Can some PLEASE help me (trying to reinstall Leopard on MacBook Air)

[daneoni]

I've been trying to reinstall Leopard on my Air for the past hour but its not working. I put the restore disk 1 into my macbook and got it to the point where it says waiting for Air to connect.

I then reboot the Air holding down option and join my wi-fi network but the network disk doesnt show up only my normal HD

I've tried this with and without wireless encryption but no dice and i dont have the superdrive so i have to use over the air

What am i doing wrong?

 

[snberk103]

If this is a new Air, at least within 90 days of purchase I believe you are eligible for tech support under AppleCare. Give them a call, because they can help you through the installation while on the phone. You should be up and running in hours, instead of the time it takes a forum to help if there are more questions that need to be asked.

 

[HiFiGuy528]

headaches like this makes me want to get the SuperDrive before my Air arrives and attempt the OS X reinstall.

 

[yoavcs]

Your wi-fi network is using WEP encryption. The Air remote install only works over WPA/WPA2 encryption.

Reconfigure your router and you'll be set.

 

[daneoni]

I was actually using WPA/WPA2 Personal. The problem was that my FIrewall was turned on...had to turn it off completely before it saw the install disk.

Now i'm at problem no 2 and possible the last straw. Once the Air sees the disk and tries to boot off it i get a kernel panic without fail

I've had enough TBH, i'm calling Apple first thing tomorrow and returning it. Would my life be easier just getting an external superdrive?..yes but i feel i shouldn't have to. Getting an external drive defeats the purpose and at that point you might as well get a MacBook which is what i'm going to do

 

[stiphone]

I had the same problem a couple of days back when i was re-installing Leopard. I just can't seem to get the re-installation to complete and it normally just reboots back into Leopard.

Talked to the Mac genuis at my store and he said that it could be that the wifi data transfer rate are not fast enough for remote disk to work. I subsequently bought the superdrive and subsequently the re-installation for Leopard worked flawlessly. Well, IMHO the best way to re-install the MBA would be to use the superdrive.

Hope it helps.

 

[SFStateStudent]

Could you have called AppleCare today?

I bought the SD, just for this purpose but as it turns out, I use it for so much more. I've reinstalled just once so far, but it was so much easier than the OP's situation.

 

[xparaparafreakx]

Do not use your wifi network.

On your Macbook, go to the Airport menu --> Create Network..
Name it whatever you like and do not password it.
Then open Applications --> Utilities --> Remote Install Mac OS X.app
Make sure you have your disc in the macbook

On your Air, boot with option key down.
Connect to your created network.
Boot off the disk.
There you go.

I have install the OS from a Tibook 1Ghz over 802.11b, Albook 1.5Ghz and Macbook Pro 17" Core Duo and never fails so it should work.

 

[daneoni]

Thanks for all the suggestion guys but the only way to get it to work was for the Genius to boot of an external USB and even then it didnt recognise the images the first two attempts.

The genius concluded that the Logic board needed replacing due to either faulty RAM/Airport card

EDIT: Here's a pic of what was happening

 

[xparaparafreakx]

That is some bad luck right there. Sorry to hear that.

 

[UltraNEO*]

Thanks for all the suggestion guys but the only way to get it to work was for the Genius to boot of an external USB and even then it didnt recognise the images the first two attempts.

The genius concluded that the Logic board needed replacing due to either faulty RAM/Airport card

EDIT: Here's a pic of what was happening

AND just now I was trying to Justify buying a PC based ultrabook..

I guess despite all the things that's wrong with windows and ofcourse Sony VAIO's, it does make me wonder why can't or don't Apple make a sub-notebook with a built-in superdrive??

I mean.. They're already using 1.8" HD's, 9mm slot-loading optical drives and thin TFT screens.. Why do they have to choose heavy materials? The weght and featureless thing surrounding the MBA was all that stopped me from buying it ~ that's quite strong coming from someone who's used them for about twenty years.