Clean Lion install problems

when i try to do a clean install of lion on my 2008 macbook from usb drive, it boots into the drive then brings up a window that says "installing" then that windows closes and another comes up saying "could not install mac os x please reinstall" what can i do to fix this? Should i just install snow leopard and go from there?

Where did this USB drive come from? However it was made, it was made incorrectly. You will need to fall back to Snow Leopard, update it to 10.6.8, then redownload the Lion installer from the App Store.
Have you tried booting from the Recovery HD and reinstalling via Internet Recovery?
Install or Reinstall Lion from Scratch
If possible backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive.
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Erase the hard drive:
Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion and click on the Install button.
Note: You can also re-download the Lion installer by opening the App Store application. Hold down the OPTION key and click on the Purchases icon in the toolbar. You should now see an active Install button to the right of your Lion purchase entry. There are situations in which this will not work. For example, if you are already booted into the Lion you originally purchased with your Apple ID or if an instance of the Lion installer is located anywhere on your computer.
Make Your Own Lion Installer
1. After downloading Lion you must first save the Install Mac OS X Lion application. After Lion downloads DO NOT click on the Install button. Go to your Applications folder and make a copy of the 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 Lion.
2. Get a USB flash drive that is at least 8 GBs. Prep this flash drive as follows:
Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
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.
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.
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.
Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
3. Locate the saved 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 InstallESD.dmg disc image to the flash drive as follows:
Open Disk Utility.
Select the USB flash drive from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the USB flash drive volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Drag the InstallESD.dmg disc image file into the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
When the clone is completed you have a fully bootable Lion installer that you can use without having to re-download Lion.

Similar Messages

Clean OS install problems - software or hardware?

Hello all, I have a 2009 MacBook Pro. I have had problems recently trying to do a clean install of the os. It failed with lion, and now with mountain lion it has been going for three days but is still moving. With lion i tried downloading multiple times, and put it on the usb multiple times. My windows partition works fine, so this leads me to wonder if it's not a hardware problem and if I'm consistently getting a bad download. The download worked on my sisters computer though, but this was an upgrade from lion and not a clean install via USB. I tried going all the way back to leopard as I couldn't find my snow leopard disk and that installed fine. Anyone have any ideas on what's up? Is it maybe a piece of hardware that needs to be replaced? Should I continue letting the mountain lion try to install despite the fact that it has been going three days even though the loading bar is still moving? Any help or advice would be appreciated.
- Ryan

Wifi? there have been problems - and fixes. I assume that is the only thing that could take so long (though download an OS why should it take longer than downloading three full length movies from iTunes Store? it shouldn't)
Clean? just clone your system or make sure you have a good backup (or two) and with the actual install process - not the download which is separate issue - it can go like light-ning on an SSD in minutes. And Setup Assistant? nice good way to start off.
I would say there is no way to know if your system will run better or not or if it takes longer in the end, or just 'safer' and more stable method to get ML installed.
And you do want to save the installer so you can avoid downloading another 4GB later.
Free space or lack thereof is one factor, or maybe it is time for an SSD or new hard drive; swapping out the hard drive before it fails or checking to see if spare blocks have been used is best indication of likely or impending drive issue.
There are guides how best to put Lion/ML on 8GB USB and using Disk-Maker
http://blog.gete.net/lion-diskmaker-us/
How to make a bootable Mountain Lion install drive
http://osxdaily.com/2012/07/25/create-os-x-mountain-lion-boot-dvd-usb-drive-lion diskmaker/
https://www.macworld.com/article/1167857/how_to_make_a_bootable_mountain_lion_in stall_drive.html
Making sure your disk drive does not have any errors can only be done by spending time and effort and scanning for media errors or having a program that will - and a new OS is a good enough time for that.
Mac users just need to stay up to date and make sure your hard drive is free of errors,
OS X Lion: Unable to download OS X Lion wirelessly from Mac App Store - "Your device or computer could not be verified"
Products Affected
Mac App Store, OS X Lion
Symptoms
When attempting to purchase or download OS X Lion from the Mac App Store wirelessly with your Apple ID account, you may receive a dialog stating "Your Device or computer could not be verified. Contact support for assistance." This could happen when upgrading Mac OS X v10.6.6, 10.6.7, or 10.6.8 to OS X Lion via a Wi-Fi connection.
Resolution
Use the following steps to delete your network preferences.
Important: You must be logged in as an administrator.
Click the Finder icon in the Dock.
Choose Go to Folder from the Go menu.
Type /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration
Copy the file networkinterfaces.plist to the desktop (to make a precautionary backup).
Delete the file "networkinterfaces.plist." from SystemConfiguration.
Restart your Mac.
Create new location in Network preferences, in System Preferences.
Once your computer has restarted, you will need to refresh your network settings to be able to connect to the Internet again:
Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu.
Choose Network from the View menu.
From the Location pop-up menu, choose "New Location".
Type a name for your location and click OK.
Click the Apply Now at the bottom right to accept the changes.
If your network connection requires any special settings, you will need to enter them again.
Once you have made these changes, you should be able to connect to the Internet, open App Store, and try your OS X Lion purchase or download again.
Additional Information
This issue may occur if your Mac's Ethernet port is damaged or inoperable, even if you aren't using Ethernet to try to download Lion.
https://support.apple.com/kb/TS3925

