Lion wont activate on Windows

[PCunicorn]

I'm in a bit of a tricky situation right now. I, well *downloaded* a copy of OS X Lion if you know what I mean. I upgraded from Snow Leopard without a hitch, but then when I went to reinstall, I deleted my old partition so there is no more OS X on the MB at all besides the recovery partition.

Well, I just figured out I need Lion activated to my account to reinstall Lion. So I went ahead and bought Lion online from Apple for $20. I got the code 5 minutes ago, and tried to activate it from my Windows PC, and apparently I need to activate it with the Mac App Store (WTF Apple ). And since there's no App Store on a recovery partition, what can I do?

I was thinking somebody could do me a favor and log into my account on their Mac and activate the code for me. I'll make sure to give you a positive Heatware

 

[TheStu]

Reinstall Snow Leopard
Activate Lion in the Mac App Store
Upgrade to Lion

 

[PCunicorn]

I don't have a copy if Snow Leopard otherwise I would have done just that.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Where'd you get Snow Leopard before? Or Lion for that matter. It doesn't need a code.

Why would you blow out your partition?

Anyway, scolding you about backups and upgrade procedures aside, you don't know any mac users IRL? You only need to borrow their computers for a few minutes. (Download Lion installer, extract InstallESD.dmg, clone image to thumb drive.)

 

[PCunicorn]

Nope, don't know any.

What happened is: I bought a Macbook on Craigslist without disks. A copy of SL was already installed.

I downloaded Lion (not exactly from an "official source"). I clicked on the DMG, and upgraded.

AFter, I used CMD-R to get into the Utilities. I then erased my partition.

I went to reinstall Lion from my recovery partition, and then it prompted me to enter my Apple ID. I did so, and guess what? Lion is not activated on your account.

So I bought Lion online from a Windows PC, and received the code today. I now need to activate it on my account so it no longer says Lion is not on your account. But I can't activate it without a Mac.

 

[KeithP]

Snow Leopard is available from Apple if that helps:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC...6-snow-leopard

-KeithP

 

[PCunicorn]

Yeah, but that only acts as a upgrade from Leaoprd so sadly it doesn't help much.

I'm gonna try running Snow Leopard in Virtual Box on Windows, and activate the code with the Mac app store.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Heh, good luck with that one. Yikes. (I've tried getting OS X to run on Virtualbox... it's a trick.)

Did you try calling Apple or going to an Apple Store? I mean, you have the laptop, so you technically "own" the software. You shouldn't have had to buy it again, frankly. The phone guys should be able to add Leopard to your account.

 

[PCunicorn]

It's 2 hours away, so not worth it

Yeah I'm not having a lot of luck. I should probably go down to Best Buy and use one of their Macs but it'll take a good hour to get there and back during rush hour which is the only time I can go.

Anyways I'm getting a little agitated. I would be willing to send over a few bucks if anybody could activate this for me.

 

[TheStu]

Heh, good luck with that one. Yikes. (I've tried getting OS X to run on Virtualbox... it's a trick.)

Did you try calling Apple or going to an Apple Store? I mean, you have the laptop, so you technically "own" the software. You shouldn't have had to buy it again, frankly. The phone guys should be able to add Leopard to your account.

Well, he only bought Lion once. He 'acquired' it the first time. And now the MacBook has Lion's Internet Recovery on it, so...

OP, in order for someone else to activate it for you, you'll have to give them your Apple ID and password. You might as well just call Apple and lay out the situation and see if they can activate it for you.

 

[mugs]

So I bought Lion online from a Windows PC, and received the code today. I now need to activate it on my account so it no longer says Lion is not on your account. But I can't activate it without a Mac.

I have no idea if this will work, but you could try redeeming your download code in iTunes on the Windows PC.