Osx cannot be installed on Mcintosh hd

Downloaded Mountain Lion to my late 2009 Imac but unable to load. Initially it said "not allowed load as HD used for Time Machine. Another thread said to delete backup file. I did this but now get above message. How can I get Mountain Lion to load?

You're installing on the wrong drive. As baltwo says, disconnect the TM backup drive and try again.
Note, however, that if you deleted your backups from that drive, you'd better re-create them prior to upgrading. If something bad goes wrong during the install process, you will definitely want those backups!
If you're seeing this message and don't have another drive connected, is it possible that you have copied a Backups.backupdb folder onto your internal hard drive?

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Core duo 2 ghz: Mac OSX cannot be installed on this computer

My intel core duo 2ghz macbook pro will not accept the instal of Leopard.
getting this error from the CD boot
"Mac OSX cannot be installed on this computer"
"restart"
I have confirmed this Fujitsu drive is formated GUID.
A Tiger install disk allows booting and Tiger install.
Whats the scret handshake to get this Leopard install to happen? Any help is appreciated.

What is the source of the DVD? Retail? DVD from a different computer?
Stedman

"Mac OSX cannot be installed on this computer" Error

What Mac/Specs:
I am trying to completely clear out and reformat a 13" MacBook Pro 2.26Ghz with the 250GB hard drive (mid-2010 version) which had been running Mountain Lion to its "factory" settings.
Hurdle 1:
When I tried to reformat it I had the erase/partition options greyed out. Duh- needed to use a different start up disk.
Actions taken & Hurdle 2:
I then inserted the original disk (with OSX10.6) and started up with the C key held down but ended up getting the above error message "Mac OSX cannot be installed on this computer".
Actions taken 2:
I tried to "backup from Time Machine" (as that was the only option I could click other than restarting) and managed to access the Disk Utillity that way. I was then able to erase and re-partition the drive as Mac Extended Journaled and made sure that the S.M.A.R.T. verification was verified before I did so.
Hurdle 3 (= Hurdle 2):
This got me to the point of having a clean slate but the error message persists.
Question:
What can I do to move forward? I do not want to reinstall Mountain Lion, I want to pass on the computer restored to its original factory settings.
Please and thank you.

Sorry for the late update- I ended up checking the disks (I have two MacBook Pros bought two months apart) and tried the other one. Turns out that though they were the same OSX (10.6.3 v1) they had different teeny serial numbers.
To answer BDAqua- yes, it was the disk for the same MacBook Pro model but clearly not "same" enough. And no- the disks had never been used. Pleased to report that it is all sorted now, but wanted to thank you massively for your answer anyway.
You had it in one!

I have osx 10.6 installed, need to reinstall: says osx cannot be installed on this computer

A friend has purchased a used macbook, by searching the serial number it originally had osx 10.5. It currently has osx 10.6.8 installed. she wishes to start fresh, i have 10.6.3 discs that have worked before, when i boot into the disc it simply says that osx cannot be installed on this mac. this is said when booting into disc or trying to click the install with the disc showing in finder
it is a 2.2ghz with 1gb of ram. specs shouldn't be an issue as it is running it fine now, and can support up to 10.7.
any thoughts?

You need to use a retail DVD and not a different Mac model's original disks.
(108668)

OSX cannot be installed on to this computer

My 2007 iMac runs OS10.4.11. I bought a new iBook with OS10.5. When I try to install 10.5 onto the iMac using the accompanying disk, I get a message saying that OSX cannot be installed onto this computer. No more details. Can anyone help?
Thanks
Ben

Sorry, didn't mean to sound harsh.
Just a standard licensing thing. One machine, one license.
Apple does sell a multi-pack of the OS, iWork and iLife for less than the cost oft he 3 combined (169), or 5 license pack for 229.
Given the OS itself is 129 and ilife/work are 79 each, cheaper to buy the 5 pack than 2 copies of each.