Can't install from disk on clean Lion install

Doing the lion upgrade caused a slew of problems on my machine (as well as many others from the look of the discussion boards) So I did a clean install.
Everything is working beautifully, except when I try to install Remote Desktop 3. I just purchased it last week, but the disc version is 3.3, so it will not allow me to install on Lion. It says "Can not install, this software requires Mac OS X 10.6". When I go to the downloads section on the support site, all that is avaiable is an Update .dmg for 3.5, which says it can't install since it can't find an older version of ARD to update.
Does anyone have a work around for this? Or is the full 3.5 .dmg install package avaiable for download somewhere on the support pages that I'm just not finding?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I just had the same issue. Clean Lion (Server) install with the same error message.
I solved it this way.
Insert the Remote Desktop 3.x CD
Open the context menu (right-click) for the Remote Desktop-package
Choose "Show package contents".
Go to /Contents/Installers/
Open the context menu (right-click) for RemoteDesktopAdmin.pkg
Choose "Show package contents".
Go to /Contents
Move the file Archive.pax.gz to your desktop
Extract it
Open the new Archive-folder on your desktop
Copy the RemoteDesktop.app from the /Applications-folder to your local applications folder
Run the update for ARD 3.5
That's it...
Hope this helps...

Mountian Lion Install Problems ?

Hi last night i backed everything to a harddrive manually i didn't use time capsule that was my first mistake then secondly i booted into CMD+R From there i formatted my harddisk as i needed a clean install second mistake.... Now i got no OSX Mountain Lion installed on my mac book pro and every time i click to install Mountain Lion it fails on the eligbility check..... Also it says mountain lion preview 3 top left of the home page of disk utility..... Also i do have Mountain lion on dvd witch i got of my mate ages ago i think its the preview disk im not sure.. So my question is how do i reinstall OSX Moutian Lion ???

What year was your Mac made? If it is a newer unit that came with either Lion or Mountain Lion Pre-Installed then you can use the Online Internet Recovery system to install the original version of OS X that came Pre-Installed on your system.
For some unknown reason it seems that your internal Recovery HD partition, if that is what you used to reinstall MT Lion, is pointing to some type of Pre-Release Beta version as the Preview 3 tag is displayed.
If you used that DVD your Mate gave you then that is the reason.
In any event you will need to start over.
As to not using TM there is no reason to use TM if you don't want to. If you did use it and restored from it you would be back to where you started and NOT have a Clean install.
And doing a Clean install is a good proactice if you install and remove/uninstall programs all the time. Even with OS X everytime you install then remove a program you may leave droplets of that program someplace on the drive in the form of .plist files and or some kinds of files.

Refresh macbook pro with clean Lion install

I have a macbookpro I want to give to a family member.
I have Lion installed on it already via the App Store upgrade (no disk).
What is the best procedure to refresh the entire computer with a clean install of Lion, reformated and no tracks my user or all of the development libraries, etc I've installed over the years, etc.?
Is there a way to do this without needing the physical media?
Can it refresh itself (reformat, etc) while retaining the OS in memory or something?
Should I use another computer or a harddrive connected via firewire?

