Problem reinstalling mac os

I was attempting to reinstall mac os on my macbook. The reinstall got to the end of the installation and then it ended. It told me that there was an error and that I would have to reinstall. I hit ok and when it came back on the only thing that comes up is a folder with a question mark. It isn't reading the disk at all and won't start the os. The disk is clean of any scratches and is the original install cd that came with the computer.

I needed to install because I just sold my macbook on ebay and was wanting to erase the hard drive before I shipped it off.
The only thing connected to the computer was the power cord.
I erased and installed.
I had, I think 41 of 78mb free.
The machine did come with 10.4.9. I was only using the install cd's that came with the computer.

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Problem reinstalling Mac OSX 10.5

I am having a problem with reinstalling Mac OSX 10.5 after putting in the disc to do it everything was fine it asks what language I want and then it tells me that it can not be installed on this computer. I am trying to install it on a MacBook bought last year it is an intel machine and I have always kept up on the system updates. I don't want to take it in to a store more because I am stationed in Japan and getting it to a store requires more work than it is worth. If there is any advice on what to do I would greatly appreciate it.

You need the original grey system discs for each Mac model you own, not just to be able to reinstall the OS but also to reinstall the model's bundled retail application software (like iLife, if included) & to run the very model-specific Apple Hardware Test it contains if that is ever required.
The retail Leopard discs do not include either of these capabilities, so unless you are desperate to get Leopard reinstalled on the MacBook, you should try hard to find the original MacBook system discs. Failing that, you can contact AppleCare & request a replacement disc set. Generally speaking, Apple will ship one to you for a nominal replacement cost if you can show that you own that model by providing its serial number or other proof of purchase information.
Regarding installing Vista or Windows XP, both the retail Leopard & system discs include Boot Camp, which includes a convenient utility to format the hard disk for dual booting. While complicated, this can be done without that utility but you still need the hardware drivers the disc contains to get the full use of the Mac's hardware when running Windows. I have no idea if say an iMac's system discs have the Windows hardware drivers that also support a MacBook or if this too is model-specific, so on that you are on your own.

I am having problems reinstalling Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.

I'm new to Mac and I'm having problem reinstalling the operating sysytem. After erasing the hard drive I have attempted to reinstall and keep getting the same error message. INSTALL FAILED, MAC OS X COULD NOT BE INSTALLED ON YOUR COMPUTER, THE INSTALLED COULD NOT COPY THE NECESSARY SUPPORT FILES. At this point the computer is useless. I can't get the disc out of the drive or exit the installer. It looks to me like the computer needs the disc to restart. I have tried several times..... Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

Hi Berry,
Thank you so much for your help! Yes my computer was a mess and we had tried everything to straighten it out, but nothing worked, so reinstall was our last hope. I had taken it to a friends house last night to have him help me with the reinstall. After he started it I closed the lid and took it home to finish it, and when I got it home and open the lid to continue the disc drive sounded really funny, like it was trying to run but couldn't. After a few minutes of that I would get the error message. With every attempt to try again the noise got worse and again would error. I'm wondering if during the trip home the disc shifted in the drive slightly causing the problem. With your advice I was finally able to get the disc to eject, but had to put back in for the computer the finish starting because I had erased the hard drive. After it finished starting I powered the computer down again and started it again holding the "C" key (something that was written right on the cd....blonde moment). I started the install again and it went right through without a single hesitation and without the horrible noise...Wooooo Hoooo!! Thank you again Berry, I would love to kiss the man who came up with the internet forum.
Denise

