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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

Oct 28, 2007 3:04 AM in response to osihara

And now I have just tried putting 10.4.8 back in - no good - comes up "Alert", "This software cannot be installed on this computer".

iMac = dead
Leopard = dead.

A Leopard killed my iMac and then died itself.

Jdkrush

Level 1

0 points

Oct 28, 2007 4:51 AM in response to osihara

Having same problem" The Installer could not validate the contents 'Essentials Package' etc. I have the family pack and have had a successful install on my Macbook pro and Intel Imac, but no success on my Emac, it meets the specs for a leopard install. I've tried it numerous times, did the upgrade option and even tried erase and install, still getting same message, was able to reinstall 10.4 successfully.

dobrojoe

Level 1

11 points

Oct 28, 2007 6:03 AM in response to Andrew Woodward

I got this error at first on my G5 Dual 2G. I ran the Apple Hardware Diagnostics and it told me that one on my DIMMs was faulty. I took out the DIMM and its companion leaving me will 1Gig of original Apple memory. Next time, the install worked. This was a clean install on an internal drive. I still can't get a working install on my main startup drive nor can I get a bootable install on two different external Firewire drives with cloned systems.

Oct 28, 2007 7:33 AM in response to Edsel

I tried your tip about doing a bare-bones install and was very hopeful. It got down to within 3 minutes of completion then announced that there was an issue with the install DVD. That revelation after it spent around 45 minutes validating the disk prior to installation.

I was able to install on a relatively new Intel-based iMac with no issues so I have some degree of confidence that the media is sound.

Oct 28, 2007 7:47 AM in response to dobrojoe

Update: Ive tried having DU scan the disk, no problems. and I've tried the minimun install route.
So I run to the Apple store with MBP and they are very helpful in trying to install from one of their disks with various options.... but to no avail. They see exactly what I've been seeing.
So, now I get a new clean drive, boot from the install disk, format this blank HD with GUID formatting. That should let me install Leopard to it in a Full Erase and Install mode.

Installing to second GUID formatted clean HD fails in exactly the same way. I can only assume, after two diff. install disks and 2 diff. target drives, it's the DVD drive. I've never had a problem with this drive before.

Anyone still having this problem could you post the type of DVD burner you have? Run System Profiler from the "Install" screen and look at the Hardware tab/Disc Burning for the model and software rev.

Mine is : HL-DT-ST DVDRW GWA4080MA - Firmware Rev. AE39

I'm going to the Apple store today again to see if they can recover the the old OS or try a different DVD drive.

Oct 28, 2007 8:39 AM in response to avidalone

DVD drive versions I have worked with so far:

Worked on this one PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-K06 firmware Q609 (iMac intel 2.33 GHz duo)
Failed on this one PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-K05 firmware I518 (iMac G5)

Oct 28, 2007 1:42 PM in response to Andrew Woodward

Same problem here. Apple support advised me to get my hard disk changed - which I Did, but the problem still remains. Apple support seem pretty incapable of helping with this issue. If anyone hears of a definitive answer, please let us know!

Oct 28, 2007 3:43 PM in response to Joseph Mills

Update, 0900 AEST Monday

Just spoke with Apple in Sydney. Before dispatching a technician to my home they want to run tests on the optical drive when I return home tonight.

The sage continues. Will post.

Oct 28, 2007 8:12 PM in response to Andrew Woodward

I have a G5 Dual 2Ghz that I have been attempting to install 10.5 over the entire weekend to no avail. "Installation failed, Mac OS X could not be installed on your computer, The installer could not validate the contents of the "base system""or "additional System Voices" or even kernal panic midway through .I have tried another 10.5 install disk, I reformatted the drive. even replace the hard drive. even Tried another optical drive to install from and even replaced the upgraded video card (NVIDIA 6800 ULTRA) with the factory standard card. All to no avail. Same issues every time.

UNTIL....

I replaced the ram in my machine with the factory original (Had 3.5GB now has 512MB. Then the installation (After around 2 Dozen failed attempts) went perfectly fine. Though, that ram installed in the machine seems perfectly fine. Passes hardware tests and everything.

