Installing Lion on partitioned drive

I am sure this already been discussed, but I couldn't find an answer on my search through the forums. I d/l Lion today and the installer is saying that I cannot install on my main startup disc which has 10.6.8. My drive is partitioned.
I am sure there is something I have missed, so advice is welcome

OK, then first do this:
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
Oh, and I would quit the Lion installer for now. Make a copy of it and store the copy in your Downloads folder so you can later make a bootable installer USB flash drive. See:
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.

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How do I install LION and partition SL 10.6.8 run on same imac?

Hello If one could tell me step by step instructions:
I would like to install LION ( because icloud), but can I install LION and partition the OS so that my imac can run both SL 10.6.8 and LION?
SL 10.6.8 still runs some applications that LION will never be able to run.
So I really need LION installed,but also have SL 10.6.8 partitioned so I can run imovie HD6 with plug ins with SL 10.6.8.
Please if this can be done so I can run Lion and SL 10.6.8 on same computer
thank you so much in advance
please advise
scott

Wow, thank you Niel. I have looked on this site and have found many different ways listed on partitioning and using 2 OS on a computer. But there steps seemed very long and tedious- but of course if that is what is needed then i would do it that way. Again i was seeing a lot of different ways. But yours seemed direct.
I went thru the steps up until using the thumb drive for LION to install. I went in to disk utilities, i selected mydrive, clicked on the partition tab, and then i saw i had 96.7 GB available--without changing SL10.6.8 HD size.
it looks like you can drag and increase/decrease the partitions with the mouse control.
I really need LION for icloud, and if so all other applications EXCEPT imovieHD6
So i need to run SL for imovieHD6 the other applications like word, adobe creative suite, excel, etc ican use LION.
do you recommend having the partitions equal in GB?
I have a 250gb hard drive
should I split the partitions evenly between the two OS?
or should one OS get more GB than another?

Installed Lion on external drive per apple support, now won't install on Mac HD, because can't create recovery disc, does not give option besides restart to old OS

On the noecovery page I followed instructions to install Lion of external drive, which I did. Then tried to install on HD, but got same message as no recovery disc could be made and only option was to restart to back Leopard. Don't want to take to geniuses since there must be a simple answer.

On the noecovery page I followed instructions to install Lion of external drive, which I did. Then tried to install on HD, but got same message as no recovery disc could be made and only option was to restart to back Leopard. Don't want to take to geniuses since there must be a simple answer.

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how can I re-install lion via usb drive on my new mba(mid-2011)?
I just removed all data from main hd, and my network is not good enough to be able to download the os via recovery hd re-installing way.
in other words, is there a bootable [mac os x lion dmg] for my mba that I can download?

If you are looking for a download link for OS X Lion, I do not know of one. However if you really need the operating system you can buy a USB drive with OS X Lion on it, ready to boot. I think they're $69 at Apple's store. What I would do is contact AppleCare via the Express Lane or just call them and tell them your situation and then they will definantly have an answer for you to point you in the right direction.
Good luck!

Installing lion onto external drive frozen during OSX install

I was trying to install lion into a clean hardrive, using lion recovery.
it's downloaded the first part, and the imac has restarted once and loaded up the "install Mac OS X " page, it said it was going to take 25mins to install.
It's frozen, about 20% into so install, and now i have the beach ball mouse pointer. and nothing is working.
how can i fix this?

You will need to force quit the installer by shutting down the computer. When you restart look in your Applications folder to see if you still have the Lion installer application. If your do, then I suggest doing the following:
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. Use Lion DiskMaker 2.0 to put your installer clone onto the USB flash drive.
Note: The term Mountain/Lion used above means Lion or Mountain Lion.
To reinstall Lion on the external drive:
Partition and format the external drive properly:
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your 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.
4. 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.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Boot from the flash drive you made. Select the external drive as the target, then install Lion.

Can't find recently installed Lion on hard drive!

