OS X Mountain Lion installed failed (2011 MBA)
I have a 2011 MBA with OS X Lion. I tried installing Mountain Lion and received a message "Install Failed". No other details. The only option given was to restart, and when I did this it started trying to re-install Lion. This also failed. Now I have a MBA without an OS. SO my questions are:
1) How/why did the install fail?
2) How do I get my MBA back now?
Welcome to Apple Communities
1. Run the installer, move the cursor to the top, open Window and see the log. Can you copy the log here?
2. Press Command and R keys in boot, open Disk Utility, erase the disk and reinstall
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Mountain Lion install failed and now can't access HD
Currently on a Early 2011 high-end Macbook Pro running Snow Leopard.
I downloaded and then went to install Mountain Lion, everything was fine and it began to restart for the install after the initial loading thing. However, when it came to install it gave me an error that roughly said the drive is damaged and can't be repaired, telling me to click restart and try installing again. I did this, (taking slightly longer and the colour of the background became more yellow at one point) but instead of the logon pane it went to OSX Utilities.
On Disk Utility, it said Macintosh HD was unmounted. Below that, under 'disk1' Mac OS X Install ESD appears and then below that under 'disk2' Mac OS X Base System is shown. I tried to mount the HD but it didn't work, and when I tried to repair the disk it said it couldn't be repaired and that I should back up my files. I do think my files are still present, I was able to access them on the Burn pane through the finder window. I then tried to reboot using the Macintosh HD startup disk but that then said it didn't have enough information to do so.
This person's problem (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3192437) seemed almost identical to mine, however I have files I need and cannot afford to lose them. What do you suggest I do to retrieve my files? That is what I am solely concerned for right now. I backed up the most important files earlier, but I really do not want to lose everything.Whatever you do, DO NOT REFORMAT THE DRIVE. You can just get a small <500Gb EXTERNAL bus powered drive, dismantle it and follow the instructions above. If you already have one then that's even better.
The drive I'm showing here is the drive that used to be inside of my computer. It took apart an old 320Gb seagate drive. The connections on these drives are all universally interchangeable. They just add some circuits and a USB (or other) interface. I would just get the cheapest drive that you can get that is for laptops and looks simple to take apart. (This is almost exactly the drive that I did this too http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-FreeAgent-Portable-External-ST903203FAA2E1-RK/dp/B 001FWIE0K/ref=sr_1_56?ie=UTF8&qid=1343340447&sr=8-56&keywords=seagate+external+h ard+drive)
The "old internal" drive should still be able to allow you to install ML on the "new" drive as long as you tell it to. It sounds complicated, but it's really not once you get in there and start doing it. It was actually quite easy. -
OSX Mountain Lion "Install Fails"
Mac Mini Late 2009 [other info: mac osx sits on origional Apple supplied hard disk. Superdrive DVD is now usb attached in its own enclosure. Its slit insude the mac mini is used by a second 1TB hard disk that holds all my data. RAM = 8GB]
I downloaded OSX ML last night & kicked off the install. Checked this morning and the install failed. No meaningful error messages just a "Restart" button. When I hit Restart OSX starts to try and install OSX ML again. This has happened 4 times. Each time the install fails with 14 minutes to go. Having become board with that process the last time around I checked out the options on the Utility menu and selected Restore From Backup. Guess what!? OSX ML tries to install again. I am stumped!!! Has anyone any ideas that I can try?go to disk utility and try to repair and verify your boot drive's disk and permissions. try reinstalling.
if that didn't work
go to where the installer is, right click it and choose "Show Package Contents"
find the installESD.dmg file and run it after you close all other applications. this should run an installer without going to the fabric background with the progress bar.
This may work for you if all else fails. -
"When i run The OSX Mountain Lion Icon i downloaded from the App Store it always gets to the point when its about to restart but the it keeps saying "please quit the application and try again" Now i've tried Re-Downloading it a lot of times but that doesn't work"
MacBook7.1
2GB RAM
Upgrading from Snow Leopard 10.6.8Reset the NVRAM.
About NVRAM and PRAM
You may not be satisfied with the performance of 10.8 when you have only 2 GB of RAM. -
Unfortunately, and quite idiotically, I never made a back up of my files and the lion operating system before trying to upgrade. My main concern now is just making sure none of my files were lost because of the install failure. I don't know what to do from here because I'm afraid to make a mistake and never be able to recover them again. What can I do to restore my computer back to normal? When I look under Macintosh HD in the Disk Utility option on lion recovery, it seems as if it recognizes that all of my files are still intact, because about 200 GB out of 319 GB are used up on it. This correlates to the amount of files on my disk. Pleaseeee tell me I didn't just lose all of my files. Any help will be greatlyy appreciated!
