Rogerrrrrr

Q: Can't reinstall Mac OS X Lion on my MacBook Air

Okay I'm going make a long story short I own a MacBook Air. I bought this MacBook Air yesterday off someone and they didn't take anything they gave me the password and everything but they took nothing off so I decided to reset the whole system to its factory settings so I followed the usual steps ( from a tutorial on YouTube )

 

 

1. Press alt+power button

 

 

2. Choose Utilities --> erase Macintosh HD

 

 

3. Reinstall the Mountain Lion OS X through internet.

 

after trying to install the OS X Lion, and entering my apple id an error message pops up, saying:

 

"This item is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later"

 

I don't know what to do, since I have tried redoing these steps on multiple occasions this day, and with two different networks(my network & apple stores wifi). I have to install the OS through internet (or if it is possible, by downloading the OS to an USB stick, and then installing through that).

 

Anyways, I started searching forms online to see if there was anything that I could do but all I can really find is make a bootable UBS drive but how can I do that if I only have 1 Mac and I don't know anyone else who owns a Mac. Every other computer system in my home is PC... I don't have any type of knowledge on macs so If anyone can help me in any type of way I would greatly appreciate it... image.jpg

MacBook Air

Posted on Sep 7, 2014 3:27 PM

Close

Q: Can't reinstall Mac OS X Lion on my MacBook Air

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

Page 1 Next
  • by dianeoforegon,

    dianeoforegon dianeoforegon Sep 9, 2014 11:50 AM in response to Rogerrrrrr
    Level 5 (5,298 points)
    Sep 9, 2014 11:50 AM in response to Rogerrrrrr

    If your computer meets the requirements for Mavericks, why not upgrade to the latest version of OS X?

     

    OS X Mavericks: System Requirements

     

    To install Mavericks, you need one of these Macs:

              â–ª          iMac (Mid-2007 or later)

              â–ª          MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, Late 2008), (13-inch, Early 2009 or later)

              â–ª          MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or later),

              â–ª          MacBook Pro (15-inch or 17-inch, Mid/Late 2007 or later)

              â–ª          MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later)

              â–ª          Mac mini (Early 2009 or later)

              â–ª          Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later)

              â–ª          Xserve (Early 2009)

     

     

    Your Mac also needs:

      â–ª OS X Mountain Lion, Lion, or Snow Leopard v10.6.8 already installed

      â–ª 2 GB or more of memory  (I find this to be very low. 4GB would be the minimum with 8GB preferred)

      â–ª 8 GB or more of available space

  • by davidkawai,

    davidkawai davidkawai Sep 15, 2014 1:25 PM in response to dianeoforegon
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Sep 15, 2014 1:25 PM in response to dianeoforegon

    I am having the same issue, and i am stuck at OS X utilities screen whenever i turn on my macbook air . I dont see an option for me to download OS X Mavericks ? 

    i see some other posts saying that  holding  command+R can boot from the spinning globe screen , but it doesnt work for me . any advise would be appreciated!

  • by dianeoforegon,

    dianeoforegon dianeoforegon Sep 15, 2014 1:57 PM in response to davidkawai
    Level 5 (5,298 points)
    Sep 15, 2014 1:57 PM in response to davidkawai

    It's possible there is an issue with Apple's servers causing the problems. Normally that clears up in a day.

    Go to the main window in Mac App Store. You should see Mavericks in the right sidebar or do a search for Mavericks.

     

    mas.png

  • by davidkawai,Helpful

    davidkawai davidkawai Sep 15, 2014 2:00 PM in response to dianeoforegon
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Sep 15, 2014 2:00 PM in response to dianeoforegon

    i am stuck at the OS X utilities screen,  cant download new OS X as I cannot open mac app store nor able to  reinstall the Mountain Lion OS X through internet ...

  • by dianeoforegon,

    dianeoforegon dianeoforegon Sep 15, 2014 2:02 PM in response to davidkawai
    Level 5 (5,298 points)
    Sep 15, 2014 2:02 PM in response to davidkawai

    Can you boot into your main internal drive?

     

    While booted in recovery drive, can you open Safari and connect to internet?

     

    Do you have an external drive?

  • by davidkawai,

    davidkawai davidkawai Sep 15, 2014 2:05 PM in response to dianeoforegon
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Sep 15, 2014 2:05 PM in response to dianeoforegon

    i can get boot into recovery mode ,  and get on safari.  i have a 16gb usb drive , is it big enough for re-installing ?

  • by dianeoforegon,

    dianeoforegon dianeoforegon Sep 15, 2014 2:26 PM in response to davidkawai
    Level 5 (5,298 points)
    Sep 15, 2014 2:26 PM in response to davidkawai

    You should be able to reinstall OS X Lion again. Is this not allowing you to download Lion?

     

    _recovery.png

     

    Try installing Mavericks on the USB drive. Booting from the USB stick will be very slow but this might allow you to get OS X installed on the main drive.

