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Level 1

3 points

Macbook continues to fail to install Mavericks

Ok so to start, I have a strong feeling my macbook is on the verge of dying. It crashes after about an hour of use, won't charge, has a broken disk drive and just seems to by on its last legs. Today I was trying to install windows 7 via bootcamp and it was in the middle of partitioning my drive for windows. I had set 100gb for windows leaving 250 for my actual mac OSX when suddenly the darn thing crashed in the middle of it. Upon rebooting, the 100gb I had set for windows had become unavailable and the partition didn't appear in the disk utility. After searching the internet for a way to bring it back, I wound up rebooting and holding command + r to bring up the boot screen and I selected disc utility. I deleted Macintosh HD and attempted to reinstall Mavericks so that I could start from a clean slate, and hopefully fix the crashing problem as well, but now it is stuck in a sort of infinite install. It will attempt to install and get to some point on the progress bar before saying that it failed to install and to restart the computer and try again. I have literally nothing to actually boot into other than the OS install screen and have a feeling this is the end for this laptop because after it stopped charging, apple refused to repair it and give it a warranty (due to visible damage to the outside case) and wanted $300 to do anything, meaning I could take it home after paying and have no guarantee it would work. Because of this I feel that if I brought it apple with this problem, they wouldn't do anything to it unless I was willing to pay more than its worth. I do hope that the Apple community can help me because I have nothing left to try. The laptop is a Macbook late 2010 (last plain Macbook made) with 4gb ram 350gb HDD and I believe a 2.66 ghz intel processor and it was running the newest version of Mavericks. I really hope that somebody can help me because losing the laptop completely would be such a waste

MacBook, iOS 7.1, Mavericks, late 2010 macbook

Posted on Jul 20, 2014 6:44 PM

35 replies

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Jul 21, 2014 12:30 PM in response to ZachBella

During the installation, there is an installer log. Did you have 10.9.3 (or older) before and now your are trying 10.9.4?

ZachBella Author

Level 1

3 points

Jul 21, 2014 12:33 PM in response to Loner T

Before the whole incident with the thing not installing, it was running 10.9.4 the newest version

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Jul 21, 2014 1:07 PM in response to ZachBella

There are subtle differences between a 10.6. upgraded to 10.9.4 vs a clean install 10.9.4. If you have an external drive, can you install Mavericks on the external drive and try to boot the macbook via the USB using this external drive a s boot disk?

ZachBella Author

Level 1

3 points

Jul 21, 2014 1:10 PM in response to Loner T

Thats actually how I did it. Instead of having to redownload mavericks on the macbook, I simply used the USB I put it on yesterday to boot the macbook to, and after the install failed it wouldn't even let me go back to my desktop

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Jul 21, 2014 1:25 PM in response to ZachBella

This is just to clarify.

1. You have SL 10.6.8 on the internal HD.

2. You downloaded the Install Mavericks.app on to a USB.

3. You boot SL from the internal HD.

4. Execute the Installer app from the USB and tell it to install on the HD.

5. You choose the internal HD as the target for the Mavericks install (upgrade or erase install).

1. You had recovered SL 10.6.8.

2. You installed the 'full' OS on the USB using the iMAC (not just the installer itself).

3. Now you are using the external USB with 'full' OS in ALT+ select USB to boot from.

4. This leaves your internal HD intact with two different OSes, one each on USB and internal HD.

1. Run Install Mavericks.app from USB.

2. Erase the internal HD.

3. Install a clean Mavericks on internal HD (and it fails).

4. There is no OS on the internal HD (or a partial install).

If the Installer fails, and you quit it, there is a 'Choose Startup...' dialog which lets you boot to the current OS 10.6.8, if there is a working one left on the internal HD.

ZachBella Author

Level 1

3 points

Jul 21, 2014 1:31 PM in response to Loner T

When my laptop stopped working (When I posted this) I was running the newest Mavericks. After i erased the Mac HD (yesterday) and tried to reinstall Mavericks I was stuck in an infinite boot loop with nothing on my HDD. Today I managed to reinstall Snow Leopard using an old install disk that came with the laptop. When I installed Snow Leopard and was on my desktop, I plugged in my bootable Install Mavericks USB and clicked upgrade to Mavericks. The program restarted my computer in order to install it and the program presented me with the same error as before indicating me to restart and try again. In theory I still currently have Snow Leopard installed, but am just stuck in an upgrade boot loop

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Jul 21, 2014 1:40 PM in response to ZachBella

If this is the model you have

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Unibody+Model+A1342+Hard+Drive+Replacement/ 1670

One option is to pull out the HDD, connect via a USB-to-SATA adapter to the iMac, install Mavericks, disconnect the USB to iMac, connect externally (first as a test) to the USB on the macbook, and boot and test. If it works, then put the drive back inside.

ZachBella Author

Level 1

3 points

Jul 21, 2014 4:49 PM in response to Loner T

Well, I am going to attempt this, but I don't know anymore... This laptop won't update to Mountain Lion either, it seems it just doesn't want to update to any OS I have access to that isn't from an install disk! I'll let you know if this works...

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Jul 21, 2014 5:29 PM in response to ZachBella

Is your Macbook connected via ethernet (preferred) or wifi to the network when you execute the Mavericks (or ML) upgrade?

ZachBella Author

Level 1

3 points

Jul 21, 2014 5:42 PM in response to Loner T

You know what? I don't think that it was... Several times that I went to the install menu, I was prompted to connect to the internet.... Let me try this again (I HOPE THIS IS IT! 😀)

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Jul 21, 2014 6:12 PM in response to ZachBella

Important: You must be connected to the Internet to reinstall OS X.

OS X Mavericks: Reinstall OS X

ZachBella Author

Level 1

3 points

Jul 21, 2014 6:38 PM in response to Loner T

Well I just tried again and I was connected to wifi, but it still gave the same error and I simply can't figure out why...

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Jul 21, 2014 6:41 PM in response to ZachBella

Can you connect via ethernet? What is the error message you get?

ZachBella Author

Level 1

3 points

Jul 21, 2014 7:25 PM in response to Loner T

I just attempted to use ethernet and it provided the same result. The error message reads: "Install Failed OSX Could not be installed on your computer. The Installer encountered an error that caused the installation to fail. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance. Click Restart to restart your computer and try installing again." Any advice would be great 😀

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Jul 21, 2014 7:59 PM in response to ZachBella

You are doing the hard work, I am not. 😉

If you can boot SL, can you verify disk and permissions? If not, then you do have the ability to go back to SL with more work.

This is a harder option, but before you run the Mavericks installer, do you want to consider erasing the disk with Disk Utility from SL?

Macbook continues to fail to install Mavericks