Lion installation problem- says hard drive is used for Time Machine back-ups!

I just purchased & downloaded Lion to install on my Apple laptop, but when I went to install it, I got the message:
"This disk is used for TimeMachine back-ups."
What the heck? As I use an external drive for TM back-ups, I'm really confused!  How can I get Lion to install on my hard drive?  I went so far as to turn off TimeMachine (see image, below), but it's still not working.
Any ideas?  This is really frustrating!

Kathy,
Intel and Universal apps should be ok.  You can check this massive list for specifics on any application incompatibilities.
http://roaringapps.com/apps:table/tags/_a/index_tags/_a
Just to confirm, was the problem Norton or was the backup directory present?
Glad your up and running now.
@Colin, Yeah it's the leftmost black and yellow.  It's an image burned in my head from the old PC days.

Similar Messages

  • How do I prevent my hard drive being used for time machine back ups?

    I want to install Snow Leopard but it tells me that the OS cannot be installed because the disk is being used for Time Machine back ups. I don't recall setting up my hard drive to be used this way (why would I?!) but now I can't seem to

    Did you have TM turned on at any time? If so, and if you had no external hard drive attached, could it be that it created its own backup on a portion of your hard drive? I don't use TM, but I believe I read that this may be possible. Take a look at Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities) and report what you see on the left - under the top heading, is there more than one partition showing, such as here:
    (I have two partitions: one for Snow Leopard, the other for Lion) - what does yours show?

  • Down loaded Mavericks, will not install on my computer because it says "this hard drive is used for time machine back up".

    Down loaded mavericks, it will not install on my computer because it says" this hard drive is used for time machine back up". So I used my old computer  hard drive for back up and reloaded the program but it still says the first hard drive is being used.

    Welcome to Apple Support Communities
    Make sure you have selected your MacBook Pro's hard drive as the destination to install Mavericks. If so, you have the "Backups.backupdb" folder in the root level of your hard drive.
    That's the folder used by Time Machine to store backups of your files, and the Mavericks installer understands that your internal hard disk is the Time Machine drive.
    To fix this, open a Finder window, select the Go menu (on the menu bar) > Go to Folder, and type:
    Then, delete "Backups.backupdb", empty the Trash and run the Mavericks installer. Finally, install OS X Mavericks

  • I cannot install ODX Yosemite over OSX Mavericks as my Mac Book Pro (early 2011) advises that the disc "Mackintosh HD" is used for Time Machine back ups. This is not the case however as I use a separate external HD for this purpose, help please ?!  T

    I cannot install ODX Yosemite over OSX Mavericks as my Mac Book Pro (early 2011) advises that the disc "Mackintosh HD" is used for Time Machine back ups. This is not the case however as I use a separate external HD for this purpose, help please ?!
    Thanks

    Check this link out...
    OS X: Cannot install on a volume used by Time Machine for backups
    I was apart of this thread and it helped the OP...
    Re: System installer thinks my main drive is my time Machine backup and won't install.
    KOT

  • Cannot install Yosemite as hard drive is used for Time Machine Backup, How Do I Change This?

    I have a 2010 MacBook Pro and when I attempted to install Yosemite the MacBook Pro Drive is greyed out and a message appears that read,"drive is used for Time Machine Backup." How do I change this to install Yosemite?
    Thanks,
    Scott

    Well, if you don't want to use that drive for Time Machine anymore, then you should format it using Disk Utility. Then you can install Yosemite on it.
    You should, of course, have another full backup somewhere. I really can't state this strongly enough: You should have a full and complete and up to date backup of all your data before you upgrade to OS X Yosemite.

  • Lion Installer thinks that my internal boot hard drive "is used for time machine backups"

    I recently installed a new hard drive on my MBP. It's been running fine, but now I'm running into trouble when I tried to install Lion!
    The download worked just fine. But when I try to choose a disk to install Lion onto, my one and only hard drive (internal, boot disk) "is used for Time Machine backups" and is grayed out! I can't click it, I can't customize the installation or do anything except go backwards through the license agreement and such.
    No, I do not use my internal drive as a Time Machine. But somehow, even after I've disabled Time Machine, it keeps thinking I do! Time Machine is my menu bar is grayed out, but I can click "Browse other Time Machine disks" and for some reason my boot disk comes up! ("(My name)'s MacBook Pro on 'Untitled 1') I've never used this disk as a Time Machine!
    I have a feeling that this is somehow related to my using Super Duper to clone my old hard drive during the upgrade process.
    Is there a way to remove the Time Machine files from my boot disk or otherwise convince Lion to install? I've already repaired my disk permissions in Disk Utility. What else can I do?
    Thank you in advance. This is very frustrating!

    Alexander Chan1 wrote:
    No, I do not use my internal drive as a Time Machine. But somehow, even after I've disabled Time Machine, it keeps thinking I do!
    At some point, probably accidentally, your internal HD was selected as a destination for Time Machine.   Even if that was immediately changed, it had already created a Backups.backupdb folder at the top level of the drive.
    As long as that's there, OSX thinks you're trying to install OSX on your backup drive.  Just delete that folder.

  • My external hard drive I use for time machine failed.

    I replaced it with a new drive and used a new name for the drive.  Time machine uses the new drive (with new name) and backs up to it without any problem.
    But every day, Time Machine complains it can't back up to the old drive.  I can't delete the old drive from the Time Machine GUI.  How do I fix this?  Is there a way I can edit a system file using terminal?

    Instead of using Terminal, try to reset Time Machine to default settings, following these steps > http://pondini.org/TM/A4.html You won't lose anything

  • HT3275 How do you Format the external hard drive been used for time machine?