Sincerely,
Mathew SmithYou only need the powered exernal drive, OS X reinstall is free to install on the external drive.
Hold the option key and boot from the extenral drive.
When OS X upgrades or installs (without a disk wipe first), it doesn't touch Applications and User account folders (only Apple programs) so as long as the drive and file system works, (even if OS X doesn't boot on that drive) the files can be recovered via normal drag and drop methods.
If you can't access the files normally, only then you will have to install Data Rescue on the external drive (another $100) to read the 1's and 0's of the non-encrytped files directly, bypassing the file system structure. Thus is the price for not making adequate backups.
Most commonly used backup methods
In some major cities where there is a lot of computer tech support competition, you might be better with a local PC/Mac data recovery and restore service, saving you some money. But with the extenral hard drive you can then later make that a TimeMachine or clone drive, which you need anyway regardless. -
OSX Mountain Lion Install Failed
Trying to update from 10.7.5 MacBook Air. Would tell you the version but cant due to install failier, Its the one just pre Thunderbolt.
Keeps coming up with 'The installer encounted an error that caused the istallation to fail. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance. Restart & try again etc'
Have restated & tried again no luck.
OSX Installer Version 401 (419.1)
Have check Disk Verfications & Permisions.
Any ideas?
ThanksSure, guess it points to that. Will try the App Forum.
Would it be worth Restoring form TM then deleting OSX MLion App & re downloading?
Thanks for you help. -
Mountain Lion installation fails (No Recovery) - Mac Pro '10
Whenever I try to install Mountain Lion on my 2011 Mac Pro it fails and I get message telling my that a Recovery file could not be created and to visit http://www.apple.com/support/no-recovery. After going through the support document, I haven't been able to find a solution or work around.
I'm upgrading from Lion on a Mac Pro I bought in 2011.
Help!!Hi Linc,
This is what I get:
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *3.0 TB disk0
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS Big Mac III 2.2 TB disk0s2
/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *3.0 TB disk1
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1
2: Apple_HFS Big Mac I 2.2 TB disk1s2
/dev/disk2
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *3.0 TB disk2
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk2s1
2: Apple_HFS Big Mac II 2.2 TB disk2s2
/dev/disk3
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *3.0 TB disk3
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk3s1
2: Apple_HFS Big Mac IV 2.2 TB disk3s2
/dev/disk4
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: Apple_partition_scheme *12.0 TB disk4
1: Apple_partition_map 258.0 KB disk4s1
2: Apple_HFS Back Up 12.0 TB disk4s3
/dev/disk5
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *2.0 TB disk5
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk5s1
2: Apple_HFS *****'s Shows KD 2.0 TB disk5s2
The last two disks are external.
Got an idea of what I can do? -
HT201335 airplay icon not appearing, mountain lion installed and apple tv working with iTunes ???
airplay icon not appearing, mountain lion installed and apple tv 2nd G working good with iTunes ???
i do not understand.Which MBA do you have? It needs to be Mid 2011 or later for ML mirroring to work.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5404?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US -
After upgrading to Mountain Lion on my 2011 27" iMac, my Mac occasionally lock-ups.
After upgrading to Mountain Lion on my 2011 27" iMac, my Mac occassionaly locks up while using Safari, Mail or Dreamweaver and I have to d a force-quit, then restart my Mac. Anybody having similar probelms?
I am thinking about doing a clean install of Mountain Lion. Would I be able to restore my applications and data from Time Machine after the re-install?My 24 inch iMac... 2.8 GHZ dual core (Early 2008) is having the same problem. After it sleeps, I go to use something... and the beachball of death occurs. This happens multiple times a day... and let me tell you... it is annoying... and I am the one who is being annoyed!
It could possibly be revolving around safari... as that is really the only thing that is running consistently. I don't use iTunes on this iMac as I have so many other Macs up and running in the house... and I never consume media on it... so I kind of dismiss iTunes being the culprit.
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I have a 15" MacBook Pro with Mountain Lion installed. I have partitioned the hard drive into two partitions. Is it possible to install Snow Leopard on the second partition? If so how do I do it?
