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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
30 replies

Aug 24, 2015 4:16 AM in response to Rogerrrrrr

I have this problem as well and already contact applecare for support. The guy give me 2 option. One is to contact the guy who sold the machine to me and ask for the apple ID (which is very hard I think for people to give away their ID) and the second option is to buy 10.6 installation disc from the apple store. I'm not convince yet about the second option so I want to get response from you guys about this.


Does it takes this simple step to reinstall the OS Lion?

Aug 24, 2015 4:33 AM in response to Alifzuhdi

Yes, I would be confident that an official installation disk would fix the problem. Hopefully they don't cost much. I know a bootable drive doesn't work even if you had 2 macs to create one. It gave me the error, "This is not an authorized way to install the OS." I'm sure the disk would work, especially if that is what apple support told you to do.

Aug 24, 2015 10:18 AM in response to Alifzuhdi

You have a third free option if your Mac meets the requirements. Install a newer OS X. Starting with Mavericks, OS X is a free upgrade.


You also need to look at the apps you have installed before updating.


Any Mac that can run OS X 10.7 Lion or later can run Yosemite. Even most OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard-compatible Macs are eligible, though specific features require newer hardware components.


iMac (Mid-2007 or newer)

MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, Early 2009 or newer)

MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)

MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)

Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)

Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)

Xserve (Early 2009)



To install Yosemite, your Mac must already be running 10.6.8 Snow Leopard or later to download the new OS from the Mac App Store.


Apple's other official requirements are 2GB of RAM and 8GB of available storage; Personally I feel 4GB of RAM is minimum. I would recommend 8GB RAM for a better experience with Yosemite .


Suggested: at least 15GB of disk space available to download the update from the App Store and then install Yosemite, but realistically you should have more than that available for performance reasons.

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.

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

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