Is it possible to access 'About This Mac' information without OS X installed?

I have recently upgraded my old MacBook Pro for a new model. I removed my iCloud information from the old MacBook, and blanked the drive. In my haste, I forgot to make note of the exact make and model information needed to sell it on.
When I load it up, I get OS X Utilities, with the options 'Restore From Time Machine Backup', 'Reinstall OS X', 'Get Help Online' and 'Disk Utility'. Using these, can I get the info needed (era, processor type and processor speed) without reinstalling OS X? It would take ~6 hours with my connection and I'd need to go through uninstallation again.

This did it. I had to check this page to figure out how to find the serial number, and it worked perfectly.
Thanks!

Similar Messages

About this Mac information is not right

Hello, i have a question about "about this mac" information. It isn`t right and maybe someone can help me out or has the same problem. As you can see on the picture, it says that i`ve uses 90 gb of the storage for programs. But i still have a free space of 81,04 gb of 120,47 gb. It doesn`t match. Does anyone have the same problem or has a solution? (sorry if I have made any mistakes, i`m still learning english )

Reindex Spotlight. That may correct the problem.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2409
Ciao.

How do you activate a 10.10.3 download. I have downloaded twice (2 gig each) and have restarted as instructed. I have also rebooted. "About this Mac' still reports 10.10.2 installed and I do not have the new photo app.

I have downloaded 1010.3 twice (2+gig each). The update window shows the 10.10.3 update has been installed, however, 'About this Mac' shows 10.10.2 installed and I don't have the new 'photo' app installed. Once more, the quality of Apple software approaches that of Microsoft - letting the user debug instead of delivering the quality that used to be Apple.
How do I activate the downloaded update.

There may well be a problem with the update package. I initially tried downloading the delta update (not the combo) from the Apple Support web site, and when I opened the package file, the installer ran but terminated almost immediately. I restarted and only got the normal reboot process, not the "Installing software" display. After restarting, I saw some evidence that the firmware updater was cleaning up some files, but nothing else appeared to have happened except that the 1.5Gb package file and a couple small subsidiary files had been left under /Library/Updates/_ManualUpdate.
I tried running the command line softwareupdate tool to see if it would recognize the already-downloaded package file (which is something you might also want to try before downloading again just in case it works), but no such luck. I then relented and used App Store, and that downloaded again and then performed the update successfully.
Of course, then I had to horse around with turning off all the "photos in the cloud" nonsense, but that's another story.

Finder and About This Mac free space discrepancies

I've read that "Finder displays the available space on the disk without accounting for the local snapshots." However, the discrepancy is more than that.
You can see that "About this mac" informs me that I have 31,56 GB of free space. Add to that the backups and I'd have 37 GB free. Finder, however is informing me that I have 54,59 GB free.
Who can explain to me where this difference comes from?

My SSD has been verified, so I may conclude that the storage structure itself isn't damages. I tried a clean reboot of OS X and the sizes are now correctly displayed. Because I had already tried such a reboot, I think the combination reindex/reboot might have done the trick. Pondini, thank you for your support. That was real kind.
Best Regards,
Wouter
PS: I actually already owned WhatSize.app. Thats how I discovered the discrepancy between DiskUtility.app, About My Mac and Finder.app.

Why would it state under the "more about this mac" that i already have10.8.3 and then in the app store say i need to "resume" do you know what i mean? is it possible i already did download mountain lion entirely once? I am confused and don't want it twice

why would it state under the "more about this mac" that i already have10.8.3 and then in the app store say i need to "resume" do you know what i mean? is it possible i already did download mountain lion entirely once? I am confused and don't want it twice

This is cause by the way the App Store checks to see if an application is installed on your system.
Basically when an app is installed it is in the Applications folder and this is where the MAS looks for them. So it looks at your purchase history for the apps you bought and looks in the Applications folder to see if they are installed. If an app is in your purchase history but not in the Applications folder the MAS says you need to install it.
For normal apps this works fine but the OS doesn;t install into the Applications folder. So the MAS sees you have Mountain Lion in your purchase history but it's not in the Applications folder and so it says you need to download it.
Hopefully one of these days Apple wil fix this.
regards

