Can I install Mountain Lion on a different hard drive when it's already installed on one hard drive?

I have a Mac Pro with two 2TB hard drives installed, one I use for storage, and one as my startup disk (also store things on there as well). I just installed two new 2TB drives and have set up a RAID 0 with them. I want to use the RAID drive as my start up disk, but I'm not sure if I can install Mountain Lion on the new RAID drive while it is still on the original start up drive. I also don't want to lose or erase any information from my current start up drive. Can anyone offer me guidance??

Firstly, you need to partition and format the SSD. You need to be able to boot the computer from another drive that has a bootable OS X system installed or a Snow Leopard DVD installer that works on the computer.
Install Lion/Mountain Lion on a New HDD/SDD
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Internet Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears on the screen. Wait patiently - 15-20 minutes - until the Recovery main menu appears.
Partition and Format the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your external hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button. Be sure to select the correct drive to use if you have more than one.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

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How to install mountain lion with a different apple ID?

How to install mountain lion with a different apple ID?

More information would be helpful. If you are going to use a different Apple ID, you will need to buy Mountain Lion again. If you have a computer that has Mountain Lion installed, but Mountain Lion was purchased with a different Apple ID you must use the original Apple ID to download Mountain Lion.
Help us help You
I need to learn to type faster.

Currently i am using a windows7 installed machine with following configurations intel core i5 2.60Ghz with Ram 8gb.(64 byte).I would like to install Mountain lion osx in my windows machine.Pls tell how to install mountain lion osx in my windows machine?

Currently i am using a windows7 installed machine with following configurations intel core i5 2.60Ghz with Ram 8gb.(64 byte).I would like to install Mountain lion osx in my windows machine.Pls tell how to install mountain lion osx in my windows machine?

Please stop asking about that on this forum.
There are plenty of informations on the Internet if you want to do it but nobody here will help, because is against the forum's rules.
And, you can't buy Mountain Lion if you do not have a Macintosh with at least Snow Leopard installed.
There is no physical media. Mountain Lion is provided by Apple through the Mac App Store.

I have OS 10.6.8 and I've recently downloaded Mountain Lion (10.8.3)... when I try to install, it says that I need version 10.8 to continue... What do I do?

I have OS 10.6.8 and I've recently downloaded Mountain Lion (10.8.3)... when I try to install, it says that I need version 10.8 to continue... What do I do?

Open App Store and sign in with your Apple ID. Locate the Mountain Lion installer, purchase Mountain Lion, then download it. It's a 4 GB file. You have downloaded an updater.
Make Your Own Mountain/Lion Installer
1. After downloading Mountain/Lion you must first save the Install Mac OS X Mountain/
    Lion application. After Mountain/Lion downloads DO NOT click on the Install button.
    Go to your Applications folder and make a copy of the Mountain/Lion installer. Move
    the copy into your Downloads folder. Now you can click on the Install button. You
    must do this because the installer deletes itself automatically when it finishes
    installing.
2. Get a USB flash drive that is at least 8 GBs. Prep this flash drive as follows:
a. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
b. After DU loads select your flash drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left
      side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
c. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one.
      Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the
      partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until
      the process has completed.
d. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side
      list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
e. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the
      button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
f. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to an hour depending upon the flash
     drive size.
3. Locate the saved Mountain/Lion installer in your Downloads folder. CTRL- or RIGHT-click on the installer and select Show Package Contents from the contextual menu. Double-click on the Contents folder to open it. Double-click on the SharedSupport folder. In this folder you will see a disc image named InstallESD.dmg.
4. Plug in your freshly prepared USB flash drive. You are going to clone the content of the InstallESD.dmg disc image to the flash drive as follows:
a. Double-click on the InstallESD.dmg file to mount it on your Desktop.
b. Open Disk Utility.
c. Select the USB flash drive from the left side list.
d. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
e. Select the USB flash drive volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
f. Drag the mounted disc icon from the Desktop into the Source entry field.
g. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
When the clone is completed you have a fully bootable installer that you can use without having to re-download Mountain/Lion.
Note: The term Mountain/Lion used above means Lion or Mountain Lion.
As an alternative to the above (you still have to do your own download of Lion/Mountain Lion) you can try using Lion DiskMaker 2.0 that automates the process of Steps 2 through 4.