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-1992 backup your data at least twice. Only do this if you want to eliminate all possible software issues at once. Run the Lion Recovery function:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718
Once backed up if you want to find out why a software issue may be happening, ask in the forum after backing up, but before trying any Recovery function.

Wifi Dropping Even After Clean Lion Install

Hey guys,
I upgraded to Lion after its release and ever since then my wifi has been driving me CRAZY. The wifi disconnects, and when I click on my network I get the error that the connection timed out. I'm always forced to turn the wifi off and then back on.
It happened a TON, and consistently. It's extremely frustrating especially when I'm in the middle of a movie on my Apple TV and my iMac loses its internet and interupts the show. Sometimes it happens three or more times during one show.
So I decided to do a clean install of Lion. I made sure all my important documents were on my Hard Drive and even wrote a list out of every application that I use regularly. Then I completely reformated my hard drive and did a clean install of Lion.
But the issue is still happening. Still happening! I don't know what to do! Every computer in the house connects just fine and stays connected.
I'm tried changing my MTU in the hardware tab of the Advanced network settings to 1280 because some people reported that helped but it still doesn't help.
Please. I'm at a loss. The issue makes my iMac unusable and frustrating.

I would try rebooting while holding down the Command - R keys to get into the Recovery Partition. There, run Disk Repair and then run Repair Permissions twice. If that doesn't completely resolve it the the next step is to reset the PRAM, by rebooting while holding down the Command-Option-P-R keys. These may be the problem solvers you need.
Hope this helps

MBP won't sleep, but a clean Lion install does sleep

Since the install of Lion my old MBP, the MBP won't go to sleep.
I did a clean install of Lion on an external HD and it sleeps just fine. Therefore it must be something I migraded from my old SL.
Before I rebuild my MBP is there a plist file that I can delete that might help fix this no-sleep problem?
If not, then I'll start moving forward with rebulding my external HD and then tranfer it to my internal HD.
Thanks in advance for any help!!!

Thanks, I'll take a look. I killed all the pgms that my logon starts.
I also need to try to come in single user and see if that helps.
Comparing will be difficult since it looks like 10 pages printing out, but it's a good idea.
I was hoping just deleting a plist would fix it..I haven't rebuilt the system for many years, so I am also thinking about that as an alternative. I'll check the sleep function after every few apps that I add.

Clean Lion install, keeping Time Machine history?

I have a 2011 unibody MBP, and have been gathering kludge on it for some time, and on previous machines (2007 MBP, 2004 Powerbook) whose data I've migrated over using the Migration Assitant. I'd like to, at some point soon, do a fresh install of Lion, grab my data from backup (or a disk image clone), and reinstall my applications (only the ones I'm currently using, with no detritus from other apps I've installed, used, and since uninstalled).
However, I use a Time Capsule (1 TB) for backups, and wanted to know two things:
Is it possible, after doing the install, to have the previous history of my computer (on the Time Capsule) integrated with my current and future Time Machine backups? (I.e., the Time Capsule sees the new, clean machine as the same machine, and allows me to step into my file history and grab stuff, if need be.)
If the answer to the above question is yes, how would I do this?
Apologies in advance if this question has been answered elsewhere. A cursory perusal of the discussions here didn't turn up anything; but I know there's the chance I could have missed something.
Thanks,
Paul

Having no answer, I took the decision to experiment.
I renamed the new external USB HDD with the same name as the older (soon to be replaced) ones and copied via Finder all the files on it (Aperture libraries, videos, documents).
By using Time Machine while on the new drive (not backing up, but just looking at older backups), I was able to see the previous versions of the external USB HDD files. So I thought that was that easy.
So I decided to manually trigger a new TM backup. However, it computed something like close to 500 GB to backup. Thus eventhough in terms of history for now I can trick TM to think it is the same HDD, when it comes to create a new backup, it simply wants to rebackup everything.
Now I'm getting worried because:
I don't know if the history will be kept after the backup has run;
Because it will push 500GB of data to the TM storage, it might fill it up and TM will start to remove older backup whereas this would have been unnecessary.
Note: I don't rely solely on TM for backup, I use Crashplan as well. So if I lose TM, it is "OK" as I could always restore something from Crashplan, but then for the oldest backup (for the last 2 years) I would only have one copy instead of 2... It is not that critical as I do not think I deleted something I would like to restore from that time period. But our of curiosity I would like to still found out how to properly change an external HDD that was backed-up by Time Machine without losing the history.