I downloaded Lion for my MacBook Pro last week because my 2014 TurboTax disc needed at least 10.7. The machine has been slowing down considerably and so I asked a friend who is an IT guy to help me. He said defragging might be needed. I had already installed Lion when he said to make a bootable version on a thumb drive. I set about trying to do so but can't even find Lion on my computer! Can I only make a bootable version on a thumb drive if it hasn't yet been installed? I asked him via email but haven't heard back. Should I download it again and this time save the Install OS X Lion to the thumb drive with Disc Utility? Why can't I find it? What if I wanted to uninstall it and go back to 10.6?

If you downloaded and installed Lion, Mac OS X 10.7.5, that should be what you see when you go to the apple, left side of the menu bar, About This Mac. That should indicate that the Version is 10.7.5.
If you installed Lion, the final step of the installation is to delete the installer, if you did not install you should find the installer in your Applications folder. Click on that to start the installation process.
If you want another copy of the installer, open the Mac App Store, click on Purchases and you should be able to download the installer for Lion again. However, do not allow it to initiate the installation, copy the installer to a flash drive of at least 8 GB that has been formatted Mac OS X Extended (Journaled).
You can then allow the installer to proceed if you are in doubt about your installation.

Installed Lion, Lost Hard Drive

I had a WD exernal drive attached to my Mac Mini over an extended period, which allowed me read access to legacy files from my previous machine, a PC. This all worked as planned. I installed Lion on the Mini with the WD drive disconnected entirley. When I reconnect the WD drive, it never appears in Finder. Is this related to being on the Lion OS? Is there anything I can do to make the drive visible again? I'd be grateful for any advice. Many thanks.

So from the Finder menu Preferences>is show External disks checked?

Mountain lion on partitioned drive

if i put mountain lion on a separate partition can i run programs from the snow leopard partition when i boot up in mountain lion

Well the answer is it depends, let me explain.
If the program is a executable for example a script (shell, perl, etc ...) you will be able to run it from ML, provide you mount your Snow Leopard partition. Also, you will have access to all your data on snow leopard.
But, if it is a large program with files and links to various locations then it might not be possible.
In both cases It definetly won't show up in Launch Pad. You would have to launch it manually from terminal.
Alternatively, you can install it on a virtual machine like VMware fusion and run both OS at the same time.
You can check my blog to see how .... http://nyacomputing.com/installing-mountain-lion-on-vmware/

Can't Re-Install Lion from Recovery HD - Internal Drive Locked and Grayed Out

I can't boot into Lion on my Macbook Pro. I can boot into Bootcamp. When I'm in Bootcamp, using MacDrive, I can access all my files on my main Lion partition. I can also boot into the Recovery HD. From there I can get to Disk Utility which tells me that I need to repair my Lion partition. When I run the repair, it tells me it can't be repaired.
Given that I can still access all my files from Bootcamp, I tried to re-install Lion using that selection from the Recovery HD menu. It verifies my Lion copy over the internet. But when it asks me to designate the drive that I want to re-install Lion on, the drives (Bootcamp, Recovery and Mac) are all grayed out and all say "Disk is Locked". I'd rather not reinstall from my Time Capsule back up because of the time involved, the fact that the backup is a week old and because I dropped the !@#$ external drive with the back up on it yesterday and I don't trust it (it's making weird noises).
I've tried booting up in safe mode and ctrl-sys-r-p but all that happens is hours of watching the wheel spin. I had not set up File Vault so it shouldn't be for want of a File Vault password.
Any idea how I can unlock the drive to at least try to re-install Lion?

Thanks for the idea. I do have another Macbook at home although it's quite a bit older and I've only upgraded it to Snow Leopard, but I'll certainly give it a try. I've already tried what would seem to be about the same thing with, unfortunatley, no luck. I have an old hard drive (running Snow Leopard) that used to be the internal drive in my Macbook Pro. When I pulled it out, I stuck it in an enclosure. When this problem cropped up, I plugged it into the Macbook Pro that's giving me grief (via USB), booted up on the enclosed drive, and ran the disk utility off of that drive against the current internal HD of the Macbook Pro. All I got was the "can't be repaired" message.