I installed Mountain Lion from Apple and wish to delete iPhoto and re- install iPhoto. How do I do it please

Having trouble trying to upload a book from iPhoto so wonder if I can delete and re-install iPhoto . I have no installation disc as Mountain Lion was downloaded direct from Apple. Thanks

Both partitions should be visible in Mountain Lion. What I did on my wife's computer was select the Snow Leopard partition, select iPhoto in the Snow Leopard Applications folder, and copy iPhoto to the Mountain Lion Application folder (drag and drop). I then ran Software Update and was able to download a newer version. If I remember correctly, I had to run Software Update twice to get the newest version.
If you have the iLife 11 disc, you can install iPhoto on Mountain Lion and then update the program as I typed above. That is how I got iPhoto on my computer.
I never had to pay as long as I was able to get an older version of iPhoto in the Mountain Lion Application.
I hope this helps. Computer frustration is not one of my favorite things.

How do i wipe my hard drive and install Mountain lion

OK i wanted to install mavrick but i got my macbook pro in june of 2007 so it's to old. The command R does nothing when i reboot, and everything i find online about clearing my hard drive and getting ready to install mountain lion has that step in it. So how do i clear my hard drive so my computer is brand new like the day i bought it and also update my OS from snow leapard. Do i need to buy the disk for mountain lion or can i just download it? if someone has a link to something helpful i would love to have it.. Thanks

If you can't run Mavericks, you can't run Mountain Lion because they have the same hardware requirements.
Check that your computer is compatible with Mountain Lion/Mavericks.
To check the model number hold down the option/alt key, go to the Apple menu and select System Information.
MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) model number 3,1 or higher
Your Mac needs:
OS X v10.6.8 or OS X Lion already installed
2 GB or more of memory (More is better - 4 GB minimum seems to be the consensus)
8 GB or more of available space
If your computer isn’t compatible, you might be able to upgrade to Lion.
Computer Compatibility - Lion                       Lion
Check to make sure your applications are compatible. PowerPC applications are no longer supported after 10.6.
Application Compatibility
Applications Compatibility (2)

Installing mountain lion failed

I have made a bootable USB disk of mountain lion and I tried to install mountain lion off of it. However, it has failed to install.
I went to boot it from the USB and it started installing as it should but then when it came to the second screen where it says it will take 30minutes it froze and then said that there was an error and I need to reinstall mountain lion. So I went to restart my computer and now it comes up with a error is saying "there was a problem installing "Mac OS X" try reinstalling". When I try reinstalling without my USB plugged in it comes up with the install OS x window but it does not detect my internal hard drive disk.
I do not no what to do? I tried to go utilities>restore system from backup and I plugged in my external hard drive but now it does not recognize my hard drive disk on my MacBook so I couldn't restore. Please help me! Need my MacBook to finish my assignments
I'm using a late 2008 aluminum MacBook (according to apple it's is compatible)
Upgrading from lion
Please help me ASAP if possible

Since you have Lion running after this restore, do not instal ML from this USB stick you made (it is probably not corrupt, but anyway don't use it) but download ML again.
The installer you will find then in the Applications Folder.
Before you install it, make a new USB stick installer with "Lion Diskmaker 2.0.1" : this works for Lion too. Read the acompanying readme.
When you have this USB stick made, INSTALL BY USING THE INSTALLER IN THE APPLICATIONS FOLDER:
this will eliminate the large file form your Aplications folder and will just create a ML installation with all your data etcetera in place.
Note: beware that some Apps may not be ML compatible, you can check on the www.roaringapps.com sites.

