Found a rare Black MacBook (Early 2008)

[L8terz]

Here's a synopsis of what I'm dealing with.

I've never owned a MAC before so I thought instead of spending a grand for a new one I would see if i could find one pre-owned locally . So I purchased an early 2008 Black MacBook with OS X 10.7.4 Lion from a local pawnshop. The person who had it before me was still logged on and it had all kinds of accounts set up and such. So I went online and researched how to erase all of that. I did the restart holding the option key which brought me to the MAC OS X Utilities. I selected Disk Utility then selected Macintosh HD and then the Erase Tab. After that I clicked security options and then selected single pass of Zeros. Clicked OK and the clicked erase. It took about an hour and then I selected to erase the free space. After that I went to to the MAC OS X utilities options box and selected Re-install MAC OS X.

All said and done its now asking me to input my Apple ID and then it says my ID has not purchased the operating system.

Now what do I do ?

I've been researching for days and have come up with this :

Calling the Apple store and ordering " Replacement System install DVD" $20

Purchasing " Snow leopard" as the original OS $20

Then, Purchasing " Lion OS" $20

Not to mention I was just on New Egg and ordered a brand new battery and
4 GB of Ram.

I feel like I am on the right track but all this seems like a lot of running around.

On a side note,

Now, when I am in the disk Utility I see that there is a line under " Mackintosh HD" and then a Label of " Disk 1" and then under that there is another label that says " Mac OS X Base System". What would these 2 labels be used for ?

Is that the Recovery Partition?

Is any of that useful to me at the moment?

 

[Dalton63841]

The Recovery partition does a check to make sure you have purchased the OS, and then downloads it. If you have already erased the main partition, then the only option is to get a copy of the OS somehow to reinstall.

If you hadn't already erased it you could have saved yourself a lot of hurt by making an apple account and logging into the Mac App Store and purchasing it first.

BaseSystem.dmg is where the recovery partition comes from. It is similar to a net boot, in that it boots from an image instead of a full decompressed filesystem.

 

[L8terz]

Thank you Dalton for getting back to me so quickly.

So are these steps pretty much my only option?

Calling the Apple store and ordering " Replacement System install DVD" $20

Purchasing " Snow leopard" as the original OS $20

Then, Purchasing " Lion OS" $20

 

[Dalton63841]

Thank you Dalton for getting back to me so quickly.

So are these steps pretty much my only option?

Calling the Apple store and ordering " Replacement System install DVD" $20

Purchasing " Snow leopard" as the original OS $20

Then, Purchasing " Lion OS" $20

I would skip a few steps and buy one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Apple-Lion-10...UTF8&qid=1371635617&sr=1-1&keywords=lion+10.7

Open Box for $38.50, and only one installation instead of 2 or 3.

 

[L8terz]

I would skip a few steps and buy one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Apple-Lion-10...UTF8&qid=1371635617&sr=1-1&keywords=lion+10.7

Open Box for $38.50, and only one installation instead of 2 or 3.

What in the world is that thing? You mean to tell me I can skip steps 1 & 2 ?

 

[Dalton63841]

What in the world is that thing? You mean to tell me I can skip steps 1 & 2 ?

Its a flash drive installer for OS X Lion. You can use it to perform a clean install, which doesn't require Snow Leopard to be there first. It was the last time Apple sold an installer on physical media before going to download only format.

 

[L8terz]

Oh ok. Please forgive my ignorance. So what would the " System replacement install DVD" be used for ?

I only ask because it came highly recommended.

 

[Dalton63841]

Oh ok. Please forgive my ignorance. So what would the " System replacement install DVD" be used for ?

I only ask because it came highly recommended.

The System Restore disks are handy to have. One disk is the OS, which google says is 10.5.2 Leopard for the early 2008 "Blackbook", and the other disk is extra applications that come bundled.

They are completely unnecessary for what you are trying to do though. Once a few OS updates have rolled through most people just hold onto them because it helps the resale value of the laptop.

 

[L8terz]

Thank you for your help. I just purchased the thumb drive and will update once I get it installed.

 

[minifridge1138]

I know it is too late now (and I'm not trying to rub salt in any wounds) but there was another option: go to an Apple Store.

They can re-install the OS for you.
At the least, they could install the version of the OS that it shipped with for free.
They also may have been able to sell you a later version (10.7 in your case).
I've also heard stories of them just installing the latest for free.

Good Luck!!!

 

[L8terz]

Thank you "mini" for the additional advice. I will certainly try that if all else fails. As we stand now, I have A lion Thumb drive being shipped to me as we speak. I just got my new battery today and am waiting on my 4GB of RAM. I should get everything by Monday or Tuesday at the latest.

Ill update this as soon as I get everything installed and running.