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Resolved Formatting MBA late 2010 - Need help ASAP please

3bs

3bs

macrumors 603
Original poster
May 20, 2011
5,434
24
Dublin, Ireland
I'm about to sell my MBA and I have my Snow Leopard usb drive that came with it but when I boot up holding the option/alt key and pick the usb drive and choose to install it on Macintosh HD it says "Mac OS X cannot start up from this disk" what do I have to do? I have Lion installed currently and used disk utility to erase my Macintosh HD.

I tried reinstalling Lion before erasing Macintosh HD but towards the end I got a pop up asking me if I was sure I wanted to cancel the download when I didn't click cancel. I dismissed it but it kept popping up so I'm starting over again now.
 
Last edited:
It happened again. When it was done download I got a pop up saying "Are you sure you want to cancel the download of OS X Lion?" with options "cancel" and "cancel download". I press Cancel and it popped up twice again so I press it again then it takes me to the main menu with Restore from time machine etc.
 
I'm a little confused, are you doing all this from within the Lion recovery partition? And it's coming up with the cancel prompts as you're downloading a new copy of Lion? Reset the PRAM?
 
I tried holding down command + R at boot and stopped pressing when the Apple logo appeared but then I get the spinning wheel under it and after a while I get the circle with a line through it diagonally (error sign?)

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lannisters4life said:
I'm a little confused, are you doing all this from within the Lion recovery partition? And it's coming up with the cancel prompts as you're downloading a new copy of Lion? Reset the PRAM?
Click to expand...

Yeah that's correct. I will try resetting PRAM after what I'm doing now. I used the Mac app Recovery Disk Assistant to make a recovery HD on my flash drive and I am now downloading Lion using that. Let's see if I get the error again when it's done downloading.
 
The circle with a line through is can't find bootable disk. If that's coming up after you command + R, try getting there by just holding option on restart, and then select the Lion recovery partition that way with the keyboard arrows.

Still try to reset PRAM with command + option + P + R on a restart.

edit: oh right i just saw your update
 
lannisters4life said:
The circle with a line through is can't find bootable disk. If that's coming up after you command + R, try getting there by just holding option on restart, and then select the Lion recovery partition that way with the keyboard arrows.

Still try to reset PRAM with command + option + P + R on a restart.
Click to expand...

I'm downloading Lion now. Got here using the option key. It's taking long though. Longer this time with the flash drive then when I tried downloading with the recover hd on my mac. The time has increased in the past 10 mins and I have a 100mbps connection so 54 mins seems a bit long. Should I cancel and reset PRAM then try again?
 
Your MBA is a Snow Leopard version Mac so you should simply need to erase the hard drive in Disk Utility then exit Disk Utility and click "Install new OSX" or something like that (i.e. don't choose the Time Machine Option). It will then instal OSX SL from your thumb drive?


If you want to install Lion. I have either done that the same way as above but used a Lion Boot Disk (i.e. fresh instal) or through installing Lion through the App Store after you have installed SL.

I have only ever downloaded Lion through Internet Recovery on Macs Like the 2011 MacBook Air or Mac Mini where they don't have a USB thumb drive option. I am not sure of the procedure (or if it even works) to download Lion via the boot recovery option on a "non-Internet-Recovery model" such as the 2010 MBA. Having said that I think some 2010 MBA did have the newer internet recovery option.

Either way, can't you just install SL via the thumb drive that came with the MBA? Technically your version of Lion belongs to your Apple ID so you could just install it through the App Store after you load SL.

Silver
 
silverjam said:
Your MBA is a Snow Leopard version Mac so you should simply need to erase the hard drive in Disk Utility then exit Disk Utility and click "Install new OSX" or something like that (i.e. don't choose the Time Machine Option). It will then instal OSX SL from your thumb drive?


If you want to install Lion. I have either done that the same way as above but used a Lion Boot Disk (i.e. fresh instal) or through installing Lion through the App Store after you have installed SL.

I have only ever downloaded Lion through Internet Recovery on Macs Like the 2011 MacBook Air or Mac Mini where they don't have a USB thumb drive option. I am not sure of the procedure (or if it even works) to download Lion via the boot recovery option on a "non-Internet-Recovery model" such as the 2010 MBA. Having said that I think some 2010 MBA did have the newer internet recovery option.

Either way, can't you just install SL via the thumb drive that came with the MBA? Technically your version of Lion belongs to your Apple ID so you could just install it through the App Store after you load SL.

Silver
Click to expand...

Yeah I don't care what version it's on because I'm selling it but when I pick to install using the thumb drive on Macintosh HD it says "Mac OS X cannot start up from this disk"
 
3bs said:
I'm downloading Lion now. Got here using the option key. It's taking long though. Longer this time with the flash drive then when I tried downloading with the recover hd on my mac. The time has increased in the past 10 mins and I have a 100mbps connection so 54 mins seems a bit long. Should I cancel and reset PRAM then try again?
Click to expand...

