downgrade from Mavericks to lion on retina macbook without any backups

Question

downgrade from Mavericks to lion on retina macbook without any backups

hey guys i upgraded to OS X MAVERICKS from OS X Mountain Lion on my macbook pro retina early 2013 model . there is no problem as such but for users like me small things matter a lot. Like for example its taking more time to startup now although its fast and as soon as the wallpaper loads up on the startup there is a lag which is clearly not be mentioned but this is my " problem" and i want it to be sloved if possible .

secondly i dont have any backups or time machine thing as i have no knowledge about that as i'm a new user guys.

i dont mind a clean reinstall but from what is saw on recovery option is that the reinstall will be os x mavericks only.

so guys is there any way my retina can go back to the factory condition as i dont like the new one and i want my previous os installed.

thank u

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)

Posted on Oct 24, 2013 12:32 PM

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Answer 1

bobbyco57

Level 4

1,768 points

Oct 24, 2013 12:36 PM in response to unitedforever

See other post below.

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Answer 2

mende1

Level 10

93,538 points

Oct 24, 2013 12:35 PM in response to unitedforever

Internet Recovery allows you to reinstall the original Mac OS X version that came with your MacBook > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718

To downgrade to Mountain Lion, hold Command, Option (Alt) and R keys while your computer is starting up. Then, open Disk Utility, choose Macintosh HD in the sidebar, go to Erase tab and erase the drive. Finally, close Disk Utility. Before erasing the hard disk, copy the most important data to an external drive

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Answer 3

bobbyco57

Level 4

1,768 points

Oct 24, 2013 12:35 PM in response to unitedforever

You might want to give your system a bit of time. Some of the slowness may be related to Spotlight reindexing and similar OS functions related to a new upgrade.

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Answer 4

ds store

Level 7

30,725 points

Oct 24, 2013 12:39 PM in response to unitedforever

Not easy, but possible

How to revert OS X back from Mavericks

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Answer 5

Oct 24, 2013 12:53 PM in response to mende1

okay thank you so much for the quick reply.i still have doubts as whether once installed osx mavericks wont be downgraded as apple has removed the previous os from app store ( i have no knowledge sir , i'm just reading and reading to solve my problem).

secondly can i erase the macintosh hd first before i perform the internet recovery option as my only doubt would be like os the ios 7 thing as it cannot be downgraded.

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Answer 6

Oct 24, 2013 12:55 PM in response to ds store

please explain sir why wont it be easy as i have nothing to lose.all my music ,movies pics is there on a hd and photostream and i want this computer to be installed only with os x mountain lion that is the os it came with when i purchased this laptop.

thank you

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Answer 7

mende1

Level 10

93,538 points

Oct 24, 2013 12:55 PM in response to unitedforever

unitedforever wrote:

secondly can i erase the macintosh hd first before i perform the internet recovery option as my only doubt would be like os the ios 7 thing as it cannot be downgraded.

You must be in Internet Recovery to erase Macintosh HD, as this is the only mode where you are not using the Macintosh HD volume. This has nothing to do with iOS, so you will be able to downgrade Mac OS X

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Answer 8

Oct 24, 2013 1:17 PM in response to mende1

okay last few doubts before i actually do that!!

the moment i press option on start up i get three options macintosh hd - bootcamp- recovery hd.

when i choose recovery hd there is an option to go to macintosh hd and erase the disk.so my doubt is whether i should erase it this way or whether i should erase it directly on the internet recovery basis.

secondly is worth it - i mean should i actually go back(the reason i'm doing this is because of that sudden lag and my computer is taking 21 seconds to turn off)

thirdly are u sure that the computer once upgraded with mavericks will actually go back to mountain lion.

thank u..please reply asap

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Answer 9

mende1

Level 10

93,538 points

Oct 24, 2013 1:20 PM in response to unitedforever

You have to hold Command, Option (Alt) and R keys while your Mac is starting up. If you select Recovery HD, you will only be able to reinstall Mavericks. You should erase the hard drive in Internet Recovery.

