Reinstall Lion problem: "Lion cannot be installed on this computer"

Question

Hi, I just bought a new Mac Mini 2011 with Lion already installed on it. After use Time Machine to bring back my old data I found out the system wasn't working at the speed anyone would expect from a brand new product. As an example, it takes too long to login or to get the window to close one of the apps of the dock (it can take at least 5-6 seconds to appear...) Something that didn't even happen in my old MacBook.
For this reason I tried to reinstall Lion using the method described here: http://www.apple.com/macosx/recovery/
I even tried with the external Usb drive option but when the utility tries to verify the system I get this error message: "Lion OS 10.7  cannot be installed on this computer".
I will call Apple Techincal Service of course, but in the meantime... anybody has any idea about why this is happening?
Thanks!

Answer 1

Try:
Reinstalling Lion Without the Installer
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alterhatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. 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 main menu.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You can also re-download the Lion installer by opening the App Store application. Hold down the OPTION key and click on the Purchases icon in the toolbar. You should now see an active Install button to the right of your Lion purchase entry. There are situations in which this will not work. For example, if you are already booted into the Lion you originally purchased with your Apple ID or if an instance of the Lion installer is located anywhere on your computer.