Backup my computer and phone with iCloud and OS X Mountain Lion by Apple

In relation to your Mac, the "Lion" is the Operating System as part of the OS X (10) series and was the 7th released. This was then called OS X 10.7 Lion, released on July 20th 2011. Later, there was OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion released as the 8th series OS X.

10.7 carried with it the iCloud integration as Apple moved from MobileMe to this new "cloud technology" and the OS was the first to never be sold in Disc form. It was only available from the App Store as an electronic download and for a short time on USB. All OS X versions after 10.6 were all downloadable via the Mac App Store.

So the Lion is just the name of the Operating System on the Mac! It's like a car that's called a Jaguar, but this is in relation to the Software the computer is running!

You cannot do what you want without the original installer disc that came with the computer or a later version of OS X installer, unless the computer came originally with Lion or Mountain Lion.

Follow these instructions step by step to prepare a Mac for sale:
Step One - Back up your data:
A. If you have any Virtual PCs shut them down. They cannot be in their "fast saved" state. They must be shut down from inside Windows.
B. Clone to an external drive using using Carbon Copy Cloner.
1. Open Carbon Copy Cloner.
2. Select the Source volume from the Select a source drop down menu on the left side.
3. Select the Destination volume from the Select a destination drop down menu on the right
side.
4. Click on the Clone button. If you are prompted about creating a clone of the Recovery HD be
sure to opt for that.
Destination means a freshly erased external backup drive. Source means the internal
startup drive.
Step Two - Prepare the machine for the new buyer:
1. De-authorize the computer in iTunes! De-authorize both iTunes and Audible accounts.
2, Remove any Open Firmware passwords or Firmware passwords.
3. Turn the brightness full up and volume nearly so.
4. Turn off File Vault, if enabled.
5. Disable iCloud, if enabled: See What to do with iCloud before selling your computer.
Step Three - Install a fresh OS:
A. Snow Leopard and earlier versions of OS X
1. Insert the original OS X install CD/DVD that came with your computer.
2. Restart the computer while holding down the C key to boot from the CD/DVD.
3. Select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu; repartition and reformat the internal hard drive.
Optionally, click on the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass.
4. Install OS X.
5. Upon completion DO NOT restart the computer.
6. Shutdown the computer.
B. Lion and Mountain Lion (if pre-installed on the computer at purchase*)
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because
it is three times faster than wireless.
1. Restart the computer while holding down the COMMAND and R keys until the Mac OS X
Utilities window appears.
2. Select Disk Utility from the Mac OS X Utilities window and click on the Continue button.
3. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the left side list. Click
on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
4. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on the Security button
and set the Zero Data option to one-pass.
5. Click on the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
6. Quit DU and return to the Mac OS X Utilities window.
7. Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button.
8. Upon completion shutdown the computer.

*If your computer came with Lion or Mountain Lion pre-installed then you are entitled to transfer your license once. If you purchased Lion or Mountain Lion from the App Store then you cannot transfer your license to another party. In the case of the latter you should install the original version of OS X that came with your computer. You need to repartition the hard drive as well as reformat it; this will assure that the Recovery HD partition is removed. See Step Three above. You may verify these requirements by reviewing your OS X Software License

Lion, Mountain Lion, and Mavericks (10.7, 10.8, and 10.9 respectively) do not come on a physical CD or DVD. They are downloaded and installed through the Mac App Store.

After installing 10.7 or later, a 'hidden' partition is created on your computer that serves the same function as the physical discs did in earlier versions of OS X (10.6 and earlier), giving you access to Disk Utility, Install OS X, Get Help Online, and other functions that previously were accessed from a physical disc.
If for some reason the hard drive is damaged or the Recovery Partition is otherwise inaccessible, you can access the same utilities over the internet using Internet Recovery.

One can, however, create a bootable flash drive as a physical backup of your Recovery Partition using Recovery Disk Assistant.

All the information on how to access Recovery Partition, Internet Recovery, and Recovery Disk Assistant are available from the following articles:

OS X: About OS X Recovery

OS X Recovery Disk Assistant v1.0

You would have had to add your iCloud account details when you configured your iPhone to enable the backup. To check that your data exists, go to the following URL and login:
iCloud

Here you should be able to see your data.

Assuming it has been backed up, go to your Apple computer "System Preferences" -> "iCloud" and select the data that you would like to keep in sync.

This is very easy and can be done two ways.

1. Connect your iPhone to your computer and sync the photos:
iTunes Syncing photos
how do transfer photos from my iPhone to my iMac

2. You can configure both your iphone and computer to sync the photos over iCloud.
iCloud Set up My Photo Stream
Apple United Kingdom iCloud All your content on all your devices

Unfortunately Apple does not have Facebook integration for Mountain Lion yet. It is expected to be released in the fall or so.

You are able to integrate with Twitter however, if you use that social media site.

Hello Patrick,

The most common problems I've experienced with Mountain Lion are the following:

• Reduced battery life. I've noticed about an hour to an hour and a half cut off from my battery life of my Macbook Pro. I'm not sure if this applies to you since you have a Macbook Air, but my recommendation is to try a reinstall if you experience battery problems and turn off some of the extra features like Twitter integration and iCloud when you're not using them.
  
• Safari is crashing. Safari is a browser that used to have little respect but now has actually gotten pretty decent. However, with Mountain Lion it actually crashes a lot more than usual. I don't have a fix for it offhand, but I would recommend just using Chrome (which I use anyways) or Firefox. And stay away from Explorer!
  
• Free upgrades to Mountain Lion. When I got my free upgrade to Mountain Lion (if you purchased a Mac after June 11, 2012 you can get one too) it took Apple about 5 days to upgrade me to Mountain Lion. This is a super low priority problem, but it's still something I hope they're working on.
  
• Notes synchronization. I have answered this on FixYa already, you can find it on the site.
  

Best of luck.

All you do is go into "System Preferences" and then click on "iCloud". From there you will be able to activate your account and proceed.

Please note that you will have to set up an @me.com email address from Apple. Without this you will not be able to sync between devices like you wish to do.

Hi Rachel,

In order to sync your Notes between your Apple devices, please use the following steps:

• Go to your iCloud settings and sign up for an @me.com email address.
  
• Once you have an @me.com email address, write a note in the Notes app on your iPhone.
  
• Go to the iCloud website and open up the "Mail" application
  
• Underneath all of your email folders (Inbox, Sent, etc.) there should be a folder called "Notes"
  
• Open that folder and read your note!