Trying to install Mountian Lion onto Macbook Pro and Install failed because a recovery system can't be created What do I do?

My Macbook Pro is set up to run Windows via bootcamp and I am trying to install Mountain Lion.
I cant install and has come up with an error message telling me Install Failed because it cant create a recovery system. I am not very technical and can just about spell 'Mac' so I need help
Thanks

Installer reports "This disk cannot be used to start up your computer"

Similar Messages

I get an "install failed" message. "Recovery system can't be created-click restart to return to previous version of OS X." This doesn't work. My Mac continues to try to install Mountain Lion. What is the elegant way to get my system back?

I get an "install failed" message. "Recovery system can't be created—click restart to return to previous version of OS X." This doesn't work. My Mac continues to try to install Mountain Lion. What is the elegant way to get my system back?

The first time I attempted to install ML was on a late 2011 MBP. It ran for three minutes then gave me the error message: Could not install OSX due to an unexpected error. I was using the original ML install app, not a USB or other drive.
After a couple of restarts wiht the same result I saw a message to the effect that the install was trying to close open apps. I closed apps manually a few times to no avail. I shut down instead of restarting then booted into Safe mode (hold down the shift key when starting) and that did it. The install went smoothly after that.
I since installed ML in two iMacs using a cloned copy of the install app on a USB drive. This time I shut down the computers and booted into Safe Mode first and there were no problems.
I don't know if this issue is the one causing you these problems but it is a simple enough solution to try.
Jay

The Mac OS X Lion begins installing and then stops and gives the following error message: Mac OS X can't be installed on the disk Macintosh HD because a recovery system can't be created. How do I fix this problem?

OS X Lion begins installing and then error message comes up that it can't be installed on MacIntosh HD because a recovery system can't be created. What do I do to fix this problem?

What to do if the installer warns that no Recovery HD can be created
Some disk partition configurations may result in the OS X Lion installer reporting that it could not create a Recovery HD. In these situations, even if you are permitted to continue the install, you should quit the install and create an external, bootable OS X Lion hard drive with a Recovery HD, first. You will be able to return to the upgrade to OS X Lion on your computer's boot drive after creating the external Recovery HD.
Important notes
Your storage device must have at least 13 GB available (after formatting) to install Lion and an Internet Restore partition.
These steps will erase and reformat the storage device. OS X Lion: About Lion Recovery will instruct you on setting up the storage device to use the GUID partition scheme and the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format, which are required to install Lion and an Internet Restore partition on your external storage device. You should back up any important files that are on the device to a different drive.
This procedure will install a version of the OS X Lion that is compatible with the Mac it was created with. Using this Lion system with a different kind of Mac may produce unpredictable results.
Your computer's serial number will be sent to Apple to help authenticate your request to download and install OS X Lion.

TS1600 OS X could not be installed on your computer. OSX can't be installed on the disk Macintosh HD because a recovery system can't be created.

I just bought the new OS X 10.8 and downloaded but when I tried to install it on my computer Installation Failed and I got this message:
"OS X can't be installed on the disk Macintosh HD , because a recovery system can't be created."
I tried so many times but the same message comes out to me each time and when I restart the computer I am back to the same OS X installer and can't access my computer any more so I am really stuck I can't install the new OS X version and can't go back to the old OS X version or access my computer.
Please help
My computer is MacBook Pro 13"

OK. You have a Boot Camp partition which is why the issue. See the following:
It seems the issue is that the space at the "bottom" of your available space when Lion installs it's partition is already occupied by BootCamp. The fix was to go into Disk Utility; Select your Hard Drive; Select Partition; Move the bottom of your main partition "up" a bit to create a space for Lion; close Disk Utility; Install Lion; once Lion is successfully installed, go back into Disk Partition and drag the bottom of your main partition back "down" to the bottom of the window.
In your case use Disk Utility to "shrink" your OS X partition a little more than 1 GB.
To resize the drive do the following:
1. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
After the main menu appears select Disk Utility and click on the Continue button. Select the hard drive's main entry then click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
2. You should see the graphical sizing window showing the existing partitions. A portion may appear as a blue rectangle representing the used space on a partition.
3. In the lower right corner of the sizing rectangle for each partition is a resizing gadget. Select it with the mouse and move the bottom of the rectangle upwards until you have reduced the existing partition enough to create the desired empty space. The space below the resized partition will appear gray. Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
Remember that you only need to shrink the OS X partition a little more than 1 GB. Now, when you try the Mountain Lion installation the installer will be able to make the Recovery HD.

