New SSD, how to load ML on it?

[MattMJB0188]

Expecting a new SSD and my 2012 MBP is still running Mountain Lion. I do not want Mavericks. How do I make a Lion USB Boot Disk when Lion is no longer available for download in the App store?

I do have a Mountain Lion ISO image file if that can help me?

Thanks

 

[simsaladimbamba]

If you still have the OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion installer, use that, no need for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.

• How to Clean Install OS X Mountain Lion
• How to Do a Clean Install of OS X Mountain Lion

How to format a new HDD to install Mac OS X onto (or make a bootable copy onto)​

 

[MattMJB0188]

I meant Mountain Lion, not Lion. My MBP came pre-installed with Mountain Lion on it. Where can I find the installer for it? I see its no longer available in the mac app store anymore, only Mavericks.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Where can I find the installer for it?

The following is no longer true?

I do have a Mountain Lion ISO image file if that can help me?

Thanks

 

[Weaselboy]

I meant Mountain Lion, not Lion. My MBP came pre-installed with Mountain Lion on it. Where can I find the installer for it? I see its no longer available in the mac app store anymore, only Mavericks.

If your machine came with ML, you can get it back through Internet recovery. Install your SSD then do a command-option-r boot (hold all three keys at once). That will bring up the recovery console where you can use Disk Utility to erase the new drive to Mac OS Extended. Then quit Disk Util and click install OS.

Apple's servers will see the serial number on your machine and give you back ML for free since it came from the factory with ML.

 

[MattMJB0188]

Thanks everyone! I figured it out. If I didn't have my ML iso file, I couldn't have made a USB boot disk. There is no way to download ML anymore, since Apple pulled it from the app store. That's ridiculous!

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks everyone! I figured it out. If I didn't have my ML iso file, I couldn't have made a USB boot disk. There is no way to download ML anymore, since Apple pulled it from the app store. That's ridiculous!

If you had purchased ML in the App Store it would have been in your previous purchases list for redownload. The thing is your machine came with ML so you never purchased it... so no previous download for you. You could have installed ML using Internet recovery like I described in by previous post though.

If you just want to grab the installer to make an updated USB key, you can follow this process to intercept the installer.