danielfromwhitman

Q: I can't install Mountain lion. It says my HD is locked

I am having problems installing mountain lion on my MacBook Pro. I downloaded the software and restarted my computer. It takes me to the install screen and I click through and agree to the terms and conditions. it asked me to select where I want to install Mountain lion and I try to click on my Macintosh HD and it says it is locked. I tried to bring it back to lion, but it did the same thing. It just says that my hard drive is locked or can't find it. Please help me figure out what to do.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on Jul 25, 2012 7:28 PM

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Q: I can't install Mountain lion. It says my HD is locked

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  • by Helen Webb1,Helpful

    Helen Webb1 Helen Webb1 Jul 27, 2012 4:30 AM in response to danielfromwhitman
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jul 27, 2012 4:30 AM in response to danielfromwhitman

    I'm having the same issue!

  • by Barney-15E,

    Barney-15E Barney-15E Jul 27, 2012 4:35 AM in response to danielfromwhitman
    Level 9 (50,401 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 27, 2012 4:35 AM in response to danielfromwhitman

    You might try repairing the disk with Disk Utilities.

     

    Nothing will have been installed at this point, so you should still be able to boot to your old Lion install, or the Recovery HD.

  • by Mac Mini,

    Mac Mini Mac Mini Jul 27, 2012 12:56 PM in response to Barney-15E
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 27, 2012 12:56 PM in response to Barney-15E

    I have the same problem; my macintosh hd is locked, and cant be installed with mountain lion. Now, my computer is totally dead. I think I accidentally erased the HD. After repairing the HD, I am giving a try to see if I could install mountain lion. Otherwise, I may ask for a refund. I hate mountain lion

  • by Barney-15E,

    Barney-15E Barney-15E Jul 27, 2012 2:41 PM in response to danielfromwhitman
    Level 9 (50,401 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 27, 2012 2:41 PM in response to danielfromwhitman

    I could have sworn I saw a post where someone else had the problem and AppleCare had them erase the drive and reinstall, then migrate from the backup. However, I can't find it, now.

  • by danielfromwhitman,

    danielfromwhitman danielfromwhitman Jul 27, 2012 8:02 PM in response to danielfromwhitman
    Level 1 (2 points)
    Jul 27, 2012 8:02 PM in response to danielfromwhitman

    I called AppleCare and they told me my hard drive is failing and I need a new hard drive. Does that seem right to you all?

  • by Barney-15E,

    Barney-15E Barney-15E Jul 27, 2012 8:09 PM in response to danielfromwhitman
    Level 9 (50,401 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 27, 2012 8:09 PM in response to danielfromwhitman

    How did they make that determination?

     

    Drives fail. There isn't really anything that can predict when. Some last years and years and some die pretty quickly.

    The SMART status watches the drive for signals that might mean failure. The results of those checks shows up in Disk Utility at the bottom of the screen. It should say verified. However, I had a drive that was acting strange. It was having trouble reading a certain sector and would hang up the machine. Repairing the disk and other things would fix it for a small time, then it would start up again.  SMART status was verified the whole time until the drive pretty much stopped.

  • by spritrig,

    spritrig spritrig Jul 27, 2012 8:52 PM in response to danielfromwhitman
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 27, 2012 8:52 PM in response to danielfromwhitman

    I had the same thing happen when I attempted to upgrade from Snow Leopard.  My files are not gone.  (It loads the installer off the disk.  So the disk is working.)  I rebooted in Single User mode (held down command S during bootup).  Following directions at the prompt and using fsck_hfs revealed that my disk is write locked!

     

    Now things make sense.  The OS installer write locked the drive.  That is why the diskutility can't repair the drive!  Genius bug!!!  I took the drive out of my power book, put it in an external enclosure, plugged it into my old Mac Mini and am backing it up.

     

    Even the genius instructions reveal the drive isn't bad: 'backup and format'.  DUH!  Why would they tell you to use a bad disk in the future.  It isn't bad.  It is write locked.  Thanks!  Not what I expected.  How do I remove the write lock?  Come on, backing up through USB, then writing back through USB is going to take 20 hours.  This bug is wasting my time!

