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Help - "Installation failed" Mac OSX could not be installed

I have had a really lousy day with the Leopard install. I got the five license family pack.

2 x white MacBooks - fine - although on one the DVD kept spitting it out and after about 10 goes it worked.
1 x Mac Mini - blue screen upon restart. Still not fixed.
1 x 24 iMac - fine
1 x 17 iMac - DISASTER

I need help on the last one and can't find a post anywhere.

I did the install. It started back up and I was ready to rock and roll. But it changed by account to "standard" rather than "administrator". Spoke to Apple, suggest erase and clean install, started that, then read a post on how to fix this after wiping. So that put me in a foul mood...

Then, I put the Leopard disk in and then did the erase, repair, verify, etc. I then chose the now blank hard drive as the destination drive. It then goes through the motions of calculating the time remaining, etc.

After about 5 minutes of "installing" I get a whopping great big exclamation mark and the text "Installation failed, Mac OS X could not be installed on your computer, The installer could not validate the contents of the "base system". Contact the software manufacturer for assistance. Click restart to restart your computer and try installing again". I have tried this a few times - no good. Apple Australia is now closed for the night.

So I went back to my original 10.4.8 iMac install disc and thought I would try that. I would then put Leopard over the top of that. It says it can't install this operating system on the selected drive.

So, I can't install the new, I can't install the old.

HELP!!!

Thanks,

Andrew
Sydney, Australia

iMac Intel 24 & 17, Mini and PowerBook, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Oct 27, 2007 2:04 AM

144 replies

Nov 13, 2007 1:06 PM in response to Andrew Woodward

Another vote for removing 3rd party RAM.

Bought the family pack of Leopard. Installed (upgraded) fine on MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo, MacPro, and 2 iMacs. Upgraded the RAM in my MacBook Pro from 2 sticks of 512 to 1 of 1GB (Apple) and 1 of 2GB (3rd party, OWC).

MacBook Pro started acting wonky, so I decided to do a clean install of Leopard. Hung up at the Essential Package error message multiple times. Apple Care was nice, but useless. This forum gave me the idea to pull the 3rd party RAM, which I did. Did an Erase and Install using just the 1GB stick. Worked fine, first time. I'm going to reinstall the 2GB stick and see if the computer continues to run. If you don't hear back from me, well, that's a good thing.

This doesn't speak to the dual layer drive issue, only the 3rd party RAM issue.

Nov 22, 2007 1:55 AM in response to TotallyWrite

I had the same problem but did not have my original RAM with me. In fact both of my RAM modules look alike with a 3rd party sticker on them.

Anyhow just removed one of the chips by chance and installed leopard successfully.

Don't know if OS liked original AMOUNT of RAM or original BRAND of RAM.

Nov 23, 2007 1:30 AM in response to Macsufferer

Which would be great. Except it's a mac mini. There's only one stick of memory.

I've now tried 2 replacement dvds. an external dvd drive. Firewire mode, you name it.

As I said, I'm back to 10.4.10 for now.

Anyone any other ideas?

aglaiapoo

Level 2

166 points

Nov 23, 2007 5:50 AM in response to Andrew Woodward

Hello everybody,

I know that many people have already posted re: this topic, but I thought I would add my experience from yesterday, since it ended up working (and I am now typing from the computer on which I installed Leopard!).

I have two 1 GB RAM that I bought from Crucial.com - not the original ones - but otherwise, it is a white 2.16 GHz MacBook, customized with 160 GB HD when I ordered online.

I initially chose "Upgrade." My install failed within the first minute - and I'm afraid I can't remember the exact message because I was in a complete panic. Upon restart, the installer stopped recognizing my hard drive, showing no location to install. I went to Disk Utility etc and explored all the options possible, but to no avail. So I went back to the step in the installer where you choose the volume on which you want to install Leopard, called Apple UK and was literally on hold "for the next available representative" for about five minutes, then suddenly the HD showed back up, out of the blue. I picked Archive & Install this time, to see if upgrading was the issue. This time it worked perfectly.

I guess I was lucky that it just happened to start working, after I read these posts. Good luck to people who are still trying!

Nov 25, 2007 12:08 AM in response to Andrew Woodward

I a previous post I mentioned installing on my MDD.

I finally got around to installing my G5 iMac and it too went without a hitch... I have 3rd party RAM in it so it must be specific RAM that causes the problems...

Either way my installs went almost flawlessly. With the one hiccup being in my older 2003 MDD. My G5 20" iMac went flawlessly... No lost applications and not lost data (though I had a backup of it all just in case).

pmyers

Level 1

8 points

Nov 28, 2007 2:21 AM in response to Andrew Woodward

More evidence for the faulty RAM issue: Leopard family pack crashed on 6 month old MacBook with 2GB of Apple factory-installed RAM on the infamous "installation failed, etc." error. Multiple retries without and with the help of AppleCare came to nothing. Hardware diagnostics showed repeated errors randomly in either of the memory banks. I finally tried after removing one of the GB of RAM, and the install worked flawlessly. The MacBook has been working fine since (3 days) without a hitch with the 2 GB re-installed.

Nov 28, 2007 6:10 AM in response to pmyers

RAM is all too often a large reason for Mac OS X installations. In my experience, there are normally two things that will cause the installation to error out.

First, if it is erring in exactly the same place every-time, then you most likely have a small speck on the DVD-DL. Dual layer DVD are extremely sensitive to dust. It could also be simply your DVD burner or media. I have had good success with burning a backup DVD then installing from that.

If you have errors in more or less random places? Then check the RAM. Actually I suggest always running a RAM test before an OS install. The OS disk actually creates and uses a RAM disk and will push every bit of RAM.

The best test I have found is memtest.
1. The simple solution is google and download.
2. Then drag memtest (just the app) to your Applications folder.
3. Reboot into single user mode (hold the command and s key after chime).
4. Type /Applications/memtest
5. Hit return.

If the test (can take up to 45 minutes depending on amount of RAM and speed of system) passes, then the RAM is fine. My guess is that it won't if you are having random install errors.

Note, most cheap third party RAM and older Samsung RAM will NOT pass on a Macbook.

Dave VB

Level 1

0 points

Nov 30, 2007 8:57 PM in response to Andrew Woodward

I believe that's called a "Murder-suicide". As an Apple stockholder, I am NOT happy... my dual G5 is now a big brushed metal brick. I actually HAD IT RUNNING on leopard, too... but as soon as I rand the first system update... no reboot... just a 5 hour "watch the gray apple" show before forcing shutdown.

Reformatting refused by Disk fUtility. Then after reboot, it reformatted. Then it said it could install, then told me install failed.

For 129 bucks, I've sure sunk a lot of time into this.

Nov 30, 2007 9:32 PM in response to Andrew Woodward

I can't get Leopard to install. It keeps saying it won't install on this computer. There don't seem to be any options or directions.

Help - "Installation failed" Mac OSX could not be installed