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... User uploaded file

MacBook Air

Posted on Sep 7, 2014 3:27 PM

Reply
Question marked as ⚠️ Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 15, 2014 2:00 PM

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 ...

30 replies
Sort By: 

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.
Reply

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.

Reply

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?


User uploaded file


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.

Reply

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 ?

Reply

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.

Reply

Nov 15, 2015 7:06 PM in response to Rogerrrrrr

I found this while I was looking for answers myself take a gander but read the last paragraph it will help yall



Here's Our Problem:



I bought a used MacBook Air last year from another region here in Ghana. And the man re-installed Mac OS X 10.8 for me. And I typed my apple ID I have been using on my iPhone and everything has been moving smoothly until I mistakenly 'Erased' my entire 'Macintosh HD'. So I followed some instructions from Apple holding the 'Option' button and etc. But finally, after I type in my apple ID and password in Utilities, I get the error "This item is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later". I have tried again later with other WiFI networks and what not. But still.

This solved my question Solvedby Kurt Lang on Nov 20, 2014 6:40 AM

Thank you. Your Mac shipped with Lion. Which means you can do an Internet Recovery startup by turning the Mac on and immediately holding down the *Command+Option+R keys^ . This will boot the Mac to its firmware. When the work screen appears, you first need to make sure the drive is completely wiped clean, or it may try to install Mountain Lion, which is what the hidden Recovery partition should be. However, you will not be able to reinstall Mountain Lion since it will ask for the former owner's App Store ID and password.


Here is an option:



So follow these steps:


1) Make sure you know your router's wireless password since you will be required to have an Internet connection to reinstall OS X. Better would be to use a wired Ethernet connection to your DSL or cable router.


2) When you boot to the Internet Recovery Screen, first choose Disk Utility. When the screen comes up, you will see something similar to this:





I have multiple hard drives here, you will likely only have one showing. But what you need to do is click on the physical drive name. That will allow you to partition the drive. Click on the Partition tab at the right to get this screen:





Where the drop down menu says "Current", change it to something else. Even if the drive is already one partition for the whole thing, and you only want one. In which case, choose "1 Partition". You'll notice that the Options button is now no longer grayed out. Click that and make sure the radio button for GUID Partition Table is selected. Click OK.


Make sure the Format is Mac OS Extended (Journaled). It should be by default. Make the Name anything you want to call it. Click Apply. It will take just 10 seconds or so to complete. When it's done, quit Disk Utility.


3) Now choose to install OS X. The machine specific version of Lion for your Mac will be installed.

IF

4) When the install is complete, you can open the App Store and create your own account. Normally, you use the same Apple ID and password you use to access these forums.


5) Then it's up to you what you want for an OS. You can either stay with Lion, or upgrade. It's $20 to purchase Mountain Lion, 10.8.x. You'll receive an email with a redemption code you use in the App Store app to initiate the download and installation. Once you have it installed, that purchase will forever remain under your list of purchased items and can be reinstalled at any time. Or, you can jump all the way to Yosemite, 10.10.x for free. Mavericks, 10.9.x is not on option as Apple has pulled it from the App Store.



Here is an Answer you can work with:





!!!!!!!!!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! LOOK DOWN HERE YOOHOOOO..! ! ! ! ! ! ! ¡!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





$$$$$ SO I HELD THE OPTION, COMMAND AND THE R KEYS DOWN AND A LITTLE WORLD POPED UP WITH A SELECTION FOR WIFI AFTER I ENTERED THE WIFI PASSWORD IT AUTOMATICALLY STARTED A DL IDK WHAT OF BUT WHEN IT WAS DONE 5MIN LATER IT TOOK ME BACKFLIP TO THE SCREEN WHERE THE OPTION OF RESTORE, INSTALLATION, REPAIR WHERE I WAS HAVING TROUBLE INSTALLATION SOFTWARE AFTER ERASE. SAYING WAS AVAILABLE TRY AGAIN LATER. SO ANYWHO I CLICKED THE INSTALLATION FOR THE OS X IT WOULDNT DO BEFORE. AND BAM IT WORKED. AND IS NOW DOWNLOADING THE OS X LION SOFTWARE.

Reply

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:

▪ iMac (Mid-2007 or later)

▪ MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, Late 2008), (13-inch, Early 2009 or later)

▪ MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or later),

▪ MacBook Pro (15-inch or 17-inch, Mid/Late 2007 or later)

▪ MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later)

▪ Mac mini (Early 2009 or later)

▪ Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later)

▪ Xserve (Early 2009)



Your Mac also needs:

▪ OS X Mountain Lion, Lion, or Snow Leopard v10.6.8 already installed

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

▪ 8 GB or more of available space

Reply

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!

Reply

Jun 27, 2015 10:37 PM in response to johnatmaysondotus

This actually helped me. My dad gave me his old MacBook (Late 2008) years ago and I have since purchased a MacBook Pro (Mid 2012). I tried resetting the 2008 Macbook to the factory default so I can sell it on eBay. Since I have 2 macs I tried the bootable drive option(I did the Yosemite 10.10 upgrade) that people talked about, but when I finally booted off of the drive it said, "This is not an authorized way to install the OS". According to this website my laptop should be able to run Yosemite 10.10: http://www.zdnet.com/article/will-your-mac-run-os-x-10-10-yosemite/ If it really can run Yosemite then the bootable drive doesn't seem to be an option anyways for this problem in the topic. The way that your post helped me was that you tried a different apple ID. I used my father's apple ID since it was originally his laptop and it worked whereas I got the "This is temporarily unavailable" notification when I tried my own apple ID. When they say" This is temporarily unavailable" it is probably just their less rude way of saying, "This laptop is suspected to be stolen and we will not service it for you". My MacBook 2008 is starting to download OS X Mountain Lion right now I'm guessing this is some type of security feature so if someone steals your laptop they can't simply format the drive and try to reinstall the OS to use it as their own. However I don't know how people are supposed to sell it then. A seller doesn't want to give their buyer their apple ID just so they can download the OS. I've read a few posts saying they purchased the laptop online and had this problem. I can't imagine how frustrated I would be if that happened to me. Since i'm selling mine I'm going to be nice and have the latest OS already installed and ready to go then i'll sign out of my apple ID. Hopefully years down the road when they want to format their computer again they don't run into this same probably. According to the posts the only other way people got their macs to work was taking it to the apple store. That probably is the easiest way to solve this problem if not the only way if you are not the original owner of the laptop. If you can't bring it to a Genius bar then maybe calling support would help. You probably have to explain your sob story to them, but it appears you have no other choice. I've tried all suggestions in this post with no success until this last one. My conclusion is that if you are not the original owner of the laptop you need to: Contact the original owner for their apple ID(preferably family since anyone else would strangle you for such a request), Bring it in to the Genius Bar(Hopefully they won't charge you), or Call Support(Hopefully they are helpful).


Good luck everyone!

Reply

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

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

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.