mac mini 2011 os question!

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I finally got my mac mini in the mail today but I think the os may have been erase? When I turn it on a grey screen appears with a flashing question mark. I bought it used from cowbow and it did state the os might be erase but is there a function where one can restore the os? Thanks
 

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A flashing "?" can mean two things:

- no bootable OS on the hard drive.
- the hard drive is bad

If there is no OS on the HD...your going to have to purchase some sort of OS install media. If you want to install OS 10.7 "Lion"...then you need this:

OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive - Apple Store (U.S.)

- Nick
 
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Yeah for the thumb drive don’t you need to be running snow leopard(I don‘t think there‘s any install)? I have 30 days to return it if it’s not working or I don’t like it so before I spend money I kind of want to make sure it’s not the hard drive so like is it possible to just install my friends copy of snow leopard or lion on my mac mini ?
 

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You don't need to be running Snow Leopard in order to use the Lion flash drive to install. The drive is bootable and will install Lion on an empty drive.

As far as "borrowing" a copy of OS X from a friend goes.... that's akin to piracy so don't do it.
 
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Legally you can only run one copy of OSX on one machine, and if the install disks are those that came with your friend's Mac, it will only work on that Mac.

You should write the person and ask for the install disks. If he doesn't have them, that's kinda sketchy and I'd get a refund.

You could just drop the cash on a new copy of OSX, but really, if your computer is already on the blink, you should be concerned.
 
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Well I guess the newer mac mini’s don’t come with install disc at all since there’s no optical drive like before I bought it- it did state the os might be erase but I was thinking somehow one could restore the preinstall os like it should be saved somewhere it its own partition hard drive since there was no disk at all? I don’t know if I’m making any sense at all but going back to borrowing a copy I was thinking of making my own osx usb thumb drive and installing to see if the mac mini works like to make sure it’s not the hard drive itself but I guess your saying making a copy won’t work to install it in my mac mini?
 

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I don’t know if I’m making any sense at all but going back to borrowing a copy?

You've already been warned once that "borrowing a copy" is not appropriate. We do not allow this sort of discussion at Mac-Forums.

Since you purchased a newer Mac-Mini with no optical drive (and no OS on the hard drive)...basically your only install option is a USB drive...which is what was linked above for 10.7 Lion.

- Nick
 
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oh dang I didn't know certain phrases were ban I was just trying to troubleshoot my new mac mini with some help thanks again for the link bud
 

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Believe me if there was a less expensive way to get an OS installed on your Mac-Mini I would suggest it.:)

You're sort of stuck...for a few reasons:

- No optical drive (can't use an install disk)
- You purchased the Mac-mini used...and many folks like to erase the HD before selling (so no OS on the HD)
- Even if your Mac-Mini had an optical drive...because it's a 2011 model that shipped with OS 10.7...you may not even be able to install Snow Leopard (OS 10.6)...since generally you can't install an OS version older than what the computer shipped with

All of this leaves you with pretty much one option...and that is install the OS via USB. And the only "appropriate" way to do the install is with the 10.7 USB drive from the Apple Store linked above.

Good luck,

- Nick

p.s. What the seller should have done in this situation was...for the seller's security...they should have erased the HD (as they did)...but then reinstalled a "fresh" copy of the OS for the eventual buyer (which was you in this case).
 
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chas_m

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In the case of a Mac Mini with no optical drive that could be kind of tricky.

That said, I'd return this one, ridebikes. I don't know about you, but I want a machine that is ready to go out of the box.

I'd suggest you look at Apple's refurbished pages for a suitable model and buy directly from them. You will save money compared to new AND you will get a) all the software, b) a warranty, c) phone support and the opportunity to buy an extended warranty, d) legally.
 
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So I ended up getting the usb lion flash drive so I pressed alt while the mini was starting up then it took me to internet recovery thing and told me to connect my wifi so I did that but I’m just wondering if there’s any way to skip that and just download lion from the flash drive? or I guess I want to know what I'm downloading
 
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You should be able to skip it. When it asks for the wifi password I think there's an option to proceed without an internet connection. I know I've installed Lion without wifi before. The only reason I can think of for wifi is to add your purchased copy of Lion to your App Store account using your Apple ID.
 