I can't Install Lion

I have been trying to install Lion but everytime I come to select my HD it won't highlight. I have checked permissions and even did disk repair Please help what am I doing wrong?
Thank You

What version of OS X is installed on the hard drive? To upgrade to Lion you need to have Snow Leopard 10.6.6 or later installed.
Your hard drive must have at least 9 GBs of free space to install Lion. The drive must be using the GUID partition scheme and formatted Mac OS Extended, Journaled. Use Disk Utility to verify your drive's configuration.
From where did you obtain the Lion installer you are using?

Using Windows 7 after installing Lion.

I have Windows 7 Ultimate using Bootcamp in my iMac. Will it be safe after installing Lion or will it get corrupted?

Will not be safe.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3199099?tstart=0
It may, but it could also present unable to boot back into Windows, it may change the partition number and require editinig BCD or just boot from Windows DVD and repair if possible and lucky.
I would install Lion to another drive, which is possible. It will need to erase the entire drive. Then clone the OS back if you want - or just run Lion off external and test it for a few days.
OS X Lion Install to Different Drive
How to create an OS X Lion installation disc MacFixIt
Things that can be done now with Lion on your external that could not be done before
New Disk Utility features:
Manage all partitions with Disk Utility in OS X
Check partition table health in Lion's Disk Utility
Five quick Lion tips to make the transition easier

[Lion] Windows partition gone missing

I recently updated to osx lion on my macbook. I found out that i cant boot to windows anymore by using the option key as i did before.
A lot of people seems to have this issue, but i didn't find any real solutions to this problem.
As in other posts its the probably the MBR table.
I installed rEFIt but it didn't solve my problem. But i got the report. Hope it helps.
*** Report for internal hard disk ***
Current GPT partition table:
#      Start LBA      End LBA Type
1             40       409639 EFI System (FAT)
2         409640    209567924 Mac OS X HFS+
3      209567928    210837455 Mac OS X Boot
Current MBR partition table:
# A    Start LBA      End LBA Type
1              1       409639 ee EFI Protective
2 *       409640    209567924 af Mac OS X HFS+
3      209567928    210837455 ab Mac OS X Boot
MBR contents:
Boot Code: Unknown, but bootable
Partition at LBA 40:
Boot Code: None (Non-system disk message)
File System: FAT32
Listed in GPT as partition 1, type EFI System (FAT)
Partition at LBA 409640:
Boot Code: None
File System: HFS Extended (HFS+)
Listed in GPT as partition 2, type Mac OS X HFS+
Listed in MBR as partition 2, type af Mac OS X HFS+, active
Partition at LBA 209567928:
Boot Code: None
File System: HFS Extended (HFS+)
Listed in GPT as partition 3, type Mac OS X Boot
Listed in MBR as partition 3, type ab Mac OS X Boot
What are my options here? I really didnt like the "erase and redo it" since i have important stuff in my windows partition.
Cant i just repair it?
Btw its windows 7 installed.
Tks for the help

There are workarounds. Like wait and see, and read, and let others experience help, which can take month or more, or wait for updates. Apple just posted a Lion Recovery Tool today.
Install Lion on another drive, not the internal drive. Backup and clone.
Then restore Lion and leave the partition tables intact has worked for more than a few.
Or even start by shrinking the size of Mac HFS volume alone, leaving some free space, and when Lion is done being installed, you should be fine. Find that on Cnet's MacFixit.
The new mail with its threaded conversations can have a high % cpu overhead esp. with any large email storage you have, and Mail was one of the weak links in 10.5 with its new SyncServices "feature."
Don't install an OS unless you need it and have time to play and deal with it; like on a test computer if you have one at disposal. Or on a 2nd hard drive - maybe that external with FW800.

