Reinstalling OSX without media

I don't need to yet as only just bought the machine. But unlike my previous macpro my new imac has no CD drive or media.
I read through the community and cannot find the info. Can anyone point me to the directions to clean install. I want to know before I hit an issue.
On a sepearte issue, I was thinking of formatting my old laptop, do I need to download lion then mountain lion or can I skip lion? I have the original discs for this machine... or can I follow a quicker route?
Steve L

You can skip Lion and go from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion if you old laptop meets requirements for Mountain Lion.
Computer Compatibility - Apple
More options for reinstallation.
Bootable Drive - Install
Bootable Drive - Install (2)
Bootable Drive DVD or USB Flash Drive – Lion Diskmaker

Similar Messages

How Can I Reinstall OSX Without Messing Up Bootcamp?

I have my iMac harddrive partitioned with a Windows and Mountain Lion drive, and the M.L partition has begun to slow down and it's also got quite cluttered and so I want to do a fresh install. How do I do this without messing up the Windows drive because last time i tried to do it I could not boot into the Windows drive afterwards and had to reformat the drive.
I have the Mountain Lion installer on a thumb drive.
Thanks.

cool, i'll use buy it then)
so basically:
1. create new partition from macosx
2. install boot runner
3. reboot
3. launch linux cd
4. when installing linux should be no problem creating swap partition and others coz linux rock

Reinstalling OSX without a CD drive

Hey my CD drive is broken and I need to archive and install (or just reinstall since it's Snow Leopard) any suggestions on how to go about doing that?
I could buy a new CD drive too - would a third party one like by LG work just fine?
Thanks so much.

• External DVD reader via USB or FireWire
• Another Mac on the local network (wireless or Ethernet) via DVD drive sharing
• Another Mac (with snow leopard already installed) via FireWire Target disk mode
• a replacement DVD reader. Iif you deal with a Mac-centic vendor, they will make sure you get one that is Mac friendly and will read directly with Mac OS X. Otherwise, maybe not. Before 2009 these are IDE/ATA drives, 2009 and later are SATA drives.
All the ones that shipped in Macs will READ dual-Layer DVDs, even if they cannot write them. "Full Retail" Snow Leopard ships on a Dual Layer DVD.

Reinstalling osx without power adaptor

i went in to the apple store and had them do an erase-install. the store closed before it could finish, so i just took it home to finish it myself. when i got home though, i did not have my power adaptor with me, so i finished the installation on battery power. is this bad?

It is not a good practice to do so. Should your battery lose sufficient power, your OS installation my halt and become corrupted.
If you installing any substantial update, is is a good idea to have both an 'unbreakable' power source (such as your power adapter plugged into an uninterruptible power supply) and a relatively 'unbreakable' network link (such as an ethernet cable plugged into your router or gateway, which is itself plugged into an uninterruptible power supply, right?)

Reinstall OSX Partition?

Can I reinstall OSX without effecting my Windows installation?

I believe you can as long as you don't have any errors from your windows installation. If you have applecare you can download techtool deluxe. Just add your serial number from you mac and you can download it. It will give you all info about your mac if anything is wrong. From experience. My bootcamp installation was corrupt and i had to delete my windows partition and had to reinstall my os x after combining os x with the deleted partition space of bootcamp. Do you use time machine? Well it may not matter you may want a fresh start. Just pop in the mac os x install disk and check. That is your best bet. It'll let you know if it can or not.
Message was edited by: Apollo Kid

How backup User and reinstall osx only

My MacBook Pro (06 / 2009) running OSX 10.9 Mavericks didnt want to open completly this morning. 6 hrs later i havnt fix it. Reading and trying.
-- How to make a backup now ?
I want to save some création of mine. Last backup was 1 Month old on timemachine on external USB drive.
-- How to reinstall OSX without deleting my User files and maybe my applications Adobe ?
I have Osx 10.9 Mavericks on machine from free Apple update download. But computer came with 10.5.7 when order from Apple. Also bought 10.6 Snow Léopard on CD.
-- What i have done so far
Reboot. Reset. Pram. Safe mode.
Single user #reboot
Single user # /sbin/fsck -FN
Restart from installation CD to disk utility to verify disk
Results : nothing
Disk0s2: i/o error
Invalid sibling link. The volume needs to ne repaired.

