Yosemite cannot be installed on "Macintosh HD"

When trying to upgrade from Mavericks to Yosemite I get this:
Yosemite OS X cannot be installed on "Macintosh HD".
This is a late 2009 iMac with 4G RAM and 1TB of hard disk space.
Suggestions please.

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Select
          /var/log ▹ install.log
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
          View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen. The contents of the log will appear on the right. Each log message begins with a timestamp. Select the messages from the time of the last installation or update attempt. If you're not sure when that was, click the Clear Display button in the toolbar of the Console window and then try the installation again. Select the new messages that appear. Copy the messages to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message (command-V).
☞ If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don’t post many repetitions of the same message.
☞ When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
☞ Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
☞ Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
☞ Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting. You may need to use a text editor with search and replace, such as TextEdit.

Similar Messages

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    PROBLEM
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    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:
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    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.
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    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.

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    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.
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    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.
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  • 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.
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  • OS X Mavericks cannot be installed on Macintosh HD

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    I'm not sure what would cause that error.  You might want to post this question over in the OS X Mavericks forum: https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/os_x_mavericks?view=discussions.

  • "Mac OS X cannot be installed on 'Macintosh HD'. This disk is used for Time Machine backups."

    I am trying to upgrade our MacBook to Snow Leopard, but when prompted to select which hard drive to install on and "Macintosh HD" is selected, the following message generates: "Mac OS X cannot be instaled on  'Macintosh HD'. This disk is used for Time Machine backups."
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    It doesn't sound like an upgrade would work very well anyway. Make sure you have a good backup and repartition the startup volume. Then install Snow Leopard onto the hard drive and migrate your old users and applications.

  • When i try to download Xcode i get the error that it cannot be installed on "macintosh hd"

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  • Os x cannot be installed on macintosh hd

    Hello,
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    Are you trying to install on a Time Machine volume?
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  • Mac OS X cannot be installed on "Macintosh HD"  This disk is used for Time Machine backups-can you help in layman terms?

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    That left a Backups.backupdb folder at the top level of your internal HD.
    All you need to do is open your internal HD (probably named Macintosh HD) via the Finder, locate and delete that folder.

  • Mac OS X cannot be installed on "Macintosh HD"

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    [It the message at the top of this article part of the message(s) you see|http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10330520-263.html]? If so, then the article contains your solution. You should be well backed up to use the solution. Do what is suggested above on TM. Then, just turn TM off and lock it for now. If these steps don't work, then you may have to direct TM to use an external for backup.
    Message was edited by: donv (The Ghost)

  • Leopard cannot be installed on MacBook Air

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