You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Can't Install Mac OS X 10.8 after erase

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.

Posted on Nov 11, 2014 8:37 AM

Top-ranking reply

Kurt Lang

Level 9

62,184 points

Posted on Mar 5, 2017 2:41 PM

Do not post any serial numbers here! This is an open forum where anyone can pick up such information. With that number, it's possible to commit fraud.

Never, ever consider buying a disk or flash drive from the jillion sites selling illegal copies of the Mac OS. Unless you're a highly skilled programmer and know what to look for in such an installer, you will have no way of knowing if that illegal installer is putting a keylogger, back door, or other malware on the drive.

Lion was available on an official flash drive from Apple. No disk was ever available. This is what it looks like. Anything else is an illegal copy:

For Mountain Lion and later, the only legal source was through the App Store as a download. No media has ever been available for any version of OS X/macOS since Mountain Lion.

View in context

94 replies