I suspect it's a bad idea to boot from your Snow Léopard disk (even with the accent) to try to repair Mavericks.
You could see if your hard drive will mount on another Mac in Target mode: How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode , then you could backup your créations.
I would not backup anything more than your essential documents. If you restore system files, you will probably restore the problem.
If you haven't already: Boot into your recovery partition (restart, hold down ⌘R until you see the Apple logo), and use Disk Utility to repair your hard drive. Repair permissions too while you're there. OS X: About OS X Recovery
then restart.
if that doesn't work, you could try the recovery partition again and reinstall Mavericks over your current installation.
If you can't boot into your recovery partition, then try to boot into internet recovery: Hands on with Mountain Lion's OS X Recovery and Internet Recovery | Macworld , and use Disk Utility to repair your HD. similarly, if that doesn't work, you could try to erase your HD from internet recovery and reinstall Mavericks.
if that won't work, you could try TechTool, which can occasionally fix a problem that Disk Utility can't. Techtool Pro 7
if that doesn't work, then your HD is probably failing and needs to be replaced.

Reinstall osx server 10.3 on an xserve G5 without vga card.

Reinstall osx server 10.3 on an xserve G5 without vga card. How can i software restore the server without a vga card?

"How can i software restore the server "
If you mean restore as in reloading an existing config from a disk image. If you have a bootable diskimage on an external drive of your xserve, and if you have another Mac you may be able to boot the xserve in targeted disk mode and just use disk utility on the second Mac to restore the image from the external drive to the internal drive of the xserve. Restore without erase works the best for this...sometimes you will get a copy error on the last file...not sure what the error really means...but it does not seem to be a real issue.

Is it possible to reinstall OSX 10.5 without loosing any application that is already installed?

Hi,
So I have endnote, office installed on my macbook. And it is out of space (6 GB left out of 120 GB). And I can not locate where the space is eaten up. I want to reinstall the OSX without loosing the data and get the space back. Is there any way of doing this? Thank you.

It IS possible by doing an Archive and Install http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1710
BUT be aware that archive and install takes up the most space of any installation of OS X because it saves room for a previous system folder. The 6GB you have free is probably not even big enough to do archive and install. Neil is right find out what's taking up that space and then get rid of or move some files off to external storage.

Macbook Pro shuts down constantly, and rarely starts. Should I reinstall OSX?

Hi there,
I have a early 2011 Macbook Pro 17" with OSX Lion 10.7.5 and a bootcamp partition running Windows 7.
About three months ago some coffee was spilled on the keyboard, and afterwards was having some issues where it would shut down randomly. After a visit to my university's computer repair center, who told me there was a problem with the power button, and a visit to the local MacStore, who told me that the internals needed to be replaced for a whopping 1,300 dollars. I let the comupter sit for some time while I tried to figure out what to do. A few weeks ago I opened the machine up and cleaned areas where I could see coffee residue with 95% isopropyl alcohol. After letting dry for the evening, I started the computer up and it worked just fine for about two weeks.
Suddenly, when using the Windows operating system, it began shutting down when going to sleep. Following some advice on this site, I switched over to the Mac operating system and installed updates. On restart after the updates, the computer did not actually restart, and since, has started up to the grey screen with apple logo, makes a 'clink' sound and then shuts off. Rarely it actually starts to the desktop, and then 'clinks', goes black, and shuts off. When safe booting, and using the disk utility, it does the same thing. I have reset the SMC and the RAM.
When I am able to succesfully load the disk utility, it shuts down shortly after I begin the repair disk. I have tried this through the original install disk, and get the same results.
I haven't tried reinstalling, or erasing the hard drive and reinstalling OSX. I am worried about trying this as it seems like I might really screw stuff up if it shuts down in the middle of the reinstall or erasing. Am I correct about this?
Some posts here suggest that I need a firmware update of some sorts, but I do not see how I could do this if I cannot get the machine to start normall. Other solutions that might apply to this problem that I have found also strangely require the computer to actually be on and running.
Although I am willing to accept it, I have a hard time believing this is a hardware issue (e.g. logic board) related to the spill because of how long it ran without any problems.
I have been unable to get any sort of error report as well because of the shut down problem.
If anyone could help with my quesiton about reinstalling, and perhaps offer any other advice that doesn't involve me taking it to a MacStore I would greatly appreciate it. Its finals week and I could really use my laptop. It is a real pain being tied to a desktop.
Battery is fully charged, and does indeed charge.

