Q: Unable to reinstall Mountain Lion OS X because I don't own it?

OS X Mountain Lion is not available over the phone.

Did the Macbook Pro originally come with Snow Leopard? If so, you can install Snow Leopard from the DVD and then upgrade it through your own purchase.

If you still own that other Macbook with OS X Lion maybe you can purchase OS X Mountain Lion on that computer (You don't necessarily have to install it) and then you can use your own Apple ID to install it on the new MacBook Pro.

What version of OS X is installed on the system now?  No matter what, you will need to purchase the upgrade to Mountain Lion (you do this over the internet through the Apple app store).  And, you download from the store directly.

Depending on the version of the os on this computer, you will either need to purchase only the Mountain Lion upgrade, or possibly a Lion upgrade also.

Brycie13 wrote:

 

I was given a MacBook Pro from a friend and they had me factory restore it so that it would be wiped clean. As I went to reinstall Mountain Lion OS X it notified me that I was unable to because I do not own the software basically. I don't live anywhere close to an Apple Store so is there anyway that I can purchase the software through the phone or via internet? I had a previous Macbook that had Lion OS X so I owned the previous software if that helps with the situation.

What has occurred is you were given a MacBook Pro with a upgraded OS X version paid for by someone else so it's tied to their AppleID.. They didn't realize they needed to restore the original OS X version to the machine or Snow Leopard (10.6) earliest allowed.

What you can do is this, if the Mac has a Ethernet port (looks like a larger phone connector) then connect a cable to one of the available ports on the back of a router, or directly to the modem out port and reboot the modem. This provides a faster more stable connection. If not you'll use Wifi later. In either case your Internet connection will have to be robust and reliable.

Power off the machine by pressing the power button down for a emergency hardware shutdown if not off already.

Press and hold the command (cloverleaf) option and r keys down on the built in keyboard and press the power button.

This should hopefully boot you into Internet Recovery, or you can get on Wifi in the upper right corner there also.

Once Internet Recovery is loaded, use Disk Utility to select your ENTIRE disk0 boot drive and click Erase, if you see a slider, move it to 3x overwrite for scrubbing and click Apply. This will take a long time to complete on hard drives, but it makes your machine's data a lot more relaible. SSD's will format right away.

Next Quit Disk Utility and install the OS X version it gives you for free. Likely OS X Lion. You can later upgrade to Mountain Lion once you log into with your AppleID and password.

If you can't install OS X, then likely the machine came with Snow Leoaprd (10.6) or earlier, you will need the approapriate 10.6 disks as that's all there is now.

Hold the D key down and reboot the machine. Hold D for quite some time as it's loading Hardware Test from Apple's servers.

Once loaded, there is a second pane at the top which will give all the hardware information you require, copy it down.

Call Apple and provide that information, they will send you the right Snow Leopard disks.

Then follow these instructions for installing, remmeber to ERASE the ENTIRE drive. Very Important!

How to erase and install Snow Leopard 10.6

You can later upgrade to 10.8 via the AppStore once 10.6 is Software Updated (under the Apple menu) to 10.6.8 and AppSnore accessed.

Reset your Mac

How to reformat a used Mac

https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents#/

I have purchased Mac OS X Mountain Lion but when I try to install the OS it says I have not purchased the OS with the apple ID I am using. What does this mean?

So have I, I had a problem with the hard disc so I had to reformat it. When I try to reinstall Mountain Lion it says first of all that It needs to redirect to a different store (I suppose the Spanish Apple store where I bought it), then nothing happens, and if I click again on install it says that I have not purchased Mountain Lion.

I have verified with iTunes and I have purchased a copy, so I am stuck with a computer with an empty disc that won't install. Any clues?