Reinstalling lion without wiping drive

i need to reinstall lion without wiping my drive because i haven't made a backup yet. how do i do this?
thanks.
carl

Can't you first make the backup?
Reinstalling Lion
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.

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Reinstalling lion WITOUT wiping the drive

i need to reinstall lion without wiping the drive because i have no back up. how do i do this?
thanks
carl

Lion? You posted in the Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard forum... ??

Reinstall lion on empty drive

Hi,
I am trying to fix my mate's MacBook Air, which wouldn't boot. After booting from an external drive I used disk utilty to try and repair the internal drive but got an error saying "invalid node structure' or something like that and that it could not be repaired. So I erased the internal drive with the intention of just reinstalling snow leopard. However, I hadn't realised that it was running Lion...
So now I have an erased internal drive on the MacBook but I do have Time Machine backups on an external drive. How can I restore one of these backups off the external drive? I don't know how to reinstall Lion as it doesn't come with a disk like the previous os x versions have...
Any help on how to restore one of the Time Machine backups (or reinstall Lion without having to repurchase it) would be greatly appreaciated!
Cheers.

I repaired the Time Machine drive using disk utility as it showed errors when i verified it. That went fine but when I tried again to boot from it the same thing happened... It shows the Time Machine drive when holding option at startup but when i click it, it just gives the grey screen with the question mark folder... Whats going on?
Anyway, I booted from my external bootable drive (different to his external time machine drive) and loaded the app store. I logged in with his details but when I searched for Lion, it didn't say anything about already being purchased... it just showed the price. I looked in the purchased tab and it had nothing in there...
How can I download Lion without paying for it again? It was paid for when the computer was bought so we should not be charged again (IMO)...

MBP downgrade to SL from Lion without backup drive

Hi there,
I bought my 15 inch MBP only about 4 weeks ago with SL installed already on it.
Yes, I have made the mistake of upgrading to Lion and I have not made any backups at any point.
I am experiencing monitor crashes when I resume from sleep.
My MBP also did not come with a SL installation disc.
My question is simple - if I buy a copy of SL from the Apple store and install it - will it work?
Thank you.

As I answered in the other copy of this question you posted:
Purchase replacement discs from Apple: 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.
Purchase a copy of Snow Leopard which may work provided your computer doesn't require a special build of Snow Leopard.
However, I suspect reinstalling Lion may well fix your problem:
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.

Reinstall Lion without losing data?

I bought a Mac Mini with Snow Leopard on it over the summer. I had nothing but problems with permissions. I eventually decided to buy the Server part of Lion. That has also been a headache. I have scoured the forums to find out how I can reinstall the Server hoping that would take care of the issues. It appears that reinstalling Lion then adding Server are my only options. However I need help doing this right way. I have a virtual machine and data from address book to Calendar that I can't loose. I have time Machine but I am scared of just relying on that as the permissions issues I have been having keep coming back. Apple support has been of no help with just the one issue I was having with contacts. That problem came right back after I got off the third call to Apple.
Can I reinstall Lion without loosing my data?
Can I just copy my user folders to an external HD then reinstall Lion clean, add users, then copy data from those folders back? Specifically will I loose the work my wife has done importing and flagging faces in iPhoto?

I would do as you said, save data, or do a clone first.
But, reinstalling Lion should only affect those things that
lion installs and not anything else, unless you do a clean
install of course. Backing up is a good precaution though
should something go wrong.

How can I restore the recovery partition of Lion without erasing drive?

Hello there,
I have a mid-2011 MBP equipped with Snow Leopard, but at one point I needed to access the AHT, which doesn't boot from the second DVD, released months before. It turns out this Mac requires AHT to run from Lion's Recovery HD partition. Since this Mac doesn't contain any Lion software, is there a way I could install the content of Recovery HD without reinstalling Lion itself so I can have the AHT ready if I need to? Of course I don't want to erase nor get rid of Snow Leopard. Drive is not original.

