Desperate advice needed about installing OS on Mac Mini

[3 More Years]

Hello Everyone,

I am really stuck with my Mac Mini and in desperate need of advice. I have a Mid 2007 Mac Mini. Model number A1176 (EMC 2108). I have been trying to install Lion or Mountain Lion, or any OS version that would allow me to use it properly. I have increased the RAM to 4GB from 1GB. I have installed a new Hard Drive. However, everything I do to install a new OS version fails. I have tried CMD + R route. I have tried the "Alt" route. I have tried to install via CD/DVD. I have even loaded OS through another computer, and then moved the hard disk into the Mac Mini, even then it won't accept it!

Just to give you some background information, my Mac Mini was very slow, and it wouldn't allow me to install any of the current browser versions like Chrome or FireFox, and I could not longer play YouTube, BBC iPlayer, Netflix etc properly because it would give me the message to say my browser is not supported.

Where am I going wrong? Am I missing something very obvious? I have spent a lot of time on this now, and I am getting really frustrated. I would really appreciate some help from anyone who has done this before.

The only thing I can think of is that this model is not designed or is not allowed to upgrade to a newer OS version, which would seem strange to me because I have seen same age MacBooks run the Mountain Lion and Lion.

By the way, this is a Core 2 Duo, I understand the Core Solo processors can't install Lion. This is the Serial Number: YM8464E0YL2, here it is: http://www.everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup/?search_keywords=YM8464E0YL2

I have spent all this money on memory and Hard Disk and I don't want into be wasted.

 

[cyabro]

That model can only go up to Lion 10.7.5 so forget mountain lion.
I don't think lion ever came on a disc, it was the first OS X to be installed by Internet recovery however your Mac mini doesn't support that.
What OS X did you try from disc?

Did you try creating a lion recovery bootable USB stick?
https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433?locale=en_US
You may need to run that on another Mac that is running lion already.

 

[3 More Years]

@cyabro thank you thats very helpful advice. I had a Lion DVD/CD from somewhere, an original one that comes with iMacs. Secondly, I did not try and create a lion recovery bootable USB stick. However, I am about to try that following your advice. I will let you know how it goes. If there is anything else you can think, do let me know. Appreciate it.

 

[3 More Years]

@cyabro, actually I forgot to tell you that I have a USB Hard Drive with a bootable copy of Lion on it, and I have used it to install Lion on MB's many times. However, it would not work on the Mac Mini. So I will try your method, just in case I made a stupid mistake.

 

[3 More Years]

@cyabro do you think it will accept Mavericks? I have a laptop with Mavericks on it. I could try and make a mavericks recovery bootable USB stick? Any thoughts?

 

[cyabro]

@cyabro do you think it will accept Mavericks? I have a laptop with Mavericks on it. I could try and make a mavericks recovery bootable USB stick? Any thoughts?

No nothing above lion will work on that Mac mini unfortunately.

 

[Markverhyden]

No nothing above lion will work on that Mac mini unfortunately.

^^^ What he said. Your's might have experienced a failure as well. I have a MacMini server circa 2010 that had been running 10.8. HD apparently failed so I decided to toss in a couple of SSD's and rebuild. I can only load 10.6.8 and it will not work properly with that.

 

[kwisher]

If the Mac O/S won't work, Linux is an option to repurpose the machine. Are these models Intel based?

 

[lcoughey]

Ironically enough, I have a tech who is installing Linux on a mac mini right now, just to play.