Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Level 1

38 points

Install Lion without recovery partition?

Ok so it won't let me install lion because I have my drive partitioned with a boot camp partition. Which I was afraid from the start that it would not. But, I figured it would simply let me opt not to do this and install anyway. Now for the life of me I can't figure out how to install Lion without the recovery partition?

If I can't do this that's very problematic. All my Mac's have multiple Partitions and wiping my system and drives completely to redo partitions is going to be a pain in the rear.

Suggestions?

Imac 2.16 Intel, Mac OS X (10.6.1)

Posted on Jul 20, 2011 5:53 PM

21 replies

odonusa

Level 1

0 points

Aug 5, 2011 9:28 PM in response to bpop

I, too, have a bootcamp install(XP non-standard size). I tried to install twice with no luck plus a third to 16GB thumb drive with no go. I used the Snow Leopard DVD: repaired the Mac HD & its permissions then followed up with the bootcamp repair. Smooth as glass. Thank you bpop!

ekahan

Level 1

0 points

Aug 6, 2011 1:19 AM in response to Garrett Howe

Actually its easy if you have external hard disk. I also have bootcamp install (XP) on my macbook air. What i did is moving Install Mac OS X Lion.app to external hard disk and run the installation from there and choose Macintosh HD (my macbook air hard disk) as the destination. That's it. Done. Hope this help 🙂

Oct 15, 2011 6:31 PM in response to bpop

Two thumbs up to bpop. This solution worked perfect. Restart in bootcamp. Put in your OS X install DVD. Repair drivers. Reboot Windows. Reboot in OS X. Re-Run Lion Install. Up and running now!

rcordonv

Level 1

0 points

Oct 19, 2011 3:46 PM in response to bpop

Thank to bpop very much!!! You are the man!!

Nov 26, 2011 1:22 AM in response to bpop

this worked perfectly for me. I didn't have my CD with me, but I was able to find the bootcamp 3.3 drivers on apple's website and download them - they worked just fine.

thanks bpop!

Oct 5, 2015 8:11 PM in response to Garrett Howe

Hi Garrett

I was able to install Lion on my Intel based iMac, had same issue you did. Here are the steps that i did to get it to work without issue.

1) Install Lion on external drive, i was skeptical about doing this but it works. What happened when i installed software was that it created a folder that had disk image of the OS/X installer.

1A) Disk Image will mount on your desktop, and use that to install software

2) Use the disk image to install on your main hard drive, and it won't give you the no recovery partition error message.

3) After you install you have Lion installed on your mac, i did this over weekend, and worked like a charm.

Install Lion without recovery partition?