Update on this: somehow the disk repair utility went through and I did a repair disk. There were no problems found. Computer worked fine for an hour, and then started asking me if I really wanted to shut down, which I did not. After doing this three times it made the characteristic 'clink', and shut off as described in my previous post.
Message was edited by: Njal1066

Re-install OSX without losing Windows7 partition? (preserving Bootcamp)

Recently my computer stopped booting into mac OS (apparently unfixable, details on that deduction are below).
The question:
I plan to reinstall MacOSX (from my startup disc).
However, I'd like to be sure that this won't destroy Bootcamp's partitioning. (because windows7 currently still starts fine).
Can anyone confirm that losing bootcamp is not a concern?
I'm worried that maybe it is just assumed that reinstalling OSX will destroy the old Bootcamp setup?
(my google searches haven't brought up any examples of my specific situation).
More details:
After moving my iMac (i7, 27") to a new desk, I started it up and walked away. the power supply started beeping horribly (its backup battery had lost charge, i assume). I stupidly pressed the power button to turn the UPS off, to stop the beeping, even though the iMac was still starting up. This killed the power. oops.
I could swear I was able to restart in OSX that night... but maybe my memory is flawed- because ever since, the iMac has hung up while starting up. maybe "freezing up" is the better term? except pinwheel is still spinning... (I'd also swear I left the mac in sleep mode that night, but when I came back the next day it was turned off. not sure if my memory is flawed... or if gremlins are tormenting me)
The next morning when I started up, I noticed a progress bar beneath the Apple logo, which i'd never seen before. after a couple minutes this bar went away, and I was just left with the spinning pinwheel below the apple logo. I let this run for more than an hour before giving up (giving up == holding the power button for several second to force it to power off).
- I restarted with option held down, and was able to load the windows partition just fine. (and am still able to).
- I restarted with cmd-v held down to enter verbose mode and see what's up. seemed to become hung up after printing " Rebuilding catalog B-tree"
- I rebooted with cmd-option-p-r keys held down, to reset pram and nvram. no change.
- I restarted with cmd-s held down so I could type something at the command line. I entered the suggested "/sbin/fsck -fy" text.
here is quick snapshot of what it displayed, when this failed:
http://www.warrenblyth.com/remote/probs/iMacHOME-commandLine_s.jpg
(basically, it went from "rebuilding catalog B-tree" to "the volume Macintosh HD could not be repaired")
- I restarted with d key held down and ran the quick version of diagnostics. it said there were no hardware problems. (i did not run the longer version). I rebooted to the same hung-up problem.
- I held c to boot from my startup disc (which took maybe 3 minutes? long time?). ... (sidenote: I thought this would just let me into the old desktop, like booting windows into safe mode. but instead it was just a limited menu set, like I was stuck in a program I couldn't quit. I believe it was prompting me to start installing OS. I managed to switch over to the disc utility program, by attempting to exit the default program, I believe. I get so frustrated/angry/emotional over epic computer problems that it seems to affect my memory).
- In Disk Utility I clicked "verify disk permissions" button. It predicted this would take 7 minutes, but it just stopped runnig after maybe 2 minutes. no results were displayed.
- So I clicked "verify disk".
here is a quick snapshop of results:
http://www.warrenblyth.com/remote/probs/imac-verifyDiskFAIL_s.jpg
(basically, it says problem can't be fixed and I should reformat)
This is when I decided it was a lost cause and my only remaining option was to reformat the mac partition. (yeah? make sense?)
Bonus:
- I restarted in Windows and copied everything I could think of off of the old mac portion of the hard drive. I had to reformat my WDmyBook external HDD to windows friendly formatting for this. I noticed this when looking at disk partitions:
http://www.warrenblyth.com/remote/probs/homeMac-partitions_s.jpg
probably nothing interesting here. I just thought it weird that there were 4 partitions instead of two. Wondered if one of these partitions was devoted to startup, and could be fixed without destroying the core mac partition.
My gut says there is probably just some start up glitch, and if I was smarter I could fix it without erasing all the old Mac files and installed programs. Though I'm also worried it may be a physical disc error, and reinstalling OSX won't solve anything. maybe I've ruined the machine and should seek replacement HW. ?
Really just posting here to see if anyone has advice. and to help anyone else who might be in same spot of confusion.
Thanks for any tips.

