How do I install mountain lion not as an upgrade

Hi,
I'm running OS 10.6 on my computer. I'd like to upgrade to mountain lion. But instead of installing it over the existing system, I want to format my computer and start it fresh. How can I do that?

If you are running Snow Leopard (10.6.x), update to the latest version of OS X Snow Leopard before you purchase OS X Mountain Lion from the Mac App Store. Click the Apple icon and choose Software Update to install Snow Leopard v10.6.8, the latest version.
When download of Mountain Lion is complete cancel the installation and you may create an installation disk from downloaded source.
How to do it you may find here
Or
Install it on top of existing system and if there is something that you do not like and think that clean install would make it better, you may start your computer from recovery partition created by Mountain Lion installation, reformat your disk and do clean install.

Similar Messages

How do I install Mountain Lion on a thumb drive?

How do I install Mountain Lion on a thumb drive when my computer is running Mavericks? I downloaded the Mountain Lion installer, but when I attempt to run it I get a message that says "You cannot install OS X 10.8 on this computer." I don't want to install it on the computer, I want to install it on the thumb drive—but it won't give me a choice of drives.
The reason I want to do this is I want to be able to boot my iMac into Mountain Lion in order to test a hardware/software combination I suspect might be incompatible with Mavericks.
(Note: there are plenty of instructions online for how to create a bootable thumb drive with the Mountain Lion installer, but that's not what I want. I want to install ML on the thumb drive itself.)

Sure you have a proper installer application. When I start it I get:
Clicking on Continue, then accepting the licensing stuff, gets me to:
If you click on Show All Disks, then all mounted disks will be presented including your flash drive.
Now the above is a Mavericks installer, but it's the same for Mountain Lion.

HT1338 how do i install mountain lion

how do i install mountain lion the system will not allow me to "app it" as the Mac OS is older than 10.6

If your Mac is compatible, the upgrade path for you would be to purchase Snow Leopard from the Apple Store: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard
After installing that, you would run Software Update to bring it up to 10.6.8.
Then, you'd access the App Store from Snow Leopard and purchase Mountain Lion.

How do I install mountain lion over maverick

how do I install mountain lion over maverick

Before the install
Ensure your data (at least all Home folders) is backed up before you install. Hard disks can fail at any time so it is important to regularly backup to an external disk with Time Machine or a third party alternative. Inexperienced users should follow Apple's install advice but experienced users may prefer to do a clean install.
OS numbers and names
OS X 10.4.x - Tiger
OS X 10.5.x - Leopard
OS X 10.6.x - Snow Leopard
OS X 10.7.x - Lion
OS X 10.8.x - Mountain Lion
More about Macs
The Apple History site has specifications for every Mac ever produced: http://www.apple-history.com
Upgrade to Leopard
Those wishing to upgrade to Leopard should be aware that install disks can be expensive. Details: http://lowendmac.com/deals/best-os-x-leopard-prices.html Standard Leopard installers impose several hardware limitations including speed and RAM size but all these restrictions can be overcome. Google for details. Leopard works well at 500 MHz with 1 GB of RAM and many happy users have less than this.
Upgrade beyond Leopard
OSs beyond OS X 10.5.8 require an Intel processor. If in doubt click the apple at the top left of your screen and select 'About this Mac'. This will give you your OS number. Then click 'More Info' to see which processor you have. If it says PowerPC you cannot upgrade to Snow Leopard and above. If you have an Intel Mac it is well worth upgrading to Snow Leopard now and then considering other options after that. You can buy Snow Leopard here: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573Z/A
Upgrade to Lion
Information about upgrading Snow Leopard to Lion: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD256Z/A
Upgrade to Mountain Lion
Information about upgrading Snow Leopard or Lion to Mountain Lion: http://www.apple.com/osx/specs/
Important
Check that your Mac complies with any requirements.
If you are not in the US you should use the Change Country link at the bottom of Apple pages.

Hi, I have a late 2008 iMac with a new hard drive. How do I install Mountain Lion from my bootable USB flash drive.

