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

Having this problem with a partition MacBook pro. (OSX/XP) Finally had to delete the Lion install download as it was making the machine act funny while on the desktop. I find the suggestion from Apple that we back-up, delete & reload it all unhelpful. I hope they come up with a solution that is less time consuming, so I don't feel I have been ripped off. Methinks it might have been a rather bad idea to do this release via the App Store.

I had the same problem.  Burned the "InstallESD.dmg" (part of the Lion package contents) to a DVD.  Tried the install from the DVD and it worked for me.

Thanks for your message. I have tried that as well and it did not work for me, unfortunately. I am stuck now within a loop that takes me back to the install screen and doesn't allow me to go back to Snow Leopard or continue the install. It's very frustrating to know that I am just about to lose all my data, music, photos, work files, etc... Not to mention the hassle of reinstalling all my apps again. I am NOT very impressed with Apple right now. I've been waiting for this upgrade for a long time and all I get from it is this... Very, very, frustrating!! I will try one last thing before I put it to rest: I will borrow a Snow Leopard disk from a friend (I am away from home and don't have mine with me) and try the "repair disk" procedure first, using Disk Utilities from the SL DVD. If that doesn't work, I will try the repartion procedure in which you decrease the size of your OS partiton, save it and try to install Lion again. If that works, and the installation completes, then you go back to DU, this time in Lion (hopefully) and resize your HD to its original size. If that does not work... It's erase/format/reinstall time :-(

Apple also published these instructions on its KB: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3926

open the Installesd.dmg inside the contents of the package and install from there

officel help

http://9to5mac.com/2011/07/21/what-to-do-when-lion-refuses-to-install-with-the-t his-disk-cannot-be-used-to-start-up-your-computer-message/

I had a similar issue on my older white iMac, meets all minimums, had updates, tried to install and it buffered up my machine. I was able to restore from DVD without losing any information back to 10.6 and did all re verify and repair disks but it did nothing. What fixed it for me was resetting PRAM on my

Mac, now lion is chugging along on the install just fine!

Please can you enlighten me on this subject? How well are partitions sandboxed from each other?

Take the example of the guy with four partitions on his HD: say, Windows 7, Ubuntu, Snow Leopard, and Empty.

Disk Utility, not in debug mode, only shows these four partitions and not the hidden EFI volume (Disk0s1), RecoveryHD, GPT index etc.

If he installs Lion from an external disk into Empty, does the EFI volume and Recovery HD partition fall within the "empty" space, or impinge on the other partitions?

Not that I would ever consider taking the risk of such a hairy setup. I like to keep my computing simple!

Fine, but where is the 'Mac OS X Lion' installer hidden ? I did'nt found it

Had a similar problem installing Lion a few hours ago.

It wouldn't let me select Mactintosh HD to install Lion.  A message mentioned Time Machine.   I did the following:

- Changed the size of Macintosh HD partition so it was slightly smaller as some posts suggested.  Still didn't work.

- Uninstalled Time Machine.  Still didn't work.

- Deleted Time Machine's backup directory.  I forget the name of it.  It worked!

I don't know what fixed it but I suspect the last step was the charm.

Hope that helps.

By the way, all my apps seem to work fine with Lion, including Office 2011, but VMware Fusion no longer boots my Bootcamp VM.  I can boot into Bootcamp (Windows 7) as a Startup Disk but I can't start the VM within Fusion.  I'm working on that one.

I am having the same problem. Slightly different situation though. I have one drive and one drive only. No partitions, or so i thought.

I am willing to bet there is a small hidden drive partition that is stopping it. I am going to use killdisk today (low level drive formatter) and use this to wipe everything, install snow leopard, and re-try lion.

Carison, if you have a backup and you don't mind loosing other partitions (if you have Linux or windows), you can use the Lion DVD you made beforehand, boot from it, use disk utility, select your drive, and repartition all the drive (be sure to have GUID partition table selected). After that you should be ok installing lion and recover your stuff from your last time machine backup. I didn't tried this solution myself so I cannot guarantee it will works but at least you can give it a try!

I have the same problem. I changed the HDD in my black MB about a year ago for a bigger one from WD. Now I can't install Lion bcs its saying 'This disk cannot be used to start up your computer'. I spoke to Apple Support over the phone and they told me it's bcs I changed the HDD myself and not by an Authorised Apple Service Provider and that my Western Digital HDD is NOT SUPPORTED in Lion. When I connected the old Fujitsu (sh*t) HDD via USB I CAN install Lion on it? *** Apple? Telling me which hdd can I use and which not? NOT COOL!!

I would take that as a challenge:)

I bought a LaCie external disk, checked it was formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and have cloned my hard drive to it with no problem whatsoever. (I used Carbon Copy Cloner but you could use SuperDuper or just from Disk Utility)

Well, looking at this forum, it looks like you may need to do the re-partition thing to get the disk to renew its index.

Since this needs to be from outside the disk and you need good backup anyway, I'd get your data up-to-date, copy the installer to another folder on it, so it doesn't disappear after the instal, buy an external disk atleast the size of the computer disk, clone it to your Snow Leopard, boot into it, use its Disk Utility to check permissions and Repair Disk on your computer.

When you are ready, re-partition it (this is the point of no-return because it wipes the disk)

Now you can do a clean instal to a single partition which gives you a good chance of having a nice computer with a Recovery HD to boot (excuse the pun).

Then boot into your Lion and use Migration Assistant to move your data and apps across from the SL clone...

Put the SL clone in a safe place and forget it.

So you didn't see from what side that Rep was speaking out of his neck? I highly doubt the OS would NOT support any disk *brand* that is recognised by the firmware.

So all hints until now about resizing the install partition concerned a destructive resize? If so, I'd say get a copy of iPartition and try first with that - it's the Mac version of Partition Magic.