A list of all Mac OS X versions

How to Do a Clean Install of OS X Lion, From Lion: 4 Steps

If you replace your internal hard drive with a larger, faster, or solid state drive. If any essential OS X files become damaged or corrupted, or are deleted or renamed. The instructions offered here describe both the process for installing and the process for reinstalling OS X. The OS X Utilities window appears. Click Continue. Click Continue to begin the process of installing or reinstalling OS X.

The Mountain Lion software license agreement screen appears. Read it and click Agree.

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A sheet drops down, asking whether you agree to the terms of the license agreement. Choose the disk on which you want to reinstall OS X by clicking its icon once in the pane where you select a disk.

Step 1: Clean system junk on your current Mac OS X

But remember you won't be recovering any data you have added since you upgraded. Once you have the installer downloaded you might think you can just click to install it and your Mac will be updated or rather, downgraded with the older version. Unfortunately it's not that simple. Not keen on completely wiping your Mac? There are options.


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You could install the version you require on an external drive, for example. Want to run two or more versions of macOS alongside each other? That's also a possibility. There are actually multiple methods you can use to install an older version of the Mac operating system on your Mac.

How To Upgrade Your Mac To OS X Lion… The Right Way

The most appropriate method for you will depend on a number of factors including whether you want to run more than one version of macOS. We also have dedicated articles for these different methods that go into more detail, you'll find links below.


  • How to Reinstall macOS for a Fast and Squeaky Clean Mac.
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  • If you have a Time Machine backup that predates the version of macOS that you want to bid farewell to, then this could be the simplest solution for you. Remember that if you recover from an old backup you will lose the data you have added since updating to the version of macOS you wish to uninstall.

    Download and install older versions of OS X on a Mac

    Here's how to restore your Mac from a Time Machine backup. While we are talking about Recovery, you might like to try the following method of downgrading your Mac to the version of macOS it shipped with. It didn't actually work for us when we tried, perhaps because our internet connection wasn't good enough, but it should work in theory!

    How to do a Clean Install of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion From a Boot Disk

    This is effectively a clean install, which we look at in more detail here: How to do a clean install of macOS. You will be wiping your Mac and installing the version of macOS you require on a clean slate. Running a version of macOS on an external drive is a great solution if you wish to continue to run the version of macOS currently installed on your Mac. Rather than go through the steps here, we direct you to this article about how to run How to run macOS on an external drive. The benefit of this method is you don't need to wipe your Mac.