Help for Macbook novice

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Level 1

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Help for Macbook novice

Hi, apologies in advance if this is the wrong message board.

I am trying to help a friend with his daughters macbook. I am not particularly savvy with Apple products, having kept to my windows system.

This particular macbook had an issue with its hard drive, the drive was ultimately replaced, as no OS ever came with the computer she is struggling with how to get it working.

I felt certain that if she purchased it new, then she of course has the rights to whichever version of OS came with it. But the question is how to get it back on there?

I have read many articles on here and other websites. I read about holding command, option and R and triggering some kind of online restore, but nothing happens when i try this. A friend gave me a disc that is supposed to be a restore disc for MAC OS X, we are not sure this is the right OS, which gets me into OS X Utilities, however when i try to install OS X, I get a message saying that it was "unable to download additional components needed to install MAC OS X" I did have the wireless active before doing this.

If it were a PC I would have it sorted by now, I am sure it cant be this hard. Hoping somebody on here can point me in the right direction.

Thanks for reading

Mike

MacBook

Posted on Jun 23, 2013 5:19 PM

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Answer 1

babowa

Level 9

78,103 points

Jun 23, 2013 9:25 PM in response to M1keyC

Well, unfortunately, first of all it depends solely on what OS version this machine came with originally - up until about 2 years ago, the OS was distributed via an install disk; that method has now been replaced with digital downloads only.

If there is nothing on the machine, then frankly, I do not know how to determine the serial number. If the recovery method did not work, then it might need an install disk. With Macs, install disks are machine specific, so using another Mac's disks will not work. The easiest might be to purchase a Snow Leopard retail disk which should hopefully work - depending on which OS it came with however, it may not. That would be $20 or so and available online and from Apple store.

The only other thing I can think of is to take it to your nearest Genius Bar in an Apple store and ask if they can determine the serial number (which will tell them which OS it came with) by opening up the machine.

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Answer 2

Jun 24, 2013 7:24 AM in response to babowa

If you're not close to an Apple Store...

Here's how to find the serial number:

How to find the serial number for your Apple hardware product

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303372

Once you find the serial number, enter it here:

Apple - Support - Check Your Service and Support Coverage

https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do

This will give you some basic information (e.g. MacBook Pro (15-inch,Early 2011) about your model.

Searching on this model information (you may get more than one hit since you may not know the chip speed of the CPU) at EveryMac:

http://www.everymac.com

will give you some information about what operating system shipped with the computer (Pre-Installed MacOS) and what the latest version of the Mac OS the computer will support (Maximum MacOS) assuming that that operating system's CPU, RAM, and storage requirements are met.

I won't get into details about whether you may need Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) install DVDs ($19.99), but they are available through the online Apple Store:

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573Z/A/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard

and may be required if the computer is older and will support Snow Leopard.

Jim

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Answer 3

M1keyC Author

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Jun 24, 2013 4:47 PM in response to jimkessler

Excellent, this was very helpful. So now I know that it is a mid 2010 version and that it originally shipped with Snow Leopard 10.6.3, so will now order from apple.

Thank you very much for the help.

Once i get it up and working, if i download the latest version of OS, Mountain Lion i think, will that then do something with firmware that will enable the online restore function. Just trying to think ahead to help prevent her having this issue agin in the future.

Thanks again, Michael

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Answer 4

babowa

Level 9

78,103 points

Jun 24, 2013 5:34 PM in response to M1keyC

Yes, if you upgrade to Mountain Lion, a hidden recovery partition will automatically be created during the installation of the OS.

I'd suggest that you copy that installer right after the download is finished and before you proceed with the install as it will self destruct after the installation. After the download, open your applications folder and find the Install.dmg and copy it to a different folder/location for safekeeping - will be handy to have in case a reinstall is needed and your internet connection isn't lightning fast.

Also, check how much RAM is installed - Mountain Lion is a bit of a memory hog, so 4 GB is recommended as an absolute minimum, more is better. Good place to check:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/iMac/2010/DDR3_21.5_27

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Answer 5

M1keyC Author

Level 1

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Jun 26, 2013 6:58 PM in response to M1keyC

OK, so new problem, got the correct OS from apple Snow Leopard 10.6, seems to be installing ok, but after about an hour i get a message telling me that "Installation has failed"

Which is somewhat irritating

Any other thoughts on what I am doing wrong?

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Answer 6

Jun 27, 2013 5:03 AM in response to M1keyC

Not sure, but after you boot from the Snow Leopard DVD, select your language, and then run Disk Utility from one of the menu bar choices. Select your hard drive on the left, and on the right, choose "Repair Disk". After repairs are made, then continue with the installation of Snow Leopard.

For some reference, see:

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/durepairfns.html#Anchor-The-49575

On the other hand, if you can't make repairs (because of underlying corruption), you'll have to choose to repair the disk with a third-party utility, or erase the drive completely with Disk Utility (and lose any data on the drive) and then install Snow Leopard on the blank drive.

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