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igalarzab Author

Level 1

12 points

There was a problem installing Mac OS X

Hi there,

I have a problem with my macbook pro (2011 series).

I wanted to make a clean install of Lion so I burned the internal DMG of Lion (InstallESD.dmg) to a DVD (and to a pendrive, and to a partition).

Also, I check that the md5 sum of the file is correct (comparing with a friend)

Then I deleted all the partitions and I tried to install Lion, but didn't work.

There is an error in the instalation, before starting. "There was a problem installing Mac OS X. Try reinstalling".

In the install log there are two errors, but I think they are normal, because the instalation process want to find a partition with MacOS Server. The errors are:

Failed to locate volume with UUID AA438896-3641-B662-C0760B37587D

Couldn't find Mac OS X (Server) install data.

The HDD it's in good state (I passed the tests of the Disk Utility).

Now I have a very expensive stone :) without an OS, and I can't install anything on it, because the Lion Instalation DVD doesn't want to work and my DVD of Snow Leopard is 600 kilometers far away (not my lucky day ;) )

Any ideas?

Thank you!!

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Jul 24, 2011 12:43 PM

Top-ranking reply

austingaijin

Level 1

15 points

Posted on Jul 24, 2011 6:13 PM

Here's the crucial bit. I got myself into this boat. After wiping my entire drive, I wondered "HOW can it possibly be finding any remnants of Lion?" The answer is PRAM. You need to reset your PRAM.

Follow this article:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379

After doing this, and restarting, I got a different error and a window displaying a log containing details of the failed installation. It doesn't matter. Just select a new startup disk, or do the "hold the Option key during boot" trick to select your USB install image, and when you restart, you'll get the normal "clean installer" options.

Brett

View in context

72 replies

cb466

Level 1

0 points

Oct 21, 2012 12:20 AM in response to austingaijin

Thanks for this !!!!! I just had video card replaced on 24" iMac, kept getting error no matter what I reinstalled from, really appreciate it !

Craig

odotan1

Level 1

4 points

Oct 21, 2012 11:18 AM in response to austingaijin

worked for me too... thanks!

Nov 13, 2012 4:54 PM in response to igalarzab

Great tip - worked perfectly. Thanks for the post!

Nov 16, 2012 5:01 PM in response to igalarzab

Thank you soo much for this simple tip! WORKED GREAT!

Mar 3, 2013 8:26 AM in response to austingaijin

I would never normally say this, but I love you!!! 😉 You have made my weekend, I have been having this problem and thought I was going to end up back in an Apple shop and paying for some sort of repair or service.

ML re-installed cleanly!

Awesome.

austingaijin, you are an Apple saviour!

Best.

vlivinru

Level 1

0 points

Apr 1, 2013 2:31 PM in response to austingaijin

Thanks so much for the answer! This exactly solved my question. I read about reseting NVRAM before related to this issue - but I didn't realize it could help - because usually NVRAM is suggested to reset in any issue. So I didn't believe it could do.

My situation was following:

I decided to upgrade my MacBook Pro 2008 from Lion to Mountain Lion. Downloaded it from the App Store and started. But when it rebooted it was complaining on damaged drive - actually the drive was in good and not actually damaged as then tested in original Lion again.

The installator was loading on every run and always failed. Then I run Disk Utility and did restored permissions and fixed the disk. - After this done - it loaded original system instead of installator - strange to me as well.

After trying to rerun installation from the Lion several times and came up with the above situation - I decided to format Macintosh HD (I have Time Machine backup). This didn't help - attempt to do clean install with the created USB flash drive was lead to the error above.

Now I finally found this answer and now the installation from USB flash drive works!

I really not understand why something in NVRAM was stopping from doing installation! But I want to say many thanks for you help posting this question and answer!

pacanoes

Level 1

0 points

Apr 19, 2013 9:41 PM in response to austingaijin

Thank you soo much for your tip austingaijin, it did solve the issue at hand and now I am in the process of installing Lion on my Mac Pro.....

Whoever thinks that this tip does not work, well, they are wrong....thanks indeed

Cheers

ewanhind

Level 1

0 points

Apr 29, 2013 10:39 AM in response to igalarzab

Awesome thread, what a lifesaver, thanks!

May 21, 2013 2:48 PM in response to austingaijin

thank you austingaijin. just spent all day trying to figure out why I couldn't install osx on my iMac. your solution worked first time, my iMac is now restoring from a back up!

Ghayal

Level 1

0 points

Jun 20, 2013 1:55 AM in response to igalarzab

Thanks.

This worked for me. Appreciate your post!

cemlyn

Level 1

4 points

Jul 17, 2013 10:25 PM in response to igalarzab

Thank you, thank you, thank you

I have been pulling my hair out !!!!

I thought I did everything correctly. Downloaded the install.app, created a boot USB, tested it, copied all my data, verified it!!, checked and double checked before I reformatted my hard drive. Went to a boot and got that "There was a problem....."

I tried everything but no success then I found your reply and bingo, worked first time.

very many thanks

Cemlyn