Cant download mountain lion.. "osx cannot be installed you have s.m.a.r.t. errors"

my computer has never had a problem it is the newest imac and i download things everyday with no problems ever...
for some reason when i try to dl the new mountian lion it first says os x cannot be installed on mca hd.. and somthing about s.m.a.r.t errors..
so i went to disk utilties the top drive 500.11 gb wdc wd500... is in red and says this drive has a hardware problem that cant be repaired back up as much of the data as possible and replace the disk..
then on the bottem it says s.m.a.r.t. status failing in red...
again i never had a problem with this computer and still dont have a problem with downloading anything except for this moutain lion..
also im on the latest osx 10.7.4

You should always be doing regular backups. Disks can fail at any time; so can other components; directories can get corrupted beyond repair, users can make mistakes, etc.
You might want to review the Time Machine Tutorial, and perhaps browse Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.
If you don't like Time Machine, see Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #27 for some alternatives.
Did you purchase AppleCare with your Mac? If so, the drive will be replaced at no charge.

PLEASE HELP! OSX cannot be installed on Macintosh HD

PROBLEM
I'm trying to update from Snow Leopard 10.6.8 to Yosemite 10.10.2 and it's not working. I downloaded the installer file from the app store and it is in my applications folder. When prompted, I "Select the disc where I want to install OS X" and select Macintosh HD, causing a bubble to pop up saying "This disc cannot be used to start your computer". If I press the back button, then go back forward it simply says "OS X cannot be installed on Macintosh HD".
TROUBLESHOOTING ATTEMPTS
I have tried to repeat the process about ten times with the same results.
Reinstalling the installer doesn't help.
I ran Disc Utility, which claimed I had an error in the number of blocks in my volume, booted in Recovery Mode and repaired the disc. No change.
Other online threads told me to find and delete the file "backups.backupdb" on my HD, but I can't find that anywhere on my computer using the Finder Search function
SPECS
Late 2011 MacBook Pro
OS X 10.6.8
2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 processor
4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 Memory
65GB available disc space

You must have a really fouled up Snow Leopard system. Please 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.
If you continue having errors reported, then you should backup your files, erase the drive and reinstall Snow Leopard. Be sure to backup the Yosemite installer you downloaded if you don't want to download it again. Otherwise, try the installer again.

Mac osx cannot be installed on this computer

Hello everyone hopefully someone can help me out here. I recently purchased a mid to late 2008 macbook pro13 for my wife. the person I bought it from got it with gingerbread installed on it. the original mac os seems to be there. I cannot get it to boot into anything other than gingerbread. So I bought a set of Snow Leopard 10.6.2 build number 2z691-6317-a from eBay and when I went to install them last night I got the error listed above. What can I do to get this back to OSX. My wife doesn't like gingerbread. Thanks for your help.

you need to boot to the OS install disc (by inserting the disc then restart holding down the C key)
once booted to this select the disk utility and then mac HD from the left side
click on the erase tab then make sure the format says mac OS extended journaled
then click on the erase button
once this is done close the disk utility window and choose the option to install mac OS X if you have 2 discs once the first one is done insert the second and install those apps as well.
after the reinstall is completed when the mac is restarted the setup assistant will appear and it will be like new mac

OSX cannot be installed on this computer

I tried to install 10.5 on my iMacIntel(currently at 10.4.11)
iMac5 Intel core 2Duo 2.16ghz 1g RAm and I get a msg "cant install MacOSX on this computer"
Ive tried booting from the disk and installing from the disk but I get the same msg.
Any Ideas?

Just to clarify a bit further:
Machines newer than when an OS was first released can only be installed from the discs that originally shipped with those machines as those discs may contain special drivers needed in order for those machines to work properly. Since those devices did not exist at the time the original OS was created, that makes perfect sense.
You should be able to install any other machine that supports Leopard from the DVD that came with your purchased copy of the OS.
What you cannot do is install other machines with Leopard using the Software Restore disc that ships with newer machines.
This is because the Leopard disc that ships with a new machine not only has the drivers for that new machine, but it may only contains the parts of Leopard required for that machine; for example, it does not necessarily contain drivers for hardware used only with PowerPC Macs while the Leopard DVD you purchase does.
So the rule of thumb is you should use the DVD that came with your purchased Family Pack of Leopard to install Leopard onto any machine other than those that were introduced after Leopard was released.
Machines that were introduced after Leopard was released should only have Leopard (re)installed from the Software Restore disc that shipped with those machines.

Mac OSX cannot be installed on this computer...help?

I have an older mac book (2007) with a 2ghz Intel dual core with 2 gb ram. I would like to erase the current OSX (10.5.8) and install Snow Leopard (10.6.X) from a disk that I have from my iMac. When I put the disk in and boot, holding down "c" it goes to install but then gives me the error message that it can't be install on this computer. Any suggestions or explanations?

