Mac Mini 2011 Restore Help

[b49adam]

So I just bought a Mac Mini for $300. Everything is basically new but the person that sold it to me didn't restore it. It has Windows 7 and Mac OS X on it. I searched through Google and found out the only way to restore it is to hold down the Command/Alt key with R to get to the Recovery HD but it isn't there for me. The only drives I see when I do that are the Macintosh HD & the Windows 7 drive. I found out that the Recovery part had been deleted. I then did some more searching and found out that my only other option is to restore the OS Mountain Lion. I went to the App Store and I purchased the new Mountain Lion but I can't do anything because now it asks me for a password. I tried contacting the guy that I bought it from but he's no help cause he doesn't remember it. I'm literally stuck right now. Please if anybody can help me. This is my very first Mac purchase and I'd like to get it working...

 

[opinio]

You can create a bootable recovery drive on a USB stick:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433

Or use Internet Recovery by holding down CMD+option+R instead of just the CMD+R.

 

[blanka]

The 2011 mini also allows a Snow leopard install if you mount it as target-disk on another snow leopard mac. You can still get the SL disk at Apple for 19$. But since it is your first mac, you probably don't botter about Snow. For many it is the best OSX ever, still.