reinstall os problem: apple id has not purchased lion.

Then something is real screwy with your system.

Holding down the Command+r keys at startup with a blank drive in the system should take you to the Online Recovery HD system and you should be able to install Lion. then go to the Mac App Store and download the iLife Apps.

Chassis for a 2.5" drive several are on amazon.com for like $5-20. I updated my HD to an SSD and I cloned before switching but doing in reverse order shall work also. Make sure you erase/format the SSD using Mac OS Extended (Journaled) before cloning back your old HD to the SSD.

Disk Utility

Through a mistake made by myself when I was out of town.

I bought a new Crucial SSD for my late 2011 MB Pro.

Without thinking about it, I gave my old drive to someone else thinking i can do an internet recovery. Big Mistake. Didn't work.

So, off I go to the Apple Store downtown Toronto. Told them what I did, gave them my thumb drive and they made a lion recovery on my thumb drive.

In less than an hour, i'm up and running again.

in any event, go with installing your old drive back and create a recovery thumb drive if an external enclosure is not an option for you.

I will however go with BB623's suggestion on cloning it. which is basically what i told you from the very beginning.

We do our best in suggesting solutions to your issue.

Although we don't see eye to eye, our main objective here is to lend a hand.

Good luck with your issues and hopefully you sort it out.

Cheers....