No let it run. If it works then do PRAM after the install. You might want to try a SMC reset as well by pressing the Shift-Control-Option and Power buttons all at the same time while the MBA is shut down but plugged into the power. Sounds like it is working to me now anyway.
 
silverjam said:
No let it run. If it works then do PRAM after the install. You might want to try a SMC reset as well by pressing the Shift-Control-Option and Power buttons all at the same time while the MBA is shut down but plugged into the power. Sounds like it is working to me now anyway.
Click to expand...

Time dropped a lot. Down to 6 mins now. If it doesn't work and I try resetting PRAM and SMC what next? When I pick to install SL using the thumb drive on Macintosh HD it says "Mac OS X cannot start up from this disk"
 
3bs said:
Yeah I don't care what version it's on because I'm selling it but when I pick to install using the thumb drive on Macintosh HD it says "Mac OS X cannot start up from this disk"
Click to expand...

I am guessing it says that if you had Lion already installed with the new recovery partition as well possibly. That is. the MBA doesn't like the older thumb drive format/SL OS. I am guessing you should be able to boot from the thumb drive if your hard drive is erased?

If all else fails see this link

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

This allows you to set up a Lion Recovery Partition on a thumb drive. I use this often as it allows you to play around with the internal SSD on a MBA properly as the normal Recovery Partition is actually a partition on the SSD so your are always limited in formatting.

Once you have the RP Thumb Drive it will show up when you hit Option on start.

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I forgot to note you will need another Mac to make the thumb drive.
 
silverjam said:
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

This allows you to set up a Lion Recovery Partition on a thumb drive. I use this often as it allows you to play around with the internal SSD on a MBA properly as the normal Recovery Partition is actually a partition on the SSD so your are always limited in formatting.

Once you have the RP Thumb Drive it will show up when you hit Option on start.
Click to expand...

That's what I'm doing now :p

Seems to have worked with a thumb drive Lion recovery partition. Finished downloading and it's installing it now. I erased Macintosh HD using disk utility. Is it safe to assume everything I had is gone now? I don't want to go past the welcome screen after it's done installing but I will if it's necessary to check.


Thanks a lot for your patience and information! I was in such a rush since I'm going to be selling it today.
 
3bs said:
Seems to have worked with a thumb drive Lion recovery partition. Finished downloading and it's installing it now. I erased Macintosh HD using disk utility. Is it safe to assume everything I had is gone now? I don't want to go past the welcome screen after it's done installing but I will if it's necessary to check.

Thanks a lot for your patience and information! I was in such a rush since I'm going to be selling it today.
Click to expand...

Yes. For the new owner, it will be as if he or she is opening a new Mac for the first time.

Are you using the proceeds to get a 2012?
 
3bs said:
That's what I'm doing now :p

Is it safe to assume everything I had is gone now? I don't want to go past the welcome screen after it's done installing but I will if it's necessary to check.
Click to expand...

If you erased the drive originally and did a fresh instal then yes your files are gone from a GUI OSX visual point of view. But technically as you have an SSD some files may remain in theory until they are overwritten. Overwriting and SSD is not so simple though as it is with a standard HD so there isn't much you can do in the short time you have. You would need to be forensically inclined to access your old files though and secondly the old data begins to be split up as soon as part of the old file is dealt with through the TRIM mechanism in OSX.

It is always a concern when selling on a SSD Mac but up to you as to what bothers you relation to your old files. I am talking about the ridiculous extreme scenario of one in one thousand so it is theory as opposed to practice.

If you want a quick and reasonable safe option then run OSX until it is properly installed, then load as many video files (or files that are note security/personal files) on the SSD on a temp folder until your drive is 98% full, then delete the temp folder. At least you know you have overwritten the vast majority of your drive. Only the 2% plus the over provisioning part of the SSD could hold your old data. It's a simple way of overwriting as Disk Utility won't let you do it on your SSD.

Good luck.

Silver
 
KPOM said:
Yes. For the new owner, it will be as if he or she is opening a new Mac for the first time.

Are you using the proceeds to get a 2012?
Click to expand...

Already bought a 2012 11" ultimate and typing this using it :p

silverjam said:
If you erased the drive originally and did a fresh instal then yes your files are gone from a GUI OSX visual point of view. But technically as you have an SSD some files may remain in theory until they are overwritten. Overwriting and SSD is not so simple though as it is with a standard HD so there isn't much you can do in the short time you have. You would need to be forensically inclined to access your old files though and secondly the old data begins to be split up as soon as part of the old file is dealt with through the TRIM mechanism in OSX.

It is always a concern when selling on a SSD Mac but up to you as to what bothers you relation to your old files. I am talking about the ridiculous extreme scenario of one in one thousand so it is theory as opposed to practice.

If you want a quick and reasonable safe option then run OSX until it is properly installed, then load as many video files (or files that are note security/personal files) on the SSD on a temp folder until your drive is 98% full, then delete the temp folder. At least you know you have overwritten the vast majority of your drive. Only the 2% plus the over provisioning part of the SSD could hold your old data. It's a simple way of overwriting as Disk Utility won't let you do it on your SSD.

Good luck.

Silver
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for all the info and help Silver!
 
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