Those experiencing these install problems may wish to consider removing third party ram and attempting the install again. It may just work

Oct 28, 2007 8:16 PM in response to Andrew Woodward

I have now burned nearly 5 hours trying to get Leopard installed on my original Core Duo PowerBook w/ DVD drive. I received the HUGE yellow "Exclamation Point" more times than I can count. "Mac OS X could not be installed on your computer." "BaseSystem" was the package that could not be validated.

But now I ALSO can't reinstall my original Tiger OS!!!

I've tried external hard drives, erase and re-install, everything I could throw at it including minimal install. NO LUCK! This is utterly inexcusable! I expect such problems from a company like Microsoft who tries to support every platform under the sun, but from Apple? Horrifying.

Thank God I had a CCC backup of my drive before starting the upgrade. I've never had this problem with previous OS/X releases and I wisely protected myself before doing the install.

Oct 28, 2007 9:04 PM in response to Patrick Dawson

I was fighting the same issue with my G4 MDD - tried everything, but nothing worked until I removed all the extra RAM and ran the installer with only the original 512MB. Once I got it installed I was able to add the other RAM back in and it's still running fine.
What a delightful pain...

Oct 29, 2007 3:03 AM in response to Mike Foley

Hi there, welcome to tonight's episode.

Well my parting words with the Apple Australia support person this morning was to try a totally secure erase (zero out) before attempting a reboot. Did that. It crawled on for a while and when it got toward five minutes to go it came up "1193046 hours remaining". Life is too short.

So, I am on hold now, been that way for 50 minutes, waiting for the last rights from the Apple people so they can send a nice technician around to give my iMac the last rights.

OK, here's some news... 'cos it wouldn't "zero out" in the full erase, the support man said that confirms a hard drive issue. It is now officially dead. An Apple person will be coming in a hearse this week.

Resolved-ish.

And, here comes the PR disaster....

http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/spotty-leopard-makes-mac-users-catty/2007/ 10/29/1193618759320.html

Oct 29, 2007 1:45 PM in response to Andrew Woodward

Right, here we go. I also had the issue with Base System could not be verified.

iBook G4 1.33 -- Removed hynix 512mb stick I had added. Installer went fine after this. Unfortunately I had already done several other troubleshooting steps, leading inevitably to a repartition and trying again (and failing).

I am concluding there is some code in the installer that freaks on non Apple original hardware. Granted a bad DVD drive could also cause this issue, but too many people have been saying that they removed added RAM and it went fine. Apple, you gotta test this stuff, you can't expect all of us to buy everything from you. I've been a Mac systems admin professionally for a year and an expert user for over 15 years. I've seen some crazy stuff, but this is nuts.

*THE FOLLOWING SUGGESTION WILL WIPE ANYTHING ON THE DRIVE, BACKUP WHAT YOU CAN FIRST!*
Suggestion for those who want to go back to Tiger for the time being but cannot due to partition information that Leopard wrote. Boot up your Tiger install DVD/CD and go to Disk Utility, select your hard drive and do a repartition, select 1 partition in the drop down (or your desired setup) and do an Apply. This will totally erase the drive and Tiger will be repartitioning it, wiping out the Leopard volume information. Do this BEFORE you begin to select installation choices. Remember, this is going to entirely wipe the drive.

Apple, I know you can fix this issue. And lets get a patched/revised installer DVD out ASAP.

Message was edited by: erik.crouch

Message was edited by: erik.crouch

Oct 29, 2007 1:35 PM in response to erik.crouch

Sorry about the bad formatting of my post. But it gets the idea across anyway 😉

pmyers

Level 1

8 points

Oct 29, 2007 2:44 PM in response to Andrew Woodward

Same experience here: I started installing my family pack on my wife's MacBook 2 GHz, just a few months old. Without tweaking any settings and only using the defaults the installer gave me, it tested the DVD for 50 minutes or so, then failed install (not mentionning what had failed). I have tried all of the work-arounds stated in the posts above, such as do archive & install rather than upgrade, check the HD drive with disk utility, select only the base package, short of erasing the whole hard drive and starting from scratch. Nothing has worked ! It is perculiar that the console only lists three error messages, which each contain the same string other than the date and time: that it cannot create a folder as UID = 0.

As someone posted earlier, I feel like I am back on MS software, same lousy installers ! Now my wife is stuck without a computer until we can call Apple support, which will, no doubt, be totally helpless.

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