This disk cannot be used to startup this computer message when I try to install mavericks. Cant partition my SSD (which is verified) either - help!
Hi all
I am using Snow Leopard and have just downloaded Mavericks. I have a 250 gig SSD with no partitions. When trying to install I get a message saying 'this disk cannot be used to startup this computer" and disk utility has checked my drive and its fine, but I cant partition it either saying 'the partition cannot be resized Try reducing the amount of change in the size of the partition". I have tried various sizes but nothing works. Please help!
Well, I'm puzzled by the fact that you have your 750 GB disk highlighted, yet on the right it is showing disk0s2 as having 750 GB with nothing on it although your Macintosh HD appears to be part of that disk0s2. I have no idea what disk0s1, 5, and 6 are or what they contain, but the only thing accessible seems to be your Macintosh HD - does that contain your OS? For comparison, here is a screenshot of mine (2 partitions on my internal hard drive):
The area shaded in blue is the space my OS/apps/etc. occupies.
Unless there is a viable explanation of your disk(s), my suggestion would be to boot into recovery, erase your drive, partition properly, and then reinstall from scratch. Make sure you have a backup first.
Similar Messages
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Tried to upgrade from 10.7.4 on relatively new MBP. It appears that Mountain Lion successfully downloaded from App Store. However, ML will not install to the hard drive because "This disk cannot be used to startup your computer". Thanks for advice.
Try going through the steps described here: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3926.
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after downloading the LION OSX upgrade I am getting an error "This disk cannot be used for startup" I can go any further. I am using checkpoint fulldisk encryption software on the MACAIR
You've answered your own question.
Lion will not install on a disk with 3rd-party encryption. -
I have a MacBok pro later than 2007. running 10.6.8 . Downloaded Mountain Lion from app store. When I get to the install page I get the message "This disk cannot be used to start your computer." What is the problem and what can be done?
Thanks,I appreciate the prompt reply. I saw that on the support community and it isn't giving me a solution.
The disk where the volume I need to upgrade is 250.06 GB Hitachi, the partition window (current) does not have a blue marker for the used data space, so there is no way to resize it.
If it's helpful, System profiler reads:
NVidia MCP89 AHCI:
Vendor: NVidia
Product: MCP89 AHCI
Link Speed: 3 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed: 1.5 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.30 Supported
Hitachi HTS545025B9SA02:
Capacity: 250.06 GB (250,059,350,016 bytes)
Model: Hitachi HTS545025B9SA02
Revision: PB2AC60W
Serial Number: 100814PBL200CSJA72PN
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Rotational Rate: 5400
Medium Type: Rotational
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
Capacity: 209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)
Writable: Yes
BSD Name: disk0s1
Capacity: 249.72 GB (249,715,376,128 bytes)
Writable: Yes
BSD Name: disk0s2
Macintosh HD:
Capacity: 249.71 GB (249,714,352,128 bytes)
Available: 100.41 GB (100,405,456,896 bytes)
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk0s2s1
Mount Point: /
Boot OSX:
Capacity: 134.2 MB (134,217,728 bytes)
Writable: Yes
BSD Name: disk0s3 -
Hello, I am trying to upgrade my macbook pro to yosemite, but I get the "disk cannot be used to startup your computer" error.
Resizing the partition does not work for me and I get the error "MediaKit reports no such partition" probably because I installed linux in dual boot and the disk manager is lost.
Anyway to tell the yosemite installer that it should not pay attention whether the disk is bootable or not ?
If I am doomed, any way to delete the installer and downloaded OS from my hard drive ?
Thanks for your helpAs usual, the Linux installer wrecked the partition table. You would have to boot from your OS X installation disc and repartition. Doing so will of course remove all data from the drive, so you must back up first if you haven't already done so.
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I had this same problem when I tried to install Mountian Lion. I already tried changing my partitions and it wont let me because of something about my filesystem verification failed. I have no idea what to do. Help!