MBP 2011 died and having problems reinstalling Mac OS

Hello,
Having problems trying to make my MBP start working again...
Tech info:
Early 2011 MBP, 10.6.6 preinstalled Mac OS X
2.3GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7
8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB
256GB Solid State Drive
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
MacBook Pro 17-inch Hi-Resolution Antiglare Widescreen Display
Was full updated up to date 3-4 days ago, so probably it was 10.6.7 before the crash.
I am pretty new to Macs and english is not my first language, so please excuse me if i use wrong terminology. Thanks.
It is pretty long story, the problem is - i can not install Mac OS X and make it work. The at the moment description of the situation is in Part 6, so you might want to skip parts 1-5, although reading those might be needed to understand the source of the problem or some details.
The Story:
Everything worked great for about a month but then multi-language kernel panic windows asking me to reboot computer poped up. Reboot didnt help and it kept asking me for more and more reboots after like 1 minute after it logs in into Mac Os.
I had 3 programms(among others) installed: Kaspersky(fully updated trial), Parallels(activated a month age oem version, runing Windows 7 as a virtual machine without using Bootcamp) and virtualbox(activated 2 weeks ago, not being used or opened for ~10 days).
Part 1 - After logging into Mac OS 2 messages always pop'ed up:
1) Kaspersky couldnt lunch in previous Mac OS startup(not current)
2) Parallels message: Its time to choose either to use trial Parallels or to enter activation key. Thats really weird because it was activated a month ago, was fully updated and worked great every day. When i tried to activate it again it just didnt accept the key which was accepted last time: the icon was still grey and not clickable, rechecked 10 times at that moment.
Ok, decided to uninstall both Kaspersky and Parallels via Safe Mode. Safe Mode is working fine. Removed programms by dragging them from application folder to trash can. Worked fine. Logged into normal mode. No messages appear except the "Hello, you had kernel last time", but still Kernel appear in 2-3 minutes. Logging in 32b mode(by pressing 32 while booting up) doesn't help either.
Part 2 - Rebooted. Booted from boot DVD and used Disk utility - nothing is wrong.
Went to safe mode again. Found Kernel Log and it showed me that the source of the error was some file of VirtualBox(at least it has virtualbox in its name. Virtualbox itself, again, wasn't launched for like 10 days) located in /extension folder. Removed virtualbox program by dragging it from applications folder to trash. Worked fine, but those files in /extension folder weren't deleted. I am pretty new to Macs, so i wasn't sure if those are really VirtualBox programm's files or Mac OS system files, so i decided to reboot and check if the problem still not fixed.
Result: You cant boot neither in normal mode or in Safe mode. It just doesnt react on anything.
No backups. Great.
Part 3. Booted via boot DVD. Worked fine. Checked if disc was ok - it wasn't ok. Tried to repair - cant repair, suggests me to reinstall.
Made a backup on external HDD(have it atm, so iа you need any info i can get from that backup to help you guys understand what happened - ask and i will give it to you asap).
Erased internal HDD with zeroes(1 row), it still has 4 files on it(around 300 mb), probably those are the files copied from Boot DVD, but i am not sure.
Part 4. Tried to install Mac OS from boot DVD. File system is for Mac os with journaled option activated. Installation process starts fine but at some point(around 25-30% while telling me its around 30 minutes left) the error message appears telling mу the installation couldn't be continued because it cant copy some files from DVD(no particullar files mentioned). Advising me to reboot and try again. Same thing happens always.
DVD disk was never used and even not unpacked before, looks fine...
Part 5. Inserted the boot DVD in another mac, made a copy via disk utility in mac os(without booting using this disc), copied it to external drive where the backup is. So there are 2 files on external drive: backup.dmg and starupDVD.dmg.
Pulled in the external hdd to MBP and tried clicking option key to choose him to boot from HDD. Nothing happens, just mouse appears without any windows where i can choose the boot option. Weird. Tried all 3 usb ports, same problem. Tried to put the DVD disk and click option key - both mouse and window appears, but only DVD boot option avaivable.
Tried to reset RAM by clicking Command-Option-P-R keys. Reset went fine(the sound and so on), but it didn't effect on anything.
Part 6(this very moment): So here i am. Have erased internal HDD with 4 files in it(around 300 mb, dont know what), boot DVD which came along with MBP with 10.6.6 MaсOS, external HDD with the same DVD and backup.
Disk utility says my internal HDD is ok.
Clicking option key doesnt make my MBP see external HDD while it is plugged in any usb port, only mouse appears. Same option key sees dvd disk if it is plugged in and boots normally.
You can see and work with external HDD if you boot from boot DVD.
Installation process starts both fine on internal and external HDDs. On internal it crashed with "cant copy files" message at ~20-30%(~30 minutes left), on external the screen just turns grey with moveable mouse on it without any messages at around 30%(~40 minutes left).
External HDD - Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1TB USB 3.0
Internal HDD - 256gb SSD which came from Apple (sorry for calling it internal HDD)
Think its pretty much it...
What should i do to make this thing work? Pretty much desperate already.
Thank You for any help.
Sincerely yours,
Alexander.

