I'm unable to reinstall Mountain Lion OS X on my Macbook. What should I do?

I was given a MacBook Pro from a friend, but it was still left with everything on it. I started to restore it to factory settings so it would be wiped clean and I could use it as a new computer. Once I was about to reinstall Mountain Lion OS X, it notified me that I was unable to because "this Apple ID was not used to purchase Mountain Lion OS X." Im afraid that if I purchase it, it won't work because its linked to my friends Apple ID, and I'd be wasting $20. What should I do?

sabrinapascual,
did you friend also give you two grey installation DVDs with the MacBook Pro? If not, you can purchase a replacement pair from Apple or iFixit. One of them has a bootable version of Mac OS X for your MacBook Pro, and the other one has its Apple Hardware Test and its iLife apps.

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HT1338 Unable to reinstall Mountain Lion

Hi,
I've updated my Mac OS X Lion to Mountain Lion when it was released, since then it was updated several times.
Recently I tried to reinstall it and attempted downloading it through my app store, the computer was un attended, after downloading up to approximately 475mb it logged out, it is not sure it logged out after downloading got stuck or downloading stopped beacuse it was logged out.
Since then every time I try to download mountain lion it stops when it reach 475mb, I tried it through app store, through launchpad, deleted the half downloaded stuff, restarted the computer, used 3rd party software to delete every trace of records of download, still it stops at 475mb.
I tried downloading from boot menu options, I tried it from a second computer which all are doing same to me.
I'm just wondering how I can download Mountain Lion?
Anyone able to help me please..
Thanks and Regards,
Pocker.

If you have tried downloading it using another mac on the same Internet connection as the mac your trying to reinstall mountain lion on then I would point to the Internet connection as being your issue and would recommend trying to download MT lion using a different Internet connection if possible avoid using cellular or wifi connections to download MT lion as they are often less reliable than an Ethernet cable running from your mac to adsl/cable modem hope this helps

Unable to reinstall Mountain Lion from recovery partition

Hi there,
   I have formatted my main HDD partition and then boot from recovery partition. I have a MacBook Pro 2011 series. I have reinstalled my Mountain Lion following on screen instructions. But when It's says is OK and 100% installed and begin restart the system, it is unable to boot and automatically boot from recovery partition again.
   Can anybody help me? What I have to do?
   Thanks in advance.
   vzuritae.

Why did you start this process in the first place? Was there something wrong with the original install of Mt Lion? Like your system wouldn't startup anymore?
I suspect it is a hardware problem and may be the drive is failing.
Is your Mac a Early or Late 2011 model. Did it come with Lion Pre-installed?
If it came with Lion Preinstalled then you can use the Online Internet Recovery system to first reinstall Lion. At startup hold down the Command+Option/Alt+r keys until you see a spinning globe in the center of the screen. From that screen select Disk Utility and Re-Partition the drive as One partition. Then close DU and select Reinstall Mac OS X. If after the install of Lion is downloaded and finishes the install your system still refuses to boot up properly then you have a hardware problem and only Apple can fix a hardware problem.

Unable to reinstall Mountain Lion after erasing MacBook Pro.

Hi guys,
Wondering if there are any smart techies out there willing to help me whilst I wait for Apple's support team to get back to me.
I recently (a few weeks ago) wiped my Macbook Pro (early 2011) 13" 320GB in order to resell it and now I am trying to reinstall OS in order for it to be a fully working laptop again. It originally came with Snow Leopard but I purchased Moutain Lion through the app store when it came out, I then upgraded to Mavericks and had been running that. Now that its fully erased, it gives me a few options on what to do; get online help, launch the disk utility or reinstall os Lion. The problem I have is I never purchased Lion, I only bought Mountain Lion - so when I try going through that route it says I have bought it (obviously). Ive been through disk utility and ran all the checks, everything seems to come back fine and dandy so I am not quite sure what to do now. I don't mind reinstallion Snow Leopard or Mountain Lion or whatever, as long as it becomes a fully functioning laptop again...I can always upgrade it later on.
I would really appreciate any help on this and also I am a complete newbie when it comes to Apple products, so I would be greally grateful for any advice. I should probably add that I can't find any disks that came with the laptop, I never throw anything away but I have read that the older models came with startup disks so I have no idea what to do!
Thannk you

