On a Mac that was originally shipped with Lion, how can I replace Mountain Lion with Lion?

2

My MacBook came with OS X Lion pre-installed. I then downloaded and installed Mountain Lion on the same partition for free, when it was launched.

Now I need to install OS X Lion (10.7) in order to use Firemonkey with it (Xcode 4.2) and I can't find the image/recovery partition/download on app store for installing 10.7 on another partition...

How can I get it? I tried downloading a retail dmg etc, with a bootable pen drive, bootable partition etc and it doesn't work...

Am I missing something? is there an official way through apple to re-install 10.7 since I actually "own" it?

Well, I did get a Lion image from a friend and burned it to a DVD following the steps. when I booted in verbose mode it said:

This Version of Mac OS X is not supported on this platform! reason: Mac-6F01561E16C75D06.

But my MacBook Pro came with OS X Lion, so I don't fully understand why such message would come up.

Jake Armstrong

Posted 2013-03-07T13:13:25.693

Reputation: 123

Answers

3

You can download OS X 10.7 (Lion) from the App Store by signing in with your Apple ID:

  1. Open the App Store and select Store>Purchases from the menu bar.

  2. You should see an item called 'OS X Lion'. Press the button Download on the right:

    enter image description here

Now you have two choices. You can either install Lion on your Mac or create a virtual machine:

  • Install Lion on your Mac

    After download is complete the installer (Applications>Install Mac OS Lion) will start, but unfortunately will immediately abort with this error message:

    enter image description here

    But you can still install Lion:

    1. Right-click the installer and select 'Show Package Contents': enter image description here

    2. The file called 'InstallESD.dmg' is a Lion image in ISO format. Insert a DVD in your optical drive, right click the DMG file and select 'Burn "InstallESD.dmg" to Disc...'. You can also create a bootable flash drive.

    3. Insert the DVD disc and restart your Mac while pressing C. The Mac will start up from the DVD disc and the Lion installation routine will start.

    I would recommend that you install Lion on an external harddrive to avoid overwriting your current installation.

  • Create a virtual machine

    If you prefer, you can create a virtual machine in VirtualBox (freeware), VMware Fusion or Parallels and install Lion. According to Apple's licensing policies, you are allowed to virtualize Lion client.

    These are the installation instructions for VMware Fusion: http://partnerweb.vmware.com/GOSIG/MacOSX_10_7.html#installation2

Now you can install Xcode 4.2. Download it from the Apple developer site:

enter image description here

Explanation of error This Version of Mac OS X is not supported on this platform! reason: Mac-6F01561E16C75D06 and workaround.

After following the procedure explained at the beginning of this answer for creating a Lion DVD, the OP mentions in a comment below that this error appears This Version of Mac OS X is not supported on this platform! reason: Mac-6F01561E16C75D06 when booting from it.

The obscure code Mac-6F01561E16C75D06 is the Mac model name, synonymous with MacBookPro9,2 (see this lengthy post), so the error message simply means that the Lion DVD can't be used with the OP's Mac.

But it came with OS X Lion pre-installed, how is this possible?

The reason is that the specific installation of OS X Lion required by the OP's Mac doesn't match the version that can be downloaded from the Mac App Store, as every Mac model comes with a computer-specific build of Mac OS X (see Mike Bombich's answer in this post).

Fortunately, I found a workaround. It worked for me, and I hope it will work for you:

  1. Back up your Mac.

  2. Restart and press ⌘OptionR to force your Mac to enter Internet Recovery mode (this key sequence is mentioned in a cultofmac.com article but surprisingly not in the official Apple documentation).

    OS X Internet Recovery needs an Internet connection and lets you start your Mac directly from Apple's servers.

    While the Recovery System image is downloaded you'll see:

    enter image description here

  3. Wait several minutes until you see the Mac OS X Utilities window:

    enter image description here

  4. Select "Reinstall Mac OS X" and press Continue. You can finally install Lion:

    enter image description here

As I mentioned earlier: I would recommend that you install Lion on an external harddrive to avoid overwriting your current Mountain Lion installation.

The other possibility is to install a vitual machine (VMware, Parallels or VirtualBox) using the Lion DVD, see above.

jaume

Posted 2013-03-07T13:13:25.693

Reputation: 4 947

I would vote up but still can't because of my points... :-/ Well, your answer is very complete, organized and clear BUT even thought my MacBook came with OSX 10.7 there is no link for download on the AppStore... I will try burning the DVD (I tried putting the image on a small partition and booting through it but it didn't boot) – Jake Armstrong – 2013-03-10T08:50:26.880

Well, I did get a Lion image from a friend and burned it to a DVD following the steps. when I booted in verbose mode it said: This Version of Mac OS X is not supported on this platform! reason: Mac-6F01561E16C75D06 – Jake Armstrong – 2013-03-10T12:03:23.770

I'm glad you found my answer useful, I appreciate your first comment. As for the error message you get, see the explanation in my answer. I also found a workaround and added it to my answer, I hope it will work for you, take a look at it. – jaume – 2013-03-10T22:59:59.110

Once again, great answer! So, my plans were/are to install on a separeted partition, is that ok? My mac still works fine and I did not delete the recovery partition (which contains mountain lion) do you think I will be able to download "regular lion" through the process you described? Thanks again for the excelent answer! – Jake Armstrong – 2013-03-11T06:26:57.030

Thank you, yes, you can do that, and I think it will work fine. Just install Lion on the spare partition, as explained in http://osxdaily.com/2012/02/19/dual-boot-os-x-10-7-lion-os-x-10-8-mountain-lion/ and http://www.wikihow.com/Dual-Boot-Mac-Os-X-Lion for details. Again, first back up your Mac!

– jaume – 2013-03-11T08:18:22.620

the same friend got me a different version 10.7.5 and it worked fine... ends up the first one he gave me was 10.7.4 and my MBP needed 10.7.5 minimum...

your solution also works perfectly, will grant you the right answer and again, great answer! – Jake Armstrong – 2013-03-13T12:55:41.000

That's great news, I'm glad I could help. – jaume – 2013-03-13T13:01:02.003

Asked: 2013-03-07T13:13:25.693

Viewed: 2 241 times

Active: 2013-03-11T16:23:36.347