New install on old macpro, no existing os

[lennitard]

Hi, I picked up an old MacBook Pro from someone who upgraded. Not booting up, don't need any info on the machine, just want to start from scratch...

Early 2008
Model A1260

I have Zero experience with Macs and no macs in the house so
I just want to get this up and running to fiddle around with.I have installed Windows a zillion times.

Is there a simple way for me to put a copy of the latest operating system on a bootable USB and load a fresh copy of the latest OS available? I have seen lots of ways to do upgrades and using apps from mac machines but again, I don't have access to any macs (we do have a couple of Ipod touches). If this was a Windows machine, I'd have no issues...

Thanks in advance for your help





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[Intell]

Do you have any other Macs? If not, I'd suggest purchasing a Snow Leopard disc from Apple and then upgrading to the latest version of Mac OS X.

 

[lennitard]

No other Macs, not even sure if I have any friends who I could bother that have them.

I'm a mac virgin...

 

[yjchua95]

No other Macs, not even sure if I have any friends who I could bother that have them.

I'm a mac virgin...

In that case you're going to have to buy a Snow Leopard DVD, and after installing Snow Leopard, open up the Mac App Store to upgrade it to Yosemite without cost.

 

[lennitard]

Thank you, was fortunate to be able to contact the previous owner who supplied apple id to update to lion...

 

[sevoneone]

Thank you, was fortunate to be able to contact the previous owner who supplied apple id to update to lion...

You don't need his Apple ID to update. That Model should be capable of installing Yosemite, which is a Free download for anyone running at least Snow Leopard (10.6)

 

[lennitard]

Thanks, I did download Yosemite and I'm ready to install. Is it easy to revert back to lion if there are any problems? I've read some are not happy with the upgrade. Btw, there is nothing currently on the MacBook I would need to save or back up. Just want to give to my daughter as updated as possible. Would like the option to put lion back on.Thank you.

 

[sevoneone]

Is there an OS currently installed on the machine? Your previous post made it sound like it wasn't booting? How did you download Yosemite?

If it is booting and you have the Yosemite installer downloaded, the most straight forward way to do a clean install would be to first upgrade the existing OS which will install a recovery partition. When the upgrade is finished, boot to the recovery partition and re-install from there:

http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT4718

 

[lennitard]

The previous owner logged in to iTunes and downloaded lion 10.7.5 so I'm booting up now. I was able to change the apple I'd associated with it and downloaded Yosemite from app store. Just want to be able to easily revert back to lion if need be...