When trying to reinstall Lion OS on new mid 2011 Macbook Air, error msg 'This version of Mac OS X 10.7 cannot be installed on this computer' comes up. What should I do to reinstall?

Your "letter" to Steve Jobs must have worked!

My initial goal was to install DiskWarrior 4.3 on a USB drive that could boot MBA 2011. No luck creating a bootable USB drive. Even holding down comand-Option-R would apparently download the older build, which isn't what the new MBA needed. Then, for some reason, the Recovery mode would no longer work.

After resetting the PRAM, the Recovery partition worked again and I installed Lion on an (properly formatted--see below) external hard drive...but it installed the older build! It started other Macs OK, but not the new Air...this was two days ago.

Today, I tried once again, but this time using a journaled, extended format GUID 16 GB flash drive. FINALLY, it worked. My only guess is that either Apple has updated its servers with the latest build (11A2063) today or having an older build on the USB Hard drive prevented it from installing the newer build over it (unlikely) two days ago.

I was finally able to run DiskWarrior 4.3 and repair the directory damage on the internal SSD of the newest MacBook Air. And, as a bonus, 11A2063 works on other Macs.

You only need build 11A2063 if you have a new MacBook Air; otherwise, the older version of Lion released to the App store will work (except for the Mac Mini). If you have a new MacBook Air, it is installed when you buy it. You can make a bootable disk (11A2063 as of yesterday) by booting into the Recovery partition (holding down Command-R during startup) and selecting install Lion to a properly formatted external USB disk or flash drive (needs more than 8 GB).

I think I have a solution. I restored my MacBook Air but before I started the setup I took an image .dmg of my OSX Boot partition.

I totally erased my SSD disk and restored if from the .dmg I made using Disk Image. Boom! it worked! I have a Mac OS X .dmg image, which can be used to restore the MacBook Air offline.

I may be able to share the .DMG. Just doing more testing. I think this will only wOrk on the 128GB SSD machines due to the partitions.

Also during the recovery, the recovery partition gets locked and on restore an error appears but it doesn't stop the restore. The error is because the recovery partition is locked.

Sounds promising iDroid84. Can you provide a little more detail on the steps you followed? I have made a boot Lion USB, and installed it on my IMac, on a second partition. I just got a 256gb MBA, and was assuming I could zap it anytime, and reload from my USB. Ugh. Glad I saw this thread. Right now I am still functional, and assume I can go into recovery, and download, but I don't want to do that every time. I intend to use the MBA for development, hence want to rebuild fairly often.

So, when you can, please share your steps. Thanks a ton for figuring this out!

Mat

I'm not even sure if this will be allowed but I'm not sitting here waiting for a solution from Apple. They should have thought about this in the first place. If I have to remove it I will but these top companies should think about things like this before hand.

Thanks.

I can confirm what Alias808 reports - as of yesterday, the build you download using Recovery is 11A2063. Interestingly, though, it appears that build cannot be used to create an install usb stick or dvd using the instructions that work for 10.7 purchased through the Apple store (e.g. http://lifehacker.com/5823096/how-to-burn-your-own-lion-install-dvd-or-flash-dri ve).

I let 11A2063 download and think it was going to install to an attached drive, but interrupted the process to capture the InstallESD.dmg image. I was successful in doing so, but when I burn that image to a dvd or restore it to a usb drive, the MBA will not boot off of either media.

Here's what I did:

- Using any mac, format a usb flash drive (at least 8 gb) as journaled extended.

- Connect the usb flash drive to your mba and boot into the recovery partition (hold cmd-R at startup).

- Choose "Reinstall Mac OS X".

- Choose to install it on the usb flash drive.

- The installer goes through two steps: 1) downloading Lion and 2) installing Lion. The progress bar will reset after it's finished downloading and when it starts installing. When it starts installing, power off the computer.

- Disconnect the usb flash drive.

- Boot back into your regular Lion partition on the mba.

- Connect the usb flash drive, and you will have access to InstallESD.dmg.

Note that this process leaves your recovery partition in a weird state - you will need to reset your pram after doing this, or it will forever keep trying to finish the install to the usb flash drive next time you boot into it.

dearidroid84

yesterday i try to download lion from internet recovery by press alt+command+R, after 2 second have error: 1006F

today i try to download from internet recovery, after 3 minute coming error:2002f

do u have idea about new error?!!!

best regards

@Ross it works!!! I have the genuine lion build!!! going to release this version soon.

@seyed, try clearing the pram. On voodoo press and hold option, command, p and r. Let it restart twice but hold them down and try recovery again.

Ross / Droid - I tried using an 8gb USB. Once booted into recovery mode, connected to wi-fi, it asked for what disk, but, it says the usb stick needs another 2+GB of free space.

Thoughts?

thanks!

BTW - I was going to go ahead an use my main disk, and interrupt after the download, but, it estimated 5 hours + on this wifi link! YIKES!

I don't think it's as easy as we think. It is extremly hard to get the .DMG installer working like the old methods (USB Boot). I got the InstallESD.DMG but I failed to get the MBA to boot to it.

I am coming close to a conclusion that if the MBA recovery drive is broke then the only way to recovery is via command + r, which takes around 3-7 hours depends how fast the net connection is.

Cloning of the HD works fine only if the SSD partitions have not been touched. All the new MBA users really need to put pressure onto Apple to have an offline version.

Basically Apple does not allow us to install any lower version of Mac OS X (i.e. Snow Leopard) even lower builds (i.e. 11A511). In order to pass this validation, I need to install a higher version of Lion. I came across an unreleased 10.7.2 combo update. Now I install the Lion with build 11A511 which came from the app store into my Macbook white and then used the combo update thus making the build/version higher. I then clone that partition into a USB drive. I was able to boot the Macbook Air 2011 using that USB drive thus I decided to clone that partition into my Macbook Air and now my macbook air is working. No issues so far. I'm able to run my virtual machines, run lightroom, install Microsoft office, etc...

I'll try to create a test dmg later of a fresh lion install but I have run out of external drives. I'll let you guys know the result.

So, are folks trying to do this on something other than the new Macbook Air? Just wondering. Command-R works perfectly with a new macbook air and a good internet connection. I originally thought I had to create a USB copy or something but now wouldn't bother. Am trying to understand the problem.

I manage a small group of macbook airs - most 2010, a couple 2011. As a result I've upgraded and traded around some drives. I reformatted a couple last week, and did some other backup experiments. I used the internet restore 5 times and it worked like a champ. So I think you can rely on it. Again, as I said earlier, I'm certain there are some folks that are having problems. And I think it's wrong of Apple to assume that everyone has easy, instant access to broadband. Best of luck to all - I'll leave this thread alone.