What NOT to do with Lion DP3/DP4..

[haylsx]

OKAY, so here's a good example of what NOT to do when you were in a situation like mine...

A week or so ago, I posted on here, asking help for a problem I had with iTunes in Lion DP3...it wouldn't work no matter what i tried. Someone had suggested I had an old version of iTunes, which did not match the one I should have, when using Lion DP3.

I decided (stupidly) to download Lion DP4, hoping this would solve any problem I had with iTunes, and ultimately assuming once I had DP4 installed on my Macbook, the DP4 version of iTunes would be included in that. So I went ahead and installed DP4, without backing any of my stuff up, not even moving my important documents onto a seperate USB or anything.

Anyways, my Macbook boots up, and up comes the start page with 'Mac OS X Utilities' on, giving me options to repair my disk, restore my machine to an earlier point via Time Machine, get help online, or install Lion 10.7. So I click on install Lion 10.7. Nothing. It comes up with a message 'an error has occured in the installation'. Through panic and fear I (stupidly) went back, and clicked the 'repair my disk' option...I went ahead and (stupidly) restored my hard drive. This means everything of mine is dissapeared, all my Uni work, music, applications.

Now that isn't the real problem, I'm not too hurt about the hard drive going, my Macbook was only about a year old anyways so I didn't have that much on, plus I have just finished Uni so I'm not going to be needing my saved work anytime soon. However this doesn't solve the problem of how to get my Macbook working again. I have tried several times to use the 'Install Lion' option, but it never works.

I would really like my old Snow Leopard 10.6 system back thanks.

On Friday I ordered a new Snow Leopard Disc from Office Depot online, My Macbook didn't come with a disc because I received it off a friend, who had lost the disc. So I am now wondering, once I get this new Snow Leopard Disc, will that boot up my Macbook with Snow Leopard? Or is there any chance this isn't possible as there is already a Lion drive on the Macbook (drive, not a CD) and you cannot downgrade, technically, only upgrade to a higher operating system? And if this is correct and I am wasting my money buying a new Snow Leopard Disc. Has anyone got any other idea to help me get my Macbook back up and running?

Yes, I am a typical example of someone who thinks they can download whatever and just put it on my Mac, this has tought me not to play around with stuff I don't know now...

Cheers!

 

[Hellhammer]

Snow Leopard disc should solve the issue. Just boot from it, wipe the HD using Disk Utility, and you should be able to install OS X.

 

[haylsx]

Cheers, naturally I am fearing the worse (taking it into the nearest Apple store which is at least an hours drive away) so I'll let you know how that pans out.

 

[Cynicalone]

Yes you can just boot from the Snow Leopard DVD and use disk utility to erase the hdd. Then just do a clean installl.

You will need an iLife disk if you want to get those apps back (iPhoto, iMovie, etc.).

 

[Bear]

On Friday I ordered a new Snow Leopard Disc from Office Depot online, My Macbook didn't come with a disc because I received it off a friend, who had lost the disc. So I am now wondering, once I get this new Snow Leopard Disc, will that boot up my Macbook with Snow Leopard?

The big if here is the 10.6 DVD you get from before or after your system was first released.

 

[haylsx]

Ahh okay. I did't receive any disks with my Macbook so am I going to have to buy a new iLife disk? Or is it possibly to use my dads iLife disk (he has a similar model)...or do they have serial numbers? Sorry I am completely Mac-illiterate sometimes!

 

[haylsx]

I was wondering that myself. I bought it late Friday night/Saturday morning and was half asleep, I seem to remember googling my Macbook model number along with 'Snow Leopard OS X' though. I've just checked on my orders at Office Depot and it doesn't state :/

Guess I'll have to wait and see when it arrives.

 

[RJCP]

I was wondering that myself. I bought it late Friday night/Saturday morning and was half asleep, I seem to remember googling my Macbook model number along with 'Snow Leopard OS X' though. I've just checked on my orders at Office Depot and it doesn't state :/

Guess I'll have to wait and see when it arrives.

Just ask when did your friend buy his Macbook. You'll only have a problem if you try to install a SL version older than your MacBook.
Good think my Macbook still came with Leopard...

 

[chrfr]

Ahh okay. I did't receive any disks with my Macbook so am I going to have to buy a new iLife disk? Or is it possibly to use my dads iLife disk (he has a similar model)...or do they have serial numbers? Sorry I am completely Mac-illiterate sometimes!

Call Apple and they will sell you replacement discs for a reasonable fee.

 

[munakib]

You could have just erased disk and reinstalled Lion DP4 from a USB/DVD

 

[kevin2i]

Cheers, naturally I am fearing the worse (taking it into the nearest Apple store which is at least an hours drive away) so I'll let you know how that pans out.