Please only reinstall Snow Leopard if that is the original OS that was pre-installed. You must not install any later version of OS X that you acquired because it will not work for the buyer. This also holds true for any App Store software you purchased using your Apple ID. You should not reinstall any of that software because it is useless to another owner. The following procedure will make a fresh installation of Snow Leopard that can be upgraded to 10.6.8. That's all you should provide.
Clean Install of Snow Leopard
Be sure to make a backup first because the following procedure will erase
the drive and everything on it.
     1. Boot the computer using the Snow Leopard Installer Disc or the Disc 1 that came
         with your computer. Insert the disc into the optical drive and restart the computer.
         After the chime press and hold down the "C" key. Release the key when you see
         a small spinning gear appear below the dark gray Apple logo.
     2. 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 the hard drive entry from the left side list (mfgr.'s ID and drive
         size.) Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Set the number of
         partitions to one (1) from the Partitions drop down menu, click on Options button
         and select GUID, click on OK, then set the format type to MacOS Extended
         (Journaled, if supported), then click on the Apply button.
     3. When the formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed
         with the OS X installation and follow the directions included with the installer.
     4. When the installation has completed your computer will Restart into the Setup
         Assistant. Be sure you configure your initial admin account with the exact same
         username and password that you used on your old drive. After you finish Setup
         Assistant will complete the installation after which you will be running a fresh
         install of OS X. You can now begin the update process by opening Software
         Update and installing all recommended updates to bring your installation current.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.
Also, see What to do before selling or giving away your Mac.

Hello, I just bought OS X Mountain Lion and does not download. What should I do?

I bought OS X Mountain Lion, I see the icon but does not download it. I have tryed several times. The Apple store says there is an error, what should I do?

Yes, thank you very much, I think I have the requirments, what do you think?
Nome modello:          iMac
Identificatore modello:          iMac10,1
Nome processore:          Intel Core 2 Duo
Velocità processore:          3,06 GHz
Numero di processori:          1
Numero totale di nuclei:          2
Cache L2:          3 MB
Memoria:          4 GB
Velocità bus:          1,07 GHz
Versione Boot ROM:          IM101.00CC.B00
Version SMC (sistema):          1.52f9
Numero di serie (sistema):          W8946DLY5PC
Hardware UUID:          8B5F39C2-D7B7-58BF-9BB9-2D60D0E465B3

Why ilife disappear after reinstalling mountain lion?

why ilife disappear after reinstalling mountain lion?

The 10.8.3 update should have left your iLife apps intact - did you do a clean install, erasing your drive? If so, then you should be able to go to the Mac App Store and download the iLife apps using the Apple ID with which you registered your computer.
Clinton

Reinstalling Mountain Lion on brand new MPB Retina??

Hi Everyone,
I bought my first MBP retina literally 2 days ago. Anyways, last night I saw that I had an update in the iTunes store. The update was for iOS7. Without much thought, I downloaded the update. When it was finished downloading, I clicked "restart now". A few minutes went by and nothing happned. The cursor was gone and everything seemed frozen. So I manually restart the computer.
When the computer rebooted I kept getting some kind of kernel panic on the boot screen. Nothing would happen. So I rebooted and held command + r. I then proceeded to reinstall a new copy of mountain lion because that was the only thing I could think to do.
Everything appears to be fine now but I have a few questions.
1) I didn't run disk utility and erase the disk before reinstalling a new copy of mountain lion. Is that a problem? Do I have two versions of the OS saved on my hard drive or did the new download just overwrite the previous version?
2) Why was an update for iOS7 showing up in my itunes store?
3) Should I worry about having to reinstall mountain lion after literally using the macbook for only a few hours.
Thanks for your help

New2Mac12 wrote:
1) I didn't run disk utility and erase the disk before reinstalling a new copy of mountain lion. Is that a problem? Do I have two versions of the OS saved on my hard drive or did the new download just overwrite the previous version?
2) Why was an update for iOS7 showing up in my itunes store?
3) Should I worry about having to reinstall mountain lion after literally using the macbook for only a few hours.
Thanks for your help
No it is not a problem and the new installation simply overwrote the previous one
The iOS 7 upgrade is ONLY for iPhones and iPads and should have had no effect on OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion). I am not sure what you actually did because the normal process for installing iOS 7, or any iOS update or upgrade including iPhone and iPad apps downloads to a folder in the iTunes folder. In fact the iTunes store is the only place to get new or updated software for the iPhone and iPad. Do not confuse the iTunes Store with App Store which is a separate application for downloading and installing Mac OS X updates and software. There is an update to iTunes 11.1 that must be downloaded before attempting to download and install iOS 7. I suspect that is what you actually installed, but I have no idea why it could or would mess up Mountain Lion. For the last couple of days the Apple download servers have been completely swamped by all the iOS 7 downloads and reports of the downloads taking two and three hours are common. The problem may have been related to that, but that is purely a guess.
No you should not be concerned about the reinstallation. As I said I do not know what happened, but you should not have been able to install anything to do with iOS 7 on your new Mac.
Message was edited by: Joe Bailey

Cant reinstal mountain lion error -4403F

cant reinstal mountain lion error -4403F

Helps to tell us what the error said...
Try here > Mac App Store: "An unknown error occurred (100)" when purchasing
Might need to temporarily disable anti virus software.
FYI, third party download managers may cause issues when downloading apps including Mountain Lion.
Apps such as Net Nanny, Hands Off, and LIttle Snitch can prevent apps from downloading.
Make sure you are using the same Apple ID associated with your Mac.
Make sure you have the correct App Store country selected. Check the round flag icon bottom right corner of the App Store.