#1 You need a more robust program to fix the Mac boot drive like Alsoft Disk Warrior.
I stopped bothering with using Apple First Aid.
#2 You can lose Windows
#3 Try SuperDuper to clone Mac volume to another HFS+ partition.
HFS has its weaknesses. You probably continued using OS X after freezes or other problems.
Ideal is to reformat and restore both.
If there was a bad sector that is something chkdsk could deal with.
If the bad sector is in the hidden partition tables, you have to reformat.
Reformat is the best way going forward.
Even replacing a disk drive is something you can do. You probably want backup drive for each OS though.
And there are 3rd party disk maintenance programs. And should always be backed up and ready to restore a system without exception. Even if possible to doing trial runs to make sure how to.
I would spend the money to fix the directory in Mac OS X rather than the free reinstall of OS X - after making a bootable clone with SuperDuper, and repairing the clone as well first.
You may (dare I say "should") install Mac OS only just 30GB partition on a hard drive to use for fixing your system, instead of using CD or DVDs. And a partition large enough to hold your current Mac system to use for backup clone.
Windows HFS9 driver from Paragon allows read and write ability. They also have an NTFS drive for OS X to add write support. Good Windows backup tools.
Paragon for Mac
SuperDuper
DiskWarrior

Erased mac book pro (2009), how can i reinstall osx? it won't recognize any old system disc

erased mac book pro (2009), how can i reinstall osx? it won't recognize old system discs

Did you try:
Install or Reinstall Mavericks or Mountain Lion from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
OS X Mavericks- Erase and reinstall OS X
OS X Mountain Lion- Erase and reinstall OS X
OS X Lion- Erase and reinstall Mac OS X
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
            because it is three times faster than wireless.
If you don't have the original discs that came with the computer, then you can install the retail version of 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.
After you install Snow Leopard you will have to download and install the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 to update Snow Leopard to 10.6.8 and give you access to the App Store. Access to the App Store enables you to download Mavericks if your computer meets the requirements.
     Snow Leopard General Requirements
       1. Mac computer with an Intel processor
       2. 1GB of memory
       3. 5GB of available disk space
       4. DVD drive for installation
       5. Some features require a compatible Internet service provider;
           fees may apply.
       6. Some features require Apple’s iCloud services; fees and
           terms apply.

I have to reinstall OSX upon every restart

I have the oddest problem.
Two weeks ago I restarted my computer and got stuck on the grey apple startup screen. At first I thought my HD was the issue. All of the data was accessable, and no signs of an issue (disk utility confirmed) Even knowing that I transferred all of the data over to a new drive and reinstalled OSX (not a clean install). All booted fine. It even booted upon every software update that was required. No issues while working from that point on, untill I needed to reboot. When this happened, I was faced with the forever grey apple startup screen again. I repeated the process, all booted fine as explained above, but this time I scanned for any viruses (not expecting any). Disk utility confirmed all was good with the new drive, and also with the old. All runs perfectly while on. I am confident that this is not a HD issue (mechanical). Moments ago I had to reboot with fingers crossed. Machine has been running for days with no issue. I'm back to square one. Something seems to be messing with what is required to startup on the drive. I have lost no data during these events. Here's my issue. I know I could do a clean install, but I have so many applications, and audio plugins, that have been authorized over the years - tracking down 3 year old serial numbers, and reinstalling items I might have even forget I was using would be a task I can't bare to think of. Any help would be wonderul. Even if I had to do a clean install, would there be a way to save that data and transfer it over without having to go through the relicencing of all of those apps, etc.? Yikes, what is going on? Is this a "genuis bar" canadate?
Thanks in advance for your wisdom.
L
Mac Pro 12 Core, Mac OSX 10.6.8

When you reinstall just OS X, it overwrites itself and those bundled Apple programs with a new (but older) copy then you Software update to get current on 10.6.8
Some third party software you install installs a at boot kernel extension file that gets loaded when OS X loads, if there is a problem with that software it causes the gray screen and spinning wheel thing when you boot up.
When you install OS X over itself it removes these kernel extension files as they don't belong.
So I suspect it's software you installed AFTER resinstalling OS X when they didn't work is what is causing the problem. (likely the anti-virus, unless it's ClamXav)
Also it might be software installed when you log into the machine it's set to automatically launch, but that usually occurs after you log in and gives a Kernel Panic, (black screen and you need to restart message)
So what you can do is hold the Shift Key down upon boot, this will enter Safe Mode and you can uninstall and/or update those programs. Or reinstall OS X again to clear them out, then get online and check for updates to all your third party software.
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
Once you get your machine fixed, you should clone that boot drive automatically to another internal drive with Carbon Copy Cloner
That way you can hold the option key down and boot from the clone.
Most commonly used backup methods
Also you should be considering Deep Freeze at this time, as Apple is likley about to drop support for 10.6
Turn off Java in all your browsers and via the Java Preferences app, it's a major security risk (so is Flash, so use it off most of the time)
Use Firefox or (yucky spyware Chrome) as it's getting security updates and there is no Safari 6 for 10.6 (only not secure Safari 5.7.1)

How do I reinstall missing Adobe Media Encoder CS3 ?