If your MacBook Pro had Snow Leopard on it at one time then sure. (Early 2011 or earlier)
How to erase and install Snow Leopard 10.6
Obviously choose the second partition to install into. It has to be OS X Extended journaled formatted in Disk Utility (BootCamp software makes it a MSDOS/FAT32 formatted partition if you used that to partition with)
If it's a Early 2011 or Late 2011 that came with 10.7, it's possible, but it's not easy.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3264421?start=0&tstart=0
If you can't install Snow Leopard, there is a thread over at MacRumors how to run Snow Leopard in a virtual machine program under 10.7 or 10.8 -
I have a mid 2012 Mac Mini, The kids had used this Mac for 6 months, So I needed it back, It had OSX Lion, the idea was to erase, format and reinstall Mountain Lion, run Disk first aid, everything good.
Already had Mountain Lion on my mid 2012 MacBook Pro, Mountain Lion install went perfect last month on the MBP with a reformatted, erased drive.
So on the mini I went to the app store and downloded Mountain Lion, Installed it twice, both times a "Damaged File" error occurred, downloaded 3 more times uninterupted, still same error, restarted and downloaded ML twice via WiFi, New error, "Install Failed" both times, Downloaded ML on my MBP, made a USB stick install drive, twice with "Install Failed" error.
Do I have a 15 month old brick, I convinced my new wife that Macs are more stable and last longer as I have owned Macs since 1995, Help.Have you tried running Apple Diagnostics to see if there are any hardware errors showing up?
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I just puchased a used 2008 MacPro 2.8 ghz 8 core and it has Mountain Lion installed on it. I want to go back to Snow Leopard because it is a better stable OS for using Final Cut Pro 7. I just bought the Snow Leopard Discs to install. I need to erase the hard drive and install Snow Leopard. Any help on how
to do this? Thank you.Downgrade Lion/Mountain Lion to Snow Leopard
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.
This will erase the whole drive so be sure to backup your files if you don't have a backup already. If you have performed a TM backup using Lion be aware that you cannot restore from that backup in Snow Leopard (see below.) I suggest you make a separate backup using Carbon Copy Cloner.
If you have Snow Leopard Time Machine backups made while on Snow Leopard, then you may do a full system restore per #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions. If you have subsequent backups from Lion, you can restore newer items selectively, via the "Star Wars" display, per #15 there, but be careful; some Snow Leopard apps may not work with the Lion/Mountain Lion files. -
IGoogle following mountain lion install
If your iGoogle home page fails to come up after mountain lion install, try changing the home page url in Safari preferences to: http://www.google.com/ig The "ig" seems to be the key.
Excellent! Do you have a question?
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Mountain Lion install results in blank gray screen.
I recently downloaded and installed Mountain Lion on my wife's late-2007 iMac. Unfortunately, each time, after the installer finishes and reboots, the computer sticks at a blank gray screen where normally the Apple logo would appear while things boot in the background. I have tried restoring from Time Capsule and re-downloading then reinstalling, but it produces the same result.
With the gray screen problem present, I've tried a Safe Boot, holding down Option to select a disk to boot from (nothing comes up when I do this, just the mouse cursor), and resetting the PRAM/NVRAM. I haven't really been able to find anyone else having this particular issue. The hard drive in the iMac is a little over a year old as we had to replace the old one. And from what my wife read, the late-2007 iMacs are Mountain Lion compatible.saw this in another thread about a macbook pro slowing up after OSX Mountain Lion install:
the mac owner had mentioned his mac going very slow, and was told it could take several days for the new OSX to sort things out. Perhaps this explains my issue and perhaps yours.
"Yes this can be the case, even slow shutdowns and startups. But Hardisk space can also be a factor. Anything below the 10Gig mark of space left can cause extreme slowdowns." -
I bought a Macbook pro with Mountain Lion. Can I install Mountain Lion on my other mac for free? How do I do that? Thanks!
On the bright side, it's only $20.
And I would certainly like to have the ownership (and even a copy of the installer on my archive drive), "just in case."
Here are some questions -- which I cannot test because it's not my situation:
Has anyone acquired a pre-owned Mac with Mountain Lion installed but which shipped with an earlier OS version? For those in that circumstance:
Have you been able to apply Mountain Lion update(s)?
How about reinstall ML with Recovery HD?
After either updating or reinstalling, does ML appear in Purchases in App Store?
Just curious.
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