I am trying to install os x on macbook pro and it keeps saying mac os x can't be install on this computer

i am trying to install os x on macbook pro and it keeps saying mac os x computer, and i don't have any backup to restore

Do you have a retail disc with a picture of a Snow Leopard on it, or is it a gray disc? If it's gray, did it come with the machine you're trying to install on? If it came with a different Mac, it won't work.

Mountain Lion install error: "Cannot be installed because a recovery system can't be created". What does this mean?

How can I install Mountain Lion OS... I get error message saying a Recovery System can't be created... Any help or ideas out there?

After a week of dealing with AppleCare we discovered there was a corrupted recovery disk on my hard drive when i upgraded from Snow Leopard to Lion, therefore not allowing the upgrade to Mountain Lion. So ended up backing up the computer, then formatting the computer and reloading SNOW LEOPARD then upgraded straight to Mountain Lion, then restored my user files. This has worked, and am so grateful to AppleCare for their tireless help with diagnosing and helping to sort this out! they've been fantastic!

HT4929 I am unable to install OS XLion and get a message that it can't be installed on Disk Mackintosh HD because a recovery system can't be created. I am then referred to apple support but am unable to find anything which can help. Can someone help pleas

Unable to install OS X Lion as "...it can't be installed on Disk Mackintosh HD because recovery system can't be created. Visit www.apple......"
Visiting the web pages does not help me can someone please point me in the right direction ?

OK. You have a Boot Camp partition which is why the issue. See the following:
It seems the issue is that the space at the "bottom" of your available space when Lion installs it's partition is already occupied by BootCamp. The fix was to go into Disk Utility; Select your Hard Drive; Select Partition; Move the bottom of your main partition "up" a bit to create a space for Lion; close Disk Utility; Install Lion; once Lion is successfully installed, go back into Disk Partition and drag the bottom of your main partition back "down" to the bottom of the window.
In your case use Disk Utility to "shrink" your OS X partition a little more than 1 GB.
To resize the drive do the following:
1. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
After the main menu appears select Disk Utility and click on the Continue button. Select the hard drive's main entry then click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
2. You should see the graphical sizing window showing the existing partitions. A portion may appear as a blue rectangle representing the used space on a partition.
3. In the lower right corner of the sizing rectangle for each partition is a resizing gadget. Select it with the mouse and move the bottom of the rectangle upwards until you have reduced the existing partition enough to create the desired empty space. The space below the resized partition will appear gray. Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
Remember that you only need to shrink the OS X partition a little more than 1 GB. Now, when you try the Mountain Lion installation the installer will be able to make the Recovery HD.

HT1338 After installing mountain lion, my macbook pro (2010ish) crashes every ten minutes. How can I fix this?

Title pretty much says it all. I installed Moutain Lion today and every ten minutes or so no matter what I'm doing my computer freezes up (iTunes always first) and then the entire computer freezes. What can I do to stop this?
I always have to hold down the power button to reboot, nothing else works to make it unfreeze.

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
The purpose of the test is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party software that loads automatically at startup or login.
Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Boot in safe mode* and log in to the account with the problem. The instructions provided by Apple are as follows:
Shut down your computer, wait 30 seconds, and then hold down the shift key while pressing the power button.
When you see the gray Apple logo, release the shift key.
If you are prompted to log in, type your password, and then hold down the shift key again as you click Log in.
*Note: If FileVault is enabled under OS X 10.7 or later, or if a firmware password is set, or if the boot volume is a software RAID, you can’t boot in safe mode. Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs. The next normal boot may also be somewhat slow.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin. Test while in safe mode. Same problem? After testing, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of the test.

