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MTShipp

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 25, 2009
907
270
Raleigh, North Carolina
Initially I upgraded my rMBP from Lion to ML when it released.

Having applications left over from the upgrade that I rarely used anymore, I took the opportunity this past weekend to wipe and install ML fresh. It was a good learning experience. It was not a smooth operation; mostly for lack of good planning.

I wiped my "Lion" 8GB USB that I had been storing for months just in case I needed it and reloaded it with the download of ML. I then rebooted my rMBP and booted into the recovery partition. Though I had the USB plugged in, I did not pay attention to the fact that the USB was not recognized and it was the recovery partition that I chose.

I thought it odd that when I wiped the drive and started the install, it asked for my AppleID and said it needed to verify my system. I proceeded anyway.

What ended up happening was that my rMBP started downloading and installing Lion. For some reason, it thought I was not authorized for ML. I mistakenly aborted once I realized this and rebooted again, this time making sure to try and choose the USB. Mistake.

The USB had failed to properly install ML on itself so now I was without ML on USB and no OS on the drive. Luckily, I had a Time Machine backup and was able to restore the system back to where I was to begin with.

I spent the next hour rebuilding the USB and was finally able to get ML loaded and working on it.

I rebooted, made SURE I was using the USB, and then loaded a fresh copy of ML on my rMBP.

All seems smooth now. It was not out of necessity that I wiped my drive and reloaded but I learned a lesson. Hopefully my story will help others keep from making the same mistakes.

Moral of the story...Make sure you have a good backup and test your USB before you actually need to use it.
 
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