    Error reads "Not enough space on the external hard drive" How do i format the memory and start again?
    Thanks Geremy

    ON an external hard drive.. that is easy.. just open disk utility and reformat it. Make sure you use Mac Extended Journeled. (HFS+)

  • I can not find my seagate hard drive that contain my time machine back ups  how do i do that?

    my airport extreme can not locate my seagate hard drive with all my back ups how do i fix this i need to restore some settings?

    As Bob says, that's problematical. 
    If you were backing-up to that drive while it was directly-connected to your Mac, and now want to move it to your Airport, there's an extra problem.  See the blue box in #E2 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
    If you had previously been backing-up to the drive over your network, the backups may be corrupted (that happens rather often, and is the reason it's not recommended).  If so, you may be able to repair them, per #A5 in the same article.
    Or, you may need to reset the Airport.  See Resetting an AirPort Base Station or Time Capsule FAQ.

  • I have an issue with time machine, it doesn't find the Lacie external driver it use to use. it is the same drive that I usaly use for time machine back ups. It is corectly plugged. What can I do ?

    Hi,
    I'm trying to back up my macbook with time machine on the Lacie external driver I usualy use for this, but today my computer doesn't find the driver. I haven't done back up in 6 month.
    Today, the Lacie driver is pluged and running, but the computer just does'nt find it.
    what shall I do ?

    Some things to consider:
    Is the drive mounted, i.e., visible via Finder and/or on the Desktop?
    Is the drive still selected in System Preferences, Time Machine? If not, use the "Select Disk" button.
    Is Time Machine still turned on (System Preferences, Time Machine)?
    Can you see the drive (and mount it) using Disk Utility (in your Utilities folder)?
    charlie

  • External hard drive for time machine back-ups

    Can anyone please suggest the best external hard drive to use for time machine back-ups on my iMac?
    I also use a 1TB external hard drive for my iTunes library, but I've noticed that it can be slower to access the music than if I used the iMac hard drive......any suggestions? My iTunes library is currently sitting at around 200GB.
    Thanks.
    Brian

    i'd recommend a firewire 800 drive. many folks here speak highly of drives supplied by [OWC|http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire> and [LaCie|http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?pid=11156].
    JGG

  • 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.

  • Perfect Hard Drive To Use With Time Machine?

    Hi,
    Has anyone found out what's the perfect External Hard Drive to use with Time Machine?
    I have experience with a few of WD's My Book models (Essential, Pro and Studio). The problem with all of them is that they automatically keep switching themselves off (spin down) and on (spin up) throughout the day, in an effort to save power. But it's actually quite annoying. The My Book drive will automatically turn itself off, and then turn back on again within the space of one minute. Also, going to use Spotlight (even if you've excluded Time Machine Backups from being indexed) will automatically prompt the My Book drive to turn back on, which introduces a small delay to using Spotlight.
    Does anyone make an External Hard Drive, with a Firewire 400 or 800 connection, that stays on ALL the time and doesn't automatically make decisions about when it should spin down or spin up?

    I'am using a 500Gb Freecom Pro Hard Drive connected on USB via my Cinema Display. I so forget about it that I often forget to disconnect it from my laptop before leaving the office... Never complained about it
    Btw, it does not implements the energy saver Auto turn off/on feature which I don't need cause the time it could mostly be really useful is by night. As it stops when I disconnect the USB and start again when I connect it back.. this is perfect to me.
    I must say I'm quite happy with every Freecom product I bought and this one certainly don't break the rule

  • Can't install Lion on my HD.  Says this disk is used for time machine backups

    I just downloaded Lion to install on my 2008 macbook and i can't get past the window that asks me to select the disk where I want Lion installed.  It says my hard disk is used for time machine backups.  Any suggestions on how I can select my hd to install Lion?
    Thanks

    That means there is a directory on your HD called something like backups. backupdb
    It thinks you're using the drive for TM.  Delete this directory and it will then load.
    Regards,
    Captfred

  • I want to know about time machine if i can use the hard drive that i use for time machine back up as a normal hard drive too or if it's only for time machine

    I want to know about time machine if i can use the hard drive that i use for time machine back up as a normal hard drive too or if it's only for time machine
    and if it yes i want to know if i have 1TB hard disk to use the 500gb for time machine and the other 500gb for normal use

    thank you very much because i am considering to buy the porsche design hard disk 1TB and i want to have it for normal use and for time machine is a pitty to give 1TB for back up only again thanks and i know seperate the back and the working jobs are better but the i have to have 2 hardisks and i want only 1

Maybe you are looking for

  • Syntax for filter

    Hi I am trying to recon users in an OU and i want to write a filter who have employee id = 46633; OIM 11g R2 i wrote the following filter = equalsTo('EmpID', '46633') Its not working. help please. regards

  • AR Aging query

    Hi Experts, I have a client who needs a AR Aging query that only shows totals (not individual BP balances) for 30, 60, 90, 120 and over 120 days. I can get the total with this query, but do now know how to go about the 30,60.... SELECT SUM(T0.Balance

  • Java need in SAP PI/XI

    Hello, I am new to SAP XI. I have worked 3years as ABAP developer. I do not know anything in Java. Please suggest the amount of java knowledge that I need to develop to become profound in SAP XI.Can anyone suggest any material that i can go thru to d

  • New Page COmmand in Smartforms

    Hi, My requirement is as follows, Whenever the item number changes it has to generate a new page with the header Whenever an item overflows it should come in a new page without the header details. So for this I have two pages in my smartform. Page1 -

  • Iweb issue - question marks ??

    Hello I'm a new user to iweb and this is my first post. Basically I have been getting used to the iweb app for a few days now and have started putting a basic website tigether as a kind of online cv for the work I do. I currently have a small amount