Im trying to install Mavericks but It tells I can't use my HD because its being use by Time Machine. What can I do?

I'm trying to intall Mavericks on my HD but it tells me that I can not install it beause Time Machine uses the this HD. I have turn off the Time Machine and even removed all portions from the drive. What else can I do?

You shouldn't install an OS on Time Machine drive. You should upgrade from the existing internal HD that your previous OS was on.

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I have a MBP running Mountain Lion. Tried to install Mavericks, but it keeps telling me that my disc is used as time machine backup, and cannot install Mavericks, any help appreciated

I have a 2011 MBP running Mountain Lion. Tried to install Mavericks, but it keeps telling me " cannot install Mavericks because disc is used for Time Machine backup". I tried disabling TM by issuing the command in console " sudo tmutil disable local". Still no luck. Is there a way of erasing all the time machine backups from my system disc?
Thanks.

Thanks Matt. I tried erasing the "Backups.backupdb" folder. It does not allow me to do that, inspite of "sudo"-ing. I ended up installing Mavericks on another disc, and use disc migration assistant to transfer my data, before swapping out the old disc from the MBP.
ST

Tried to install maverick but app store had 1 update for mountain lion so I installed it.it didn't restarted so I did n then it started installing mountain lion..

Tried to install maverick but app store had 1 update for mountain lion so I installed it.it didn't restarted so I did n then it started installing mountain lion.
I had 1 update for mountain lion so I did it said restart required but I got stuck in the middle of the process n yhen it said install mountain lion again.
Now what to do help me please

iCloud isn't syncing them on your phone. You simply added the email account to your phone and enabled calendar and notes syncing with the email provider, and the calendar and notes appear in the calendar and notes apps on your phone. You can do this with Gmail, Yahoo and other IMAP account. iCloud email is just another IMAP account, but syncs notes with Apple's iCloud server just as Gmail syncs notes and calendars with Google's server.
iCloud didnt' set up a non-iCloud account on your Mac. When you check Mail in System Preferences>iCloud, it only creates an iCloud email account. You can also add other email accounts to your Mac by going to System Preferences>Mail,Contacts,Calendars and clicking on the "+" sign on the bottom of the left sidebar. If you added these other email accounts to your Mac before you upgraded to Mountain Lion, these were simply maintained on your Mac after you upgraded.

HT5313 .tried to install lion 10.7, tell me can't install on this drive----but it's the boot drive that boots this computer, what am I doing wrong?

tried to install lion 10.7, tell me can't install on this drive----but it's the boot drive that boots this computer, what am I doing wrong?

dsharp14 wrote:
tried to install lion 10.7, tell me can't install on this drive----but it's the boot drive that boots this computer, what am I doing wrong?
What are the specs on your Mac? Top Left Apple Symbol > About This Mac > More Info > Hardware Overview
Thanks
Pete

"Mac OS X cannot be installed on 'Macintosh HD'. This disk is used for Time Machine backups."

I am trying to upgrade our MacBook to Snow Leopard, but when prompted to select which hard drive to install on and "Macintosh HD" is selected, the following message generates: "Mac OS X cannot be instaled on 'Macintosh HD'. This disk is used for Time Machine backups."
I disabled Time Machine switched it "off," put it in the trash can, then "Secure Emptied" the trash can. I also rebooted. Then I connected an external hard drive thinking that might help, but for some reason I still cannot proceed with the Snow Leopard upgrade because "the disk is used for Time Machine backups."
WHAT is the DEAL!?

It doesn't sound like an upgrade would work very well anyway. Make sure you have a good backup and repartition the startup volume. Then install Snow Leopard onto the hard drive and migrate your old users and applications.

Mavericks installer says my primary disk is used for Time Machine . . . but it isn't. Won't install.

I've downloaded Mavericks, but the istaller says my primary HD -- used for OS and files -- is used for Time Machine and Mavericks can't be installed.
Primary does NOT have TM files on it . . . it's on a separate, dedicated HD.
What can I do?

OS X v10.6, OS X Lion- Cannot install Mac OS X v10.6 or later on a volume used by Time Machine for backups
OS X- Cannot install on a volume used by Time Machine for backups

After install of SSD, unable to update Mavericks OS as system believes disk is used for Time Machine

Hi There,
Hopefully someone can help with this.
Yesterday I decided to replace the HDD on my macbook pro with a Crucial M500 SSD (240GB).
I connected via USB, and used the 'Restore' facility in the Disk Utility program to do this. Worth noting that I had to shrink teh partition on the original hard drive as the SSD is smaller than this.
All went well - I swapped the drives out this morning and teh machine booted up without any problems.
I then downloaded OS X Mavericks.
When I went to install, at teh point that teh system asks where I wanted to install to (i.e. the drive) it would not allow me to install to the SSD.
The error was:
This machine is used for Time Machine backups.
I haven't used time machine at all for some months due to a lack of external storage, so this makes no sense to me.
I then ran repair disk and repair disk permissions incase this was the problem.
Still no joy.
HAs anyone else had this problem at all?

