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Reinstalling OS X, but disc is locked and serial number is registered to previous owner

I bought a used MacBook pro from a friend, He deauthorized the computer from his Itunes account and took all of his files.

Now I'm attempting to wipe and reinstall mavericks from the restore screen and my "disc is Locked"

When I try to unlock the disc, I find that the general advice is to make an appoinment with the Apple store, BUT the serial number of my computer is still assigned to the previous owner.

How can I (1) legally get ownership of this computer

2 unlock this disc?


Thanks,

S

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2009), OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Apr 29, 2015 3:21 PM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Apr 29, 2015 4:06 PM

Your friend also has to remove the MacBook from My Support Profile: https://supportprofile.apple.com


Follow all these instructions: What to do before selling or giving away your Mac - Apple Support

5 replies

Apr 29, 2015 4:11 PM in response to Rswirlgirl

You should get the original installation disks from your friend and install Leopard OSX. Or you can purchase the Snow leopard retail disk and install Snow Leopard (this does not have the iLife applications on it):


http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573Z/A/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard


This then should be followed by the Snow Leopard combo update:


https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1399?locale=en_US


You then will have a MBP registered with your Apple ID and can Install Yosemite (Mavericks is no longer available).


Ciao.

Apr 29, 2015 4:45 PM in response to Rswirlgirl

Hi Rswirlgirl...!!


You won’t be able to use Mavericks on this macbook because Mavericks OS X was registered with your friends ID.


However, to start using this machine, you will have to do a clean reinstall of OS X 10.5 Leopard that originally came preinstalled with this macbook pro. Please follow these instructions to reinstall 10.5 Leopard. You will need the Leopard installation disc for it. Ask your friend if he still has it.......Installing Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard - Apple Support

(I think so you can skip the Leopars installation step and proceed with the Snow Leopard installion).


Later you will have to upgrade it to OS X 10.6.1 Snow Leopard and again will have to do a manual upgrading to 10.6.8 final version of Snow Leopard. Note that you will have to by a Boxed version of Snow Leopard from the Apple store. Then you will have to insert the installation disc to start with the installation. Follow these steps....https://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/1000/MA1172/en_US/Snow_Leopard_Installati on_Instructions.pdf


After upgrading to Snow Leopard, you will get access to the Appstore from where you will be able to download the latest Yosemite OSX 10.10.0 for free and manually upgrade it to 10.10.3.


You won’t get Mavericks at this point of time because its pulled back from the Appstore by Apple.


Hope this helps.....

Apr 30, 2015 12:18 AM in response to Rswirlgirl

Thanks so much for the help!

Especially the link to the my support site- that allowed my friend to remove his ownership of this computer

now I have been able to add this computer to mysupport profile. AND it means I can ask questions about it-this site would only let me post this question iI posted about a computer that was registered to me! So I had to lie and pretend the question was about my 2009 MacBook pro. Frustrating.

SSo- maybe you can help me with this question.

We we still have the issue of the startup discs- the computer is actually from late 2011, and so wasn't shipped with any discs

Mavericks is the only option the computer is giving me- and it's not available anymore?

What can I do?

Reinstalling OS X, but disc is locked and serial number is registered to previous owner

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