Reinstall Mountain Lion on 13" macbook pro retina

hi! i am trying to reinstall mountain lion on my new 13" macbook pro retina, however, i cannot proceed and i encounter the message "We could not complete your purchase. OS X Mountain Lion is not compatible with this computer." please help!

I've called Apple Care and they learned me to the following in order to complete a clean install from Mountain Lion on a MacBook Pro Retina (otherwise it won't work): http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11273
But, like Clinton said, shouldn't your rMBP come with Moutain Lion on it? And if so, why can't you upgrade to 10.8.2 because I could (with software update) - but my problem was to clean reinstall ML on it from the App Store (that you stil can't do with a rMBP btw).
And a small question off-topic: How long is your (average) shutdown time on your rMBP 13"?

Unable to boot disk utility or reinstall Mountain Lion

Hello,
I bought an iMac via ebay and I am unable to boot to disk utility and reinstall mountain lion becouse the guy I bought it from didnt delete the users nor reinstall OS
I have a Pc keyboard and am pressing the correct command+r but mac just hangs on apple sign and loading.
I can enter single user terminal and this is what I did and can do. There are 4 users in the /Users
tried following;
/sbin/fsck -fy
disk is ok
/launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServicesLocal.plist
Bug:launchctl.c:2344 (25952):2: (dbfd = open(g_job_overrides_db_path, 0_RDONLY | 0_EXLOCK | 0_CREAT, S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR)) != - 1
launch_msg(): Socket is not connected
I am connected to the internet via ethernet and I am stuck here not knowing what to do! I dont have an original DVD from Apple but I do have an image on the DVD.
There is no other mac in my house either and I cant make bootable usb or firewire.
Any suggestions on where to go from here or I am screwed?
Thanks in advance

Apr 7, 2013 7:42 AM (in response to daiktsu)
@daiktsu: I wonder why these two are helping you at all.
@sls and Radiation: I admire your patience with this troll.
Unreal ! hahaha , congrats to all 3 - Lex, SSLS and Radiation for taking the HIGH road . Now that is CON"TROL" !

How many times can you reinstall Mountain Lion?

Since I bought the Early 2013 15" MacBook Pro retina laptop used only 17 battery cycles on it now (2.7 with 16GB ram running Mt. Lion) computer I have not reset it. I spoke to Apple and it is registered in my name, I made a new Admin. account and password and Apple had me delete the original owners. I took off anything he had left on it. Applecare also I bought in my name. Apple said I didn't have to reset it and would be fine so I left it. They deauthorized the previous iunes account and the previous owner gave me his ID to deauthorize the computer. It was already deauthorized when I checked. He then changed his password for his security. It runs beautifully and has a Samsung screen.
I deleted the iLife apps and were going to buy them in my name (as his ID came up for updates) but now can't redownload in my name as it says I need Maverick OSon it to do so. I left the Mountain Lion 10.8.5 on it. If I contact Apple will they give me a redemption code for my name or how do I get older versions?
If I reset to new how many times am I able to reinstall Mountain Lion? If I decide to sell it later will I be able to reset it again with no problem for the new owner?
Thank you for your help. This forum is a source for many of us new owners to solve things.

As long as you do the download with your Apple ID, it'll be in your name. Reverting back can be a little involved. If you have that in mind, you should make a full backup of your clean install of ML and save it somewhere. Then you can just copy the image back with Carbon Copy Cloner. External drives are cheap, that's how I'd do it.

I recently purchased an iMac from a friend who factory reset it, and now I can't reinstall Mountain Lion?

