Relling 2011 Macbook Air, how to reinstall Lion?

[Razeus]

My wife bought this with Lion last year and now needs a Windows laptop for work. I'm trying to reinstall, but since I've updated the Air to Mountain Lion under MY account, I can't seem to get the machine reinstall Lion with her account. It says "Mountain Lion not purchased with this account" and won't let me install (if I put in my Apple ID, it will install ML, but that's NOT what I want).

Is there a way to get Lion to download under her account?

 

[robvas]

My wife bought this with Lion last year and now needs a Windows laptop for work. I'm trying to reinstall, but since I've updated the Air to Mountain Lion under MY account, I can't seem to get the machine reinstall Lion with her account. It says "Mountain Lion not purchased with this account" and won't let me install (if I put in my Apple ID, it will install ML, but that's NOT what I want).

Is there a way to get Lion to download under her account?

Holding Command-R at boot will present you with a menu that lets you install Lion (downloaded from the Internet)

 

[Razeus]

Holding Command-R at boot will present you with a menu that lets you install Lion (downloaded from the Internet)

negative. it automatically wants to install mountain lion. Using my wife's account, which never bought ML, won't install Lion which came with the Air.

 

[drsox]

What's happening here is that the recovery partition is now a ML version. To make it work you need to recreate an L version. I did this before by using a USB drive. Do you have one ?

If you do, then try this.

1. Use CCC to clone the internal drive to the external. (Make sure you copy the recovery partition also).
2. Boot from the external and erase the internal - including the recovery partition.
3. Unplug the USB and reboot with Command-R. This should start the process. If it fails, then you can always put the USB partitions back on the internal and try something else.

See : https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1462885/ - post 21.

 

[shakeman0]

What's happening here is that the recovery partition is now a ML version. To make it work you need to recreate an L version. I did this before by using a USB drive. Do you have one ?

If you do, then try this.

1. Use CCC to clone the internal drive to the external. (Make sure you copy the recovery partition also).
2. Boot from the external and erase the internal - including the recovery partition.
3. Unplug the USB and reboot with Command-R. This should start the process. If it fails, then you can always put the USB partitions back on the internal and try something else.

See : https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1462885/ - post 21.

CCC makes a totally copy of his drive right? Won't it copy all the files back on if you use it for a restore?

I did this just the other day with ML for a Mac I was selling. For $15, I'd recommend getting it to use. After you're done you have a bootable USB as well.

1. Download ML from AppStore.

2. Get a USB drive.

3. Format USB drive. (Mac OSX Extended Journaled should work)

4. Right click the Mount Lion installer after it has downloaded and click "Show Package Contents".

5. Within the package contents, open a folder named SharedSupport and look for a file named InstallEsd.dmg. Double click the dmg to mount it.

6. Open Disk Utility and select your USB drive. Click "Restore" in the option pane.

7. When you mountained the InstallESD.dmg, it will have shown up as "Mac OSX Install ESD". From the restore panel, select "Mac OSX Install ESD" as your source and the USB as the destination. Hit restore.

8. Now restart your computer and hold the option key. In the boot menu that will display, choose your USB to boot to.

9. You will now be in the ML installer. Click the utilities tab in the top menu and open disk utility. Format your drive using disk utility.

10. Now run the normal install of ML on the USB. It will be a totally clean install.

 

[Razeus]

CCC makes a totally copy of his drive right? Won't it copy all the files back on if you use it for a restore?

I did this just the other day with ML for a Mac I was selling. For $15, I'd recommend getting it to use. After you're done you have a bootable USB as well.

1. Download ML from AppStore.

2. Get a USB drive.

3. Format USB drive. (Mac OSX Extended Journaled should work)

4. Right click the Mount Lion installer after it has downloaded and click "Show Package Contents".

5. Within the package contents, open a folder named SharedSupport and look for a file named InstallEsd.dmg. Double click the dmg to mount it.

6. Open Disk Utility and select your USB drive. Click "Restore" in the option pane.

7. When you mountained the InstallESD.dmg, it will have shown up as "Mac OSX Install ESD". From the restore panel, select "Mac OSX Install ESD" as your source and the USB as the destination. Hit restore.

8. Now restart your computer and hold the option key. In the boot menu that will display, choose your USB to boot to.

9. You will now be in the ML installer. Click the utilities tab in the top menu and open disk utility. Format your drive using disk utility.

10. Now run the normal install of ML on the USB. It will be a totally clean install.

I'll give this a try tonight. I was able to download a copy of Lion on my iMac and load it to my USB drive. I'll "show contents" and see what I can do.

 

[drsox]

There is a setting in CCC that clones the whole drive from one to another - look at the CCC help files.

Before you do anything to the internal drive , make sure you can boot using the external USB drive. Then you can restore if needed.

Then you can try options about erasing and reinstalling.

 

[Mrbobb]

U don't want to run Windows on the Mac?

 

[SuperRob]

Wiping the drive (including the hidden recovery partition) and holding Command+Option+R at boot should force Internet Recovery to launch and allow you to reinstall Lion.

 

[Razeus]

U don't want to run Windows on the Mac?

Because I can't get it to install...

Black screens, when I solved that, I get "logged in as a temp user" and can't do anything with that.

 

[Mrbobb]

Because I can't get it to install...

What I mean is, install Windows alongside/on top of ML. Or even ML is not running properly?