How can I download a copy of Mac X Lion and put it on a usb stick so I can install on my imac which has crashed

Question

How can I download a copy of Mac X Lion and put it on a usb stick so I can install on my imac which has crashed

I was installing Mac X Lion on my iMac when the power went off. A error message says install failed, Mac OS X could not be installed on your computer, The installer encountered an eror that caused the installation to fail. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance. Click Restart to restart your computer and try installing again. When I restart it keeps going to install Lion and getting the same error message. I tried starting with holding the option key down and selecting Mac Hard disk, but again it keeps going to the installer and the error comes again.

How can I download a copy on my MacBook Pro and put it on my iMac?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Dec 20, 2011 2:21 AM

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Answer 1

Dec 20, 2011 3:58 AM in response to galiwinku david

If I correctly read your message, I am afraid you need another mac in order to get things right, as long as you cannot boot into your system. The incomplete installation left things unfinished.

Did you download the Lion installer via App Store? Do you have a flash drive Lion? (the one purchased separately). what was your initial system when trying to install Lion? was it a functional SL system? do you have a backup of your previous data?

Give some info, you do not mention these details, they may be useful for a good analysis.

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Answer 2

Dec 20, 2011 4:08 AM in response to galiwinku david

I downloaded Lion via the App Store. I was running Snow leopard before. I don't have a backup of this computer.

I have a MacBook Pro sitting next to my iMac and a iPad2

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Answer 3

Barney-15E

Level 10

123,014 points

Dec 20, 2011 4:17 AM in response to galiwinku david

Restart the Mac and hold down cmd-R right after the chime. It should boot into the Recovery partition. From there you can reinstall Lion. It sounds like the installation got far enough to create the recovery partition.

If that doesn't work, give the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant a try: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433

Once you've created the external Recovery Disk, connect it to your iMac and boot up to it. You can then run the installer from there.

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Answer 4

Dec 20, 2011 7:04 AM in response to galiwinku david

If so, the first thing I would do is to back up your data on the ill mac. I assume both macs have firewire port, get a cable and connect both macs via this cable. Then restart your ill mac by pressing T key after chime, it will become a simple external disk you should see on the desktop of your healthy mac. Back up your data.

Now, with this action accomplished, you may go on. BArney - 15E is optimistic and says how to restart in recovery mode—this may be possible if installation was complete for recovery partition (I doubt this, but I may be wrong).

Otherwise, I would reinstall from the scratch. If after connecting your ill mac via FW, you may see the disk in good order, you should also see the Lion installer within Applications folder. Copy it unto an external disk or flash disk and keep it safe, you will need it again.

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