Hi There.
Time machine is already off, but then I found this:http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2986?
This fixed teh issue!
Thanks anyway
J

Cannot install mountain lion keep getting "This disk is used for Time Machine backups" when trying to install, HELP!!!

Ok i currently have Lion on my early 2011 15" MBP. When i try to install Mountain Lion to my mac HD it keeps telling me I cannot because its used for time machine backups. I have done a search and I know I have to delete the backups.backupdb folder but I cannot find it for the life of me. If anyone can help I would really appreciate, thanks!
Nik

If you double-click on your hard drive icon the Backups.backupd folder should be on the root level of your drive. Sometimes OS X gets confused and incorrectly puts a Backups.backupd folder on your hard drive. That folder should only appear on a drive used for Time Machine
If you can't find the Backups.backupd folder try using the free EasyFind with both Package Contents and Invisible Files & Folders checked. Search for "Backups.backupd" without the quotes on your hard drive (default selection), not your Time Machine drive. Right-click on the search result and choose to Reveal in Finder. Click on the link that kisuke3 provided and follow those directions
If you can't find a Backups.backupd folder anywhere try booting into Safe Mode by holding down the Shift key right after you hear the startup chime. Keep holding the Shift key down until you see the Apple Logo. The progress bar that appears indicates the progress of the file check that Safe Mode automatically does. Give it time to finish.
Reboot normally and see if the ML installer will work. If it does wait until Spotlight is finishing indexing before turning Time Machine back on.

Lion Install does not work, says "This disk is used for Time Machine backups"

I'm having trouble installing Lion onto my macbook pro intel core 2 duo.
I am backing up my computer with an external drive using TimeMachine, but i've disconnected it. Also i'm running SL 10.6.8
I have a windows 7 partition that was created with boot camp.
I've tried to make sure everything is all ready for lion but when I go to install lion it says "This disk is used for Time Machine backups" and the hard drive is grayed out.
Same problem as this guy: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3190321?start=0&tstart=0
I'm hearing that a file called "Backups.backupdb" is on the top level of the hard drive, but I see no such file. I've looked at the invisible files and I cant find it.
I've also created a bootable flash copy of the lion install but that does not work It gives me the same message "This disk is used for time Machine backups".

"Backups.backupdb" if the file in Time Machine. As the discussion says, you have to find that file and trash it. Try spotlight to locate it. If that does not work, down load OmniDiskSweeper from the Internet (free) and go through an organized search to find "Backups.backupdb". If that takes too long or is too tedious, then if you have everything backed up, erase the HDD and start from square one.
Ciao.

Trying to install Mavericks, but says it cant due to recovery not being installed

I have downloaded Mavericks on my wifes MAC BOOK PRO, and it wont load as it says that it cant find "recovery". I downloaded, and installed Mavericks on my 2009 MacBook without any problems.
Any help and or hints would be most welcome.

You can't do an erase/install from a Time Machine disk because it uses the very Recovery Partition on the computer that is missing. To get this put back, requires booting externally, erasing the offending OS and running the installer from there.
I'm surprised the installer wont run because people with Snow Leopard do not have such a Recovery Partition and they can upgrade.
Here is one route and I wish it was simpler.
1. Make sure the MBP backup on Time Machine is up-to-date.
2. Re-partition the Time Machine disk to make a small new one of about 80Gb or so.
3. Attach the disk to the MacBook and boot into the MacBook. Download the installer again. (Save a copy before running it).
4. Install Mavericks onto the new partition, without any data transfer, except to copy over the installer.
(You could just clone your MacBook using Carbon Copy Cloner, if you have it. It would be good backup anyway)
5. Shutdown the MacBook and move the disk to the MBP, boot into the new partition.
6. Go to Disk Utility and erase the MBP disk. Run Verify disk.
7. Running the installer, it will ask where to install Mavericks and you need to click to show a list of disks. Choose the MBP and go from there. At the point it asks to transfer data. Select the Time Machine partition and use that to get your wife's user account.
Heck that is complicated!