Clean lion install 2010mbp with no recoveryHD

I have a late 2010 mpb ([email protected], 4gb, 1tbHDD, 256ssd(failed:currently getting replaced)) And im having issues with expanding my partition. Its a file system verification error. I tried multiple things so Im going to wipe the disk and reinstall lion. I have a backup but last time i restored from it I didnt get the recovery partition wich caused some problems because I need it. My only issue is that My Mac came with SL preinstalled so I only have the sl disks. I'd rather not have to install SL, then update to lion cause Im short for time, but i cant use the recovery partition either because that doesnt exist. I attempted to download the recovery disk assistant but it requires an existion Recovery HD which for me doesnt exist. I was hoping that someone might be able to hlep me out with this mess...
bit of back story, I had the lion R HD but when my ssd failed and i used my SL disk to restore from a Lion backup It didnt give me my R HD.

also i tried to download the apple usb maker but it just doesnt download
Downloads just fine here.
nor do I know anyone with the same MBP.
Not necessary, pick a newer machine if you suspect a potential compatability problem, I haven't heard of any yet.
just recently the icons on the desktop will disapear and instanly re-appear as i was typing that it just happened again, could this be related?
You have another serious issue.
IMO your going to need to data recovery to a storage drive (not TimeMachine)
Create a data recovery, undelete boot drive
Install 10.6 via a Zero Erase of the entire 10.7 drive
Reducing bad sectors effect on hard drives
How to erase and install Snow Leopard 10.6
then upgrade to 10.7 again, install programs and files from a external storage drive, not from TimeMachine or clone, aka a "Fresh Install" method.
Step by Step to fix your Mac

Mountain Lion Install Problems

Hello, everyone! I (obviously) recently bought Mountain Lion (or ML) and am having problems. I have looked around for support, but to no avail.
Here's the problem:
When I installed ML from the App Store, it took time to download, and I was excited for the install! When I opened it up, I agreed to the liscence agreement, and pressed next. When I clicked on the Macintosh HD, it (to the left of the Macintosh HD) said, "This disk cannot be used to start up your computer." I pressed back, then next, and the popup was still there, and under OSX Mountain Lion it said, "OS X cannot be installed on 'Macintosh HD'." I am frustrated, and have been searching for the solution today, and no one has the same problem.
Side Note - Disk Utility was looked at, and I tried to verify the disk, and its permissions, and it told me to repair it, and I had to stop it at one point. I am very cautious and careful about my data! Please help me, and be nice! Thanks.
-Vemir
P.S. If you need any information about my MacBook Pro, please let me know, and where the information is. I checked the compatibility list for ML, and it seems to check out. I also completed any software updates. Thanks again!

Anyone having a problem installing Mountain Lion becasue youget an error that this disk is used for Time Machine backup then you should follow the instructions at this link:http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2986
If the spot light search does not find backups.backupdb folder then Click on Finder menu the tool bar then open preferences. Click on Sidebar icon at the top and under Devices to check the box next to your machine name. Now open finder, under devices, click on your machine name. You should now see the backups.backupdb folder. Follow the instruction from aboe link and you should be good to go. Good Luck!

Macbook Core 2 duo - lion install problems.

I picked up a used white Macbook Core 2 Duo (2007) recently. The person I purchased it from installed a new 60GB SSD drive and 4GB of ram and put Lion on the machine. The computer booted fine for the first 4 times, and then on the 5th time it said "Installing OS X" and then said there was an problem with the install???? The computer was working fine before all this happened. Now it won't boot.... BTW I did not do any any updates.
We removed and tested the SSD drive... it appears to be fine.
My other problem is that the person who sold the computer to me did not give me original OS disk... is it possible that the OS he used is corrupted? But then, why would it work fine and then give me the error message after the 5th boot?
Is the problem because I am using an SSD? ... but still makes no sence considering it was running fine before the 5th boot!
Please help, I am looking at purchasing my own copy of Lion and installing it but will this work without having the original Disks?
Thanks!
(P.S. When it did work, the Macbook with the SSD and Lion ran dramatically faster than my 2009 15" Macbook Pro.!)

