The installer could not copy the necessary support files - Mountain Lion to Snow Leopard

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The installer could not copy the necessary support files - Mountain Lion to Snow Leopard

I am about to sell my iMac 27 inch, (2.8 GHz Intel Core i7, 8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3, ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 MB, 1TB hard drive - October 2009)

so was in the process of restoring it to its factory settings from Mountain Lion to Snow Leopard using the discs supplied with the iMac, firstly it wouldnt let me install from the discs so i booted into restore mode (holding c when the Mac starts up), still wouldnt let me install to the hard drive so I entered disk utlity and erased the hard drive and made sure the disk was fine (verify/ repair - no problems).

Exited to install menu and the disk is now available to install to, it spends a few minutes thinking about it then starts to install takes 5 minutes then stops with the 'The installer could not copy the necessary support files' message.

Am i doing something wrong?

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on Aug 17, 2012 8:24 AM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

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209,547 points

Aug 17, 2012 12:00 PM in response to alanharborne

Did you repartition the drive to remove the recovery partition? If not, do that.

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Answer 2

alanharborne Author

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8 points

Aug 18, 2012 2:25 AM in response to Linc Davis

Hi Linc

Not sure what you mean - I just erased the disc then tried to reinstall. Which got me into this predicament.

I have now tried erasing the disc then adding a partition. Still no luck - it quits after about 10 minutes saying 'The installer could not copy the necessary support files'.

I also cant eject the disc - i have the recovery disc in there at the moment but i also own a retail copy of snow leopard and wondered if that would work - but as i cant eject the disc i cant get this one in.

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Answer 3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Aug 18, 2012 3:55 AM in response to alanharborne

In Disk Utility, while booted from the installation disc, select the icon of the internal drive -- not the icon of the startup volume below it -- and then the Partition tab. Partition the drive with the default options (GPT format, one data partition.) Then install OS X and shut down.

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Answer 4

mende1

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93,538 points

Aug 18, 2012 3:56 AM in response to alanharborne

Erase the disk with the Snow Leopard DVD

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Answer 5

alanharborne Author

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8 points

Aug 18, 2012 2:53 PM in response to Linc Davis

Hi Linc, tried that still no luck. Exactly the same outcome.

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Answer 6

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Aug 18, 2012 3:03 PM in response to alanharborne

It sounds like your installation disc is damaged or defective, or your optical drive is malfunctioning. Try running a cleaning disc through the drive.

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Answer 7

alanharborne Author

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8 points

Aug 18, 2012 3:13 PM in response to Linc Davis

Its not letting me eject the disc.

I have tried the eject button on the keyboard, holding eject whilst it is restarting, ejecting via disk utility....

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Answer 8

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Aug 18, 2012 3:28 PM in response to alanharborne

The drive is broken.

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Answer 9

alanharborne Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 21, 2012 11:30 AM in response to Linc Davis

Hi everyone, just thought i'd update you on what fixed the problem - the installation disc was faulty. All fixed now after getting a new disc.

Thanks for all your help.

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Answer 10

mende1

Level 10

93,538 points

Aug 21, 2012 11:31 AM in response to alanharborne

You're welcome

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Answer 11

Oct 10, 2012 8:23 AM in response to alanharborne

Hey I'm having the same problem as this guy on the diffrence is I have a Gen 1 Air Macbook....&

1 - I'm using a install USB (I have SL and Lion) neither work on this computer but do on other computers

2 - Disc Utility say everything is fine - System profiler says RAM is OK

3 - Can't install to an external because there is only one usb and can't remove RAM because is in the logicboard

I would love to hear any ideas on how to move forward with this thing.

I have tried -

- Installing Snow Lepord

- Installing Lion

- Reformatting Drive

- Pram Reset & SMC

- O-out Drive erase (no problems detected)

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Answer 12

_French

Level 1

0 points

Oct 20, 2012 4:31 AM in response to alanharborne

I have had the same thing happen to me, how did you eject the disk in the end? Please Help

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Answer 13

Dec 17, 2012 5:49 AM in response to alanharborne

I am also facing similar issues but i know how to eject the disc, my problem is I cant install SL from the original disc provided its giving error as:

"The installer could not copy the necessary support files."

PS:

To Eject the disc follow:

1. Restart the mac while holding down ALT

2. Wait for some time while it detects all the media's available to boot

3. Wait even for 2 min. after that so that it releases the disc.

4. Press the eject button now, the disc will come out.

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