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Cannot purchase lion on unsupported machine

Dhelsdon

Dhelsdon

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 5, 2010
1,337
2
Canadian Eh!
I don't understand why apple won't let us purchase lion on an unsupported machine, sure give a warning before you buy for those that don't bother to look into the requirements but c'mon to block the purchase entirely..

I wanted to prepare myself by burning a boot disc before my new MBP arrives to save the time setting up SL for no reason. Apparently I will have to wait, unless anyone knows a way around this excluding purchasing the usb stick. :apple:
 
SlyFoxHound said:
It may be the fact that it's 30 quid more expensive.
Click to expand...

Still quite a bit cheaper then apple sold Leopard for and the going cost of Windows.

Also, given that Macs are fairly expensive, I don't see the the complaining about s few bucks.
 
Since creating alternative means of installation from the InstallESD.dmg file is not supported I can see why Apple doesn't allow purchasing the Lion installation app on a computer who's hardware is not supported by Lion.
 
I was going to burn the DMG to disc, there's a guide to create a boot disc on these forums. I considered buying the USB drive, but I am cheap.. If I can use a method that costs nothing I'd do that before spending 70$ on a boot stick.
 
brand said:
Since creating alternative means of installation from the InstallESD.dmg file is not supported I can see why Apple doesn't allow purchasing the Lion installation app on a computer who's hardware is not supported by Lion.
Click to expand...


yep i have 10.5 on an old iMac G4/800 that was "unsupported" and it runs fine. i purchased the disk though since they offered them then so if i were going to do that for something like this then maybe you could use a different machine to get it? maybe use a friends to log into the Mac App store? not sure how that works but it may be worth a try.
 
fletch33 said:
yep i have 10.5 on an old iMac G4/800 that was "unsupported" and it runs fine. i purchased the disk though since they offered them then so if i were going to do that for something like this then maybe you could use a different machine to get it? maybe use a friends to log into the Mac App store? not sure how that works but it may be worth a try.
Click to expand...

I'll give that a go, using a mac pro here at work. I'll just download it then transfer onto a flash drive for the time being. That way I can play around with it a bit and try to make a boot disk. Thanks for the suggestion!
 
Dhelsdon said:
I'll give that a go, using a mac pro here at work. I'll just download it then transfer onto a flash drive for the time being. That way I can play around with it a bit and try to make a boot disk. Thanks for the suggestion!
Click to expand...

Just so you know...

There are several steps you need to do.

1) Copy Install OS X Lion.app to a usb stick. I have used this method on 3 of our Macs to avoid sitting through a download for each Mac.

2) Pick show package contents on Install OS X Lion.app and browse to InstallESD.dmg and use disk utility to "restore" it to a second USB stick. This becomes your homemade recovery stick in the event your HDD dies or you upgrade your HDD and the recovery partition wouldn't help you in that event.

3) Walk up to a Lion compatible machine and copy Install OS X Lion.app to the applications folder and run it from there. You might need to make sure the machine is running Snow Leopard. I don't know 'cuz all of our machines were on the latest SL before I did any upgrades to Lion.

4) Once you are sure you have a good copy, and only after you are sure you have a good copy you can delete Install OS X Lion.app from your Mac Pro at work.
 
I just found out I am eligible for a free upgrade to lion, so I have to wait.. will definitely use your steps later though for making my own recovery stick.
 
Dhelsdon said:
I don't understand why apple won't let us purchase lion on an unsupported machine, sure give a warning before you buy for those that don't bother to look into the requirements but c'mon to block the purchase entirely..
Click to expand...

People are stupid. People don't read things. It does't matter how large a warning apple put saying something like THIS VERSION DOES NOT RUN ON THIS MACHINE, DOWNLOAD ANYWAY? people will click without reading.

Can you imagine all the complaints and customer service calls from people moaning that it doest work or refuses to install?

Really, there is no need to download Lion on a machine that does not support it, or at least there it not enough reason to warrant the potential problems by allowing it.
 
iHateMacs said:
People are stupid. People don't read things. It does't matter how large a warning apple put saying something like THIS VERSION DOES NOT RUN ON THIS MACHINE, DOWNLOAD ANYWAY? people will click without reading.

Can you imagine all the complaints and customer service calls from people moaning that it doest work or refuses to install?

Really, there is no need to download Lion on a machine that does not support it, or at least there it not enough reason to warrant the potential problems by allowing it.
Click to expand...

Your comment reminds me of the guy who was in here a few weeks back lamenting the fact he had ignored the red writing on the screen that the Lion recovery disk utility would wipe his USB hard drive. He clicked continue and then came in here asking us how to get 1 TB of his backup data back again. Yep it was a sad story and an example of why "are you sure?" dialogs aren't always enough to protect the user from himself.
 
iHateMacs said:
Can you imagine all the complaints and customer service calls from people moaning that it doest work or refuses to install?

Really, there is no need to download Lion on a machine that does not support it, or at least there it not enough reason to warrant the potential problems by allowing it.
Click to expand...



clearly there is a reason to because the OP posted his. you may not have the need but they do.

in order to install OSX on an unsupported machine you have to have a little knowledge on how to trick OSX into thinking you do have the proper machine for installing. this alone would prevent people from contacting Apple if t hey had a problem.

i mentioned above i have an old iMac that was not supported after Tiger but yet i installed Leopard anyway and it runs fine. so there are reasons after all cause i had one and glad i did it :)
 
Last edited:
iHateMacs said:
People are stupid. People don't read things. It does't matter how large a warning apple put saying something like THIS VERSION DOES NOT RUN ON THIS MACHINE, DOWNLOAD ANYWAY? people will click without reading.

Can you imagine all the complaints and customer service calls from people moaning that it doest work or refuses to install?

Really, there is no need to download Lion on a machine that does not support it, or at least there it not enough reason to warrant the potential problems by allowing it.
Click to expand...

I understand how much extra grief it would be for them, but they could at least give an option.. even if you have to do some work-arounds to allow it.
 
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