It will not install - the Snow Leopard installer you're trying to use is machine specific - you need to go to Apple's website and order the Retail version of Snow Leopard in order to install it to your Macbook.
There is no work around on this since the Gray/Grey Snow Leopard DVD will be looking for an iMac and not a Macbook.

"10.4 cannot be installed on this machine?"

I'm currently running 10.4.7 on my macbookpro. To make a long story short, I was partitioning my hard drive using bootcamp when I get the error message saying basically, "can't verify hard disk. run off your installation cd and repair disk."
I get into problems when I try to run off my tiger CD. I have a total of three tiger CDs of different versions (10.4 retail, 10.4.6 that came with my MBP, and a 10.4.7 version that was mailed to me from ADC). I've tried them all, and each time I get the message, "MAC OSx cannot be installed on this machine."
I can't restart holding C either. Anybody know what's going on? Thanks in advance.

Hi Horn,
the problems are evident for the 10.4 retail: There is no retail version of Tiger for Intel Macs. Retail versions are PPC only. Also check the 10.4.7 DVD. It might be a PPC-version as well.
However, you SHOULD be able to boot from the software restore DVD that came with your MBP, so calling AppleCare is definitely a good idea.

I just purchased OS X Mountain Lion Upgrade. When I went to install it is says "Os X Mountain Lion cannot be installed on Macintosh HD" please help!

Just purchsed upgrade OSX Mountain Lion. Went to install and it says "OSX cannot be installed on Macintosh HD" Why?

Hi,
If you bought the iMac in 2010 it should be supported indeed, however be aware that the information refers to the manufaction date which might be different than the purchase date.
Please verify the following information:
Click the Apple icon.
Click About This Mac.
Click More Info.
What is the listed Model Identifier?
You may identify the exact model by comparing it with the Model Identifier below:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1758
Now go back to your Desktop, click the Go menu and select Utilities.
Open the Disk Utilitiy.
Select Macintosh HD from the left pane.
You may find the Available space listed in here.
As well, what it the listed Format within the same screen?
Shlomi

Someone meet the problem, I am not abble install mac OS 10.6 snow leopard on intel based machine, (intel core 2 duo, 2,8 ghz, 4GB RAM, 320 GB HDD, OSX 10.5.8) system every time wrote "OS X snow leopard cannot be install on this machine" please help, Majo

omeone meet the problem, I am not abble install mac OS 10.6 snow leopard on intel based machine, (intel core 2 duo, 2,8 ghz, 4GB RAM, 320 GB HDD, OSX 10.5.8) system every time wrote "OS X snow leopard cannot be install on this machine" please help, Majo

It is retail disk, i bought it in apple store. I also resetter PRRAM and SMC and checked disk. I also tried clean installation and upgrade, nothing works, after run installation program after few seconds wrote: OS X Snow Leopard cannot be install on this machine :-(
Thank you for your answer
Majo

OSX Mavericks cannot be installed on this computer???? 2013 MacBook Pro Retina?

I need to re-install Mavericks on a the NEW MacBook Pro Retina - and I am getting the "OSX Mavericks cannot be installed on this computer" error.
What can I do to fix?

Shawn Rimmell wrote:
I need to re-install Mavericks on a the NEW MacBook Pro Retina - and I am getting the "OSX Mavericks cannot be installed on this computer" error.
What can I do to fix?
How are you trying to reinstall, from Recovery, or from the App Store?

OSX mavericks cannot be installed on this computer.

Imac running osx 10.6.8 after reformat of hard drive and reinstalling original OS 10.6.4. I then installed 10.6.8 combo upgrade. After downloading OS X 10.9.5 an alert appears and states "OS X mavericks cannot be installed on this computer." Prior to the reformat this imac was running the original mavericks. Doesn't make sense. Is there a way to access the original OS X 10.9 and attempt a download, then do a 10.9.5 combo upgrade?

"Prior to the reformat this imac was running the original mavericks"
You can reinstall Mavericks using OS X Recovery.
Startup your Mac while holding down the Command + R keys.
From there you should be able to access the built in utilities to reinstall OS X (Mavericks) using OS X Recovery

Osx cannot be installed on Mcintosh hd

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