     

    These aren't drive failures.  They only happen every time I update the opperating system!  The drive may need a fsck before installing the OS, but can't be fixed while write locked.  Nobody told me to fsck before updating the OS, and nobody told me how to remove the write lock.  Where is the manual?

  • by Stewie3G,

    Stewie3G Stewie3G Jul 27, 2012 10:14 PM in response to danielfromwhitman
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jul 27, 2012 10:14 PM in response to danielfromwhitman

    I had a similar issue. I can't recall all the steps, the solution just occured to me right away and I didn't pay much attention.

    I was trying to install from a partition on an external drive. I got this error message, similar to yours; I chose to quit and it brought me to a screen to select what drive to install from (there were icons of the two drives side by side); I chose my Mac's HD and it requested my Admin password, which I entered; there was another step after that where I could cancel again and got back to the same screen where I could select which drive to install from; I chose my external drive. This time I didn't get the error message.

    Hope this will help, sorry I can't be more precise.

  • by danielfromwhitman,

    danielfromwhitman danielfromwhitman Jul 28, 2012 6:30 AM in response to danielfromwhitman
    Level 1 (2 points)
    Jul 28, 2012 6:30 AM in response to danielfromwhitman

    They made the determination because my hard drive would not appear in the selectable box. And when it did appear it was great out and said it was locked. I also tried to go back to lion, I couldn't do the same thing that's what I told me that my hard drive is failing. I was in disk utility it said that the disc is fine I could also repair it and it was fine the hard drive must be giving false reports because of it being locked and grayed out but this utility said it was fine.

  • by Barney-15E,

    Barney-15E Barney-15E Jul 28, 2012 7:28 AM in response to danielfromwhitman
    Level 9 (50,401 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 28, 2012 7:28 AM in response to danielfromwhitman

    So, because they couldn't understand the problem, they told you the drive was failing?

     

    I read somewhere else that they told them to erase the drive and reinstall, then migrate from backup. Can't find that post, now, though.

  • by danielfromwhitman,

    danielfromwhitman danielfromwhitman Jul 28, 2012 12:31 PM in response to Barney-15E
    Level 1 (2 points)
    Jul 28, 2012 12:31 PM in response to Barney-15E

    Yes. So I have to buy a new HD. I can't even erase my HD and do a clean install. I try to but it fails to erase it

  • by Barney-15E,

    Barney-15E Barney-15E Jul 28, 2012 12:43 PM in response to danielfromwhitman
    Level 9 (50,401 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 28, 2012 12:43 PM in response to danielfromwhitman

    Are you trying to Erase it or Partition it? With it indicating Locked, you likely can't Erase it. However, you might be able to partition it.

     

    But, if the drive is dead, there's not much you can do but replace it.

  • by hwaynej,

    hwaynej hwaynej Jul 28, 2012 12:58 PM in response to danielfromwhitman
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 28, 2012 12:58 PM in response to danielfromwhitman

    I would recommend you try restarting your computer while holding down the Shift key.  Once restarted look for the Mountain Lion installation folder and restart the installation from there.  I had a similar glitch when my install was interrupted and that seemed to solve it.  It went on to a normal installation.

    Good luck.

  • by Need4Sneed,

    Need4Sneed Need4Sneed Aug 19, 2012 8:13 PM in response to danielfromwhitman
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 19, 2012 8:13 PM in response to danielfromwhitman

    The fix is not in terminal, it's not some command . . The way to unlock a drive in disk utility is to double click on the locked drive in the left column. You will be prompted for your admin password. Enter it in, and that's that.

     

    I stumbled upon it by accident when I hit the same wall trying to do a clean install of Mountain Lion, and once I unlocked it, I was able to erase my Lion partition (AFTER BACKING UP OF CORSE), verify the hard drive, then format that drive, and now, no more Lion. Actually, once you do the previous steps, there's no more anything after you erase and format, until you install the new OS X.

     

    :-)

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