How long does it take to install mountain lion

how long does it take to install mountain lion

It depends on a number of factors - the speed of your computer and hard drive mostly. My experience has been that a standard upgrade will take 30-45 minutes. If you are erasing the hard drive and installing, it takes about 20-30 minutes, not counting migrating your data and applications.
This doesn't count downloading which can take as litting as 40 minutes (a very fast broadband connection during off hours) to as much as several hours.

Installed Mountain lion on my Mac book pro. Now My IRONKEY flash drive is not launching.

Installed Mountain lion on my Mac book pro late 2011. After that my IRONKEY flash drive is not launching. Before it was launching OK.The flash drive has updated software.

You have some other problem with your boot drive that has corrupted data backed up to the TimeMacine drive.
My advice is to boot into each operating system and manually backup just your Users files each to separate regular external drives (no Timemachine or backup software) and disconnect.
Make a note of any serial numbers, emails, address book contacts, export bookmarks etc. that isn't typically in your users folders data.
You might be able to Winclone 3 the Windows as a whole thing as it's appearing not to have issues but it's your MacintoshHD partition that is so that will have to be rebuilt from scratch.
Most commonly used backup methods
If your OS X parititon doesn't boot, you can use this to recover files.
Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive
Without any further detail about your machine I can't advise specifically what to do, but it involves using Disk Utility to Zero Erase (move slider one spot to the right or in 10.6 using Security Option) the ENTIRE boot drive and reformatting, then installing OSX fresh and then setting up BootCamp again.
If you wish to switch your boot drive for something better, this is a good time to do this.
Install/upgrade RAM or storage drive in Mac's
If your machine is capable of Internet Recovery, then use that, then upgrade.
If your machine came with 10.6 or earlier, then use the 10.6 install disks and work up from there.
Erase, formatting, OS X installs on Mac's

Mountain Lion won't install on 10.7.4. Suggestion from Apple is to completely erase harddisk and install Leopard Snow Leopard Mountain Lion. Is there no other way to install Mountain Lion

Mountain Lion won't install on 10.7.4. Suggestion from Apple is to completely erase the harddisk and install Leopard > Snow Leopard > Mountain Lion.
Is there no other way to install Mountain Lion?

I tried and failed for several hours to install Mountain Lion, and was repeatedly getting the "Recovery System" cannot be created error. I tried all the tricks: resizing the drive partition, booting from an external boot drive, all to no avail. After reading other users struggling with the same issue, I had determined it to be a boot camp drive error. However, I didn't want to have to erase and begin anew when I came upon a possible solution. I had long ago renamed my boot camp drive with a "." (".windows" for me) in order to avoid having the partition show up on my desktop. So, I boot into windows and renamed the c: drive without the "." ("windows"), and reboot into os x. The install then went off without a hitch. I hope this will be helpful for others struggling with this issue that may have renamed their boot camp drives in a similar manner.

Safari does not start after installing Mountain Lion

I installed Mountain Lion on my Imac. No problem. However after installing ML on my MacBook Safari doesn't open. I have installed ML again but still it does not work.
Help!

You haven't indicated if you have tried multiple DVD/CD's or just the one. Look under the "Apple > About This Mac > More Info.. > Disk Burning " do you see the Superdrive? If the system recognizes it but it doesn't work try a
SMC RESET
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord and ALL peripherals.
Wait 15 seconds.
Attach the computers power cable.
Wait another 5 seconds and press the power button to turn on the computer.
The 5 second timing is important to a successful reset.

Trying to install Mountain Lion 2012 Mac Mini

I am upgrading (downsizing) from an old Mac Pro running Lion, to a new 2012 Mac Mini running Mountain Lion.
I have a new SSD Hard Drive I want to install Mountain lion on via a USB dock, and then I will install it in the Mini to replace the slow 1TB drive that came with it.
The problem is, even though the 2012 Mini is running 10.8.2, (Mountain Lion) when I try to download/install Mountain Lion it tells me I cant download it and that OSX Mountain Lion is not compatible with this computer.
Which is ridiculous, as it is running 10.8.2 right now./
ideas?
Flustered.

