OS X reinstallation issue

[politico73]

After finally getting my daughter's 2011 mini to boot from a Mountain Lion Install drive purchased on eBay, I now face the problem of the ML screen coming up (which seemed to suggest it is being reinstalled), but not actually occurring. I let it go at least 15 minutes and there never was any indication of progress, time remaining, etc. I'm hoping that this is probably because of the 2gb of ram it has, only 1gb is functioning properly (1 stick faulty). I have an 8gb Crucial package coming from Newegg which should resolve this issue, if that is in fact the reason it's not installing. I make this assumption based on the message on the screen saying something to the effect: "Mountain Lion requires at least 2gb of ram". Or is this just a standard message while installing regardless of the amount actually installed and working?

As I've posted previously, I have almost no experience with Mac so any help is appreciated.

 

[jpietrzak8]

Yeah, Mountain Lion definitely requires 2GB of RAM. You should wait until you've got the 8GB before installing the OS...

 

[treekram]

I'd agree that you should wait until the 8GB arrives.

Did you purchase a hard drive or a flash drive? Installing the OS from a flash drive, even one properly created, seems to be more problematical, based on my experience and what I see on macrumors. Waiting forever after the reboot is the most common issue I see mentioned. If, after the 8GB is installed, it still doesn't work, you should be able to use Internet Recovery (if you have a working network) which should install Lion or Mountain Lion. From there you can run the Install App for Mountain Lion (if Internet Recovery installs Lion) or upgrade to El Capitan - your choice. If you need help doing that, put another post here.

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

I'd agree that you should wait until the 8GB arrives.

Did you purchase a hard drive or a flash drive? Installing the OS from a flash drive, even one properly created, seems to be more problematical, based on my experience and what I see on macrumors. Waiting forever after the reboot is the most common issue I see mentioned. If, after the 8GB is installed, it still doesn't work, you should be able to use Internet Recovery (if you have a working network) which should install Lion or Mountain Lion. From there you can run the Install App for Mountain Lion (if Internet Recovery installs Lion) or upgrade to El Capitan - your choice. If you need help doing that, put another post here.

Not at all, really. Have a look here to get some ideas:
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201372

You can also just use Disk Utility.

 

[politico73]

Not at all, really. Have a look here to get some ideas:
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201372

You can also just use Disk Utility.

I am using a Mountain Lion bootable flash drive I bought on eBay. I had made three unsuccessful attempts to make my own using three different methods: terminal command, diskmaker, and carbon copy cloner. There's a very long story associated with those efforts. I almost threw in the towel thinking her mini must have had some logic board problems rendering it incapable or recognizing a bootable drive of any kind. But, I decided to give it one more try and ordered one from a seller just 80 miles away knowing that I'd have it the next day. Seeing it boot and get as far as it did was at least a partial victory, and I feel fairly confident that all, or most anyway, will go well when I install the 8gb ram in a couple of days.

The biggest issue from day one, other than being practically clueless on Macs, was not having a Mac to use for downloading, formatting, etc. Since I've been reading so much Mac stuff on the Internet, I developed a desire to own one if I could find something in line with my modest means. I found a 2009 mini, 23" Cinema Display, Magic mouse, and bluetooth keyboard (all genuine Mac and in pristine condition) on Craigslist for $250. It had only been listed for a couple of hours. To me that looked like a steal, so I quickly jumped on it.