Mac OS X can't be installed on this computer

Im planning to buy the retail version but i dont know w/c one. My macbook original OS was 10.4. what should i buy? Thanks.

Hello all,

I'm having this exact problem with an iMac 27" mid-2010 machine that came with OS X 10.6.4 gray DVDs. I have tried everything mentioned here in this post and I still get the error message "Mac OS X can't be installed on this computer". I have 15 of these exact machines, with one being the problem machine. I have all the original DVDs with these machines, so I know that I'm using what came with the machines. I've tried using a GParted Live CD as well with the same results. At that point I don't know what else to try.

Here is some background information: The original Hitachi 2TB HDD in this machine died, so I installed a 250GB Western Digital HDD I had laying around. The WD 250GB drive is the one I receive the error with when trying to install the OS. Just out of curiousity, I booted the iMac off of a Windows 8.1 DVD and went through the full clean install process and actually installed Windows 8.1 x64 on this iMac and it worked fine. I was even surfing the Intenet through the built in WiFi. Now, I will admit that I'm new to Apple equipment, as I primarily work on PC based equipment. So please don't hold this against me, I'm trying to learn more about Apple equipment. My biggest question is "Do the OEM gray DVDs have to be used with the exact same type of HDD in order for the installer to work right?" I keep reading information about the gray DVDs being "bound" to the specific model of machine they were shipped with. I find it hard to believe that the Mac Installer won't install just because of size difference in the HDD. I know that 250GB is plenty big for the requirements of OS X 10.6.4, which is what the machines came with. Any help someone can offer is most appreciated.

Oh, by the way this is my first post on the Apple forums, so go lightly on me as I'm a newbie. :-)

Im planning to buy the retail version but i dont know w/c one. My macbook original OS was 10.4. what should i buy? Thanks.

It depends on what the Mac's hardware is. Go to the Apple in the upper left and choose About This Mac. Where it says "Processor", if it is any type of Intel chip, you can purchase the retail 10.6.3 Snow Leopard disk. You must first upgrade to SL before you can move forward to Lion, Mountain Lion, or Mavericks. If it says G4 or G5, then you cannot upgrade the OS past 10.5.8.

Oh, I forgot to mention that the WD 250 GB HDD that I'm trying to use is a Model WD2500AAJS which is suppose to be compatible with Apple.

Another thing that has me stumped, how does an iMac know how to located the files to start the boot process for the OS? In the PC world you must have a partition that is marked "Active" or it can't start the boot process for the OS. Again, I installed Windows 8.1 using traditional HDD preparation methods and it works fine in this iMac, so why is it that when I try to install the Mac OS X the error keeps popping up? Oh, I did go back through the Disk Utility in the Mac Installer and deleted the Windows partitions, zeroed the drive out and created the appropriate partition for what Apple wants when using an Intel Based Mac. Please don't think that I'm still trying to use the Windows partitions.

Oh, I forgot to mention that the WD 250 GB HDD that I'm trying to use is a Model WD2500AAJS which is suppose to be compatible with Apple.

Any hard drive is compatible. You just need to reformat them for the Mac.

Another thing that has me stumped, how does an iMac know how to located the files to start the boot process for the OS? In the PC world you must have a partition that is marked "Active" or it can't start the boot process for the OS.

Any partition can be bootable. It doesn't need a special designation as Windows/DOS does. The firmware keeps track of that. If it sees a valid OS, you can choose it as a startup disk. Which one (of pretty much as many as you want) is the default startup disk is chosen in the System Preferences. That information is saved in the EFI.

Again, I installed Windows 8.1 using traditional HDD preparation methods and it works fine in this iMac, so why is it that when I try to install the Mac OS X the error keeps popping up?

Sounds like you may have missed one requirement. Not only does the partition need to be Mac OS Extended, but the drive's partition map must be GUID. That can only be done when partitioning the drive. Which means if it isn't GUID now, the only way to fix it is to repartition the drive, which will destroy any data currently on the drive.

When I setup the partition for what an Intel based Mac needs, I made sure to setup the drive for GUID so that is not the problem. I even verified the status of the drive using the Disk Utility, which reports that the S.M.A.R.T. status as verified and the Partition Map Scheme is set as a GUID Partition Table. Oh, the partition was formated using the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) method.

The drive is formatted correctly. Though I just noticed this:

"Do the OEM gray DVDs have to be used with the exact same type of HDD in order for the installer to work right?"

No, the drive is mostly irrelevant. I say 'mostly' because older Macs don't recognize Apple's Fusion drives well, or at all. But a plain ol' hard drive of any size or type shouldn't make a bit of difference. What the OS installer is looking for more than anything else is that the hardware drivers for that Mac exist on the disk you are installing from.

Are those gray DVDs the ones that came with that Mac?

Yes the DVDs are the original ones that came with the machine. I actually have 15 of these machines that are all identical, and have 15 sets of the exact same DVDs. I've used these DVDs to wipe the machines before and reinstall the OS on the original HDD, but I've never tried to install to a replacement HDD like I'm tryin to do now.

Then I am also stumped. You shouldn't be getting any type of error message installing the OS to that drive. Unless you used some other sort of software to partition the drive, rather than Disk Utility.

Just to try something, boot to the DVD and run Disk Utility to repartition the drive. Make sure to choose 1 Partition (or however many you want) to force DU to rebuild the drive map. That will also enable the Options button at the bottom so you can check to be sure the drive is GUID. Then try to install the OS.

Okay, now I feel like a total dumb &$%#! I went with your question of the DVDs and thought I should double check everything that I have. My thought is better safe than sorry. I have to sometimes do this with my students who say that they absolutely did something in class. Well guess what I found out. I have 15 sets of DVDs, but one of the sets says MAC Pro version 10.6.4 and all of the other DVDs say iMac version 10.6.4. How in the world I got one set of DVDs that doesn't match is beyond me, but you were correct in catching my screw up. I tried one of the DVDs with iMac and it works. I never really knew how much those DVD had to match until now. Thanks so much for your patience with me Kurt Lang and helping me solve this problem. Kudos to you sir! :-)

No problem at all. That is easy to miss since the name of the Mac on the gray disks are printed rather small. They all look the same if you aren't looking real close.

Glad you figured it out. 🙂

I must say that this problem has required me to learn a lot about how Macs are partitioned. It has made me want to learn more and more about the specifics of how Macs actually work.

I was in your same position some years back. Our first home computer was an IBM XT clone, running MS-DOS 3.1. Built a handful of computers running various CPUs and versions of DOS/Windows before starting to learn Macs at all in the printing prepress industry. Starting my own small business doing Photoshop work essentially required purchasing my own first Mac since almost all prepress shops use Macs. It was especially necessary at the time since OpenType fonts didn't exist, and Windows/Mac Type 1 PostScript fonts could not in any way by used on the opposite platform. That meant using the same OS as your clients.

I found my way here with my first issue I couldn't resolve on my own. When you see the boatload of information here you can use to learn about Macs just by reading questions and answers, I spent at least two months here for at least an hour a day just reading, reading, reading.