Apple Hardware test is only available two methods on Intel Macs
Pre-July 20, 2011 Macs through the prebundled installer discs you can order for around $20 from AppleCare if you lost the disc. The 'D' key boot then boots off the disc that contains the hardware test
Post-July 19, 2011 Macs through the 'D' key boot (no CD/DVD necessary, and no installed software necessary)
Both methods are described here: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1509
Dates given are based when the vintage of the Mac was sold through Apple authorized retail stores, and not when you bought an operating system or purchased used or refurbished.

Trying to erase and reinstall Lion without Apple ID

A while back I bought a MacBook Pro from a friend. It came with a Lion Installation Disk.
I've tried erasing the harddrive, and reinstalling Lion, but now im being prompted to enter the Apple ID that purchased Lion.
Since my friend bought the computer along with Lion using his Apple ID, how do I reset and install Lion without having to enter his Apple ID?
Any help is appreciated.

The important question is, did this machine come with lion preinstalled or was it purchased from the app store?
If it came preinstalled, your friend needs to call apple to transfer the license for the OS to you. If he purchased Lion, the license is not transferable and you will need the original install disks, wipe the drive, install the original OS, and then purchase Lion with your own Apple ID.
FWIW, Lion did not come on a disk.

Reinstalling lion on formatted drive

Hello Lion Community,
I am having an issue with one of my users computers. We want to replace the drive in her macbook pro but dont have a way to reinstall lion (lion was not upgraded from the app store but came on the machine). I cant see lion on the app store anymore with the recent release of mountain lion, and was wondering how i could reinstall lion on this new (or future reformatted) drives.

If you start the computer while holding ⌘ R it will load OS X Recovery.
This works even if you completely removed the drive and replaced it with an empty one. OS X Recovery will enable you to reinstall the OS originally installed on the Mac. Read more:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718
OS X Internet Recovery
If you happen to encounter a situation in which you cannot start from the Recovery System, such as your hard drive stopped responding or you installed a new hard drive without OS X installed, new Mac models introduced after public availability of OS X Lion or OS X Mountain Lion, automatically use the OS X Internet Recovery feature if the Recovery System (Command-R method above) doesn't work. OS X Internet Recovery lets you start your Mac directly from Apple's Servers.
Some computers that did not ship with OS X Lion or OS X Mountain Lion installed may have a software update available that allows them to use Lion Internet Recovery.
I've tried it. It works
For computers prior to the Lion era, the preferred method is to reinstall the OS from its original system installation DVD. However, as the note above indicates, some computers shipped with Snow Leopard in the few months leading up to Lion may have the option to use Lion Internet Recovery. Exactly which models qualify is difficult to determine.

Tried updating Macbook to Yosemite - drive crashed - now trying to reinstall Lion on new drive but it is 'temporarily unavailable' HELP PLEASE

Last night, I tried updating my Macbook to Yosemite. It crashed mid way - telling me the drive needs repairing.
I am now following these instructions below. I backed up all of my work before the update, however not my iTunes / iPhoto. I would like to do this. My next step is to reinstall Lion on my external hard drive however it is 'temporarily unavailable'.
Does anyone know a way around this? I assume you can no longer install Lion cos Apple move so quickly.
These are the instructions I am following at the moment :
Installing Mavericks but disk damaged, no recovery or safe modes
Help appreciated!

I don't understand why some online forums are saying to click "erase." This is a brand new external hard without any files on it.
Just use Disk Utility to erase the drive. Select HFS+ (Journaled). It should then become a Mac HFS+ drive.
Also, if I use time machine, will my files be deleted off my computer and only saved on the external hard drive, or will it still be on my computer as well as the external hard drive? I have never backed up my files, so please explain to me what I should do and whether I will have files in both places.
TM is for backing up stuff. It woudn't make much sense to be a "backup" if it deleted the originals of the stuff it was backing up would it? So you end up with the source (original) stuff and the destination backup.
Lastly, if I am thinking about updating my software to a newer version (such as OX lion) is it better to back up files now or wait till after I update the software? I am not sure if it makes a difference.
I always say never ever update your system without a backup to fall back on in case something should go wrong with the update, and in the case of lion, you don't like it, and want to go back to Snow Leopard. So yes, it makes a big difference!
Update:
The following is for 10.4 but it's good enough to show you the erase operation in disk utility:
Erasing a disk or volume
You might also want to look at this:
Format Your Hard Drive Using Disk Utility
Finally, TM isn't the only way to back stuff up. There are many 3rd party backup utilities as well. Two of the more popular ones are Cabon Copy Cloner and Super Duper.

