More Mac/OSX help

Andrew Broughton

Andrew Broughton

Senior
Feb 2, 2011
917
5
18
Back Lounge
www.checkcheckonetwo.com
Ok, so I'm not a Mac guy, but I do own an iPhone. I find it very frustratingly difficult for a PC person to figure out the Mac way of doing things...

Anyway... I was given a MBP (2008/2009-ish, I believe) with a dead hd. (I took it out and tried it externally, it's fried.)

I have a replacement hard drive for this computer, but I have no OSX discs, and no other Mac computers.

I see that I can maybe get OSX Mountain Lion for $20.00 from the Mac App store, but I've never downloaded anything from there, is it the same app store that my iPhone uses? i.e. will my ID work on that app store too?

Anyway, I see that the requirements for installing ML are that the computer already has a previous version of OSX on it. Well, with a blank hard drive, that isn't happening.

I've searched the shit out of this, and I can't find the answer. I guess the newer MBP have some sort of internet recovery system, but mine doesn't have that. Booting the MBP with the new drive just ends up with a flashing folder with a question mark in it. Holding option while booting doesn't show the recovery partition (since it's a blank drive) and there's no other options I can see.

So, what's the procedure?

MBP + Blank Hard Drive. How do I legally install OSX on it with no other Mac computers available to me?

Thanks!
 
Re: More Mac/OSX help

Andrew Broughton said:
Ok, so I'm not a Mac guy, but I do own an iPhone. I find it very frustratingly difficult for a PC person to figure out the Mac way of doing things...

Anyway... I was given a MBP (2008/2009-ish, I believe) with a dead hd. (I took it out and tried it externally, it's fried.)

I have a replacement hard drive for this computer, but I have no OSX discs, and no other Mac computers.

I see that I can maybe get OSX Mountain Lion for $20.00 from the Mac App store, but I've never downloaded anything from there, is it the same app store that my iPhone uses? i.e. will my ID work on that app store too?

Anyway, I see that the requirements for installing ML are that the computer already has a previous version of OSX on it. Well, with a blank hard drive, that isn't happening.

I've searched the shit out of this, and I can't find the answer. I guess the newer MBP have some sort of internet recovery system, but mine doesn't have that. Booting the MBP with the new drive just ends up with a flashing folder with a question mark in it. Holding option while booting doesn't show the recovery partition (since it's a blank drive) and there's no other options I can see.

So, what's the procedure?

MBP + Blank Hard Drive. How do I legally install OSX on it with no other Mac computers available to me?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

trust me, being a Mac guy and trying to figure out a PC is worse... but i digress.

There are probably some convoluted ways to do this that might be cheaper, or quicker. But here's what i would suggest.

Go to the apple store and buy a copy of OSX Snow Leopard. It's 20 bucks for a full retail copy on disc new from Apple. Yes, it's 20 dollars for a licensed copy of the entire operating system. Welcome to Apple.

Here's where to get it.

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard - Apple Store (U.S.)

This is a bootable disc. Put it into your Mac on startup and it should find it and boot up and just follow the prompts to install. If it doesn't do it automatically, turn the machine off and then turn it on and hold down the C key to force boot from the optical drive.

Once you've got Snow Leopard [OSX 10.6] installed, if you want to then upgrade to the latest operating system, it's very easy to do. Frankly, on a 5 year old machine, you might be just as well off to leave it as is. Your call.

The advantage to just buying a bootable disk is that you've always got a OMG backup to go to. Think of it as that old licensed copy of XP you keep around 'just in case'.

Others may have a way to download a disk image through your PC or something, but frankly i'd just order the disc, wait a couple days, and it'll just work.

Good luck. and welcome to the Dark Side. We have cake. Lots of Cake......
 
If the computer is new enough to be compatible with Mavericks, just find someone with another Mac to download it free from the App Store onto a USB drive. Probably needs to be at least 4gigs or so, and hold down 'option' when booting up to boot from the USB drive.

( I may be skipping a step where you turn the USB drive into a bootable drive somehow. A google search would solve that.)

I don't see any reason why this would not be legal.


- Tony Williams
 
Re: More Mac/OSX help

Tony Williams said:
If the computer is new enough to be compatible with Mavericks, just find someone with another Mac to download it free from the App Store onto a USB drive. Probably needs to be at least 4gigs or so, and hold down 'option' when booting up to boot from the USB drive.

( I may be skipping a step where you turn the USB drive into a bootable drive somehow. A google search would solve that.)