AishaniKumar,
which model MacBook Pro do you have? If you click on the Apple menu, hold down the Option key, and then click on “System Information…”, a new window will appear. Which Model Identifier is shown in the Hardware Overview of that window? -
I have a macbook pro with snow leopard on it. I am giving it away to a family members, but would like to erase the disk before giving it away. When I put my snow leopard dvd in, and click "install", I get a screen asking me to select the hard drive to install on. When I click the only one listed: "Macintosh HD", I get the message:
Mac OS X cannot be installed on "Macintosh HD", because this disk cannot be used to start your computer
If I try to boot from the dvd, my mac just hangs on the gray screen that shows the apple logo. Basically I put the dvd in, shut down the computer, when I turn it on, I hold the "C" key, and it just hangs.
How should I go about erasing everything on the computer, and re-installing the OS, I just want it to look like it did when it came from the factory. Any help would be much appreciated.
Note: I lost my original install dvd, so I called Apple and asked for a replacement, they charged me $20 and sent the Snow Leopard disk that I am using as my replacement.
Thanks.It's possible you got a disk from Apple you can't use. What you should have gotten were gray disks based on the Mac's serial number so you would get disks which were identical to the ones it came with.
If the disk you received has a picture of a Snow Leopard on it, then they sent you a 10.6.3 retail disk, which will not have any of the bundled iLife apps on it.
Much more important is the point release. If your Mac originally came with 10.6.4 or some later point release of Snow Leopard, then 10.6.3 will not install on that Mac. The necessary hardware drivers are not on the retail disk. -
Can't install: "this disk cannot be used to start up your computer"
After making sure that my current startup disk for 10.5 was imaged to another hard drive, I inserted the Snow Leopard install disk and double-clicked the Install icon. Everything worked fine till I got to "Select the disk where you want to install Mac OS X." All of the disk partitions had warning triangles, including the one for my original startup disk, which has worked perfectly for the 10.5 pre-installed on my new iMac (identifier 9,1). When I click on the icon for this drive, the warning message below states "Mac OS X cannot be installed on 'iMac HD', because this disk cannot be used to start up your computer." Obviously that's not true, since that's where the OS is installed. No other programs were running except Finder.
I used Disk Utility to check the disk and repair permissions: no change in the installation program's message. I quit the installation program and reinserted the DVD. It certainly does a lot of churning of the DVD before you ask it to do anything. With all external hard disks disconnected, it still gives the same error message.
Where do I go from here? I thought Snow Leopard was "The world's most advanced operating system. Finely tuned." It can't even install itself and recognize a bootable internal hard drive on an iMac.GasMan4932 wrote:
When I click on the icon for this drive, the warning message below states "Mac OS X cannot be installed on 'iMac HD', because this disk cannot be used to start up your computer." Obviously that's not true, since that's where the OS is installed.
How did you partition this drive, if you did that? Does it contain start up or utility partitions for any other OS (for instance Linux)? There have been reports that the "cannot be used to start up your computer" message will appear if a third party utility was used to create a 'triple boot' system or such, apparently because SL is picky about the format GUID partition scheme table info & how partitions are allocated space on the drive by other formatting/partition methods.
For some users with these partitions, the fix has been as simple as "tickling" (slightly changing) the partition size of some partition with Disk Utility, which apparently updates the GUID partition scheme table info so that the SL installer accepts it as safe to use with SL.( In this sense, the message may be trying to say the installer thinks the disk can't be used to reliably start up your computer with SL, not in general.)
See the discussions topic Cannot install Snow Leopard over 10.5.8 for more about this. -
Can't install OSX Mountain Lion, on the disk selection screen i cant select the Macintosh HD to install OSX giving a message (This disk cannot be used to start up your computer).
Read
https://discussions.apple.com/message/15659267#15659267 -
just bough OSX Mountain Lion, my laptop operating with v10.6.8. Can't install OSX Mountain Lion, on the disk selection screen i cant select the Macintosh HD to install OSX giving a message (This disk cannot be used to start up your computer).only have one disk to select and my partition map scheme is GUID partition table. 24.44gb disk available.
Verify your computer can run Mountain Lion:
Upgrading to Mountain Lion
To upgrade to Mountain Lion you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or Lion installed. Purchase and download Mountain Lion from the App Store. Sign in using your Apple ID. Mountain Lion is $19.99 plus tax. The file is quite large, over 4 GBs, so allow some time to download. It would be preferable to use Ethernet because it is nearly four times faster than wireless.
