Difficulty reinstalling OS

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Level 1

4 points

Difficulty reinstalling OS

I recently purchased a rarely used 2 year old MacBook Air from a doctor I work with (I have a friend who is always saying how much he loves Apples, and I thought this was a good opportunity to check it out- been a Windows users for 15 years, and had a DOS-based PC before that). He erased the hard drive, requiring me to reinstall the OS. During the process, it asked for an Apple ID, which I did not have, so I went online to the Apple store to create one. I got the verification email and clicked the link, thus verifying my ID. However, when I entered the Apple ID and password in order to proceed with the installation, it kept telling me that ID was not used at the App store (and it is the same ID I used to sign in here). How do I resolve this? Thanks.

MacBook Air, iOS 7.0.2

Posted on Oct 11, 2013 7:43 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

nbar

Level 5

7,019 points

Oct 11, 2013 7:53 PM in response to RNRobert

What OSX are you attempting to install?

Use internet recovery (option + command + R) at boot, which is not linked to an apple ID, but rather to the CPU itself. Make sure you have a stable broadband connection during the download and subsequent installation process:

OS X: About OS X Recovery - Support - Apple

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Answer 2

RNRobert Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 11, 2013 7:58 PM in response to nbar

It is OS X Mountain Lion 10.8. I will try your suggestion and see what happens.

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Answer 3

macjack

Level 10

111,168 points

Oct 11, 2013 8:23 PM in response to RNRobert

It's still associated with the previous owners Apple ID.

You need to boot holding cmd-option-r keys into Internet Recovery. Then launch Disk Utility > Select Mac HD in the Sidebar > Erase tab and erase the drive. Quit Disk Utility and choose Re-install OS X. This will be the original OS that shipped with the MBA. You can then set up your Mac with your own Apple ID and password. You need to purchase 10.8 or wait for 10.9 due soon.

EDIT: Couldn't see nbar's reply until I posted.

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Answer 4

RNRobert Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 15, 2013 1:22 PM in response to RNRobert

Thanks your help- it worked. I had to wait until I got home to get a decent internet connection. It installed fine with Lion OS X 10.7 instead of Mountain Lion (what is the difference between the two?), but it works, now I have to figure out how to do things with it (downloading files, etc),

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