I need some help here ??
When attempting to encode on Vista from Premiere 3.2 the Adobe Media Encode (AME) just goes off and hangs.
Looked for the error log which lives at
C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Media Encoder\4.0\AMEEncodingErrorLog.txt
Make sure you have view hidden files turned on to look for this file..
Ok the folder "Adobe Media Encoder" is not on my machine... It looks like the installation is FUBAR.
I check CS3 Master Collection distribution - I don't see a module for Adobe Media Encoder to reinstall.
So my question is . How do I reinstall the "Adobe Media Encoder" for the CS3 collection ?
Anybody have a clue as how to do this ?
How do I reinstall the Adobe Media Encoder CS3 ?

Mr Hunt...
I my view you're a wizzard with statute more than Merlin...
Here's what I found. Last time I shut down ProPre I was on a dual monitor.
I tossed my laptop in the car went to 2nd location.
Re-configured laptop for single monitor mode.
Upon starting up ProPre hammered encoding and the resulting screen opened ...... which I could not see.
PrePro DOES NOT sense hardware.... Dhaaaaaaaaa
Its stays stuck in dual monitor mode !!!!!
You need a second monitor to unstick it !!!!!
I was unable to set it back to single mode without the 2nd monitor !!!
Yahhoooo !!!! Its working again !!!!!
Dhaaaaaaa

Disk Utility Failed, Mac HD not working and cannot reinstall OSX

Hi,
I am totally frustrated.
Was working on capturing video using Final Cut Pro and the application froze. After repeated attempts, I kept getting the message to restart the G5.
I tried reinstalling Final Cut Pro - and installation failed. I ran disk utility first aid and found an error on the Mac HD (Startup Disk). So I restarted machine from the DVD (pressing the C button when restarting) and ran disk repair from the DVD OSX Utility. Still got the error that "First Aid Failed" Disk utility stopped repairing Macintosh HD because the following error was encountered. The underlying task reported failure on exit. HFS volume checked 1 volume could not be repaired because of an error. Repair attempted on volume 1, 1 volume could not be repaired.
Then I tried reinstalling OSX onto a second internal SATA HD. Installation failed. Try installing again.
So now what do I do?
I am running Mac OSX 10.4.9
Please help...urgent.
Thanks
MQ

Thanks for the answer...that's what I was thinking.
The following are various issues I am considering maybe the cause:
1. Memory - I installed 2GB a few weeks ago - third party.
2. External HDs - I installed an external Maxtor 1.5TB drive 3 days ago.
3. I live in Africa - and power frequently gets disrupted - even though the machine is on a "solatek" (power stabilizer and high end protector against spikes) - 2 days ago my UPS was down and for repairs - and we had three power outtages.
Lastly, as I mentioned I live in Africa - Mombasa - Apple tech support is almost non-existent here...so I am hoping I can resolve this without having to ship it abroad.
Please help and thank you...
MQ

Formatted/Reinstalled OSX Still not Starting Up

So my iMac was not starting up, so I tried all the resetting measures. SMC, PRAM, safe mode, etc. Was able to boot from the CD, got as far as erasing/reinstalling OSX snow leopard and it was almost done with restoring my time machine backup when it went to sleep and died. I restarted, it came up with finder, saw all my stuff, but it was missing random applications like iTunes. So I restarted again. Came up to finder, without my wallpaper and had the spinning wheel. Restarted a third time and it did the grey screen thing.
Disk utility couldn't repair the disk again, so I erased the disk and started from scatch again.
It booted from the CD again, installed snow leopard sucessfully, restarted, and now it just sits on the grey screen forever.
So what to do? Try the 10.4 disk it came with? or 10.5? Or do I just need a new harddrive? Disk Utility said it was verified..

I suggest you do the following:
Clean Install of Snow Leopard
     1. Boot the computer using the Snow Leopard Installer Disc. 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 Scheme drop down menu, set the format type to Mac
         OS Extended (Journaled, if supported), then click on the Partition 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.
Before attempting to restore from your Time Machine backup open Energy Saver preferences and set the option to Put the Computer to Sleep to "Never." While still in the Setup Assistant you may optionally restore your Home folder and third-party applications and support files before completing the Setup Assistant. I suggest you do that. Do not attempt to restore anything else.

Reinstalling OSX without media

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