I installed Mountain Lion on MacBook Pro and now cannot reach gmail.

My single sentence question pretty much states my problem. I downloaded Mountain Lion operating system at the store and cannot figure out how to reach gmail using Firefox like I have done in the past. If you send info on how to do this to my email account ([email protected]) I will not be able to notice it unless you have a magic wand. I am currently using Firefox all of the time when I go online. If you need a phone number: 360-753-1481.

Reload web page(s) and bypass the cache to refresh possibly outdated or corrupted files.
*Press and hold Shift and left-click the Reload button.
*Press "Ctrl + F5" or press "Ctrl + Shift + R" (Windows,Linux)
*Press "Command + Shift + R" (MAC)
Clear the cache and the cookies from sites that cause problems.
"Clear the Cache":
*Firefox > Preferences > Advanced > Network > Cached Web Content: "Clear Now"
"Remove Cookies" from sites causing problems:
*Firefox > Preferences > Privacy > Cookies: "Show Cookies"
Start Firefox in <u>[[Safe Mode|Safe Mode]]</u> to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).
*Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe mode start window or otherwise make changes.
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes

Help: install failure-Lion "can't be installed because recovery system can't be created.

After selecting c:/ drive for install (GUID, Journaled, Snow Leopard 10.6.8), the install procedure runs about 2 minutes then halts with message, Lion "can't be installed because the recovery system can't be created." What is a probable cause, and what is a solution? Anyone know? Is tehre a FAQ on this? Can't find one.

I had similar issues.
The following article pointed me in a better direction:
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20081398-263/os-x-10.7-cannot-be-installed-on-certain-drives/
I tried to go the partition route, but for some reason the operation failed.
I decided to attempt a Lion install again afterwards anyway, but once again it failed, but now my whole system was hosed and could not revert back to Snow Leopard.
I did a restore from time machine. Once that completed, I attempted to install Lion again, and ta da! it works now.
What a pain.

Clean Install: Recovery system can't be created

I have a late 2007 white Macbook. I installed a 320 GB drive into the optical bay and my O/S drive was a 120 GB OCZ Vertex+
I had previously had a Crucial M4 as the OS drive for months. I used SuperDuper to clone it to the OCZ about a week ago and had no problems.
The system was running fine until a few days ago when it started acting weird, so I tried to reboot. I got the blinking folder with a question mark and couldn't do anything else. I was able to recover some of my data off of the SSD using my brother's MBP and DiskWarrior. I also created a 4 GB Lion bootable USB.
I erased the SSD using disk utility and then tried to run the installation, but I keep getting "Mac OS X can't be installed on the disk XXXX, because a recovery system can't be created."
Any help would be much appreciated.

Well, you cannot see the Recovery HD partition and formatting (erasing) the drive does not remove it. Only partitioning the drive will remove it. The error you are getting is the error produced when there is another partition on the drive that cannot be altered or the drive is not prepped correctly or a Recovery HD partition already exists or there is something corrupted on the drive.
I suggest that you boot from your installer flash drive and use Disk Utility to repartition the SSD:
Drive Preparation
1. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. 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. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. When done quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Reinstall Lion and click on the Continue button. When prompted click on the option to See Other Disks then select the SSD as the target.

"Recovery system can't be created" error when reinstalling Lion from recovery system