Reinstall lion via flash drive

Hi, I have a macbook pro with Lion loaded on it and the mail has become unusable. I'm wondering if I should do a backup of my stuff with time machine then reinstall Lion. My problem is I took out my dvd drive and installed a SSD to boot from in that spot so I don't have a functioning dvd drive.
Isn't there a way to download a disk image or something onto a flash drive of the OS and reinstall it? And if so could anyone walk me through it like I'm a 10 yr old as I'm somewhat computer literate but way behind most of you.
Thanks in advance for your help.

http://www.macworld.com/article/161069/2011/07/make_a_bootable_lion_installer.ht ml

Last Time Machine back-up is 45 days old and only of User Account files (not entire HD) and I must now reinstall Lion without being able to perform a new back-up. Will any new User Account files, since my last back-up, be lost when Lion reinstalls (via i

My last Time Machine back-up is 45 days old and only of User Account files (not entire HD) and I must now reinstall Lion (via internet) without performing a new back-up. Will any new User Account files, since my last back-up, be lost when Lion reinstalls ?

Reinstalling OS X doesn't affect user data, provided nothing goes wrong. But it would be very unwise to assume that nothing will go wrong, especially if you're having (unspecified) system issues. You should try to back up all data before you reinstall or do anything else. There are ways to do that, even if you're unable to boot.
If your backups include only user files, you won't be able to access them in Setup Assistant.

Can't reinstall lion without Apple ID used to purchase???

Can't reinstall lion. It's asking for an Apple ID that was used to purchase OS X Lion?? I don't understand why I'm being asked that when it came already setup so I didn't have to buy it.
How do I get pass this question to install??
Or, how do I buy lion

I can't remember downloading it when I brought the mac but if I did I would of only used one ID and it's not working. I did buy the newer version at some stage that would change anything would it?
Iv brought lion from the store waiting on the redemption code now(waste of money) see if that works.
Just when I thought apple were becoming easy to work with!!!

Need to reinstall Lion without Recovery HD

I need help in reinstalling Lion on my iMac after a Time Machine Backup. I found problems with Macintosh HD aduring Disk Verification nd followed directions to erase it and restor from TM. When I went to do a clean reinstall of Lion by depressing Option or Cmed-R, the Recovery HD is no longer visible. I am positive that I didn't erase the Recovery partition, but now it's not there. I would much rather do a clean install with the installer but the Apps Store tells me I already downloaded it. Any help in recovering the Recovery HD or getting an internet download is much appreciated.

First, make sure you're not pressing cmd-R too early. Wait until you hear the chime.
If that still doesn't work, go to the App Store and option-click the Purchased tab. You should then be able to install it again.

How to reinstall Lion without recovery disk

I want to reinstall Lion Mountain (I have downloaded it from apple store) and I dont have a recovery disk....Can anyone help me with this?

You can make a bootable copy using:
Lion Disk Maker

Reinstall lion without disk

My laptop came with lion 10.7 but I was able to downlaod 10.8 for free . Now I need to relaod 10.8 but installer says I need 10.7 on it first . I did not get any disk with laptop as it was a refurb . Can I get 10.7 without buying it

Lion did not come with disks; however, you should be able to use internet recovery to get the original OS reinstalled: hit Command + Option + R while restarting to access internet recovery; once the Utilities show, use Disk Utility to wipe the drive and then reinstall the OS. You cannot install an earlier OS over the top of a newer one, so you need to wipe the drive........ which means you need to make sue to have a complete backup since you need to erase the drive.

Reinstalling lion without wiping drive

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