User profile for user: ekaton
ekaton Author
User level: Level 1
11 points

Selling Mac Pro do I reinstall Lion or reinstall the original OSX Tiger

I want to sell my Mac Pro 1.1, it originally came with Tiger, right now it has OSX Lion 10.7.5. installed.


I'm wondering what OS to install, the one that came with the Mac (Tiger) or the current one (Lion).


I came across this on another thread, my Mac came pre-installed with Tiger but then I payed for Leopard, Snow Leopard and then Lion.


*If your computer came with Lion or Mountain Lion pre-installed then you are entitled to transfer your license once. If you purchased Lion or Mountain Lion from the App Store then you cannot transfer your license to another party. In the case of the latter you should install the original version of OS X that came with your computer. You need to repartition the hard drive as well as reformat it; this will assure that the Recovery HD partition is removed. See Step Three above. You may verify these requirements by reviewing your OS X Software License.


Going by the above I gather that I must install Tiger ( I don't have the installation disc anymore)?


  • On an Intel-based Mac, if you use Option-Command-R during startup, you may be offered the latest macOS that is compatible with your Mac. Use this method if you can’t install macOS successfully after pressing Command-R during the startup process.


  • On an Intel-based Mac, if you use Shift-Option-Command-R during startup, you may be offered the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available. 


In the end I don't want whatever OS that I install to be linked to my Apple ID.


Posted on Apr 29, 2023 3:44 AM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply
User profile for user: HWTech
HWTech
User level: Level 9
56,000 points

Posted on Apr 30, 2023 4:46 PM

Theoretically if your Mac is currently running Lion, then you should be able to boot into Recovery Mode using Command + Option + R to reinstall Lion without having to authenticate with your AppleID. Apple's documentation is a bit vague here. Make sure to erase the "Macintosh HD" volume using Disk Utility while booted into Recovery Mode. After using Disk Utility to erase the "Macintosh HD" volume, quit Disk Utility and select "Reinstall OSX". If you reboot before selecting "Reinstall OSX", then you may not be able to boot into Recovery Mode again (depends on what is erased). There is a chance you will need to change the system date to some time in 2017 or even earlier since the certificate for the installer is now expired (my guess is you will need to change it to something like 2011-2015.


If you cannot reinstall Lion without authenticating with your AppleID, then I would suggest you perform a clean install using OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard instead using your OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard DVD upgrade DVD instead. I think this latter option is the best option overall.


FYI, other versions of the Recovery Mode are not valid with macOS 10.7 Lion since Internet Recovery Mode was not available until 2016 or 2017.


At least installing OSX 10.6 will give the new owner the opportunity to use Snow Leopard or to upgrade to macOS 10.7 Lion using this Apple article to access the Lion installer (personally I would stay with Snow Leopard since there is a major vulnerability with Lion when connected to the Internet...it is the only OS we are not permitted to use in our organization):

Mac OS X Lion Installer


Also, Apple later allowed downloading macOS 10.7 Lion without needing to prove a previous purchase, nor is any purchase needed today to access the macOS 10.7 Lion installer since it is now available to download outside of the App Store, although it does have some restrictions on it (see the information in the article I linked for the Lion installer).

View in context

Similar questions

5 replies
Question marked as Best reply
User profile for user: HWTech
HWTech
User level: Level 9
56,000 points

Apr 30, 2023 4:46 PM in response to ekaton

Theoretically if your Mac is currently running Lion, then you should be able to boot into Recovery Mode using Command + Option + R to reinstall Lion without having to authenticate with your AppleID. Apple's documentation is a bit vague here. Make sure to erase the "Macintosh HD" volume using Disk Utility while booted into Recovery Mode. After using Disk Utility to erase the "Macintosh HD" volume, quit Disk Utility and select "Reinstall OSX". If you reboot before selecting "Reinstall OSX", then you may not be able to boot into Recovery Mode again (depends on what is erased). There is a chance you will need to change the system date to some time in 2017 or even earlier since the certificate for the installer is now expired (my guess is you will need to change it to something like 2011-2015.


If you cannot reinstall Lion without authenticating with your AppleID, then I would suggest you perform a clean install using OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard instead using your OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard DVD upgrade DVD instead. I think this latter option is the best option overall.


FYI, other versions of the Recovery Mode are not valid with macOS 10.7 Lion since Internet Recovery Mode was not available until 2016 or 2017.


At least installing OSX 10.6 will give the new owner the opportunity to use Snow Leopard or to upgrade to macOS 10.7 Lion using this Apple article to access the Lion installer (personally I would stay with Snow Leopard since there is a major vulnerability with Lion when connected to the Internet...it is the only OS we are not permitted to use in our organization):

Mac OS X Lion Installer


Also, Apple later allowed downloading macOS 10.7 Lion without needing to prove a previous purchase, nor is any purchase needed today to access the macOS 10.7 Lion installer since it is now available to download outside of the App Store, although it does have some restrictions on it (see the information in the article I linked for the Lion installer).

Reply

Selling Mac Pro do I reinstall Lion or reinstall the original OSX Tiger

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.
Learn more Sign up