I get the infamous OS installation error "Install failed... because a recovery system can't be created" – but in fact, the recovery system already exists, since I'm installing from it, and incidentally, I've previously already used it for an Internet reinstallation. I've tried about a half dozen iterations now.
Here's the exact sequence of events:
Reboot on recovery drive.
Select option to reinstall the OS from the network.
License agreement, etc; then select drive -> install -> sign into Apple store.
"Downloading additional components" message. 1st attempt consistently fails at this stage, need to restart at step 2.
Download for roughly 20 minutes, then automatic reboot -> "Installing Mac OS X".
After about 10 minutes: "Install failed. Mac OS X could not be installed on your computer. Mac OS X can't be installed on the disk ..., because a recovery system can't be created. Visit www.apple.com/support/no-recovery to learn more."
I've pawed through innumerable posts of people who have gotten the same error message, but haven't found one that reproduces my circumstances. I've reviewed the KB articles "OS X: About OS X Recovery" and "OS X Lion: Installer reports This disk cannot be used to start up your computer", with no luck. Based on a suggestion in the second KB article, I've reduced the primary partition size by roughly a GB and retried - no luck.
See this thread if you want to know why I'm reinstalling the OS, even though it's (more or less) functioning and I have Time Machine backups. It would also make me feel a lot better to know that the reinstallation would work in case of real need. Thanks in advance for any help.
-- Phil

Philip Keller wrote:
John,
I think I'm "reinstalling OS X by booting OS X Recovery": I reboot with command-R depressed, or I reboot with Alt depressed and choose the recovery parition, and then I start the installation process from the list of things I can do. Are we talking about the same thing?
Yes, exactly.
I think that OS X Internet Recovery would be necessary only if you were to attempt a Lion installation with a completely empty HD, implying that even a Recovery partition has not been created. Your USB flash drive is the way to cope in that circumstance. If you can install Lion by booting the recovery partition as you described, it seems to me that it is all that is necessary and there is nothing to fix, despite the error message you see.
I'm surprised that Internet Recovery works at all, given that your Mac is not one of those allegedly eligible to use it.
Without a similar 2006 iMac to test, I can only speculate that the "abysmal distribution system" as baltwo describes it just doesn't work well with earlier Macs, and that Apple may not have tested it extensively with them. If I were you I would rely upon that USB installer much more than OS X Recovery or OS X Internet Recovery. I prefer not to rely upon any installation method that can possibly result in "the server is not available at this time" or such nonsense, but that is the direction in which Apple has been going for a long time.
An OS X installation log exists at /var/log/ that you can examine using Console, probably named "install.log". Deciphering it is another challenge.

When i tried to reinstall my lion to macbook pro 15'' and connect it to the net it says no installing information for this machine? what's that means??

when i tried to reinstall my lion to macbook pro 15'' and connect it to the net it says no installing information for this machine? what's that means??

The internal drive has failed.
Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or go to another authorized service provider.
Back up all data on the internal drive(s) before you hand over your computer to anyone. There are ways to back up a computer that isn't fully functional — ask if you need guidance.
If privacy is a concern, erase the data partition(s) with the option to write zeros* (do this only if you have at least two complete, independent backups, and you know how to restore to an empty drive from any of them.) Don’t erase the recovery partition, if present.
Keeping your confidential data secure during hardware repair
*An SSD doesn't need to be zeroed.

I have a Macbook pro 2009 with Snow Leopard. Which system can I install without running into complicated problems which I will not be able to solveby myself? (Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite?)

I have a Macbook pro 2009 with Snow Leopard. Which system can I install without running into complicated problems which I will not be able to solve by myself- a person with limited problem solving abilities. (Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite?)

It will make it easier to help you w/ your problem to know the size and RAM installed.
"Yesterday I couldn't update the maps on my Garmin because it said the OS I had wouldn't work"
What OS will your Garmin work with? Funny there was someone else that did that and upgraded to Yosemite and regretted it.
I'd say Lion if your Garmin is compatible.
Both Lion and Mountain Lion are downloadable from the Apple Store:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/D6106Z/A/os-x-lion
http://store.apple.com/us/product/D6377Z/A/os-x-mountain-lion
The OSs will get more resource hungry the higher you go.

I tried to install ios 7 in macbook pro and the error 3 persist. phone is in the recovery mode

i tried to install ios 7 in macbook pro and the error 3 persist. phone is in the recovery mode

Try on a different computer. If you get this error again, go to an Apple store or call AppleCare. I've only seen this error once, & I was unable to solve it. Took the phone to the genius bar & they replaced the phone.

Trying to install Mountian Lion onto Macbook Pro and Install failed because a recovery system can't be created What do I do?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for