how to get a startup disk
I just bought a macbook and I can’t reboot or fix my start up disk it says I don’t have enough space to download iOS x lion. What do I do?
MacBook
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Hi, Kaytwon, maybe I can help. I am presuming that you don't want to save the info on the main drive, and that you have Lion (10.7) installed. or at least Snow Leopard (10.6.x). You could try restarting from the Recovery partition, if there is one, by rebooting, and holding down Command/Apple+ R keys together on start up. If you see a language selection screen it worked. pick a language and continue. use your mouse/trackpad to move the cursor to the top center of the screen and click. You should see OS X tools. From there, run Disk Utilitiy. it should show you your main drive and its capacity. From there, you could see if there are any partitions that might need to be removed, or run Disk First Aid. You could even choose to re-format the main drive: Mac OS Journaled, Extended, GUID on. Just FYI, Lion isn't really available, at least not in the App Store. You can get it, but it's hard to do so . From DiskUtility see if you can re-install the OS. and set your startup disk as the one inside your MacBook.
Oh, and if you disconnect the power cord from your macbook and keep holding down the power button it should shut down.
if your storage space on your main drive is too small, even after re-formatting it, you may have to install a bigger drive. it's not super hard to do, but there are steps you have to follow. If you go to the apple icon at the top left of your screen, and then go to "About this Mac" it will tell you the model number. take that info and go to iFixit.com.and it should give you a rough guide on how to replace the built in hard drive with one of a larger capacity. 7200 rpm drives are preferred for this application. If your budget allows, you can even put an SSD drive in there, or maybe a fusion drive..... Of course, this might be overkill now.
If you don't have a Recovery Partition or can't access it, then you'd have to boot up from the original disks that came with the MacBook Pro, if you have them. If not, you'd have to boot up from a copy of Snow Leopard, which may be available for purchase... to boot up from the built in DVD drive, reboot, and hold down the "C" key on the keyboard, and slide the dvd into the slot face up....
good luck
john b