Given your vague error description it's hard to diagnose the problem here, but this is the usual way to go.Īpple used to sell USB keys with a Mac OS X Lion installer on it for around $60. Apple has details on this here: About OS X Recovery – basically, given high speed internet access and enough time, the recovery partition installed with Mac OS X Lion or OS X Mountain Lion should enable you to download the installer. If you don't have access to another computer:
