This disk doesn’t use the GUID Partition table scheme.

My setup:

• Model Name: MacBook Pro
• Model Identifier: MacBookPro3,1
• Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
• Processor Speed: 2.2 GHz
• Number Of Processors: 1
• Total Number Of Cores: 2
• L2 Cache: 4 MB
• Memory: 3 GB
• Bus Speed: 800 MHz
• Boot ROM Version: MBP31.0070.B07
• SMC Version (system): 1.16f11
• Serial Number (system): W880346HX91
• Hardware UUID: 00000000-0000-1000-8000-001EC209FFF0
• Sudden Motion Sensor:
• State: Enabled

* never installed bootcamp

here's a screenshot from Disk Utility

If your disk is really full, installing any new software on it is probably not a good idea - and may not even be possible.

If you bought Lion from the Mac App Store, you can install it on all your Macs for no additional charge. Just go to the App Store on the other Mac. Look under "Purchased" and you will see Lion there. You can download it to that Mac for free. You must be running Snow Leopard on any Mac you want to upgrade.

As for the system with the full disk, you can reformat it as I described in my previous post, or, since it is full anyway, upgrade it with a larger disk, copy the contents of your old disk to the new disk, and then upgrade the new disk to Lion.

FULL GUIDE FOR ANYONE LOOKING THIS UP IN 2017

You basically need to repartition the disk to GUID, but because your system is on it, you can't do it with disk utility (the option appears greyed out). We will make this work by doing it in recovery and reinstalling a backup.

So here are the steps:

1. Make a time machine backup on an external drive

2. Power off your macbook

3. Power it on and press cmd+R while it is booting up to boot it into recovery

4. After recovery loaded, go to disk utilities

5. This time you can repartition your drive: click on your drive and erase, in the option select GUID partitioning. (THIS WILL ERASE EVERYTHING FROM THE DRIVE)

6. After that is done, still in recovery, choose to restore your data with time machine.

7. After the restore, your macbook should be just as it was before.

8. You can now update your macbook to OS Sierra without a problem.

I'm having the same problem, stuck at the same location. When I go into Disk Utility, I click on the partition and it states that the partition type is "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)." I've never had any problems booting the O/S or anything, and I also have a Boot Camp partition. Guess I'm not installing Lion today....

Is this happening on your MacBook Pro? Did you change / repartition the drive or install bootcamp on this mac? I'd like to know how the drive got this way.

If there are no bootcamp partitions on the Mac, it might be easier to:

1. Fully back up the drive to another drive (Carbon Copy Cloner or Time Machine)
2. Erase and reformat as HFS+ Journaled with Disk Utility
3. Reinstall the OS
4. Restore the applications and data from the clone

Have you called Apple about this? It is worth talking to an official support person if you are thinking about wiping the disk.

In order to repartition the startup drive you will have to boot from your Snow Leopard DVD, select Utilities and then Disk Utility. YOU MUST ERASE YOUR DISK TO CHANGE THE PARTITION TABLE. The good news is that I see you have a Time Machine backup. Make sure that your backup is current before you erase your startup disk.

Even before doing this, save a copy of the Lion installer (it is in the Applications folder) onto an external device. Your external hard drive is a good spot; it won't interfere with your Time Machine backup. This will prevent you from having to download the installer again.

The easiest way to proceed after making sure your Time Machine backup is current, saving a copy of the Lion installer, and repartitioning your startup disk, is to reinstall Snow Leopard on your newly partitioned disk. This will take a little longer but it is simple and is fully supported by Apple. Once that is done and you are running Snow Leopard on your startup disk again, run the Lion installer from whereever you saved it, and then restore your files and settings from your Time Machine backup during the install process.

There is an unsupported procedure for making a bootable Lion DVD, but it is more complex and is not supported by Apple. If you are uncomfortable with any of this and have access to an Apple Store, make an appointment at the Genius Bar and they can help you through the process.

Gulp !

I have excatly the same problem !

How this can happen ?

I have never mess with my disk ( which is completely full by the way...500GB ) or have made any partitions at all , why my disk is now NOT compatible with Lion ?

Seems that buying a new computer is easier than loading Lion on this one .

I'm really mad with Apple , how I gone move my Lion license to another computer ? I have several , can I load at least the copy I just bougth and load it on an Imac in case the disk in that one is good ? Or I just loose my money ?

Saludos!

Tequilyou.

GlennW,

Thanks a lot for your advise, I was able today to load Lion on one Imac .

I do own an old Time Machine 1T but the guy is also full and finding out how to erase it in order to back up my MacBookPro and load Lion into it.

I also know now why my disk was not GUID ...

I have been cloning my laptops since the Powerbook G4 up to the Intel generation and therefore must have adopted the wrong format for the Intel ones...

Saludos!

Tequilyou.

was a bit scary when I had some kind of crash in recovery mode and had to start over... but thankfully that happened before I had started the erase or repartition or restore steps. happy to say this worked on my wife's 2012 MacBook Air

Ditto 😟

Has anyone figured this out? I am having the same problem.

same problem here... doesn't anyone have an answer yet? or is there another thread i'm not finding!

can't wait to play with LION...

Look at bottom right hand corner. Your hard drive is partitioned incorrectly. It should be GUID, Apple Partition Map. You need to repartition the drive as GUID for Intel Macs.