Q: Error: The installation failed. An unknown installation occurred when installing bundled applications

Try this:

Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions

Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list.  In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive.  If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.

If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.

Now try installing the bundled software again. BTW, did you reinstall OS X from the original discs or some other source/media?

There's no reason to unless you need to fix disk errors that can only be fixed by reformatting.

You may have a bad DVD. Or it may be dirty. You can try cleaning the DVD with alcohol and a lint free cloth.

Hi soundwarrior, I had this problem too and have spent about an hour on the phone to Apple who are sending me a new DVD.

However I decided to find the error log and see what was going on, it turned out a certificate had expired so the installer package was no longer trusted. I set the date on my iMac back to around the date I bought it and it worked fine! I hope this helps. If not and you go through the Express lane online, request an exception to having to pay when it gives you the option.

Wow, great tip, thanks!

I'm having exactly the same problem. i will try the date trick and see how it goes. my disk is in mint condition as it was only used once when i bought my Imac 1 year ago.

btw if i upgrade to lion, will the same bundle cd (garage band, iphoto) work or does it come with its own?

It doesm't come with iLife, that's a separate purchase, but yours may work.

This worked for me as well. I also saw a comment on another forum that advised to install the Apple Installer Update 1.0 (link). By then I had already tried this, so I don't know if the update will fix this problem.

the date and time reset worked. but just in case, while you also on disk utility, might as well run the permissions check to get rid of all errors.

thanks for the help.