Thanks everyone for their help... it was another bad disk!
I returned the OCZ HD and replaced it with an Intel SSD... The thing has been running spectacular now! It out performs my Macbook Pro (speed)!
FYI.
I did some digging and on the OCZ forums there has been A LOT of similar complaints regarding the HD failing in the same way mine did... when I took it back for a refund to the store I purchased it from, the tech said that they have been getting a lot of returns on that specific manufactures SSD's... and not just the entry level ones.
Thanks again!

Macbook pro running slow and jumpy after clean lion install

Did an upgrade to Lion. Macbook pro was really slow, tried disk repair and repairing permission as well as resetting the smc. No luck. Did a clean install of Lion, still jumpy though a bit faster. Again verified disk (didnt need repair) and repaired permission, as well as smc reset. Still no luck. Anyone have any ideas?

What do you mean, 'jumpy'? Also, has Spotlight stopped indexing? Check the magnifying class in the upper right corner and click on it. If it doesn't say it's indexing, then it completed that task. How much RAM do you have in your system?

Is it possible to completely restore from Snow Leopard TimeMachine Backup after a clean Lion install?

Hello,
I cannot install Lion because my disk cannot be used, so I am planning to do a full, clean install of the system. My question is if it is possible to restore entirely from the TimeMachine backup after that or if it is better to spend time for figuring out how to remove the "this disk cannot be used" message in the lion installer?
Thanks,
Thomas

Just a gut feeling, if you are getting "disk cannot be used" errors you need to figure out why first before you try to install something else. Have u run Disk Utility from within the Lion installer? Try that and see if what kindof errors you get there...
But yes, assuming the disk is still in good shape, and you have the SL installer DVD, you should be able to do a reinstall and use the TM backup to get things back into the shape they were in before you tried to install Lion.
Message was edited by: coocooforcocoapuffs

Lion Install Problem Fix. (Bootcamp boot.ino NTFS)

Hi,
If you have problems installing lion and it gives you a message that it canot Create the support partition This fix may work for you.
I looked at the install log and found the problem was related to the installer failing to write to the boot.ini. I have a Bootcamp win xp part NTFS formatted
The two things i did to fix the problem. In osx i went into system Pref and made sure ntfs-3G was running. Then i rebooting into Windows XP. In Explorer browse to the root of your c:\ Right click on boot.ini and click proerties. Uncheck the Read Only Box hit apply and then save.
Reboot into osx. I tested to make sute txtedit could not edit the boot ini file it now could it could not do it before.
Now rerun the lion installer. This time llion Installed Fine.
Hope this helps.

Yes my Bootcamp Partition is on the same disk as my main OS.
NTFS-3G is a piece of 3rd party software. you may be able to skip this step i am not sure if it is necicerry. I think it came with parallels.
as for your second question. Dont use internet explorer. Just regular explorer. As in click Start then on computer in windows.
Before you try any of these steps try a plain install first. My macbook installed fine no problems. These steps are only for if you get the boot.ini problem that some people have been getting during the install.

Clean Lion install and the Mac App Store issues

Hi,
I'm having a great week with lion.
First FileVault failed and encryption, causing corruption on the disk. Then the timemachine backup was corrupted in continous progress status.
After formatting my iMac hard drive and doing a clean install and slowing piecing my data together from the failed timemachine backup and a old CCC backup, I've found I can't reinstall the apps I got from the Mac App Store. The apps are marked as installed but ofcourse they aren't since I formatted my hard drive.
Seriously Apple is this a beta release? I thought only Microsolf used its user base as application testers. Is there a fix or do i need to download the apps again from the developer site if they are available?

ricardofromvalencia wrote:
... or I only need to buy it once and I can install it in my 2 computers?
yes.

Clean Lion install problems

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