Snow Leopard fails to install - Tech Support and Genius Bar can't fix it
I am having an exceedingly difficult time installing Snow Leopard. I have tried everything I can think of and tech support AND the Genius Bar have failed me so far.
The Details:
Every time I install SL it starts off well but sometime between 18 minutes remaining and 6 minutes remaining it fails. I get an error message that says there was an error that prevented installation. Looking in the installer log gives me a little more information. It usually has 15 or so errors, the last of which is always a very long line saying some package failed to install/unpack/be copied. The odd thing is that the file name is different every time.
So far I have tried:
Repairing the disk and installing
Installing from a different install DVD
Installing from external hard drive at the Genius Bar
Installing using RAM borrowed from the Genius Bar
Wiping the HD completely. I erased all my partitions and tried to install on a completely blank hard drive with a single HFS+ partition
I can only think of a few things that can cause the install to fail: DVD, optical drive, RAM, files on HDD, and HDD hardware. I think I've eliminated all those possibilities except HDD hardware. Changing that on a MacBook isn't trivial and I don't have one handy. Also I would think a HDD problem, or any hardware problem, would cause all sorts of errors and with the exception of this the machine has no serious problems and apps crash only occasionally. I've had no system crashes for as long as I can remember.
I have a Time Machine back up and have successfully restored my old Leopard System onto the MacBook (twice now) so at least I have the option to just give up on SL if I want to. As an aside, restoring from TM went well but not perfectly. Next time I install an OS I will be making a disk image backup. Does anyone else have any ideas? If you solve this problem I'll be eternally grateful and very impressed.
Thanks in advance
Jay
I'm sorry. I should have answered when you asked about RAM the first time. I have 2GB. I have tried installing with that, and I tried installing with RAM at the Genius Bar. I don't know how much the guy used at the Genius Bar.
Last night I restored from time machine so I currently have Leopard installed on the machine. After the restoration my email archive is little strange, I had to re-authorize iTunes and various other annoyances pop up but it runs without any problems.
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