S.M.A.R.T error when trying to install Lion

Help please!
I have purchased and downloaded Lion and when attempting to install it, I end up with a S.M.A.R.T error telling me my hard disk is screwed and needs to be replaced. I have looked at other threads about this problem and it seems there have been people whereby despite the error code, the computer has been working well.
I have a Macbook Pro which is about 2 years+ and I have been running with the smart error for the past 6 weeks. I have followed some suggestions I found about resetting SMU / installing Lion from external drive but all to no avail. When running the Install Lion my hard disk is greyed out and cannot be selected for installation.
Please help..........

Thomas A Reed wrote:
A SMART error indicates one thing only: some hardware component of your hard drive is failing.
Well, not quite. SMART is software, and so is the host implementation. And any piece of software may contain bugs. (See, for instance, the WD FAQ answer ID 251, under "Troubleshooting a S.M.A.R.T. error")
The Wikipedia entry
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.>
has a fairly reasonable overview.
That is not to gainsay the advice given here, but merely to point out that we should not so peremptorily exclude the possibility of a false error report. One must be aware that, like any other device engineered by human beings, SMART is capable of errors.
Having said that, I would take the SMART report very seriously. If I weighed (a) the risk of catastrophic failure (with its consequences of trouble, data loss, and time waste), against (b) the price of a new drive, then there would be no contest. I would immediately replace the old drive with a brand new one. If I suspected that SMART had been in error, I'd also get an enclosure and put the old drive in it, and then I'd reformat it and thoroughly test it for several days. Had SMART been right, I'd've saved myself a truckload of trouble. If it had been wrong, I'd've rejuvenated my MBP with a new, bigger, possibly faster drive, and I'd have a spare backup drive in the bargain.

Installing Lion - time machine error

When trying to install Lion my hard drive says it's used for time machine back-ups and it's not. I see that Apple says to get rid of the back-up file but I can't find any such file on my hard drive

No, if you are talking about the Time Machine (I forgot that) you just need to restart it by pulling the plug. It will run disk utility automatically. Sorry for the confusion.

Installing Lion clean on hard drive with multiple partitions

I have a spring 2008 24" iMac running Snow Leopard.
I am about to put a new 2TB hard drive in it and after I do that I want to do a clean install of Lion on it.
I do not want to upgrade my Snow Leopard install to Lion. I will keep it on my back up drive as a fallback incase of serious workflow incompatiblities with the new OS.
For my workflow I create and use multiple partitions (Mac OS, Windows and multiple HFS+ for data) on my hard drive and I have seen that Lion creates it's own hidden recovery partition as well for the recovery functionality.
My questions are:
1) Will I have issues running Lion on a partition on a hard drive with multiple partitions that have different file systems?
2) If I install Lion into one of these partitions will it create it's recovery partition within the space of the partition it is being installed into?
3) I will be creating a clean install by downloading Lion using the App Store and then burning an installer DVD using instructions I found elsewhere and then using that to do the install on the new drive. Is that the best route to take?
All my current data I will have on a backup external hard drive and after I complete the Lion install on the new larger drive I will manually reinstall all my software and move my data back from my backup drive to the new drive one partition at a time except of course for OS partition. I keep all my real user data outside of that partition anyway.

I believe this article answers most of your questions.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718
or possibly
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4649
You will most likely run into the error message that "Some features of Mac OS X Lion are not supported for the disk" if you have multiple partitions set up, especially if they were not set up using Bootcamp and/or have serveral different file systems.
You can confirm that the Recovery Partition will not be installed by checking Disk Utility for your current partition map scheme.
This is most definitely not the end of the world as it is quite easy to create an external Recovery disk.
1) No, you shouldn't have issues running Lion, but Recovery HD will not be created.
2) No, and in your case it doesn't sound like it will be installed on your internal drive at all.
3) Yes. If you begin with an empty partition, then install Lion that would be considered a clean install.
Hope that helps.
Autumn

Installing Lion on partitioned drive

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