If you want a fresh install of Mountain Lion on the
external, you should be able to boot into the Recovery HD
and select install OSX and direct it to install on the external
drive.
Then again, cloning is just so much simpler.

HT1338 Why is my MacBook Pro running so slow after installing Mountain Lion 10.8.

Why is my MacBook Pro running so slow after installing Mountain Lion 10.8. I have restarted, created more free space on my hard drive and run disk utilities. Simple operations result 20 seconds or more of the spinning wheel. Some are so slow that the operation does not happen at all. Itunes music cuts out during operations.

Check out this article by Thomas Reed for help http://www.reedcorner.net/understanding-upgrade-nightmares/. Also, make sure all apps are compatible with Mountain Lion using www.roaringapps.com. Do you have any antivirus installed? Make sure all apps are updated as well.

I installed Mountain Lion and can't log in as different user

I installed Mountain Lion and now I can't log out and log back in to the account that I prefer to use. It won't accept my password, even after I've reset the password for that account.

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the page that opens.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left.
Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Try the action again. Post any messages that appear in the Console window – the text, please, not a screenshot.
Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Edit it out by search-and-replace in a text editor before posting.

How do I partition my MacBook Pro so I can keep Snow Leopard and also install Mountain Lion?

How do I partition my MacBook Pro so I can keep Snow Leopard and also install Mountain Lion?
I want to install the latest OS, but I already know that I will lose a lot of my software unless I can partition the hard drive and have two "bootable" drives.
How do I retain everything I have, partition the drive, then reloa the software I own according to which OS it will work under?

msmedia wrote:
I do not currently own OS X ML.
I am currently running OS X (10.6.8 Snow Leopard) on my MacBook Pro. It has a 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor. I want to upgrade to Mountain Lion, but many of my software titles will not operate with ML and I cannot afford to replace some of them (Adobe Creative Suite, for e.g.)
After I back-up my HD and then partition the HD, how do I use the back-up to reinstall what I want to the SL partition, and then place the rest on the ML partition.
I have not done what you want to do, so can only offer some general thoughts in support. Take value from the following where you can. No guarantees.
If it was me, I would use a disk clone utility (e.g. Carbon Copy Cloner) to image the existing Snow Leopard disk to an external drive. Then verify that the external drive would boot and run Snow Leopard normally.
I would then purchase and download the Mountain Lion upgrade installer, but not run it. Use Lion Diskmaker to make a bootable USB stick, and perform a clean install of Mountain Lion, replacing the Snow Leopard on your MBP. This way, you make absolutely certain that no third-party drivers or other SL cruft remains to make Mountain Lion unstable. Update to latest ML point release. Fix permissions. Let TimeMachine make a full backup of your ML installation to a different external drive. Then turn of Time Machine.
In Disk Utility, use the + sign at the bottom of the ML partition to add another GUID, HFS+ Journaled partition for Snow Leopard. Resize to taste. Name it differently from your ML partition. Exhale.
Now ideally, you would like to reverse the external clone and put it back into the new SL partition. Then fix permissions. And demonstrate that you can boot into individually stable OS X installations. This would save you alot of work. Resist copying your home directory into ML just yet.
If you cannot successfully achieve the preceding paragraph, you will be faced with a full SL and application reinstall.
The ~/Library contents for SL and ML are sufficiently different that you do not want to mix them. You may want to salvage Safari bookmarks.plist. And, ML created folders in the home directory may have different permissions or ACL settings than in SL. So, my rule of thumb would be to copy folders that you created in SL, and only the contents of matching named OS created folders such as Music, Pictures, Downloads, etc.
For each operating system, you probably want the Time Machine settings to exclude the opposite OS X partition. If you use the same host name in Sharing prefs, then you will mix SL and ML backups on the same Time Machine back up drive. If you use different host names, they will be distinct folders in the Time Machine backups.backupdb and allow discrete restores per host. You may also want to gag Spotlight from indexing the opposite OS X partition.

Can I install Mountain Lion on a different hard drive when it's already installed on one hard drive?

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