Bought a used macbook Pro, wanted to bring it back to factory so foolishly I followed the first directions I found.
Went into disk utility, erased drive.
Clicked re-install os-x.
It comes up with install screen for mountain lion. Had lion 10.7 prior to my mistake.
When I enter my apple ID, it says lion has not been purchased by this ID. Sooo now what? Did I make an expensive mistake?
Again there is still some confusion here. Firstly…a computers internal hard drive cannot be erased unless it has been booted either from a:
- OS install DVD
- OS install USB stick
- External hard drive with an OS on it
- or if the computer was booted from the internal hard drives "Recovery Partition".
This is one detail that is missing from this story.
Second. When you say that you clicked "Reinstall OS"…where is this "clicking" occurring?
Third. You mentioned having to enter your Apple ID. Usually you don't have to do this…unless iTunes or the Mac App Store application has been launched…and you're now trying to download something.
These are the details that I am saying are missing from this conversation…and it would help to know them…to better understand what's going on.
- Nick
p.s. But overall…you have not made a costly mistake
…since no single OS purchase that you would be interested in costs more than $29 bucks.
But…if the computer doesn't have a valid OS installed on it…then you can't connect to the internet…so that an OS (Mountain Lion) can be downloaded from the Mac App Store.