
Right now it has Mountain Lion (10.8.5) on it but I believe it came with Lion (10.7). When I boot it up with the Option key held and choose the recovery drive it asks for an Apple ID that Mountain Lion was purchased with...don't have one. If I boot with Command-R it wants to install Lion (10.7) but wont because 10.8.5 is already on it.
I "think" I need to boot with Command-R and choose the Disk Utility and wipe the main partition and then install 10.7 and if he wants to he can buy Mountain Lion or whatever later to upgrade. Just to get it up and running for now I will just use 10.7.

Do I have it right? Will I be prompted for the "old" Apple ID at any point using this method? I don't want to wipe the partition and then while installing 10.7 get stuck and now have nothing :D

Thanks,
Click to expand...

If it came with Lion, you can use Internet recovery to restore to factory defaults. Hold command-option-r at boot to get to Internet recovery. You will need to enter your wifi info then you will see a spinning globe as it downloads a 650MB recovery utility.

Once the utility comes up start Disk Utility and select the drive name at the top (like Seagate 500GB or whatever) and format the entire disk as Mac OS Extended. This will wipe the OS and the ML recovery partition.

Then quit Disk Util and click reinstall OS. This takes a bit as the 4.7GB OS has to DL from Apple's servers. Apple will see the serial number and give you Lion with no AppleID since it came with the machine.

Before you do all this, run software update to make sure the latest firmware update has been installed.

Edit: Ninja'd by Bruno!
 
Right now when I do a command r it wants to install 10.7 but won't because 10.8.5 is already on it. So I will try to erase the whole thing then do the 10.7 install.
Thanks for your time!

----------

Thanks to weaselboy as well :)

----------

Also just to be clear....I am not sure if it came with Lion or not..I just assumed. Is there any way to make sure?
 
swindmiller said:
Also just to be clear....I am not sure if it came with Lion or not..I just assumed. Is there any way to make sure?
Click to expand...

Try the command-option-r Internet recovery I described. If you get the globe below showing the recovery utility being installed, you are good to go. If you don't have the Lion version with the firmware update this won't work.

HnWEfAo.png
 
Ok, I just did the disk wipe. I selected the unformatted disk to install 10.7 on and it prompts me for an Apple ID. I tried putting my friends id in and it said something like this ID has not purchased Lion.
What are my options now?
 
swindmiller said:
Ok, I just did the disk wipe. I selected the unformatted disk to install 10.7 on and it prompts me for an Apple ID. I tried putting my friends id in and it said something like this ID has not purchased Lion.
What are my options now?
Click to expand...

Did you get that globe? That should indicate an updated machine that came with Lion. :confused:
 
I did and waited for it to download. Did the disk wipe and was prompted for the ID when it was going to install 10.7.
 
After looking further it looks like it may have shipped with X 10.6.3 (10D2162). How can I obtain this?
 
swindmiller said:
After looking further it looks like it may have shipped with X 10.6.3 (10D2162). How can I obtain this?
Click to expand...

Well crap. :( Sorry about this.

He can buy the Snow Leopard DVD from the Apple Store. Or you can buy Lion here. They will email him a code to be entered in the App Store to attach Lion to his AppleID.

Are you on your own Mac by any chance? He can login to the App Store on your machine with his AppleID and "purchase" the free Mavericks. Then use a 8GB USB key to make an installer.
 
No need to be sorry, thanks for your help.

I can temporarily use my wifes MacBook pro. If he buys Lion from the link and then logs into my the mac store from my wifes laptop and "redeems" the code. Will that then enable me to use the Internet Recovery Mode?
 
The commercial OS X 10.6 DVD that you can purchase from the online Apple Store, gives you version 10.6.3 - but won't install on the MacBook, which came with a newer build. I don't think the Apple commercial version was ever updated past 10.6.3 - and it's a little messy to install on your MacBook, requiring an older Mac that WILL boot to the 10.6.3 installer. More useful, I think would be to have your friend (who now owns the MacBook) purchase Lion. Lion is not available directly through the App Store. You have to call Apple to purchase Lion. Apple gives you a redemption code, that you have to enter to get Lion to download from the App Store. Then, with the downloaded installer, and an actual purchase of Lion, with the correct AppleID, there you have it!
 
Last edited:
swindmiller said:
No need to be sorry, thanks for your help.



I can temporarily use my wifes MacBook pro. If he buys Lion from the link and then logs into my the mac store from my wifes laptop and "redeems" the code. Will that then enable me to use the Internet Recovery Mode?
Click to expand...


Yes. Whoever is logged it to the App Store the redemption will be attached to their AppleID. Then that AppleID can be entered when you get that prompt during recovery. If you want you can logout of the App Store then have him login with his AppleID to do this. Either way will work.
 
swindmiller said:
No need to be sorry, thanks for your help.

I can temporarily use my wifes MacBook pro. If he buys Lion from the link and then logs into my the mac store from my wifes laptop and "redeems" the code. Will that then enable me to use the Internet Recovery Mode?
Click to expand...

Mavericks doesn't cost anything extra, and I think it works on that model. There might be a way to internet recovery to snow leopard. I'm not sure.
 
DeltaMac said:
Lion is not available directly through the App Store. You have to call Apple to purchase Lion.
Click to expand...
You no longer need to call them, you can buy it on the Apple Store :
http://store.apple.com/us/product/D6106Z/A/os-x-lion

thekev said:
Mavericks doesn't cost anything extra, and I think it works on that model. There might be a way to internet recovery to snow leopard. I'm not sure.
Click to expand...
Mavericks does work on that 7,1 Macbook Unibody 13" Mid 2010.

There is no Internet Recovery for Snow Leopard.
 
I did wind up buying Lion from Apple ($20) and got the code in 3 days. I "redeemed" the code using my wifes laptop and his apple id, then booted into Internet Recovery on his laptop, logged into his apple id and everything went thru without a hitch :)

Thanks for all the help, I learned something here :)
 
swindmiller said:
I did wind up buying Lion from Apple ($20) and got the code in 3 days. I "redeemed" the code using my wifes laptop and his apple id, then booted into Internet Recovery on his laptop, logged into his apple id and everything went thru without a hitch :)

Thanks for all the help, I learned something here :)
Click to expand...

Whew... :D Glad it worked out.
 
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