First, slow down!
Reinstalling OS's is a drastic solution - if you haven't got your Snow Leopard disk yet, try this.

First, do you have another computer with internet access? If so, download and burn a linux cd or USB drive. I would recommend Mint (http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php) (Actually, everyone should have some sort of bootable disk, especially Windows users).

Boot your mac from the CD/USB (do not install). Now you can check if any of your data is still there. It probably is if you didn't reformat your drives during Lion installs.

Now you can copy everything to another USB drive. In addition, you will have a working system that can access the web, send emails, etc. Linux on a USB drive is surprisingly useable.

You might be able to find OSX floating around somewhere online. (Not condoning piracy, just as an emergency until your SNL disk arrives).

You might be able to do an install of OSX over your existing data and applications (saving everything).

I tried doing an install of dp4 by individual packages, which completely locked up Lion on reboot. I then did the full installation, and everything was still there.

Also, I have Lion installed on a completely separate drive from my Snow Leopard (Mac Pro makes that easy). I would be very hesitant to install dp4 on my MBP. If I did, I would make a full backup first.

Oh, and Time Machine is awesome and there is no excuse for not keeping regular backups!

 

[haylsx]

Office Depot just emailed me this morning and told me they are out of stock of the Snow Leopard disk until November 2011! What a joke.

Anyways I rang apple, explained the siutation and they said they wouldn't be able to send out a Snow Leopard disk, but a Leopard one instead, as that is what the Macbook was originally installed with (this model came out in June 2007). This would cost me £17 odd. I asked if I could then upgrade to Snow Leopard once I had Leopard installed, they said yes. I was wondering, instead of spending the money on a new Snow Leopard upgrade, could I just wait a month or so, buy the REAL Lion 10.7 and then upgrade straight from Leopard to Lion?

Also, I couldn't buy the Leopard disc there and then, as I only own debit cards, and Apple needed Am-Ex, Visa or Mastercard cards...will Amazon online sell them? Whenever I search on Amazon I get about 6 different results...

 

[Hellhammer]

Office Depot just emailed me this morning and told me they are out of stock of the Snow Leopard disk until November 2011! What a joke.

Anyways I rang apple, explained the siutation and they said they wouldn't be able to send out a Snow Leopard disk, but a Leopard one instead, as that is what the Macbook was originally installed with (this model came out in June 2007). This would cost me £17 odd. I asked if I could then upgrade to Snow Leopard once I had Leopard installed, they said yes. I was wondering, instead of spending the money on a new Snow Leopard upgrade, could I just wait a month or so, buy the REAL Lion 10.7 and then upgrade straight from Leopard to Lion?

Also, I couldn't buy the Leopard disc there and then, as I only own debit cards, and Apple needed Am-Ex, Visa or Mastercard cards...will Amazon online sell them? Whenever I search on Amazon I get about 6 different results...

You cannot upgrade from Leopard to Lion as you need Mac App Store which is only available in Snow Leopard. Amazon does not sell Leopard anymore but they do sell Snow Leopard, which is better for you anyway.

 

[Fishrrman]

You're a university student, right? Then you should be capable of taking some relatively simple suggestions.

My advice is gruff:

Learn something about backing up.

If you had had a "bootable clone" backup of your internal drive, you could have been up and running again in a matter of a couple of minutes.

For less than $100 you can put together a near-bullet-proof backup system that will serve you well for many years to come.

1. Get one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=usb+sata+dock&x=0&y=0
(many items shown, they all work the same, pick one you like that's cheap)

2. Get a "bare hard drive" from the vendor of your choice (could be amazon as shown above, I happen to like newegg.com)

3. Download the FREE application called "CarbonCopyCloner" from
http://www.bombich.com/

When you have these things, put the drive into the dock and plug it into the Mac.
Turn everything on.
The drive is unformatted, you will have to initialize it first using Disk Utility.
When that's done, the "empty" drive should mount on your desktop.
You might consider going back into Disk Utility and partitioning it. You need one partition roughly the same size as your computer's internal drive. The other partition (can be 2 or more, depending on your "size needs") can be used for "scratch storage" or a Time Machine backup (but having a bootable clone copy is MORE IMPORTANT and MUCH MORE USEFUL than having a TM backup).
Launch CCC. You will note two "main panes" - one on the left, one of the right.
On the left, select your internal drive from the popup window.
On the right, select your "docked drive" from the popup.
Just below, click "back up everything" and click OK -- enter your password.

CCC will make an EXACT COPY of your internal drive onto the backup partition. You can even boot from it.

For subsequent backups, instead of "backup everything", choose "incremental backup of selected items". The backup will copy only CHANGED FILES and everything will go much faster.

I suggest you print this out and save it.
Learn to do these simple things, and you will have the tools to "find your way out of disaster" for the rest of your personal computing career....