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It didn’t work at all! It took 2 hours for the internet recovery to download then that’s when it finally open up this window where it said… Restore form time capsule…install lion…get help…disk utility. So I thought cool finally some progress - I clicked on install lion then I hit accept then it said where do you want it to be install and it just showed the USB drive not the hdd drive. I then proceed to go back to the menu thing and it wouldn’t let me so, I had like restart the whole thing over again waiting another 2 hours this time I went to the disk utility option I did see the hdd drive there along with the flash drive - I’m pretty much suck on what to do I think I’ve given up on the mac mini and will return it on Monday
 
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It didn’t work at all! It took 2 hours for the internet recovery to download then that’s when it finally open up this window where it said… Restore form time capsule…install lion…get help…disk utility. So I thought cool finally some progress - I clicked on install lion then I hit accept then it said where do you want it to be install and it just showed the USB drive not the hdd drive. I then proceed to go back to the menu thing and it wouldn’t let me so, I had like restart the whole thing over again waiting another 2 hours this time I went to the disk utility option I did see the hdd drive there along with the flash drive - I’m pretty much suck on what to do I think I’ve given up on the mac mini and will return it on Monday

You need to partition and format the drive before you can install Lion. In disk utility make the partition type GPT and format as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and then proceed on your install.
 
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oh wait, it worked - I went back to install lion option but I think it's downloading from the net it said it's gonna take 72 hours how I would download from the usb drive?
 
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It shouldn't download anything from the internet if you're just booting up from the Recovery partition. Restart your computer, hold down the Option key when you hear the chime, and choose the Lion Recovery disk when it appears. Choose your language then choose Disk Utility. When the Disk Utility window comes up, select your main HD in the list on the left hand side (the indented name, not the name of the HD brand itself). Then on the right, click on the Erase tab. From the dropdown menu, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and name the partition Macintosh HD.

You don't need an internet connection for any of this.

As for the USB, I've never installed OSX from it before, so maybe someone can help you with that part. But you don't need an internet connection for that either.

First thing's first though. Partition your hard drive first. Again, you don't need internet, you need Disk Utility. Something is definitely wrong if it's taking 72 hours to do anything. I downloaded and installed Lion from the App Store and it took about 4 hours to do it via internet connection.
 
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Here's your actual answer, OP:

Lion Internet Recovery

Restart your Mac and hold down the Command key and the R key (Command-R), and keep holding them until the Apple icon appears, indicating that your Mac is starting up

If you happen to encounter a situation in which you cannot start from the Recovery HD, such as your hard drive stopped responding or you installed a new hard drive without Mac OS X installed, new Mac models introduced after public availability of OS X Lion automatically use the Lion Internet Recovery feature if the Recovery HD (Command-R method above) doesn't work. Lion Internet Recovery lets you start your Mac directly from Apple's Servers. The system runs a quick test of your memory and hard drive to ensure there are no hardware issues.

Lion Internet Recovery presents a limited interface at first, with only the ability to select your preferred Wi-Fi network and, if needed, enter the WPA passphrase. Next, Lion Internet Recovery will download and start from a Recovery HD image. From there, you are offered all the same utilities and functions described above.
 
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oh man, that's what happen It wouldn't let me install lion off the flash drive - it just started Lion Internet Recovery thing after I parttion the HDD. It took about 13 hrs or so ( I have extremely slow broadband).

I guess I didn't need to get the lion usb flash drive after all. - when I looked at the info on the mini it says I have os x version 10.7.3 after seraching I guess that's the latest version? but I do have a couple concerns if it is the latest I feel like since i did the lion recovery thing I have a limited version of lion? or maybe I was just expecting something more since it's my first apple computer.
 
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chas_m

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10.7.4 just came out, so you should check Software Update.

No you don't have a "limited" version of Lion.
 

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