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

Attempting to install Mountain Lion on iMac running OS 10.6.8 produces the message that ML cnnot be installed on the int. HD because it is used by Time Machine. It is the int. startup drive. What now?

Attempting to install Mountain Lion on iMac running OS 10.6.8 produces the message that ML cannot be installed on the int. HD because it is used by Time Machine. Time Machine is off and the only drive is the int. startup drive. What now?

iMac (20-inch Mid 2007), Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Dec 4, 2012 4:09 PM

Reply
5 replies

Dec 4, 2012 6:26 PM in response to Csound1

Time Machine was turned OFF.

Now I have turned TM on and have hooked up an ext. HD. I am trying to have TM back up to it. Somewhere along the way, I got some message that the ext. HD wasn't partitioned with GUID (or similar message). So I clicked away and that may be what is happening now. (I really don't know what is happening.)


At some time in this sojourn, I ran Disk Utility and cleared up permissions on the ext. HD. Now DU is creating an image of the ext. HD. It looks like that may take an hour. There was a Disk Image of the HD on the desktop but I think that it has now vanished.


This iMac is about 4 yrs. old. At another site, I had the ext. HD connected and would clone with Super Duper periodically. I have not used it with TM before. Really mysterious is the message that TM had been backing up to the INT. HD.


Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!

Dec 4, 2012 6:32 PM in response to John Roehm

You may have a folder namedBackups.backupdb at the root level of your startup disk. You cannot find it with Spotlight. Just navigate to your startup disk (usually named "Macintosh HD") and drag Backups.backupdb to the Trash.


Is your startup disk partitioned? If so this may be applicable:


OS X Lion: Installer reports "This disk cannot be used to start up your computer"



Dec 4, 2012 7:02 PM in response to John Galt

Just to update you: I have erased and reformatted the ext. HD. I am running TM to backup to the newly formatted drive. My best guess is that I should have done that immediately. I merely overlooked its previous usage.


Just looked. TM has already excluded over 600,000 items. What it is including is a mystery. As I have said, I have never used TM on that computer before.


The startup disk has never been partitioned.


I hope that I can solve this and give you a followup.

Dec 5, 2012 2:53 PM in response to John Roehm

Mine was a puzzle that I doubt that you could have solved. In searching for the update folder that you mentioned should be trashed, I discovered Parallels and Windows XP on my HD. I had these installed several years ago, never used them and completely forgot their presence.


I trashed the backupd.backupdb folder without benefit.


I then trolled around my HD and trashed any windows XP and Parallels folders/files that I could find. THAT WORKED! There was some sort of conflict with Windows/Parallels.


Many thanks for your help. If I had not been searching for the Updates folder, I never would have spotted the Windows & Parallels software. We both learned something. Mountain Lion is working great.

Attempting to install Mountain Lion on iMac running OS 10.6.8 produces the message that ML cnnot be installed on the int. HD because it is used by Time Machine. It is the int. startup drive. What now?

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