You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Mac os x cannot be installed on this computer

Hi , i have just erased my Macintosh HD from Disk Utility to reformat my computer ( or to reinstall Mac OS X again), after reformatting the Macintosh HD , i proceed to insert the Mac OS X Installation Disk 1 , after rebooting the computer as asked and entering my language , my Mac sent me a message saying that "Mac OS X cannot be installed in this computer "


How do i resolve this problem?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.1)

Posted on Aug 24, 2012 8:30 AM

Reply
21 replies

Aug 24, 2012 8:37 AM in response to John 987

Did your iMac come with Lion installed on it, and are you trying to install Snow Leopard? Lion doesn't use installation disks, hence the question. If yes, have you tried booting into Lion recovery mode (hold command and R keys when you reboot)? That should allow you to reload Lion over the internet.

Aug 24, 2012 9:01 AM in response to John 987

You cannot install an operating system earlier than the Mac came pre-installed with, so if it came with Lion that's as far back as you can go.

If you've erased the drive and you can't boot into the Recovery HD it's probably erased that as well.

Do you have a Time Machine back-up so that you can restore to a state before doing the erase - hope so?

Aug 24, 2012 9:10 AM in response to Paul_31

Well sadly , i forgot to backup my computer assuming that nothing will go wrong , well that was a mistake i shouldn't have done , now that i can't boot into any of the drivers , is there anything else that i could do to fix my mac ?


I have thought of installing Mac OS X Lion into another external hard disk and using that to startup my Mac and then fixing my Mac from there on . Is it possible?

Aug 24, 2012 10:50 AM in response to John 987

If you make the USB stick as described in the link above it should be a bootable drive. Once you've created the USB stick with Lion on it put it in the Mac you are trying to re-install the OS on. Restart holding the 'option' key and you should be presented with the choice to select the USB stick as the boot disk, From there it should be plain sailing.

Aug 24, 2012 10:51 AM in response to John 987

I am not sure how that works with a download only OS, but this would work with a physical install discs.

If you had a OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard disc you could install that on the external drive, then update to Lion on the external drive and use an app like Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper to clone your OS X Lion back to your internal drive.

Mac os x cannot be installed on this computer

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.