[tunescool]

ive had alot of older macs that i erased and reinstalled the system software on 100s of times. i was having some problems with my newer imac so i decided to reinstall. so you already know what the deal is(i didnt), i cant use the system disk with 10.6.3 if im up to 10.7. and once i erased my hard drive wih disk utility i need an apple id that purchased Lion. so i dont have one, my dad bought my computer and he already gave me his apple id but it wasnt connected with the purchase.

i cant mess with burning dvds or any other usbs or anything, what can i do? will i have to buy another copy of Lion. i cant buy one online, i cant download

[Waragainstsleep]

If you can get up to 10.6.6 or whatever is needed for the App Store then you should be able to go straight to Mountain Lion. If your Mac is too old for Mountain Lion, then you are stuck. I don't recommend getting an OS via bit torrent as you can't really trust it.

[tunescool]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

If you can get up to 10.6.6 or whatever is needed for the App Store then you should be able to go straight to Mountain Lion. If your Mac is too old for Mountain Lion, then you are stuck. I don't recommend getting an OS via bit torrent as you can't really trust it.

how would i be able to get to 10.6.6 if i dont have a hard drive or any system software installed? my computer is only like a maybe a year and a half old, i have a bad memory.

ive tried control q and command q to bypass the id thing but it didnt work.

there really is no way to erase everything so my original system install disk works?

[Spheric Harlot]

If you've erased the hard drive, you can reinstall the system that came with the computer.

If that was 10.6.3, then that will work. You can then upgrade that to 10.6.8.

If it won't let you install from the 10.6.3 disk, then either you haven't actually erased the hard drive as you claim, or something else is wrong.

Is the install disk the one that came with your machine? Those disks are tied to individual series, so other disks won't work.

If all you're looking to do is to reinstall Lion over an existing system, open the App Store, option-click on "Purchased", and re-download and install Lion.

[Chad Dutcher]

I had the same exact problem. BUT I FIGURED IT OUT!!!!!! ITS OPTION AND Q!!!! I THOUGHT ABOUT YOUR POSTS SAYING COMMAND AND Q AND CONTROL AND Q SO I TRIED OPTION AND Q AND IT WORKED!! THANK GOD!!!!