Weird Happenings with Trash Access, Desktop Item Movement, About this Mac

My computer appeared to working fine as off six or so hours ago, but when I went to move a word doc on my desktop to another place on my desktop, I notice something strange and unnerving. I could pick up the doc, highlight it, even open it, but I could not move it from one place to another on my desktop. The icon appears to move with my mouse after I click on it, as it always does, but when I go to drop it at the desired location, the icon does not "stick." There is just a quick blur as the translucent dragged copy zooms back to original. I can move icons from the desktop to a finder window or a folder on the desktop that isn't opened in a finder window, but I can drop a doc or a folder onto the desktop from the finder window. I have no idea what is going on with this.
As I was traversing my dock shortly after this initial discovery, I made another. When I click on my trash, the animated dock ceases movement and ability to function. the mouse pauses, does a spinning beachball, and in 2 minutes things appear to be normal. However, I just want to know what is going on, and I have no clue. When this occurs, I can still select items on the desktop and open them. However, I can not access the dock at all and I can't even use the command tab feature to switch apps.
Finally, as I went to sign up to post here, I noticed the final issue. I tried to click the "About this Mac" feature under the apple icon in the upper left corner and the info window would not open, hence the lack of info regarding my operating system.
Anyone? Help me please.

Hi JEDz, and a warm welcome to the forums!
Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, then move these files to the Desktop.
(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.)
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist
Test if the Finder/Desktop/Dock works right while in Safe Mode, reboot when complete, test again.

Why do About This Mac and Finder give different values of available space on my MacBook Pro?

About This Mac is reporting over 150 GB of disk space usage for backups on my MacBook Pro (2 GHz Intel Core i7, mid 2011) (About This Mac|More Info|Storage). Disk Utility shows the same usage as About This Mac.
When I check the available disk space in Finder, it reports approx 150GB more available (i.e. does not seem to see the backups).
I have never used the MacBook for backup - I back up to a Time Capsule.
I bought the MacBook second-hand - I have deleted the old users from Users & Groups. Is it possible that there is a hidden backup lurking on the disk? If so, how can I access it and delete it?
Is it possible that there is a bug in the Mountain Lion About This Mac storage reporting (but if so, why does the usage reported by Disk Utility agree with Abouth This Mac, but not with Finder?)
I really don't want to have to format my disk and restore from Time Machine. I'm not sure that the Time Machine backup does not include the 150GB of "hidden" files...
Any help would be appreciated.
Craig

It is local snapshots that Time Machine makes. Even when not connected to TM disk, TM creates local snapshots on your HD. Finder does not consider local snapshots essential and will use the space if necessary.

HT201364 My imac running OS 10.6.8, and want to install software that needs OS10.7. The latest upgrade Maverick requires a MAC dated 2007 or later. Where is the date... It is NOT in "About this Mac". Older upgrade better? How to proceed?

My imac running OS 10.6.8, and want to install Garmin software that needs OS10.7.
The latest upgrade Maverick requires a MAC dated 2007 or later. Where is the date... It is NOT in "About this Mac".
I feel an older upgrade than Maverick might be better for my machine?
Is it possible to upgrade to ie, 10,7? or another recommended upgrade.
How to proceed?

Upgrading from Snow Leopard to Lion or Mountain Lion
You can upgrade to Mountain Lion from Lion or directly from Snow Leopard. Mountain Lion can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $19.99.
If you sign into the App Store and try to purchase Mountain Lion but the App Store says your computer is not compatible then you may still be able to upgrade to Lion per the following information.
A. Upgrading to Mountain Lion or Mavericks
To upgrade to Mountain Lion or Mavericks you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or Lion installed. Purchase and download Mountain Lion or Mavericks (Free) from the App Store. Sign in using your Apple ID. Mountain Lion is $19.99 plus tax. The file is quite large, over 5 GBs, so allow some time to download. It would be preferable to use Ethernet because it is nearly four times faster than wireless.
     OS X Mountain Lion — System Requirements
     OS X Mavericks- System Requirements
       Macs that can be upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion
         1. iMac (Mid 2007 or newer) — Model Identifier 7,1 or later
         2. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer) —
             Model Identifier 5,1 or later
         3. MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) — Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         4. MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer) — Model Identifier 2,1 or later
         5. Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer) — Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         6. Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer) — Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         7. Xserve (Early 2009) — Model Identifier 3,1 or later
To find the model identifier open System Profiler in the Utilities folder. It's displayed in the panel on the right.
Are my applications compatible?
         See App Compatibility Table — RoaringApps.
B. Upgrading to Lion
If your computer does not meet the requirements to install Mountain Lion, it may still meet the requirements to install Lion.
You can purchase Lion by contacting Customer Service: Contacting Apple for support and service - this includes international calling numbers. The cost is $19.99 (as it was before) plus tax. It's a download. You will get an email containing a redemption code that you then use at the Mac App Store to download Lion. Save a copy of that installer to your Downloads folder because the installer deletes itself at the end of the installation.
     Lion System Requirements
       1. Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7,
           or Xeon processor
       2. 2GB of memory
       3. OS X v10.6.6 or later (v10.6.8 recommended)
       4. 7GB of available space
       5. Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply.

