macOS installer failure.

I used the Disk Utility in the Recovery Environment to erase the system disk (called "MacIntosh HD" - note the capital I that differs from the default). Had it erased with the same name and APFS as file system. Note that the system disk is in one APFS container (400GB) and that there's a second, separate, APFS container that contains a data disk. I reinitialised the system disk numerous times in the past with the same (Recovery Environment) utility without any problem to reinstall (or clone from an external bootable disk). Maybe not since I moved from Catalina to Ventura, though, I don't recall for sure. And, contrary to the article you pointed me to, the option was not to erase the mac and restart but simply to erase (the disk). Unfortunately, nowadays, Apple has made it impossible to have a clone of the internal system disk. You are told to reinstall and the reinstallation doesn't work! I'm now left without a system... I entered the base note from the version of Safari in the Recovery Environment and this reply from a friend's PC.

Denis Maillard.

Thanks for the info. I didn't know aboout this Apple Configurator.

Only trouble is that this program needs to be installed on the Mac from the AppStore. Unfortunately, I only have (currently) access to the Recovery Environment. Remember that the system disk has already been erased with the Disk Utility found in Recovery Environment. So, no way to install and use this Apple Configurator, whatever it may do.

I also doubt that this configurator is needed, as only the system disk is missing. The Recovery Environment works fine (I'm currently writing using the version of Safari in it). It's only the Installer that keeps telling me that the disk needs to be erased (it already is) and, when I tell it to erase it, it replies that there's no recoverable user on this disk (as if I didn't know...) and returns me to the previous question. It's stuck there.

I've even now repartitioned from scratch the system volume from the Disk Utility in the Recovery Environment, and then restored the data volume from the external backup disk, but the behaviour of the Installer when I ask it to Install macOS on the system partition is still the same.

Any suggestion?

Denis Maillard.

For the record, I just made another attempt to install, on a partition I created using spare room on the external backup disk. The installer refused to install for the exact same reason. When I told it to install on this external partiton, it replied (error messages translated from their French versions):

"This Mac must be erased before the installation can occur."

"An error occurred when reading the owner of the device (i.e., the Mac, not the disk). Verify that a user is authorised to administer this computer."

Then, when asking it to recover from the disk, it tells that there's no user available on the disk (obviously: the disk is freshly initialised...). So it seems that it has problem with the owner of the Mac, not of the disk. I didn't even know there was an owner account for the machine. It seems crazy...

I could tell it to install on the backup disk, where I have a clone of the data part of the system disk, but what if it destroys my backup?

Denis Maillard.

Thanks for the answer. I can't presently go to any Apple Service Center, as there aren't any that I know close to where I currently am. It'll have to wait until I'm back home, on next tuesday (as If I did not need to use the system until then...)

For the record (again), I decided to give a try to the installation on the disk where I keep a clone of the data part of the system disk. This was refused by the Installer, on the ground that the disk is protected by a password (it's encrypted, but it WAS MOUNTED in the Recovery Environment...). So I again used a non encrypted copy of that backup. And again was told that there was no recoverable user on that disk (which, in this case, is patently false: it's just that this isn't a bootable system disk, but just a clone of the data part of the system disk, where all the user accounts are defined).

Apple sure does its best to forbid anybody to correctly and safely manage a system: no external clone of the system disk and no way to reinstall. Well done, I'd say...

Denis Maillard.

Well, I don't know if I should be happy or in a rage against Apple.

The problem is solved.

Once back home in Paris, I took my MacBook to the Apple Store near the Opéra, where the first or second person who greeted me there asked me to show him the problem. Easily done: it takes less than a minute when you want to use the Installer in the Recovery Environment to reproduce the issue. The person I was talking to probably does tens of macOS installations every day he works. He knew what was the cause and immediately told me what the problem was. After checking that I indeed had a backup of my data disk, he told me that I just had to suppress the data partition on the internal disk, install macOS and then recreate the data partition. It took him less than five minutes to suppress the data partition with the Disk Utility and then restart the Installer, which then proceeded without any trouble or error...

I then had to spend about 45 minutes installing macOS 13.5 and migrating my configuration on it and the system was up and running (except that it later took me several hours once back home to fine tune every small bits as it was before, recreate the data disk and re-enable Filevault).

In short, a known bug (spontaneously recognised as such by the person who took me out of that quagmire) in as vital a part of the OS as the Installer. Apparently, Apple is in no hurry either to correct the issue or to inform the public. What's more, the error messages given by the Installer are completely foreign to the actual issue, mislead the user (as in my case) and send him onto wrong tracks. Difficult to do more to send customers full speed to the next Microsoft shop, I'd say...

Due to the circumstances in which it occurred, I was deprived of the use of my system for over six days (I NEED it at least 3 or 4 times a day)...

Denis Maillard.

Sorry, I must have been imprecise in the way I told this (although I mentioned the situation in a previous reply). I did not mean the data (writable) volume of the system disk but the fact that, before the first installation, when I got the MacBook, I partitioned the 1 TB internal disk in two separate partitions. First, a 400 GB partition on which I installed the system (with its two volumes, the nowrite one and the " - Data" one) and, second, a 600 GB partition, that I called "Data", which I used for non confidential user files. The original installation went without trouble (another reason why I did not think about this partitioning as the cause of the problem). I then activated Filevault on the system partition.

At the Apple store in Paris, after the deletion of the 600 GB "Data" partition, I could reinstall the system on the now completely erased internal disk without any issue and, then, I repartitioned the internal disk to recreate this 600 GB partition and restore my user files on it. Sorry about the confusing wording. I hope I managed to say it without any possible confusion this time. It was the existence of this separate 600 GB partition on the internal disk that caused the Installer to fail and give these incorrect error messages about not being able to identify the owner of the system. The bug lies in the failure of the Installer to work correctly when it is instructed to install the system, not on the whole internal disk, but on a partition of this disk.

Denis Maillard.

Well, yes, I know I could have created a volume instead of a partition. Both have advantages and weaknesses. However, in my case, the choice of a partition rather than a volume was done deliberately, on purpose. The idea was that I did not want that an uncontrolled application could flood the entire internal disk by generating a catastrophic growth of the user data volume, leaving no expansion room for the system in case of need. So I set a reserved space of 400 GB for the system and restrained the user data to the other 600 GB. A matter of choice and policy, I would say. The trouble was that I sure did not expect that this configuration would prevent the Installer program to install the OS...

Denis Maillard.