Just one more thing - the description of what i did while first Kernel appeared:
Happened 2 days ago. Wasn't turning it off for like a day, only sleep mode by closing it. Worked fine all day, wasn't doing anything, except for checking mail 2-3 times and having windows 7 virtual machine opened but doing nothing, everything was going fine. Then closed it without turning off.
Opened 3-4 hours later, everything was working fine for 30 minutes of checking mail, then Kernel appeared. After that pretty much everything i did is described in part 1-5.
Note: all the time MBP was connected to internet via wifi, so updates to both MBP and virtual machine of all programs were possible.
I only shared downloads and desktop folders, so windows couldn't have access to system folder of Mac Os.
Hope this might help...Thanks again.

Problem reinstalling Mac 10.6.8 on iMac early 2008, 2 meg memory.

Have iMac early 2008 2meg memory. Upgraded from 10.5.8 to 10.6 then to 10.6.8 but computer ran slow and froze so tried to reinstall OS 10.6 with disc. Used disc utility to check hard drive and it was ok. Tried twice to install 10.6 from install disc, but both times failed due to errors. Existing system 10.6.8 is corrupt so need to reinstall 10.6 then upgrade to 10.6.8 . I don't want to erase disc as have some apps e.g. CS5, which I don't want to erase. I also would prefer not having to back up disc apps and then reformat disc.   Any suggestions? Guess I could make boot drive, erase hard drive OS 10.6.8, and then install new copy. Had major issues with 10.6.8 running slow and freezing. Could that be 2 meg memory? Have more memory coming in mail and will upgrade to 4 meg. Can you run more than the apple recommended 4 meg on this machine? Thanks for help. Sorry for the lengthly post.....

To do what you want requires erasing the disk first. There is no way around this.
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.

I wanna reinstall Mac OSx lion on MacBook pro, my problem is I dint purchase OSx lion with my apple Id before.so anybody can tell me how to purchase OSx with my apple Id on MacBook

I wanna reinstall Mac OSx lion on MacBook pro, my problem is I dint purchase OSx lion with my apple Id before.so anybody can tell me how to purchase OSx with my apple Id on MacBook

Nope. You can purchase a Snow Leopard DVD for $29.00 through an Apple retailer or ordering from AppleCare:
Apple Store Customer Service at 1-800-676-2775 or visit online Help for more information.
To contact product and tech support visit online support site.

Reinstalling Mac OS X Problem. Can't lose information. Need quick response!

Okay ,so I recently had a software problem with my mac, and I went to the apple store and the genius told me I need to reinstall mac os x tiger, and it wil work. WEll I put the disc in and he gave me specific instructions on how to keep all my documents, movies, pictures, etc. He told me that when I get to the screen wherer it asks me to choose a harddrive to install it, I need to click "options" and make sure "preserve network settings and users" is checked, but when I got there it was gray, and unclickable. I only have 17 gigs of space left, and that may be the reason, but I don't know... I don't want to click "archive and install" and not click what he told me, and click continue, cause if I seriously loose all my information, I will die. I was thinking about clearing out my harddrive somehow, but Ithe genius told me that 17 gigs was DEFINATELY enough. I don't know what todo

If you have a 250GB drive, 17 GB is right on the border of too little.
I'm not sure if I understand whether you have actually tried to reinstall? Have you inserted the disc and gone to options>archive and install>preserve settings?
I wasn't suggesting you partition your main drive, just an external one.
Why is your computer not working? Have you discovered what its problem is? Have you run the Hardware Test from your install disc?
Lots of questions, but it's hard to solve a problem without all the pieces of the puzzle being there
Miriam

Crucial M4 SSD MBP "There was a problem installing Mac OS X" Try Reinstalling

So I have an extra ssd. I decide to put it in my MPB mid or late 2009 to give it some extra life.
I am doing a fresh install from a thumb drive. The macbook find the partition and boots into the installer. about 10 seconds into progress bar this appears: "There was a problem installing mac os x" Try reinstalling.
The progress bar goes away.
The thumb drive is good... it installed on my mother's laptop just fine.
I have the ssd in the place of the old Hdd until my adapter comes around to put one of them in the opti bay.
Does anyone have any ideas or has seen this before?