OS X Mountain Lion - System Requirements
Macs that can be upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion
1. iMac (Mid 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 7,1 or later
2. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 5,1 or later
3. MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
4. MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 2,1 or later
5. Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
6. Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
7. Xserve (Early 2009) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
To find the model identifier open System Profiler in the Utilities folder. It's displayed in the panel on the right.
Open Disk Utility and verify the drive is partitioned using GUID and formatted Mac OS Extended, Journaled. If it is then 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.
Now try installing Mountain Lion. -
Can't install MAC OS X Lion - Macintosh HD "This disk cannot be used to start up your computer."
I downloaded OS X Lion this morning and when I went to install it I got a "Screen - Select the disk where you want to install OS X." -- Had two disk my Macintosh HD and my Time Machine (both are 1TB). The top and most important is the Macintosh HD (999.86GB - 739.75GB available states "This disk cannot be used to start up your computer". What do I need to do to install OS X Lion?
Create a Backup Lion Bootable 10.7 Disk
Purchaseand download Lion from the Mac App Store on any Lion compatible Macrunning Snow Leopard.
Right click on “Mac OS X Lion” installer and choose the option to “Show Package Contents.”
Inside the Contents folder that appears you will find a SharedSupport folder and inside the SharedSupport folder you will find the “InstallESD.dmg.” This is the Lion boot disc image we have all been waiting for.
Copy “InstallESD.dmg” to another folder like the Desktop.
Launch Disk Utility and click the burn button.
Select the copied “InstallESD.dmg” as the image to burn, insert a standard sized 4.7 GB DVD, and wait for your new Lion Boot Disc to come out toasty hot.
With this disc you can boot any Lion compatible Mac, and install10.7 just like you installed previous version of Mac OS X. You caneven use Disk Utility's Restore function to image your Lion boot discimage onto a external drive suitable for performing a clean installon a optical-drive-less MacBook Air, or Mac mini server.
If your using Mac's in a mission critical type environment or have third party hardware or software you must rely upon working correctly. It's advised to wait until all the bugs, driver updates, third party software updates and other issues are resolved before upgrading. This might take several months. Then if you do so, do one machine at a time and carefully test everything before full deployment.
It's also highly advised to backup all one's data either manually to a external powered drive in addition to TimeMachine and Hold option bootable Carbon Copy Clones etc. -
My ipad is disabled and I updated it, then the apple id and password were required I entered it but the itunes says this email cannot be used to unlock this ipad. So what can I do? anybody help me please.
is it the ipad that is disable or your Apple ID?
This article contains instructions on what to do if have forgotten your passcode or your device is disabled:
iOS: Forgotten passcode or device disabled after entering wrong passcode
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1212
Contacting apple id support
http://www.apple.com/support/appleid/contact/ -
"This disc does not use the GUID Partition Table Scheme. Use Disc Utility to change the partition scheme". I keep getting this message when I try to install OSX Lion so that I can upgrade my 17" MacBookPro to move to iCloud. My harddrive was replaced last year by Apple because of a fault by the manufacturer and I think this is the cause of the problem. What can I do so that I don't lose my content.
When you click the partion tab. There is option on the bottom of the window. Click on that there there are these options.
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When I try to install Maverick on the HD I get this message: This disc is used for Time Machine backups and then nothing happens!
Try looking in Finder at your Macintosh HD. Look to see if there is a backups.backupsdb folder at the root of the hard drive. That's a folder that Time Machine makes on external hard drives to store the backups. If you have one there, some one put it there; rename the folder or delete it. Then try installing again.
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I downladed a game then i bought some gold on the game using a credit card. Now when I try to retrieve the gold it says I have to verify then download it. It will not let me. Any suggestions?
I was receiving the same error message yesterday, which said There was a problem downloading "The Song Name / Album / Artist". The file seems to be corrupted. To redownload the file, choose "Check for Available Downloads" from the Store menu. The file tries to download five times before this error message appears.
I too, tried to find the file and delete it, but it was no where to be found.
So I gave up for that moment and tried again today and I was able to successfully download the file. Amazing how that works!!!
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