bobn1
Level 1 (4 points)
Desktops

Q: Can't  -Reinstall OS X from Recovery-

I am totally new to Macs, so I might be using the wrong terms and making mistakes.

 

I've recently purchased a 2012 mac mini (non-server), it has OS 10.10.5 (Yosemite).  My kids have Macs and I want to become familiar with them.  This Mac is seemingly empty of everything, except a generic user account the previous owner had setup.  He said he de-associated his account and did a complete reset of the mac.  Well, I thought it might be a good idea to do that reset for myself.  Prior, I created a new account, mad it admin,  and deleted the generic account.  Also, that generic account had no apple/itunes account associated with it.  I had happened to login to apple/itunes with that generic account to.  Before I deleted the generic account, I logged out of itunes and icloud.

 

From various searches of prior people, I found these steps referred to people, https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201065.  I've signed out of itunes, I've signed out of icloud.  BTW, when I was signed into icloud, I could go into "Find my iPhone" on my iphone and see my mac mini, so I think the mac mini was well associated with me, right?

 

I added the SN of this mac mini to my "My Support Profile" on supportprofile.apple.com.  It shows up there.  It does not have any cases and it no longer under support agreement.

 

I proceed to this page, https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904.  I boot into recovery and select the second option, to reinstall OS X.  It does some checks, I log into itunes.  I select the disk to install on, then it says this service is temporarily unavailable; every time for the past week or so.  I know access to the internet works.  It is a wired connection, I can sign into itunes/apple, I can launch safari and browse the internet.

 

I captured my installer log a while back.  But I've removed some random text, I don't know it is an account/password hashed.  These locations have the text "[REMOVED]" in them.

 

Why can't i reset/re-install the OS?

Mac mini, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), null

Posted on Jan 18, 2016 9:17 AM

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bobn1

Q: Can't  -Reinstall OS X from Recovery-

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  • by bobn1,

    bobn1 bobn1 Jan 18, 2016 9:20 AM in response to bobn1
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 18, 2016 9:20 AM in response to bobn1

    I haven't found a way to get the installer log up here....

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Jan 18, 2016 9:30 AM in response to bobn1
    Level 10 (190,852 points)
    Apple Watch
    Jan 18, 2016 9:30 AM in response to bobn1

    The message "this service is temporarily unavailable" indicates that the ID you are using was not the ID previous used to download/install Yosemite.

    Se if you can force your Mac to boot into Internet Recovery by holding down Command+Option+R at startup. If you can then format the internal disk and install.

    You will install either Mountain Lion or Mavericks depending upon when the Mac was manufactured.


    You can try:

    - Download the appropriate OSX  installer from the Mac App Store.  El Capitan should be available. others should be listed in the Purchased section of the Mac App Store if you previously downloaded them with the ID you are using.

    - Make a bootable USB media using the following:

    DiskMaker X

    - Boot from that media

    - Format the startup disk and install OSX from the bootable media

    - Restore your data


  • by bobn1,

    bobn1 bobn1 Jan 18, 2016 9:48 AM in response to lllaass
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 18, 2016 9:48 AM in response to lllaass

    "Se if you can force your Mac to boot into Internet Recovery by holding down Command+Option+R at startup. If you can then format the internal disk and install."

     

    Thanks.

     

    The reinstall option says it can't install because the current version is newer.

     

    Is that through the "Reinstall OS X" option, or the "Disk Utility" option that you are refering?

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Jan 18, 2016 9:54 AM in response to bobn1
    Level 10 (190,852 points)
    Apple Watch
    Jan 18, 2016 9:54 AM in response to bobn1

    If you can boot to Internet Recovery then you have to format/erase the internal drive and then install OSX from Internet Recovery. This is because Yosemite is currently install and you can only install an earlier version (Internet Recovery gets you Mountain Lion or Mavericks) if you format/erase the drive.

  • by bobn1,

    bobn1 bobn1 Jan 18, 2016 10:08 AM in response to lllaass
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 18, 2016 10:08 AM in response to lllaass

    Thanks.  I don't know these contingencies with MACs.  Off thing, when I've gone into the app store, it says that "El Capitan" is a free upgrade. I thought apple charged for that, or is it free to fix security vulnerabilities? 

     

    I basically wanted to make sure to remove any kind of remnant of the previous owner....  I gethered from some search results that the way to completely remove prior owner is to just reinstall....  Would the El Capitan "free upgrade" accomplish the same thing?

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Jan 18, 2016 10:15 AM in response to bobn1
    Level 10 (190,852 points)
    Apple Watch
    Jan 18, 2016 10:15 AM in response to bobn1

    Mavericks, Yosemite, and El Capitan are free.

    However, it you update it still is likely to be locked to the previous ID. As I said before y can do this:

    - Download the El Capitan installer  from the Mac App Store with your ID signed into the Store.

    - Make a bootable USB media using the following:

    DiskMaker X

    - Boot from that media

    - Format the startup disk and install OSX from the bootable media