I forgot to mention a fresh mountain lion install. The M4 has latest firmware as of today.

Having problems erasing and reinstalling Mac os x on 2007 MBP 15in

Hello
I am having some problems here and was hoping for some help.
Just recently here, I decided to erase and reinstall Mac Os X on my sister's 2007 MBP. She just recently got a new 15in MBP and wanted most of her content on the 2007 to be erased. Well... I did some reading around and found that the easiest way to do so was with the os X DVD that came with the thing. Problem is....I can't seem to find it for the 2007 MBP. So I decided to try the 2010 version. Went into the disk, ran disk utility, wiping the hard drive, did all the right steps according to Apple, and then rebooted to try get a clean version of OS X on. Well, problem is, it would come to the language select screen, but after that selection, it would come up with this error:
"Mac OS X can't be installed on this computer
If you want to restore your system from a Time Machine backup, click "Restore from Backup"
I've tried reformatting the HD several times and even tried restoring, but it wouldn't display my system restores...
So my quesiton is, is it becuase I have the wrong DVD that its not working or is there something else I"m missing?
Any help would be vastly appreacited (especially since its not my computer!)
Thanks!
Jordon Spronk

The install disks that come with a model of a Mac have certain hardware drivers for the computer and video card, you can't use another Mac's install disk.
However you can use the $29 Snow Leopard install disk, but it doesn't come with iLife, that's extra.

Reinstalling Mac OS X Lion from Recovery problem

So I've decided to sell my 2007 Macbook (Black) to someone else, but when I tried to
wipe it (I already did it successfully) and reinstall Mac OS X Lion, it comes up with
"This item is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later"
It happened today, I'll try again tomorrow since it says "Please try again later"
but I need a quick solution because I need the money! Help please!

If you plan to sell or give away this computer, then you must install the original version of OS X that it came with pre-installed. That was 10.4.9 or 10.5 depending upon which model you have. Get out the installer discs that came with the computer and use them to erase the disk and install a fresh copy of OS X. Or you can do the same using the retail Snow Leopard DVD.
Clean Install of OS X
     1. Boot the computer using the OS X 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. Before it restarts just shut it down.
Be sure you also de-authorize the computer and sign out of your iCloud account.

Miss erased disk? and reinstall MAC OS X problem!

NEEDS HELP...
very new to mac...
"160.04 GB Internal SATA Disk"
"Macintosh HD"
Im completely erased the "macintosh HD' on my macbook using disk utility....
then i try to reinstall MAC OS on it....
but then it couldnt find any disk to locate the installation....
PLEASE HELP ME!!! =(

Does Disk Utility still see the drive? If so, did you format it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled)? (Select the formatted volume, with whatever name you gave it, in Disk Utility and look at the Format info at the bottom of the window.) Also in Disk Utility, select the drive itself, not the volume, and see what the Partition Map Scheme says... should be GUID if you want to install Mac OS X on it.

