New Mac User having OS X issues

Hello all!

I just bought a Macbook Air A1237, the really old ones, in fact I think it was the first version of the Airs. I had to get a new hard drive because the one in it had failed. I have a new hard drive, but how do I get the original OS X installed? It came with 10.5, but I'm not sure how to obtain that. I tried using a bootable USB with 10.6 but it keeps telling me I can't install Mac OS X on this computer. I'm great with PC's, this is my first go 'round with Macs.

Thanks!

I don't recall 10.6 ever being released as a bootable USB (could be wrong). Where did you get this / how did you make it? It's possible that is the problem.

do you have an Apple store near you? if you do, you can make an appointment with the genius bar and go there, explain to them that you had to replace the hard drive and need to install os x. the local apple store to me is very good with helping reinstall the operating system and have never charged me for reinstalling the operating system usually to the latest version that your computer can run.

Slydude said:

I don't recall 10.6 ever being released as a bootable USB (could be wrong). Where did you get this / how did you make it? It's possible that is the problem.

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A friend of mine made it..I'm guessing he made it from a downloaded dmg file.

pitbullrescuer said:

do you have an Apple store near you? if you do, you can make an appointment with the genius bar and go there, explain to them that you had to replace the hard drive and need to install os x. the local apple store to me is very good with helping reinstall the operating system and have never charged me for reinstalling the operating system usually to the latest version that your computer can run.

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Thanks, I was afraid that they'd charge an arm and a leg to do this.

the store by me has never charged me anything to reinstall the operating system. they also have swapped out batteries for me that were extremely low cycle counts but were failing.

pitbullrescuer said:

the store by me has never charged me anything to reinstall the operating system. they also have swapped out batteries for me that were extremely low cycle counts but were failing.

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Do you think they'd still support this model since it's one of the earlier ones?

windhorst3187 said:

A friend of mine made it..I'm guessing he made it from a downloaded dmg file.

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That might be part of the problem. I've seen several reports of this not working, Since Apple never officially released a .dmg file of 10.6 there have been a host of problems with this process. In addition to violating Apple's license agreements some of the files don't boot because either the original file was not made properly and aren't bootable. Some of the files also have been suspected of containing malware.

Do you know what version of OS X you had on the Air before the drive failure?

It looks like you have three options:

1. If you have an optical drive for the Air OS X 10.6 is still available on DVD but you will have to get it from Apple. Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard - Apple
2. If you have access to a Mac and an App Store account you may be able to download OS X 10.7.5.
3. Contact the local Apple Store and see if they will help with the process. There may be no charge or a small charge.

Note that this Mac only has a 32-bit EFI and so cannot run OS X fully in 64-bit mode. If the Snow Leopard DMG was created on a 64-bit machine, that might be the issue. I would take it to an Apple Store as suggested, I am sure they'll install it for free.

they have always helped me reinstall the os on my mac's and the newest one i have is a 2010 mac mini. the last one they reinstalled the os on was my late or early 2007 macbook pro and there was no charge

pitbullrescuer said:

they have always helped me reinstall the os on my mac's and the newest one i have is a 2010 mac mini. the last one they reinstalled the os on was my late or early 2007 macbook pro and there was no charge

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Great to hear. I set up an appointment this evening to get it done.

Thanks all

I am sure you will love the air and os x. it is far better than windows

I hope so, I've always wanted to get into Macs but just never have. I'm excited, even though it's an older model, but a good start for me.

Sadly the RAM on the MacBook Air cannot be altered, otherwise I would have suggested moving up to the latest OS. My wife has a 2010 model she enjoys greatly, and we've seen no need to update her to a newer model (though we did increase the SSD storage). Let us know what the Apple Store suggests.

The original MacBook Air was released in 2008 so I think the Apple store will tell you it is obselete and not to pirate software.

windhorst3187 said:

A friend of mine made it..I'm guessing he made it from a downloaded dmg file.

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Your friend pirated a copy of Snow Leopard then. OS X 10.6.X only came on DVD and it was not free. The only copy of OS X that was available on a flash drive from Apple was Lion OS X 10.7.X and then only from the on line store. And Lion also was not free.