Problem clean Lion install

The gray stop screen with the line across is the Macs way of saying the your USB thumb drive is not able to boot the Mac.

You are going to have to try again because how ever you made it the first time, it is any good.

Allan

You can't just place the InsstallESD.DMG file on a thumb drive. You khave to extract it to a thumb drive.

Use LionDiskMaker to do that.

http://blog.gete.net/lion-diskmaker-us/

Make Your Own Lion Installer

1. After downloading Lion you must first save the Install Mac OS X Lion application. After Lion downloads DO NOT click on the Install button. Go to your Applications folder and make a copy of the Lion installer. Move the copy into your Downloads folder. Now you can click on the Install button. You must do this because the installer deletes itself automatically when it finishes installing Lion.

2. Get a USB flash drive that is at least 8 GBs. Prep this flash drive as follows:

1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

3. Locate the saved Lion installer in your Downloads folder. CTRL- or RIGHT-click on the installer and select Show Package Contents from the contextual menu. Double-click on the Contents folder to open it. Double-click on the SharedSupport folder. In this folder you will see a disc image named InstallESD.dmg.

4. Plug in your freshly prepared USB flash drive. You are going to clone the InstallESD.dmg disc image to the flash drive as follows:

1. Open Disk Utility.
2. Select the USB flash drive from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Check the box labeled Erase destination.
5. Select the USB flash drive volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
6. Drag the InstallESD.dmg disc image file into the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.

When the clone is completed you have a fully bootable Lion installer that you can use without having to re-download Lion.

Baeck3 wrote:

I didn't just place it on the drive, I used Disk Utility to create a bootable drive. So when the drive appears on my desktop, and I open it, it shows me a bunch of files (system files/folders, configuration files/folders and what not) and not the actual .dmg file.

This should be right, right? I'm a total newbie with this, but I think I did it correctly (even though I still can't manage to reinstall Lion for some reason).

Right Ok. Please try the LionDiskMaker I linked to. I have made several Lion Install USBs and all that I have done with Disk Utility are hit and miss. All that I have created with Lion Disk Maker have worked first time, every time.

The LionDiskMaker program is for Creating the Lion Install USB thumb drive from the downloaded Lion install files. Specifically the InstallESD.DMG file included in the download.

Once that Install USB thumb drive is created you should be able to install Lion Clean without first installing Snow Leopard. Although you made need your Apple ID and password to authenticate that you have purchsed it.

I have a New MBP that came with Lion so I never upgraded over an older OS or had to do a clean install on an older Mac.

I doubt it. It will most likely just install over the old operating system like the App Store does.

If you truely want to get rid of everything then you will probably have to erase the disk first.

Of course if you do that make sure you back eberything up first.

Allan

Baeck3 wrote:

So if I use LionDiskMaker, will I get a clean install and not just a reinstallation of Lion over Snow Leopard (like we get when installing Lion straight from App Store)?

As to the last part of your post. The only way to do a clean install of Lion is to frist erase the drive using Disk Utility from the Lion Installl Boot screen. Once the Lion in stall USB starts you will be able to use Disk Utility to do the erasing.

BUT all your data and programs will be gone so you will have to backup your sata and then reinstall all your programs. Make sure you have the original Applications install DVD that came with your system to install the basic Apple Apps.