I don't see any reason why this would not be legal.


- Tony Williams
Click to expand...
Mavericks doesn't need a previous install? I can't see that using someone else's OS would be legal.
 
Re: More Mac/OSX help

brian maddox said:
trust me, being a Mac guy and trying to figure out a PC is worse... but i digress.

There are probably some convoluted ways to do this that might be cheaper, or quicker. But here's what i would suggest.

Go to the apple store and buy a copy of OSX Snow Leopard. It's 20 bucks for a full retail copy on disc new from Apple. Yes, it's 20 dollars for a licensed copy of the entire operating system. Welcome to Apple.

Here's where to get it.

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard - Apple Store (U.S.)

This is a bootable disc. Put it into your Mac on startup and it should find it and boot up and just follow the prompts to install. If it doesn't do it automatically, turn the machine off and then turn it on and hold down the C key to force boot from the optical drive.

Once you've got Snow Leopard [OSX 10.6] installed, if you want to then upgrade to the latest operating system, it's very easy to do. Frankly, on a 5 year old machine, you might be just as well off to leave it as is. Your call.

The advantage to just buying a bootable disk is that you've always got a OMG backup to go to. Think of it as that old licensed copy of XP you keep around 'just in case'.

Others may have a way to download a disk image through your PC or something, but frankly i'd just order the disc, wait a couple days, and it'll just work.

Good luck. and welcome to the Dark Side. We have cake. Lots of Cake......
Click to expand...
So there's actually no way to install 10.8 without purchasing 10.6 as well?
 
Re: More Mac/OSX help

My answer would be to just book an appointment at your local Apple Store Genius Bar and ask them for advice. They may have ways of getting Mavericks (assuming it will run on your hardware) onto the machine without having to buy other versions first.
 
Long time Mac user. This is my biggest complaint about the whole damn company... I just want to understand how on earth to deal with installing / reinstalling these operating systems - and it's way confusing me right now. It already was before Mavericks. Ever since App Store. Go ask them.

I do know the images are around to make those install flash drives.
 
Re: More Mac/OSX help

Apple does not want you to use their hardware more than 2 years and make it logarithmically more difficult to keep your legacy hardware alive every year you exceed the 2-year applecare deadline. (They really want you to just buy a new one)

The frustrating thing is they make hardware that lasts a really long time!

I flogged the hell out of my 17"MBP until a logic board failure made it just not possible for me to repair. I was getting really good at it though and just about every part on the machine had been swapped out. I guess 8 years was just asking too much!
(-still seeking Macbook2,1 (A1212) parts if anyone has a dead one :-)

If you call Apple (when you are like me and the nearest apple store is a 12-hour drive away) They will send you whatever disk is necessary to get you to the point where the App store will work and you can upgrade on your own. It is good to see that they are now selling 10.6 without having to go through their phone support, -they probably got sick of all of us calling in all the time.
Another option I've used is an independant Mac dealer (but not Best-Buy type) Off the beaten trail storefronts but they usually have more down-to-earth geeks that actually know stuff unlike most of the Apple Store "Geniuses"
 
Re: More Mac/OSX help

Andrew Broughton said:
So there's actually no way to install 10.8 without purchasing 10.6 as well?
Click to expand...

no easy way that i know of. that being said, you can go straight from 10.6 to 10.9, and 10.9 is free. so once you've installed 10.6, just go on the app store and upgrade to 10.9.

it is possible that your machine isn't supported on 10.9, so it'd be worth a check to make sure it is. but most 2008 and later MBP can run 10.9 [mavericks] just fine.
 
Re: More Mac/OSX help

Andrew Broughton said:
Mavericks doesn't need a previous install? I can't see that using someone else's OS would be legal.
Click to expand...

it's important to remember that OSX Mavericks is free. Not just as a free upgrade from another OSX, but actually free free. I'm no legal expert, but i can't see how getting it through another person's computer would be a problem.

Apple doesn't use the same arm-twisting tactics in regards to their OS as Microsoft does, mostly because that isn't their primary revenue source, hardware is. I've installed OSX of various flavors in any number of different ways without any 'licensing' issues.
 
Re: More Mac/OSX help

Wow. What a clusterfuck. This is what gets me about Apple. Deviate slightly from the norm and you're SOL. I'm not taking it to the "genius" bar this close to Christmas, and there shouldn't be any reason to do so.

How do I download 10.6 and install using a USB stick?