     

    Before you go through this, what happens when you try booting from the internal drive? Hold down Shift key and try booting from internal drive.

     

    What happened that caused you to loose access to your drive?

     

    I would prefer that you had an external drive that was large enough so we could install Mavericks then run a clone of your internal drive after booting from Mavericks.

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Sep 15, 2014 2:31 PM in response to davidkawai
    Level 7 (23,613 points)
    Safari
    Sep 15, 2014 2:31 PM in response to davidkawai

    Have you tried Command+Opt+R (Internet Recovery)?

  • by davidkawai,

    davidkawai davidkawai Sep 15, 2014 2:45 PM in response to dianeoforegon
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Sep 15, 2014 2:45 PM in response to dianeoforegon

    It says this item is temporarily unavailable when i am trying to just reinstall my OS X lion

     

    I restarted and holding down shift, i see apple icon keep changing to other icon , question mark icon, folder icon etc. and when i let go of shift button, i am back to the OS X utilities screen.

    how do i download the OS X Mavericks into an external hard drive ?  is it okay i have other data in an external harddrive when doing this ?

  • by davidkawai,

    davidkawai davidkawai Sep 15, 2014 2:42 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Sep 15, 2014 2:42 PM in response to Loner T

    I have tried Command+Opt+R (Internet Recovery) when restarting ,  it get me back to the OS X utilities screen .

  • by dianeoforegon,

    dianeoforegon dianeoforegon Sep 15, 2014 2:52 PM in response to davidkawai
    Level 5 (5,298 points)
    Sep 15, 2014 2:52 PM in response to davidkawai

    When you download Mavericks to the USB drive it's not going to allow you to run the Mavericks installer. You need to buy an external drive then install Mavericks on the drive. You can then boot from the drive to recover your data and install a working OS X on the internal drive.

     

    Recommended Drives

    USB 3.0 drives work on USB 2.0 but you do get 2.0 speed. They are cheaper because they are popular PC drives.  If you get a new computer you'll get the bump to 3.0 speed. I don’t recommend FW. The newer computers don’t have FW ports. You would need a connector in order to use the drive on a newer computer.

     

    Size:  I recommend either the 2T or 3T drives.  Often they are cheaper than a 1T drive. The 4T drives have more issues and failure rates.

     

    The Seagate USB 3.0 Backup plus drives come formatted for PC but easy to format in Disk Utility. 

     

    Seagate Backup Plus 2TB Desktop External Hard Drive USB 3.0 (STCA2000100)  (Amazon only had used drives so I couldn’t get a price)

    Seagate Backup Plus 3TB Desktop External Hard Drive USB 3.0 (STCA3000101) $134.99

     

     

    This Western Digital drive has good reviews: Has a 2 yr warranty. Comes formatted for Mac but I would still format using Disk Utility.

     

    WD My Book Hard Drive for Mac 2 TB (WDBYCC0020HBK-NESN)  $99

    WD My Book Hard Drive for Mac 3 TB (WDBYCC0030HBK-NESN)  $119.99

     

     

    Check the warranty when comparing. The longer the warranty the better the drive. WD makes cheaper drives but with almost no warranty.

     

     

    Locally, Best Buy seems to have the best prices.

     

     

    You can get one drive for both Time Machine and clone, but it’s recommended that you use different drives for each. If the drive dies you lose both types of backup.

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Sep 15, 2014 2:55 PM in response to davidkawai
    Level 7 (23,613 points)
    Safari
    Sep 15, 2014 2:55 PM in response to davidkawai

    There should be an option to re-install OS X. Please do not use a WiFi connection, it will very slow and may not work.

     

    Please also see OS X: About OS X Recovery

     

    Which version of OS X is installed by OS X Recovery?

    • If you use the Recovery System stored on your startup disk to reinstall OS X, it installs the most recent version of OS X previously installed on this computer.
    • If you use Internet Recovery to reinstall OS X, it installs the version of OS X that originally came with your computer. After installation is finished, use the Mac App Store to install related updates or later versions of OS X that you have previously purchased.
  • by davidkawai,

    davidkawai davidkawai Sep 15, 2014 3:06 PM in response to dianeoforegon
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Sep 15, 2014 3:06 PM in response to dianeoforegon

    how do i download Mavericks into an external drive ? i dont have another macbook . i can download that by using a PC ?

    after that, how do i boot by connecting external drive and installing the Mavericks into my macbook air ?  



  • by johnatmaysondotus,Helpful

    johnatmaysondotus johnatmaysondotus Dec 18, 2014 3:39 PM in response to davidkawai
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Dec 18, 2014 3:39 PM in response to davidkawai

    I'm not sure if this will help you.

     

    My wife has an older MacBook that runs Lion. It can't run anything above that. I formatted her drive and attempted to reinstall and got the same message. I opened a shell window and confirmed I had an Internet connection.

     

    I had been logging in as her. Instead I tried my Apple ID and it worked. I'm not sure why.

Page 1 Next