How do I install Mountain Lion to a new hard drive without having the recovery partition on it.
I have the USB flash drive with software on it but when I switch my Mac on all I have is a white screen & a flashing question mark.
ATB,
Steve.

Did you use LionDiskMaker or DiskMaker X?
Boot the machine with the option key down until you see your bootable USB stick. Select the latter, and reboot.
When the installer boots up, you will first need to choose Utilities and Disk Utility. Select the target HD device name and then the partition tab. Select 1 partition, name it Macintosh HD. Format is Mac OS Extended, and option is GUID. Apply. Exit Disk Utility and return to the installer, which will now show your newly partitioned HD as available for install.
When OS X is installed and all updates applied, press shift+command+U and run disk utility again. Verify/repair permissions and verify the boot disk.

How do I install Mountain Lion on both my iMac Desktop and my wifes MacBook

How do I install Mountain Lion on both my iMac Desktop and my wifes MacBook Pro?

Open the app store, purchase ML. go to second computer open app store select purchases at the top and click download. This is provided both computers use the same account.
http://www.apple.com/osx/how-to-upgrade/

How do you install mountain lion on additional macs?

How do you install Mountain Lion on additional Macs?

Log in to App store on other computer with the apple ID that Mountain Lion was purchased with.
Click on Purchases icon at top of page.
Download and install.
R

How do you install mountain lion on all your macs in the household using one 20 dollar license?

how do you install mountain lion on all your macs in the houshold with the same license (you only pay 20 bucks for all your macs) is that right?

As long as they're all logged into the Mac App store with the same Apple ID, you can re-download the installer to all the Macs.
Or you can save a copy of the installer file before you run it and use that to update the other Macs. The ML installer file will appear in your Applications folder when it's done downloading. Copy it to another location (don't move it).
If you don't copy it before you upgrade, it will disappear when ML is finished installing.

How can I install Mountain Lion in a VMware fusion, if it came with my macbook pro, and not purchased through the app store?

I have Mountain Lion on my Macbook Pro with Retina but I want to install Mountain Lion in a VM for application testing. I try to install it from the recovery partition but it states that when I put in my apple ID, it states that it was not purchased through the App Store. My OS came with my Macbook. Is there anything that I can do to get it to install in a VM?
Thanks

Not really. The license that comes with pre-installed OS is only for that Mac.
A. Preinstalled and Single-Copy Apple Software License. Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, unless you obtained the Apple Software from the Mac App Store or under a volume license, maintenance or other written agreement from Apple, you are granted a limited, non- exclusive license to install, use and run one (1) copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple- branded computer at any one time. For example, these single-copy license terms apply to you if you obtained the Apple Software preinstalled on Apple-branded hardware.
vs
B. Mac App Store License. If you obtained a license for the Apple Software from the Mac App Store, then subject to the terms and conditions of this License and as permitted by the Mac App Store Usage Rules set forth in the App Store Terms and Conditions (http://www.apple.com/legal/ itunes/ww/) (“Usage Rules”), you are granted a limited, non-transferable, non-exclusive license:
( i ) to download, install, use and run for personal, non-commercial use, one (1) copy of the Apple Software...
(ii) If you are a commercial enterprise or educational institution, to download, install, use and run one (1) copy of...and
(iii) to install, use and run up to two (2) additional copies or instances of the Apple Software within virtual operating system environments on each Mac Computer you own or control that is already running the Apple Software, for purposes of: (a) software development; (b) testing during software development; (c) using OS X Server; or (d) personal, non-commercial use.
(I shortened B.i. and B.ii.)
http://www.apple.com/legal/sla/docs/OSX1082.pdf

How do I Install Mountain Lion on a Mac with 2 Drives

Good day ALL,
I am upgrading my Mac mini to add a second hard drive (solid state). After the HD install is complete I plan to re-install Mountain Lion and transfer my Applications, Files, etc from my backup. I am very comfortable with installing Mountian Lion on the solid state drive and making it the bootbale drive, my questions are:
1. It is a 120G soloid state hard drive, so I only plan to use it for the OSX system, Library and Applications. Should I include other files?
2. I plan to use my 750G SATA drive for the Users. How do I set up the User Folder archive on this drive? Do I just move it?
3. Then how do I ensure the User Folder on my backup, gets retored on the right drive?
Thanks