Why is my MBP serial number and model year no longer displayed in "about this mac" (have NOT replaced logic board)?

I have not replaced or manipulated the logic board (or any other hardware) on my mid-2012 13 inch MBP. Under the "about this mac" tab, the serial number is no longer displayed (it now states "unavailable") and the model year is also no longer displayed. I understand that I can find the serial number and model year several other ways, I am seeking to determine why this happened and if it could indicate further problems.
Has anyone else experienced this?
Thank you in advance for any help or insight.
JB

Man oh man. What a day. New symptoms again!
Lets start with the MBP dying in its sleep. I closed my MBP and left it for a few hours to come back to find it completely dead. Looked into this issue and with the help of the activity monitor cleaned up some things, turned off some sharing settings, got rid of some extensions, etc. Seems to have solved this issue.
Later on, I picked up my MBP while it was on with my left hand and the same display (horizontal lines), freeze, auto shutdown happened. Out of curiosity I tried to recreate the symptom. Sure enough, pressing (with little force) on the left side of the bottom case caused it to happen again. I researched this a bit and found several possible culprits (bad logic board, metallic sticker may cause shorts, bad RAM bank, google drive). The google drive one really surprised me, I removed google drive (worked for many people) and it did not fix the issue. A buddy had some good RAM for me to use today so I swapped it out and had the same issue. Decided to test the individual RAM banks and it turns out that the deepest bank must be faulty. Running with only one 4 gig stick in the outermost bank and the freeze, shutdown, beep issue is gone!
So, it seems I have fixed the dying in sleep problem and have a temporary work-around for the bad RAM bank. The SN issue remains.
I am going to try to find out what could make a RAM bank be faulty and if there is a way to repair it.
What are the chances that all this happens as soon as I try to find out why the SN is unavailable??
Below is the thread that I found interesting and useful.
2011 Macbook Pro 3 Beeps/Freeze

Problems with Youtube...and "about this mac"

Hi... all of a sudden... I cant play videos on Youtube... the page comes up fine... but there is no play button showing...so the screen is just black.... this is when I use Safari... no problems when I use google chrome..
to try to fix this I wanted to get my serial number off the "about this mac" icon... when I click on it now nothing at all happens...
What do I do?? is this a common problem?? I downloaded an update just prior to this problem occuring... should I not download any updates in future??
Hope someone can help me.
Kind regards
Latimus

Hi,
I did that (repair permissions) and now I cant turn my mac off.... seriously....
Is is possible i have a virus? I have windows 7.1 installed on a program called "Parallel".. is it possible these are somehow interfering with my Mac software?
I really appreciate your help, I am a computer luddite really, I just turn it on and hope it works... if it doesnt I normally take it to a technician... but I believe Mac has really good online support .. so Ill keep trying. thanks again..

What does "About this Mac" consider backup files?

When I look at the storage on my drive in "About this Mac" it says I have 92GB worth of "backup" files. I can't figure out what these files could possibly be, or where they're being kept. Any ideas?

http://pondini.org/TM/30.html

About This Mac doesn't display system serial number!

