Q: Can't install MAC OS X Lion - Macintosh HD "This disk cannot be used to start up your computer."

Hey guys,

So I also installed Linux (Ubuntu) on dual boot, and can't install Lion.

But the problem for me is that I need GUID as a partition scheme to install Lion,

and I have "MBR" instead (I have no idea why) :/

So I guess I have to find a way to switch to GUID ?

Any idea how can I do that ? (formating :/ ?)

Interesting. You almost make me regret that I will most likely never have to use the 10.6 installer anymore (even if I were to buy another Mac still loaded with 10.6, I'd clone my current disk onto it).

It does beg the question if installs are still universal in the sense that one can boot any Mac off any disk?

I'm pretty sure MBR partition tables can coexist with GUID partition tables - it's how disks can be made visible to MS Windows. IIRC, iPartition can take care of this (it's not the sort of feature one uses often ), but maybe other utilities can as well.

RJV Bertin wrote:

It does beg the question if installs are still universal in the sense that one can boot any Mac off any disk?

Installs are universal only to the extent that they will boot any Mac their included hardware drivers support. So if say you have a Mac with newer hardware, a boot disk that has drivers only for older hardware won't work with it.

I'm pretty sure MBR partition tables can coexist with GUID partition tables - it's how disks can be made visible to MS Windows.

Intel Macs rely on a hybrid MBR implementation to be able to boot from both OS X & Windows. The problem with hybrid MBR's is there is no industry-wide standard for them, & disk utilities that work fine with one OS's hybrid MBR implementation may clobber another's. Complicating things even more, NTFS is actually a proprietary file system owned by Microsoft, which doesn't publicly disclose all the details of its implementation, which may change from time to time. All non-Windows utilities that create or modify NTFS volumes rely to some extent on reverse engineering the MS standard & that can sometimes leads to odd problems (which is why Boot Camp Assistant doesn't actually do the NTFS formatting, leaving that to the Windows installer).

HereLiesTomy wrote:

So I guess I have to find a way to switch to GUID ?

Any idea how can I do that ? (formating :/ ?)

If the drive is formatted with a plain (not hybrid) MBR partition scheme, or the hybrid MBR scheme is not compatible with Apple's implementation, you will probably have to reformat the drive. You may be able to use something like iPartition to avoid that, but for safety's sake, you should back up each existing partition before trying that. Changing the partition scheme on-the-fly is a tricky process & doesn't always work as expected.

Thanks!

I'm sorry it might be a little off-topic, but I've never format a drive.

Does this imply having to re-install from scratch ALL the sofware/applications I have ?

Yes it does.

Again, thanks. I think I'll have to run to an Apple Retail Store. I am pretty sure that, at some point, I'll have to do a backup.

If could be any help before you switch to Lion...

I found this article

"Migrate Time Machine Backup to new Mac in Lion" (July 29, 2011)

http://www.macworld.com/article/161421/2011/07/migrate_time_machine_backup_to_ne w_mac_in_lion.html#lsrc.rss_main

I have the problem that the rocovery system can not be created during the lion install.

When I try to partioning with diskultity my disc says:  Partitioning failed with error:

The size of the partition can not be changed. Try to reduce the size of the change of the partition.

Need some help!!!

In my case, I went to the disk utility and found out I had two more partitions that I had created for Linux, the main partition for the OS and the swap space. As I didn't use them (actually, I completely forgot I had set them up), I removed the two partitions and unified into a single one for Mac OS.

Back to the Lion installation, the disk showed up as selectable and I could install it without problems. So maybe some of you guys have some partitions besides the Mac OS X one, check it out.

Thanks for this discussion

I have two partitions, got the error message said I need to check the disk utility.....

At last I have to delete my bootcamp partition, and resize the Mac partition, and then restart, try to install lion, it finally works for me.

I was having some problem resizing partition using DiskUtilities, so I tried with command line

my previous partition was 77.56 GB

$diskutil list

$diskutil resizeVolume /dev/disk0s2 77G

....

It worked for me.

I did not unstall rEflt, and it is working fine with Lion.

Follow normal instruction for reducing size first ortherwise use the command line:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3926

I have the same problem,installer says : This disk can't be used for booting, already tried resizing the hard drive,booting from disk etc... Running Macbookpro '09, anyone has some tips?

Awesome tip! Easy button.