I would recommend you to try to reinstall OS X Mavericks first, and if it doesn't work, downgrade to OS X Mountain Lion. I'm sure you can go back to OS X Mountain Lion

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Answer 10

Oct 24, 2013 1:23 PM in response to mende1

thanks a lot sir , this reply of urs actually cleared my doubt..i'm gonna go for the complete clean and back to mountain lion. i hope my bootcamp is still gonna be there right?

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Answer 11

mende1

Level 10

93,538 points

Oct 24, 2013 1:25 PM in response to unitedforever

Correct, but only erase the Mac OS X partition. Make a backup of your data in your Boot Camp partition

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Answer 12

ds store

Level 7

30,725 points

Oct 24, 2013 1:33 PM in response to unitedforever

unitedforever wrote:

i hope my bootcamp is still gonna be there right?

I advise you to follow my User Tip instructions which includes cloning and baking up your BootCamp and other data off the machine and erasing the ENTIRE internal drive from Internet Recovery.

The reason for this is RecoveryHD partition restores the upgraded operating system version, not the one you want to revert back too.

If in the future you need to reinstall the OS X to fix issues, this can be a problem.

It's also possible Apple might have done changes in EFI and or the GUID partition map, which the reverted OS X version will be ill equipped to handle or fix if the need be.

How to revert OS X back from Mavericks

With Apple it's all forward and no reverse, there are future changes, it's best to make sure everything is kosher and no half measures that can later cause issues.

Install everything fresh like it's a brand new drive, then nothing can go wrong. 🙂

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Answer 13

Oct 24, 2013 1:49 PM in response to ds store

wow!! now this is an epic help i got from u sir!!! thanks a ton and i totally believe abt the forward thing..my ipad 3 has become slow and there is no going back, but in this case i think i'm lucky .i'm gonna delete everything and then gonna start fresh!!

will let the community know abt the update .

thanks everyone fr the help and i'll be doing this tmrw.

P.S. i think my os x mav is nt working upto the mark because it got stopped like 5-6 times while downloading.

do u guys think this can be the reason??

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Answer 14

Oct 26, 2013 12:26 AM in response to ds store

okay everyone i performed the internet recovery (comm+option+R) and then erased the whole computer including bootcamp.

GOOD NEWS- MOUNTAIN LION is back and the computer working like the way it used to before installing mavericks.

DOUBTS - while installing mountain lion , till the time i was awake the download was like 6hrs reamining , 5hrs remaining, but as soon as i went off to sleep and got up after 1hr and 15 mins the os download was complete and it was ready to install. I HOPE NOTHING HAS GONE WRONG IN THIS.

Secondly i couldnt find the windows 7 .iso image to install windows 7 . but fortunately i had the windows 7 bootcamp usb which was there when i installed windows last time.So i went to bootcamp assistant and unticked the first two and windows got installed from the usb.

So is that absolutely alright?

Guys please clear these doubts!!

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Answer 15

mende1

Level 10

93,538 points

Oct 26, 2013 12:28 AM in response to unitedforever

unitedforever wrote:

while installing mountain lion , till the time i was awake the download was like 6hrs reamining , 5hrs remaining, but as soon as i went off to sleep and got up after 1hr and 15 mins the os download was complete and it was ready to install. I HOPE NOTHING HAS GONE WRONG IN THIS.

There is nothing wrong. It's normal that the download time changes all the time.

unitedforever wrote:

Secondly i couldnt find the windows 7 .iso image to install windows 7 . but fortunately i had the windows 7 bootcamp usb which was there when i installed windows last time.So i went to bootcamp assistant and unticked the first two and windows got installed from the usb.

So is that absolutely alright?

You couldn't find the Windows ISO because you erased the hard drive. What you did was right

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