GreyWullf wrote:
Good day ALL,
I am upgrading my Mac mini to add a second hard drive (solid state). After the HD install is complete I plan to re-install Mountain Lion and transfer my Applications, Files, etc from my backup. I am very comfortable with installing Mountian Lion on the solid state drive and making it the bootbale drive, my questions are:
1. It is a 120G soloid state hard drive, so I only plan to use it for the OSX system, Library and Applications. Should I include other files?
2. I plan to use my 750G SATA drive for the Users. How do I set up the User Folder archive on this drive? Do I just move it?
3. Then how do I ensure the User Folder on my backup, gets retored on the right drive?
Thanks
Regarding 1:
$ cd /Users. sudo ditto myname /Volumes/TimeMachine/myname copies everything in $HOME to non-TM backup.
Ensured latest SSD firmware up to date.
Clean install of ML to SSD from 8GB USB stick created by Lion Diskmaker.
$ cd /Users. sudo ditto /Volumes/TimeMachine/myname myname (see part 2 for /Users on another drive)
Added latest Xcode and command-line tools. Added VirtualBox 4.1.20. Put the 65GB VirtualBoxVMs folder on the second drive. Edited the ~/Library/Virtualbox/VirtualBox.xml file for the new mount points. Beware that many SSD (including Vertex) warn not to exceed 50% drive capacity or they will invoke slower drive controller algorithm. After some clean-up and re-arrangement, I have 98GB free on this SSD. It sings.
Files that are heavily accessed/shared by users would be consideration for the SSD
Regarding 2:
If you have sufficient external storage, back-up your pre-ML /Users either with ditto as I did, or with TM, somewhere other than the 750GB drive.
Use DiskUtility and repartition the 750 as one (or more) GUID HFS+Journaled partitions depending on planned usage.
Reverse the back-up to put your user(s) on the 750GB drive
In System Preferences > Users & Groups, unlock, then right mouse button click on individual user names. Advanced options ... will appear. For Home directory, Choose ... the particular mount point for individual user accounts now on the 750GB drive. Done.
Regarding 3:
Because you have moved individual user accounts from the internal drive where your last TM backup occurred before ML installation, TimeMachine will not understand (as far as I know), the new /Volumes/750GB/User/you home directory location that you just changed in #2. Another reason I used ditto(1).
If you do not want Spotlight to index that 750GB drive, you need to inform Spotlight Preferences > Privacy to exclude the drive.
Hope this helps.
PS: Darn advanced editor eating bullet formatting!!
Message was edited by: VikingOSX

How How can i install Mountain Lion with faulty firewire ports??

Basically the firewire ports are fried on my MBP 3.1 (2007). My mac used to take hang on blue screen and take 10 mins to boot but I solved this problem by installing an ssd and deleting the following kext file...
/System/Library/Extensions/IOFireWireFamily.kext
My MBP now boots in under 20 seconds so if anybody is having the same issue then there is the resolotion..
Anyway these are the steps I have taken but failed to properly install ML.
Dowloaded Mountain Lion at least 3 times from the App store to make sure the download wasn't corrupted.
I even tried making a Lion Bootdisk so I can install Mountain Lion on a USB drive (Install ESD.dmg).
I have even tried installing Lion first thinking I would take it one version at a time but gets stuck on boot screen too.
I even changed my hard drive to a new blank SSD drive to see any difference.
Each time I install Mountain Lion or Lion, everything is good until the installer has to restart the laptop.
Laptop gets stuck at the grey boot screen with the Apple logo and the loading circle. Nothing ever happens after.
I always had to use/boot to the Snow Leopard CD so I can restart the laptop back to the Snow Leopard OS and then update to 10.6.8.
I am guessing it is the ML dmg reinstalling the above file ( /System/Library/Extensions/IOFireWireFamily.kext ) which is leading to the same issue because of the faulty firewire ports.
Is there anyway I can resolve this because its doing my head in and Snow Leopard is old and doesnt support newer software that I would like to use.
Any help would be kindly appreciated. Thanks

