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Repair guides for the MacBook Air, Apple's current line of consumer laptops.

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Can't get software to load from superdrive after new hd install?

Dear IFixit,

I followed your very helpful video on installing a new 120g Toshiba hard drive on my Macbook air serial number w88261kmy51. The original software was 10.5.1 or 10.5.2

I am getting a message that the OS X is not compatible. Any advice?

I know you cannot load software that is older than when you first got your Mac, but I know 10.5.6 is newer.

I am using a MacBook Air superdrive do install the OS..

Thanks

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I'm getting a message OS not compatible when I launch it from the external superdrive. I have ordered Sno Leopard to ensure I'm installing the newest version available i will have it in a few days...are there any special things I must do to partition or format the Toshiba 120g drive?

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You can install from your original system installation disk. If you don't have that, you can order it from Apple for $16. The next option is to get a retail 10.6 installation disk. $29. The gray installation disks are machine specific, so a 10.5.6 from say an iMac will not work. Next option is to get a 10.7 flash disk from Apple for $69.

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I'm getting a message OS not compatible when I launch it from the external superdrive. I have ordered Sno Leopard to ensure I'm installing the newest version available i will have it in a few days...are there any special things I must do to partition or format the Toshiba 120g drive?

mcalnan, 1 second ago

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I don't think you can use the shipping version of Snow Leopard as I don't think has the needed drivers for your Air.

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In addition, you also have a transition model as the EFI on your system is only 32-bit (not 64-bit as in newer systems) so you can go up to Lion (OS-X 10.7.x) but run it only in 32-bit mode. Review your apps needs as they may not work (newer versions). Also your system does not support OpenCL so some programs that run parallel processes won't work either.

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Bottom line here: Upgrade to Lion

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mcalnan crwdns2934231:0crwdne2934231:0
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