Restoring Mac book Pro to Lion

Siggersh,

which model MacBook Pro do you have? If Lion had been purchased for installation onto your MacBook Pro, then perhaps its factory default version of OS X is Snow Leopard (or earlier).

Siggersh,

some Early 2011 MacBook Pros originally came with Snow Leopard, and some originally came with Lion. If yours originally came with Snow Leopard, then it also originally came with two grey installation DVDs in its box, and Snow Leopard would be restored from one of those grey discs. (If yours originally came with Lion, then you would be able to use OS X Internet Recovery to download Lion directly from Apple’s servers, and it wouldn’t tell you that Lion had been previously purchased.) If you’re the MacBook Pro’s original owner, and you no longer have these grey discs — or if you’re not its original owner, and the seller didn’t provide you with those grey discs — then you’ll need to contact Apple directly to purchase a replacement pair of grey installation discs. (The second disc has its original iLife apps and its Apple Hardware Test.) The grey discs aren’t available in the Apple stores.

Siggersh,

since your MacBook Pro came with grey installation discs, Lion is not its original version of OS X; Snow Leopard is. You’ll need to boot from its grey Mac OS X Install DVD by inserting the disc into the SuperDrive and holding down the C key as your MacBook starts up. Eventually, a desktop will appear — it’s slower to boot from the DVD than it is to boot from the internal hard disk. On the menu bar there will be a Utilities option; select and run Disk Utility there. Use Disk Utility to completely erase your internal hard disk, including its recovery partition. Once it’s been erased, exit Disk Utility and then run the Install Mac OS X app in the window on the desktop — that will install Snow Leopard onto your internal hard disk. After it’s been installed, you will have it in its factory default condition; when you boot it from the internal hard disk, you’ll get the welcome video and be prompted for initializing Mac OS X (e.g. default language, default input source, association of an Apple ID with the MacBook Pro, creation of an administrative user, &c.). Once you’ve logged in, you can insert the grey Applications Install DVD into your SuperDrive and install its iLife apps. You can then set up your networking and run Software Update to update it to Mac OS X 10.6.8; you can then optionally upgrade to a newer version of OS X. If you’d associated your MacBook Pro with the same Apple ID which was used to purchase Lion previously, you can redownload Lion gratis from the Mac App Store and reïnstall Lion.

Siggersh,

since I don’t know what those white letters say on that black screen, I can’t offer any suggestions.

Siggersh,

if you look at the left-hand “side” of your grey Mac OS X Install DVD, does it say

13-inch

MacBook Pro

in large type? If it doesn’t, what does it have there? If you look at the lower-left “corner” of that DVD, you’ll see a few lines of small type with this pattern:

Mac OS version Mac_OS_X_version

Disc version disc_version

2Z691-digits-A

What are its values for Mac_OS_X_version, disc_version, and digits? The kernel version in your photo suggests that that disc is for Leopard rather than for Snow Leopard; if that’s the case, then that disc does not go with an Early 2011 MacBook Pro, and those values will help to identify which model Mac it does go with.

Siggersh,

your 2Z691-6248-A disc with Mac OS X 10.5.4 goes with later production Early 2008 iMacs. If your second disc is marked 2Z691-6249-A, then it’s a matched pair; they could be of use to someone with an Early 2008 iMac.

Yes, you can purchase a replacement pair of grey installation DVDs for your MacBook Pro by contacting Apple directly — they’re not available in Apple stores. Have your MacBook Pro’s serial number handy; they’ll use that to confirm which version of Mac OS X your MacBook Pro originally came with.