Procedure for reinstalling from install discs

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I am preparing my MBP for sale. I backed up all my data via Time Machine and then used my Leopard install disc to run disc utility and do the 7 pass erase.

The buyer bought another machine at the last moment and I am stuck with my MBP with no data.

So, if I decide to keep it how do I get back to my last used state?

1. Install Leopard, go to Time Machine, and then restore
2. Install Leopard, do updates, install Snow Leopard, do updates, install Lion, do updates, go to Time Machine, and then restore

I have Lion on a bootable USB actually. So I guess I could go that route. However, since I am still planning on selling the MBP I am installing Leopard using the installation discs, because my understanding is that Lion is now associated with your Apple ID and not the machine. So, I am not selling the MBP with Lion installed.

The MBP will probably sit in a "sell" state and if no buyer pops up I will just keep using it (I want to sell it because I live overseas and Macs fetch a high price here, and I travel to the US often enough to buy a newer machine with a small investment + the sell price).
 
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An extra question:
Does anyone know how to get the OS X install disc out once it is installed?

I installed the OS and then the welcome intro came up...the one where you can register etc. I just held down the power button to turn off the machine without entering any information; the new owner should do that.

However, the install disc is still in the drive. Maybe do a restart and go to Disc Utility?

Edit: I tried the Disc Utility but I can't eject the CD. Makes sense I guess since the Utility is on the CD, I assume. Now the CD is going to be stuck in there until someone runs the installation process. That doesn't sound good for a CD to be in the drive for weeks.
 
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When you say "bootable USB" I assume you mean the Lion recovery tool.
If that is the case it's easy:

1) Plug in the usb thumb-drive
reboot
2) hold down the option key

If everything went well you will see the thumb drive as an option to boot into.
Select the thumb drive and you will have the recovery tools available to you.
One of the options is to put your system back from a Time Machine backup.
My guess is that you want to pick that one.
This will put your system back to the last Time Machine backup.
No need to go through the entire upgrade process :D

As for ejecting a cd during boot up, you have two choices
1) hold down the mouse button while booting up, this will eject any disks present in the drive.
2) If, for what ever reason option 1 doesn't work, hold down command key, option key, O key, F key during boot up. This will boot you into the firmware loader. Here you can type "ejectcd" (no quotes) to eject the cd. Then type mac-boot to continue the boot sequence.
 
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Thanks. I will try that when I get home.

I don't want to boot from the USB, but have OS X installed for the buyer.

When I put a new hard drive in my MBP I also used my Time Machine backup and discovered that I could not get into my NAS wirelessly from that prompt. So, I had to install Lion and then log onto the NAS to get into my backups.
 
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Just a quick addition. My original answer was meant for the situation where you decide to keep your mac.

So, if I decide to keep it how do I get back to my last used state?

1. Install Leopard, go to Time Machine, and then restore
2. Install Leopard, do updates, install Snow Leopard, do updates, install Lion, do updates, go to Time Machine, and then restore

If you still want to work from your mac, but are hesitant to have a Lion installation present (which I understand) you could go the route that I previously explained, with the extra last step of making a clone of your installation with the free (and awesome) tool called Carbon Copy Cloner to an external usb drive (has to be usb wired, no NAS or wireless).

This tool will make (as the name suggests) a complete clone of your installation. You can then option boot into your usb drive and work from there, just as if everything was still installed on the built in hard drive.
Only, do make sure that the usb drive is big enough to contain your installation.

If you want you can then again erase the internal drive as you have previously done, intstall the base Leopard installation and leave it at that for the future owner.

P.S May I ask why you don't want to boot from usb. That is by far the most stable way of getting stuff done. I understant that a lot of people have invested in Network Attached Storage solutions. But from what I have seen it does not always work as expected.
 
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It's not that I don't want to boot from the USB. The USB has my Lion OS, which I don't want on the MBP when I sell it. If my Lion OS download was machine-associated I would just install Lion and give the USB to the new owner. But the Lion OS download is Apple ID-specific (see here).

If was just doing an OS restore I would just boot from the USB and then reinstall my data from Time Machine. But I am going to leave the MBP with OS X in a dark corner waiting for a new owner.
 
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The trick with holding the trackpad down during boot up worked. Thanks
 

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