Startup disk list is empty

Question

Startup disk list is empty

I reformatted my hard drive and installed Lion through the Mac OS X Utilities. The installation proceeds as normal until the very end. All of a sudden, it goes from 15 minutes remaining to -2,907,000 minutes remaining. When the progress bar finally completes, which is just a couple of minutes later, it brings me back to the Mac OS X Utilities menu again. These are the things I have tried:

Startup disks listing is empty, so I cannot change a boot order.
I have verified the disk and repaired the disk. The verification did report problems, so I repaired and the repair was successful.
I've tried the whole process over again and still have the same results. Here are some screen shots if it helps. Thanks in advance.

Posted on Jun 25, 2014 1:21 PM

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Answer 1

John Galt

Level 10

155,180 points

Jun 26, 2014 4:36 AM in response to Caffeine Slayer

The installation was incomplete or has been corrupted. Try reinstalling OS X by booting OS X Recovery. If that does not function on the MacBook, reinstall its original OS from disc, upgrade to Snow Leopard if required, update it to OS X 10.6.8, and upgrade to Lion. Don't attempt to install Lion over the network or from the external device, because that may be the reason the installation didn't work.

The boot volume may still need to be replaced. Disk Utility - reported errors that spontaneously appear are likely to occur again. Replacement hard disk drives are inexpensive enough.

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