HT201250: Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac
Learn about Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac
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Helpful answers
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by John Lockwood,Sep 10, 2015 2:57 AM in response to hookie65
John Lockwood
Sep 10, 2015 2:57 AM
in response to hookie65
Level 6 (9,309 points)
Servers EnterpriseIf it is a real Mac we first need to check it is compatible with El Capitan - older Macs are not. If it is not a real Mac then you are not allowed to run any version of Apple's OS X on it. You can look up your Macs serial number one of a variety of websites to check what model Mac it is e.g. a MacBookPro5,2. Try this site as an example http://www.everymac.com
If it says for your model Mac that the maximum MacOS is "Current" then it can run both Yosemite (the current) and El Capitan (the beta).
Assuming it is a real Mac and assuming it is compatible then normally you would reboot in to whatever version of OS X is already installed on your Mac. Then you could download the El Capitan beta and install it. If you managed to install Windows in a way resulted in it not having a Mac partition then you would need to use Apple's "Internet Recovery" function to boot in to a special mode which lets you wipe your hard disk and re-download and install OS X. This "Internet Recovery" function only works on real Macs. The Internet Recovery function will download the current version of OS X but after you have done that to reinstall OS X you can then go on to download and install the El Capitan public beta.
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Sep 10, 2015 3:12 AM in response to hookie65by hookie65,
so even if I purchased a operating system to put on this notebook is it still not allowed? -
Sep 10, 2015 3:45 AM in response to hookie65by woodmeister50,The EULA for OS X requires that it be run ONLY ON APPLE HARDWARE,
even in virtualization.
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Sep 10, 2015 4:27 AM in response to hookie65by pinkstones,If it's not an Apple computer, you can't run any Apple operating systems on it. Sorry.
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Sep 12, 2015 10:34 AM in response to hookie65by Király,You said in your original post that your computer was a MacBook. Older MacBooks (older than 2009) cannot run anything later than OS X 10.7. If it is a 2009 model or newer, then yes you can install the El Capitan public beta on it. But you need to have a Mac already running OS X 10.6.8 or later to be able to download the El Capitan public beta.
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Sep 12, 2015 10:40 AM in response to hookie65by Phil0124,Please answer the questions:
1. Is it an actual Mac computer?
2. If so what exact year and model of Mac is it?
3. What Operating system did you purchase? El Capitan is free.
To install el Capitan, you need to be running one of the eligible OSx versions.
If your computer is an actual Apple computer, but you are not running any version of OSx, then you will need to format your hard drive and install one.
Depending on what Model of Mac it is, will be what you will be able to install. But to help you we need to know what exactly you have, and you have not told us.