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Second Hand MBP

A

austinisnotkevin

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 20, 2019
6
0
Brand new to this, just joined to post this...

I bought a second hand 2010 MBP with a seemingly "corrupt" drive. There wasn't any problem with it after Disk Utility verified and checked and I got into it ok, but I'm having a problem getting Lion reinstalled.

I can go through the process and get to the point of adding my Apple ID and it tells me that it's temporarily unavailable. I believe after some quick reading that it's because Lion has never been installed or associated with my Apple ID.

This is my first personal Mac and I don't have a company ID I can use to get the OS installed anymore, and I don't have anyone I trust to associate with a installer download from a different Mac.

I have zero clue where to go from here, looking for any help I can get.
 
Do you get the option for internet recovery when holding option+r on startup? That would be the best way but i'm not sure how long that option has been available.
 
puggles said:
Do you get the option for internet recovery when holding option+r on startup? That would be the best way but i'm not sure how long that option has been available.
Click to expand...

I do have the option, but it also askes for my Apple ID and does the same thing. Temporarily unavailable.
 
puggles said:
Try completely erasing the drive with Disk Utility first.
Click to expand...

Should have included that info, I did do that to remove any user data from the previous owner. Still the same result. Could this be because I have never logged into the app store on a mac with the account I'm using? I read something this morning saying that Apple checks to see if you have the software associated.
 
Sorry for the delay on all of this, full time job and family is not easy to work around.

I got some DMGs and tried TransMac, and may be having a secondary issue, the drive will not show up after starting up holding option.

Is there something I'm missing here? I have it formatted and "Recover with Image"-ed properly, but still can't get it to work.

EDIT:
Tried Mavericks, High Sierra, Lion, Mountain Lion. Don't want to pull any others if I don't have to, download times and reformatting is a huge time suck.
 
It's possible that you have a 2010 MBP that CANNOT do "internet recovery".
Some can (I believe it requires a firmware upgrade), some can't. I could be wrong.

Try this simple test and get back to us:
1. Power down, all the way off
2. Press the power on button
3. IMMEDIATELY hold down "command-option-R" and keep holding them down
4. Does "the internet symbol" appear?
5. If it does, you may need to enter your wifi password.
6. If you get that far, just wait a while for the software to load via the net.

Does this work...
or
Does it not work...
???
 
command-option-R>Globe>Enter Wireless Info>Globe does it's loading>Mac OS X Utilities> Reinstall Mac OS X>Continue/Agree> and now it's failing there with "An error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again." and Obviously trying again does not help.

It was getting to the next stage of agreeing and then having me enter my Apple ID and then saying "Temporarily Unavailable."
 
austinisnotkevin said:
command-option-R>Globe>Enter Wireless Info>Globe does it's loading>Mac OS X Utilities> Reinstall Mac OS X>Continue/Agree> and now it's failing there with "An error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again." and Obviously trying again does not help.

It was getting to the next stage of agreeing and then having me enter my Apple ID and then saying "Temporarily Unavailable."
Click to expand...

I already answered, to use OSX Lion from internet recovery you have to buy from Apple, end of story
 
_Kiki_ said:
I already answered, to use OSX Lion from internet recovery you have to buy from Apple, end of story
Click to expand...

I don't need it to be internet recovery, I just need it to get reinstalled. I'm willing to do this but didn't want to pay for it. At the point we're at, though, I will probably go this route.
 
austinisnotkevin said:
Sorry for the delay on all of this, full time job and family is not easy to work around.

I got some DMGs and tried TransMac, and may be having a secondary issue, the drive will not show up after starting up holding option.

Is there something I'm missing here? I have it formatted and "Recover with Image"-ed properly, but still can't get it to work.

EDIT:
Tried Mavericks, High Sierra, Lion, Mountain Lion. Don't want to pull any others if I don't have to, download times and reformatting is a huge time suck.
Click to expand...

Either there is something wrong with the computer or their is something wrong with your process of creating a USB flash drive installer.

First off the USB flash drive needs to be converted from MBR to GPT. Intel Macs can only use GPT for a bootable disk. Insert the flash drive then open a command prompt.
https://superuser.com/questions/383235/create-a-bootable-usb-drive-from-a-dmg-file-on-windows
  • diskpart
  • DISKPART> list disk
  • (Find the disk number)
  • DISKPART> select disk 2
  • Disk 2 is now the selected disk.
  • DISKPART> clean
  • DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk.
  • DISKPART> convert gpt
  • DiskPart successfully converted the selected disk to GPT format.
  • DISKPART> create partition primary

Then open Transmac.
  1. In the left pane, right click the USB Drive and select Format Disk for Mac
  2. In the left pane, right click the USB Drive and select Restore with Disk Image
  3. Point to your .dmg (or choose All Files to select an .iso) file and click Open.
Insert the flash drive.
Boot while holding the option key.
Select the installer.
Format the drive in Disk Utility. Make sure the Scheme is GUID Partition Map not Master Boot Record.
Install macOS. (I would use the most recent supported macOS)

Note: I can't attest to how well Transmac works. It would be better if you could use a friend or family members Mac to create a USB installer.
http://osxdaily.com/2017/09/27/create-macos-high-sierra-bootable-installer-usb/

Also to make sure the full installer is downloading.
http://osxdaily.com/2017/09/27/download-complete-macos-high-sierra-installer/
 
If you can get to internet recovery (and it seems that you CAN from your report above), then the next thing to do is ERASE the internal drive and start over.

OF COURSE YOU MUST BACK UP FIRST IF THERE IS DATA ON THE DRIVE YOU WANT TO SAVE (shouting intentional).

In disk utility, MAKE SURE you select the "topmost line" that represents the physical drive inside the MacBook.
Erase the drive to Mac OS extended with journaling enabled.
MAKE SURE you use the GUID partition format.

Then accept whatever version of the OS that the installer wants to put on it.
Afterwards, restore your data from your backup (if you need to).

That's what I'd try to get it going again.

OP wrote:
"I don't need it to be internet recovery, I just need it to get reinstalled. I'm willing to do this but didn't want to pay for it"

Do as suggested above, and you'll be able to get going again.
Although it's not going to be the "Lion" version of the OS.
But that'a probably not going to matter.
 
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