Hello. I've had this for a couple of months now and it wasn't up to now that it really started worrying me.
Just a month after I bought my MacBook, I had to send it in for repairs (logic board fried... in one month!) and after I received it, I noticed something strange. When I open  > About This Mac and look for my serial number... it just... doesn't show any. It shows either SystemSerumb or SystemSerialNumb. Why? How? What?
How can I write down my computer's serial number as it's supposed to be written? I know the number: I have it on the laptop's box and "under" the battery, so I won't write it wrong...
Help!

There is no need to be concerned as software does not ask for serial numbers.
Software may look at existing hardware as CPU type or RAM or Disk space as well as OS version, previous installation, possible registration, but not the serial number.
Technically, a serial number is more a software designation of the hardware, not hardware itself.
Message was edited by: roam

I am trying to connect to apple support and it keeps asking me to put in the SN of my MAC and when i do it says that the SN is invalid I am putting in the SN from under about this mac and it is the same as the one one the bottom of the MAC any ideas ?

I am trying to connect to apple support and it keeps asking me to put in the SN of my MAC and when i do it says that the SN is invalid I am putting in the SN from about this mac and it is the same as the one on the bottom of the MAC any ideas ?

Did you purchase this product direct from Apple online, in an Apple Store, or through a third-party authorized reseller? Or did you buy it from an original owner whose Applecare plan was supposed to be transitioned to a new owner, by them?
Do you have an original shipping carton the unit arrived in?
If the product was a retail 'open carton' purchase and no
back-track is possible, contact the reseller.
And if the computer had seen a major service with logic
board replaced, etc, it may have other issues with serial
number vs one they may have assigned it. Usually a
new logic board may have the SN flashed or if a unit
was determined to be a reman, a new # assigned. But
that would appear in System Profiler, if officially reman.
If you registered a product anywhere with Apple, it would show on a web page along with its serial numbers, going back several years, at this page after you log in there.
https://getsupport.apple.com/GetproductgroupList.action
A blue text with triangle See all products and services opens an Apple ID
sign-in window, then the page changes to show your items & info about them.
If you run the serial number through online Lookup, what appears?
http://www.powerbookmedic.com/identify-mac-serial.php
Not sure if this helps, 'your product' should appear - if registered.
Good luck & happy computing!

Can't get info from "about This Mac"

I want to purchase a replacement battery for my Powerbook g4 15". For this I need the model #, which normally I can obtain by clicking on "About this mac" from the apple logo at the top of the screen. But not today.Absolutely nothing happens when I click it besides that it's highlighted in blue. I can get "Software Update", "System Preferences", "Dock", "Recent Items." I can surf the internet with Safari.
What is going on?
Is there another way to access this information?
Thank you....

Try logging out and back in.
If no joy, log out and back in as a different user, creating one if need be.
Joe

Why does my Aperture library show up as "Other" in About This Mac?

I go to About This Mac- More Info- Storage, and it says I only have 2.99GB of photos when my Aperture library is close to 200GB. The Aperture library gets thrown into the Other portion.
I have tried using terminal to delete the current index and re-index, but that didn't work.
I did not have this problem when I was using iPhoto, it has only been since I switched to Aperture months ago. All my software is updated to the most recent versions. I had an early 2008 15" MBP and upgraded to a 2012 15" MBP, same problem on both machines. Is there any way to fix Spotlight Indexing?

The Aperture library is a library package and not an image file, so Spotlight will not show the library as an image but as "other". Since the unified library format has been introduced, iPhoto images will not be shown in Spotlight either.
The usual way to search for images managed by Aperture should be to use the elaborate search tools provided by Aperture - smart searches and smart albums or the Media Browser to access them from applications that can browse iPhoto and Aperture libraries, like Mail, Preview, iMovie, ...
If you want Spotlight to be able to the original image files of your Aperture images, convert your Aperture library into a referenced library (see: Aperture 3 User Manual: Working with Referenced Images). This way, the original image files will be stored in a folder outside the package and Spotlight or Find will see them. Only, if you decide to do that, remember that it it not save to manipulate the original image files in any other way than using Aperture to do this - don't accidentally delete them, move them, rename them, edit them. Referencing is meant as a method to be able to store the bulk of your images on external drives, not to give access to the original image files.
Also, Spotlight will never be able to show you your edited versions, since they do not exist as rendered image files until you export or share them. So Spotlight can only show the originals.
Regards
Léonie

Is it possible to access 'About This Mac' information without OS X installed?

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