Level 1

20 points

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...

MacBook Air

Posted on Sep 7, 2014 3:27 PM

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.

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Nov 14, 2015 6:28 PM in response to Johnsmith2370

What year/model is your Mac? Please check OS X versions and builds included with Mac computers - Apple Support for the lowest OSX version you can install.

Lanny

Level 6

13,225 points

Nov 15, 2015 11:25 PM in response to Rogerrrrrr

This may also apply to you: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7338995?answerId=29323635022#29323635022

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?

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 ?

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Sep 15, 2014 2:31 PM in response to davidkawai

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

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 .

23rd455

Level 1

0 points

Oct 4, 2015 2:53 PM in response to johnatmaysondotus

Thanks for the advice had similar issues used differ apple id and it reinstalled fine

diogosgp

Level 1

10 points

Nov 25, 2015 10:47 PM in response to Rogerrrrrr

This fix the error for me: http://www.techgeekandmore.com/2014/09/26/fix-os-x-reinstall-error-error-occurre d-preparing-installation/

Dec 5, 2015 5:52 AM in response to Rogerrrrrr

For me I just had to plug in the charger. Then there were no errors for me.

Aug 30, 2018 1:10 PM in response to Rogerrrrrr

i got thesame problem

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jan 1, 2017 6:20 AM in response to Community User

Kunchana95 wrote:

i got thesame problem

Please start a new discussion. OP is two+ years old.

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jan 17, 2017 5:33 PM in response to Whatru

Whatru wrote:

DId anyone fix this problem?

Please start a new discussion. Are you having problems using Internet Recovery?

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