Will my Apple ID from my iPhone account work at the Mac App store for downloading Mavericks?
 
Re: More Mac/OSX help

What he said.

Couple of points. Apple doesn't make products targeted at professional users anymore. They get that use in music production, video/film and photography almost despite Apple's deprecating of those markets for the larger world of the average consumer. Ten college kids with an assortment of iPhones, iPads and MacBook Airs are worth far more to the stock price than a music producer cranking out hits on a five year old Mac tower loaded with a finely tweaked version of ProTools and Waves plugs. If you want a machine to kick the tires on you don't want the latest and greatest OS version. It could be several dot updates ( the Apple version of service packs ) before Mavericks is ready for prime time with many of the pro applications like ProTools. Many Mac users stick with ( or at least have a second install of ) OS 10.6.8 because it's the last version of the Mac OS that would run the legacy programs written to run on the Power PC processor platform in an emulator called Rosetta. Mac OS 10.8.5 is the last iteration of Mac OS that is compatible with pretty much everything that you are likely to come across in the audio world for the near future. If this is to be a test bed machine I'd suggest a one gig hard drive partitioned into as many OS flavors as you see a need for with a separate OS install for each one. Not sure if such a thing is kosher in the Windows world but it works fine on Macs and the various partitions can pull files from each other without issues.

brian maddox said:
...

Go to the apple store and buy a copy of OSX Snow Leopard. It's 20 bucks for a full retail copy on disc new from Apple. Yes, it's 20 dollars for a licensed copy of the entire operating system. ...
Click to expand...
 
Re: More Mac/OSX help

Ok, so 10.6, 10.7, 10.8, 10.9, don't really care. I'd like the latest but at this point, I'd be happy to get this thing just up and running.

Again, using a Windows PC, does anyone know how I can download OSX and then create a USB boot drive that will install OSX?
 
Re: More Mac/OSX help

Andrew Broughton said:
Wow. What a clusterfuck. This is what gets me about Apple. Deviate slightly from the norm and you're SOL. I'm not taking it to the "genius" bar this close to Christmas, and there shouldn't be any reason to do so.

How do I download 10.6 and install using a USB stick?

Will my Apple ID from my iPhone account work at the Mac App store for downloading Mavericks?
Click to expand...

You can use any 10.6 you can find. EBay, a buddy's, garage sales, it doesn't matter. There are no serial/ID/etc. numbers required for installation of any Mac OS. CD is your best bet because you'll need to boot from it.

Stay away from install discs that came with a computer, because those can be hardware-specific. Those usually have a plain dark gray label.

Your Apple ID works anywhere on Apple online stores (iTunes, App stores, etc.).
 
Re: More Mac/OSX help

Andrew Broughton said:
Wow. What a clusterfuck. This is what gets me about Apple. Deviate slightly from the norm and you're SOL. I'm not taking it to the "genius" bar this close to Christmas, and there shouldn't be any reason to do so.

How do I download 10.6 and install using a USB stick?

Will my Apple ID from my iPhone account work at the Mac App store for downloading Mavericks?
Click to expand...

You're not entirely wrong, but what you're experiencing is the downside of what is essentially Apple's Company Philosophy. Their goal is to make things VERY easy for 95+ percent of their users, and they succeed with that. If, however, you are one of the other 5 percent [like for instance someone who got a hand me down MBP with a bad hard drive for free] then there's gonna be hoops to jump through. You can fight that, or you can find a way to get yourself into that 95 percent category.

The easy way to do this is to do as i have suggested. There may be a way to game the system and download a bootable OSX from somewhere, but it's not gonna be an easy ride. That's just the Apple Way.

And at the risk of turning this thread into an Apple VS. PC thread, how easy/cheap would it be to LEGALLY download and install a Windows OS to a PC with a blank hard drive and no other PC available. Key word, Legally. I'm not an expert on PCs but my experience trying to do just this has chased me back to Apple every time.
 
Re: More Mac/OSX help

Milt Hathaway said:
You can use any 10.6 you can find. EBay, a buddy's, garage sales, it doesn't matter. There are no serial/ID/etc. numbers required for installation of any Mac OS. CD is your best bet because you'll need to boot from it.

Stay away from install discs that came with a computer, because those can be hardware-specific. Those usually have a plain dark gray label.

Your Apple ID works anywhere on Apple online stores (iTunes, App stores, etc.).
Click to expand...

+1

I've done just this many times.
 
Top Bottom