Unable to Reboot After Software Update - Unable to Reinstall Mac OS 10.4.10

Hello,
I just bought a Macmini 9 months ago, and I believe I may need to either erase the HD to reinstall the original Mac OS (10.4.10) or else replace it. However, I am not familiar with Mac and don't know how to reformat the disk. Can anyone help?
Each time there is a software update, I experience problems starting up from the HD. After the last update a few days ago, I am unable to start up from the HD at all. I tried using the original install CD 1 to reinstall Mac OS 10.4.10 with archiving. However, I received an error saying "unable to install because there is a newer version already installed." Therefore, I tried to start up from the HD again by pressing Option key at startup, but the Macmini continously turned off by itself without rebooting. I tried reinstalling Mac OS with the erase option, but it failed. After that, the Mac OS install CD1 only gives me the option to reinstall additional applications, but when I select continue, there is not HD shown to install the applications.
Disk Utility First Aid on CD1 was unable to repair the disk. I received the following messages: "Invalid sibling link", "Volume check failed", "The underlying task reported failure on exit", "1 HFS volume checked", "1 volume could not be repaired because of an error."
At the bottom of the page under Disk Utility, the following information about the disk is available. Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled); Capacity: 111.5 GB (119,690,149,888 Bytes); Available: - ; Used: - ; Number of Files: - ; Owners Enabled: - ; Number of Folders: - .
System Profiler is able to identify type, disk identifier, file system, etc. It shows the volume supports journaling, but is not journaled.
Scan Image for Restore shows Library_Preferences (Empty), and Root applications are all grayed out.
I performed the Apple Hardware Test (ver 3A129) by pressing D at startup. The test ran for 5 minutes and 6 seconds. It reported "No trouble found".
It seems the HD is empty, but the install CD is not offering any options to reinstall the OS, only the additional applications. I believe it is a partition error, but I am not familiar with Mac and hesitate to proceed any further.
How do I reformat the disk so that I can reinstall the original Mac OS 10.4 and 10.5?
Your help is sincerely appreciated. Thanks.

Good news!
The usual reason why updates fail or mess things up, is if Permissions are not fixed before & after every update, with a reboot... you may get a partial update when the installer finds it doesn't have Permissions to change one obscure little part of the OS, leaving you with a mix of OS versions.
Some people get away without Repairing Permissions for years, some for only days.
If Permissions are wrong before applying an update, you could get mixed OS versions, if Directory is the slightest messed up, who knows!
If many Permission are repaired, or any Directory errors are found, you may need to re-apply some the latest/biggest updates.
I only use Software Update to see what is needed, then get them for real via...
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/
That way I can wait a week or so, check the forums for potential problems, and get Permissions & such in order before installing.

HT5149 Hi, I still have problems reinstalling Final Cut Pro even though I followed these steps. Didn´t find "com.apple.motionapp.plist" to remove though, but the others I found. Reason why I have to reinstall is because I have repaired my Macbook Pro hard

Hi, I still have problems reinstalling Final Cut Pro even though I followed these steps.
Reason why I have to reinstall is because I have repaired my Macbook Pro hard drive at a Mac Authorized Repair.
Short history of repair and my Final Cut Pro installation:
1. Macbook Pro stopped working, sendt it for repair. Had the Final Cut Pro installed,
2. Desided to try a MiniMac and recovered my backup with Time Machine, got the Final Cut Pro working.
3. Got my Macbook Pro back from repair, did backup on this one as well. But this time only the files not the Applications.
4. Removed the files as mentioned in HT5149. Didn´t find "com.apple.motionapp.plist" to remove though, but the others I found.
5. When I try to install Final Cut Pro from App Store, it downloads the application as planned. But after download it won´t show in the Application folder nor in the downloads folder, nor will it start an installation prosess. If I pause the installation in App Store, I can see the Final Cut Pro icon in my Dock. (But, as mentioned, after installation it won´t show neither here or in the Applications folder).
Any suggestions on what I should try now?
Thanks for any reply, I´m in deep water here...

Sounds like there is a file you're not getting. Never do a removal manually. It's so time consuming and a pain. There's a very easy and fast way to do this, safely, properly.
Get the free "Final Cut Remover" app from Digital Rebellion (dot com), use this to remove FCP X.
Reboot the Mac.
Download from scratch.
If you're not seeing FCP X in your app folder, run Disk Utility to Repair all drives.
If that doesn't help, try running Disk Warrior from Altsoft to repair the directories on all drives.

