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I have an 08 MacBook A1181 currently running Lion 10.7.5. When I installed this drive I had to start with the OEM restore disks and build up from there to 10.7.5. The problem I had at the time is the Snow Leopard and Lion disks are both upgrades and not stand-alones. They would not run unless the OS was updated to a version the respective upgrade would recognize as valid.

I prefer not to buy anything for this task and it's my hope that there is a way I can make a USB restore image of where it is now. I need to pull the 750 Gb out and replace with smaller one. I would love doing it without going through the In-a-gadda-da-vida upgrade process I did before. The new drive is well scrubbed and I prefer not to use Time Machine to do it.

Can anyone please help with this problem? I know there has to be a way to get there from here. If nothing easy, can I spoof the installed version IDs in Single User mode? I appreciate any help on this.

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  • You can either start from the CD/DVDs you have, buy newer retail versions, or take it to an Apple Store & they'll do it for you, there's no 4th option on a machine so old.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Jun 11, 2017 at 14:28
  • I know Mountain Lion can be installed to that particular model. As I've personally done it. However you'll need to install via a USB boot disk. Which can only be downloaded from the app store on a newer, eligible, system though. If I recall correctly. Mountain Lion was the first major update Apple gave out at no cost for eligible hardware.
    – Terus
    Commented Jun 11, 2017 at 18:36

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You should be able to download the installer for the latest compatible version from the App Store. The file will be downloaded to your /Applications folder. Do not run the installer itself. We're assuming Lion for this guide. Procedure can differ slightly between versions.

Instead navigate to your /Applications folder. Right-click (or control-click) on the “Install Mac OS X Lion.app” & select “Show Package Contents”. Then navigate to the “Contents” directory then “SharedSupport”. Double-click on “InstallESD.dmg” to mount the Lion disk image.

If you have anything stored on the USB flash drive you’re going to lose it, so be prepared for that and back it up.

Plug the USB flash drive into your Mac. Launch Disk Utility (Command + Space then type disk utility). Select your USB drive from the left side of Disk Utility, then click on the “Erase” tab. Choose “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” as the Format click “Erase” to format the USB drive. Right-click on the new partition for the USB drive in Disk Utility & select “Restore”.

Now you need to set the source disk for the restore. This is why we mounted the InstallESD.dmg file earlier, because we can just drag and drop the “Mac OS X Install ESD” image into the “Source”.

Drag the formatted USB key to the “Destination” and check “Erase destination”. Be sure you have the right things in the right places, you don’t want to format the wrong drive! Then click on “Restore”.

Once that process completes you will have a bootable USB drive with installation media for your OS.

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    If you're familiar and/or comfortable with the Terminal a boot disk can be made using the dd command as well. Syntax: dd if=<full path to disk image> of=<full path for target drive> I can add this to my answer if you'd like a more detailed explanation. However I do recommend Disk Utility & Finder for most users.
    – Terus
    Commented Jun 11, 2017 at 18:48

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