     As the title says, I can't reinstall Mountain Lion. When I turn on the iMac, it send me straight to OX X Utilities. When I click on Reinstall Mountain Lion, it asks for my ID, but then states I did not purchase Mountain Lion. How do I fix this issue? I've tried asking Apple Support, but to no avail. I don't think the guy I spoke with understood what was going on.
I cannot get around OS X Utilities. There are only four options for me.
Reinstall Mountain Lion
Back Up (tried, nothing comes up)
Get Help Online (which is what I'm doing here)
Erase or Restore Utilities (I've checked this, it says my disks are not malfunctioning)
     My friend suggested signing into his ID to reinstall but when we did, it also said this ID has not purchased Mountain Lion. We logged into Apple Support went to registed devices and there was nothing there. I think he may have used another ID which is he searching for the info for. If we get the right ID, then maybe it will let us sign in on his name and reinstall Mountain Lion. But if he can't, or Apple won't take his ID, then I'm at a loss for options.
     So now I'm here, hoping someone else who bought a used iMac from a friend who factory reset it and needs info on how to reinstall Mountain Lion can help me. I don't know what else to do. If I can't get this thing sorted out, I'll have to drive to the apple store. The closest one is 60 miles away, so I'm not looking forward to that. Is that my only option now? What can I do?
tl;dr I bought a used iMac from a friend who factory reset it, and now I don't know how to reinstall Mountain Lion. What are my options?

If the system didn't ship with Mountain Lion originally and you didn't purchase Mountain Lion yourself, then you will need to purchase. A purchase by the system's original owner cannot be transferred to you.
Unless you have another system on which you have purchased Mountain Lion, you will need to first install Mac OS X 10.6.8 on the iMac, for which you'll need either the original installation disks, if the iMac came with 10.6, or a retail copy of 10.6. Install 10.6 and upgrade to at least 10.6.6, and then you can buy Mountain Lion from the Mac App Store, presuming of course that the imac can support Mountain Lion. See:
http://www.apple.com/osx/how-to-upgrade/
Regards.

Can't restore iLife after reinstalling Mountain Lion

After I erase the internal disk and reinstall Mountain Lion, I followed this instruction which Apple provides officially to restore my iLife:
Restoring iLife applications after Internet Restore of OS X Lion or OS X Mountain Lion
If you erase install OS X Lion or OS X Mountain Lion on a new Mac that shipped with OS X Lion or OS X Mountain Lion installed, you can download iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand from the Mac App Store.
After installation, start (up) from OS X.
Double-click the App Store icon in the dock.
Enter your Apple ID and password.
Click Purchases.
If you haven't previously accepted your bundled iLife applications within the Mac App Store, you should see your iLife applications appear in the Accept portion of the screen. Click Accept.
You may be asked for your Apple ID and password once again. Your iLife applications now move to the Purchased section. These applications are part of the software that came with your Lion based computer. Your account will not be charged for them. Click Install to complete installation of your applications.
However, when I finish #5, I can't find my iLife apps are listed in that "Purchases" tab. Can anyone help me solve this problem?

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718
Yes, that is what is supposed to happen.
I'd contact MAS support

How do I reinstall Mountain Lion in English on a system that was originally in Chinese?

I'm trying to help a friend who was given a used 13" MacBook Air (A1369) by the Chinese exchange student staying with him. It needed a screen repair, which was done, and we were able to change the display menus to English which is fine for general use. BUT... The previous owner had all kinds of Chinese games and programs as well as a partitioned HD. The plan was to just erase and reinstall Mountain Lion (which it came with, we THINK) and he'd have a fresh start.
Using the Recovery system would be great, except that since the comp was from China, and the ID associated with it is in Chinese, all of the instructions, menus and EVERYTHING are in Chinese. We can get online fine, and tried booting from a USB drive but everything is still in Chinese. We got as far as making a bootable USB and it looked like everything was OK, and started the erase/restore process but it got stuck in Chinese instructions and menus!!!
Is there a way to buy new copy of Mountain Lion with a new Apple ID that will be in English and then install it on a computer that was already running Mountain Lion? It seems I should be able to DL the OS to a USB drive and then just boot and install from that. But I'd have to DL on another Mac with its own ID running Lion. (Or use a Linux PC which seems like an even worse option.)
Any ideas? Suggestions? Laughter?

Try posting again in the forum for ML, since it hardly seems to have anything to do with your hardware.
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/os_x_mountain_lion

I have reinstalled mountain lion on my MacBook Pro and can't get the games back App Store says they'll already installed how can i download them can anyone help

I have reinstalled mountain lion on my MacBook Pro and can't get the games back App Store says they'll already installed how can i download them can anyone help

I have eactly the same problem - it seems that the downloaded version on MBA is version 6.0 and on iPad is is version 2.0 -
Issue is when i tried to save the presentation on MBA Keynote 09 - Keynote crashed.
I tried to save is as Powerpoint in MBA and it crashed as well!
Message was edited by: Innovaxin

I'm unable to reinstall Mountain Lion OS X on my Macbook. What should I do?

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