FileMaker Server problem on Mac Mini Server - Mac Mini won't boot

I just installed a brand new Mac Mini Server today, and also FileMaker Server 11. A first-timer for both Mac OS X Server and FileMaker Server, I made an error as explained below, and right now I don't know how to get back on track with the system. It won't boot.
So, how did this happen?
At first everything was proceeding according to plan. I configured the pre-installed Mac OS X Server on the Mac Mini with users, groups and services. This was tested from clients and this seemed to work just fine. Then I installed and configured FileMaker Server. This was also tested from a client, and the example database that came with FMS was served up just fine.
The problem arose when I tried to install my existing FileMaker databases. I simply checked to see where in the file system the example database was located, and then copied my old databases to that location (I think it was Library > FileMaker Server > Data > Databases or something close to it - can't check it now...). I had the FileMaker Server Admin Console running, and hit the Refresh button hoping that this would make FileMaker Server find the databases.
This was my first error. I should have read ahead in the instructions to see that one is supposed to use an Upload Database assistant instead...
What happened when I hit refresh was that the FileMaker Server Admin Console became completely unresponsive with a spinning ball as cursor. I left it for about an hour hoping it would terminate, but gave up and tried to shut it down. It wouldn't close, so I force quit it from the Finder. Then I tried to shut down FileMaker Server, but I needed to force quit this as well. After this I thought it would be best to reboot the Mac Mini, so I shut it down, but now it won't even boot, it just stays on the screen with the spinning wheel for ever!
I have tried all the keyboard options while booting, but nothing seems to help. In safe mode, the grey progress bar just grows to about one third, then disappears and leaves the eternally spinning wheel.
The server version of the Mac Mini doesn't have an optical drive, only two internal hard drives. I tried to reinstall from scratch using the optical drive on another Mac on the network. The startup disk appeared when I tried to boot the Mac Mini holding down the option key, and after about 20 minutes or so of the spinning wheel I could actually access the discs. I started by running Disk Utility to check disk permissions. There were a lot of repairs concerning permissions and groups, especially on "Library". It said "ACL differs on Library", I don't know what this is but this was repaired. I then ran Repair Disk. The volume appeared to be OK.
When I tried to reinstall Mac OS X Server however, this failed with the message
"You can't upgrade this version of Mac OS X because a newer version is installed. Mac OS X Server couldn't be installed on this disk." I don't know how this can be, but I may have run software update earlier today.
What should I try next? Should I erase the primary HD and try to install again? Or should I install the system software on the secondary HD? Or should I just try to reboot as is in the hope that the disk permission repairs did the trick...?
Any helpful pointers would be greatly appreciated!

Hello there, I came across your post when browsing the forum for passive advice. I am in the same boat as you and am a first timer for both of these tools. I work for a company who now needs to expand its network and database capabilities. I have been assigned this task and these are the tools i have opted for. I have not yet purchased them and i am pleased to find someone who has my desired setup. Could you please advise on the simplicity of the setup and whether an advanced knowledge is required.
I want to use it in a mixed operating system environment. Is this possible?
Regards
Matthew

Having trouble reinstalling Mac OS X

Hi everyone,
First I think I have to say I'm not very clever when it comes to Mac's operating system. Altough I always try my best.
With that said, here I go:
I have an old white macbook. I am sorry I don't know the model. I only know it's quite old (probably 2007?).
At the beggining of the year I started having problems with the fan, but apart from that everything was ok. A few months ago when I turned on my computer it shutted down a couple of minutes after I turned it on. I did turn it on again and the same thing happened over and over again. Sometimes it would stay on for longer but it wouldn't let me open anything.
ANYWAY, I got a new MacBook Pro and I love it. But I don't wanna chuck away my old white one. A few days ago I decided to restore it (?). I don't know, I followed some instructions I found on this website. Everything went well. The next step is to reinstall Mac OS X. When I turn on my computer a window with a few options ( I think it's 4 options) pops up, if I'm not mistaken the first option has something to do with the Time Machine, the second one is to reinstall Mac OS X, the third one is to use Safari for help, and the last one is Disk Utility. Anyway, I click on the second one, I then click continue and a little window pops up saying that Apple has to verify if my macbook is eligible for the reinstall. I click continue and this step takes AGES. I mean, I've been in front of the computer for HOURS (I know... how miserable!). But aparently apple never 'finishes verifying' my macbook's eligibility.
I've checked my WiFi connection and is working well.
Is there something I can do?
Please HELP!!!
Thanks for reading.

That's true of Lion or later, but not of Snow Leopard or earlier. A 2007 machine came with Tiger, Leopard, or Snow Leopard but not Lion.
Upgrading to Snow Leopard
You can purchase Snow Leopard through the Apple Store: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard - Apple Store (U.S.). The price is $19.99 plus tax. You will be sent physical media by mail after placing your order.
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.

Problem reinstalling mac os

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