Manually tell new mac to use previous Time Machine backup

Hi There,
We have a Mac Mini server which we use as a Time Machine backup disk - and we have a new Macbook which I migrated from the previous one using Migration Assistent.
But after configuring Time Machine to use the server's backup drive, I didn't see or missed the options to "Use previous disk" or "Inherit backup history".
Is there a way to manually tell Time Machine to use the previous backuop - the Macbook was migrated so has the same username and files.
Any help would be much appreacited.
Cheers
Ben

The page had a lot of other stuff on it so here's what I did to inherit a backup:
Info from: http://pondini.org/TM/B6.html
Get ready:
Turn off Time Machine in: >System Preferences >Time Machine
Mount the Time Machine Backup Drive
If a network or Time Capsule, mount the network drive share
Open Terminal: /Utilities/Terminal.app
Paste the following (ignore $) but don’t hit enter
$ sudo tmutil inheritbackup
Make sure there’s a space after “inheritbackup “
If inheriting from a hard drive:
Open the drive and open /Backups.backupdb
Find the folder name of the backup you want to inherit
Drag the folder into terminal after “inheritbackup “ so the path looks like this:
$ sudo tmutil inheritbackup /Volumes/Backups\Backups.backupdb/Computer\ Name
If inheriting from a Time Capsule or network drive:
Mount the drive
Find the .sparsebundle name of the backup you want to inherit
Drag the .sparsebundle into terminal after “inheritbackup “ like this:
$ sudo tmutil inheritbackup /Volumes/Client\ Backups-1/Computer\ Name
Inherit the backups:
Ensure there's a space between "inheritbackup" and the path to your backup and hit enter
Enter your machine’s admin password
When finished you should see:
Claiming disk image for machine...
Ejecting disk image...
$
Quit Terminal
Turn on Time Machine in: >System Preferences >Time Machine
Trouble shooting:
If you see the following error: “Failed to attach disk image. (error 35)”
Then Time Machine wasn’t off or hadn’t shut down before you ran the command

Tried to install Mavericks but installation froze. I tried to go back and click on install button but nothing happens. How can I get Mavericks to install? I have OSX 10.7.5 currently.

How can

Check the App Store Purchases tab to see what shows there - it may be paused.
So how do I get another copy of the installer as the install button for mavericks doesn't do anything when I click it?
Download the installer again.
You can try booting into the Safe Mode using your normal account and see if the installer will run there. Disconnect all peripherals except those needed for the test. Shut down the computer and then power it back up after waiting 10 seconds. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear. The boot up is significantly slower than normal. This will reset some caches, forces a directory check, and disables all startup and login items, among other things. When you reboot normally, the initial reboot may be slower than normal. If the system operates normally, there may be 3rd party applications which are causing a problem. Try deleting/disabling the third party applications after a restart by using the application un-installer. For each disable/delete, you will need to restart if you don't do them all at once.
Safe Mode - Mavericks
Safe Mode - About

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trying to install itunes but keep getting windows error 126 message and libicuin.dll missing have reinstalled numerous times and keep getting same messages.

Are you saving the installer first and then installing, or are you running the installer directly from Apple's website? Also save first.
If you're saving first and still having issues, try and use Microsoft's Cleanup Utility and then reinstall Quicktime/iTunes:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301
Make sure it's a new and fresh download from:
http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
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Had CS4 on Power PC Mac (Non Intel) along with prior Photoshop versions. Now I have new iMac and trying to install CS6 but it won't accept my original serial number (Starts with PSW401, etc.).

I know what you are saying. I had purchased the CS5.5 upgrade, and a week later got the CS6 upgrade. I did this back in 2012. I had a old Mac Power PC which does not allow you to install CS5.5 or CS6 because it was not an intel processor. So even though I had the upgrades I never installed them. I waited until my old MAC died which it did this past weekend. And now that I have a new iMac I tried to install the new software. All of my past upgrades referenced my original Photoshop that was still resident on my old Mac. But since the install no longer has that reference because of the new computer, it will not accept any of my past serial numbers that it needs for the install.

Unable to install Lion. Installer says disk is used for Time Machine backups. But it's my Mac's HD.

On attempt to install Lion from CD, the installer says: "Mac OSX cannot be installed on "Macintosh HD". This disk is used for Time Machine backups."
I have an external drive that I've been using for Time Machine backups, but it stopped functioning recently and I have not replaced it.
Is there a workaround?
Thx in advance. Bryant

Maybe this http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2986 can help you.
Stefan

Im trying to install Mavericks but It tells I can't use my HD because its being use by Time Machine. What can I do?

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