Kurt Lang wrote:
Just some thoughts.
I presume you already partitioned the new SSD drive as GUID?
Is there anything on the new drive at all yet, or anything that isn't already backed up? If not, you could try erasing the drive and then installing OS X from the bootable flash drive installer you made.
Ive tried that and yes it is GUID. Im going to get grey hairs soon and Im not even 30 lol .... yet
I am not going to buy a new logic board as its just not logical (sorry for the pun) I got the mac for free and I want to spend as little money as possible. Im running out of ideas though

How can I install Mountain Lion on my MacBook 10.6.8

I have not been able to install Mountain Lion. I have the last MacBook that it can be installed on.
There is no explanationother than after 3 minutes, that the there has been an error in the installtion.
I don't even know where to begin!

Try this:
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.

How do I install Mountain Lion AND format the hard drive?

I want to do a completely clean install of Mountain Lion.
I had Snow Leopard installed, upgraded to Mountain Lion (by buying it from the App Store) but how do I tell it to format the drive and then install Mountain Lion?

pforkes wrote:
I want to do a completely clean install of Mountain Lion.
I had Snow Leopard installed, upgraded to Mountain Lion (by buying it from the App Store) but how do I tell it to format the drive and then install Mountain Lion?
Snow Leopard would have needed to be installed on a properly formatted drive, so I don't understand why you would need to format it again to that same format.
Cheers
Pete

How do I install mountain lion but keep snow leopard as a bootable os

I'm caught in a vicious circle.
I need mountain Lion to be able to use iCloud and to be compatible with a couple of apps on my iPad. However some of my major apps on my mac Pro won't work under Lion or mountain lion.
SO the answer is to have both Snow Leopard and Mountain Lion on my Mac Pro.
Does anyone know of any instructions on installing Mountain Lion onto one SSD, whilst leaving Snow Leopard on another, allowing me to boot from either.
Also - any advice on the cleanest way of installing my apps under Mountain Lion (those that are compatible). I'm confused to how I can install my apps twice, especially if I have all ready registered Unser Snow Leopard.
Thanks

I'm assuming that you currently have an SSD with Snow Leopard on it, and another SSD with no operating system. Is that correct?
What I would do is use the Snow Leopard DVDs to install a fresh copy of Snow Leopard on the SSD that currently has no operating system, and "migrate" your data and applications from the other SSD. (alternatively, you could use something like Carbon Copy Cloner to duplicate one SSD onto the other - but that's probably only an option if one SSD is completely blank or you're willing to erase it).
Then upgrade to Mountain Lion on the original SSD.
When you're done, hold down the option key when you start up to select which OS to use.
For many applications, it won't matter which SSD they're on - you'll be able to run them from either system without worrying about where the app is installed (each will have it's own preferences, stored on the current startup drive). But some applications are more complex, and rely on additional files that are scattered around the Library folders on the startup drive. Since you migrated your applications and data, you should have everything that's needed on both systems, including license keys, etc. I did this for a little while with Quicken, and I actually left the Quicken app on the Lion drive - it worked just fine even though I started up from an external Snow Leopard drive (I skipped the migration step entirely, and reentered my Quicken license code when starting up from Snow Leopard).
How successful this will be depends on exactly which applications you're using. Most of them will be OK, but if you're using something that has some esoteric copy-protection mechanism, you might run into a little bit of trouble. Consider upgrading the "new" Snow Leopard install to Mountain Lion, if that's the case, so you're original system SSD will remain Snow Leopard, with no changes.

How do I install Mountain Lion on a Macbook with bootcamp?

I bought Mountain Lion OS and tried to install it but it won't work since the partition map scheme on my Macbook is MBR (i assume because i installed windows with bootcamp on my HD). Is there a way to install Mountain Lion without losing my windows partition?
I have a late 2011 Macbook Pro with Win7 partition.

Mac OS X, in this case Mountain Lion can only be reinstalled using the same Apple ID it was originally installed from.

How do I install mountain lion not as an upgrade

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