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When installing Mavericks, I am prompted to select the disk I want Mavericks installed on. But when I try to select my only option, it won't let me.. it says this disk cannot be used to start up your computer ?

When installing Mavericks, I am prompted to select the disk I want Mavericks installed on. But when I try to select my only option, it won't let me.. it says that this disk cannot be used to start up your computer ?

MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011), Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Aug 14, 2014 5:48 PM

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Posted on Aug 14, 2014 5:56 PM

There are a number of possible causes. The first thing I suggest you do is:


Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions


Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.


If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.

While you are using Disk Utility select your startup volume then look in the status area to see if it shows that the volume is Journaled. Your computer must have 2 GBs of RAM installed in order to install Mavericks. You also need about 20 GBs of free space on the hard drive.

I would be sure your computer does not have Time Machine backups on it: OS X- Cannot install on a volume used by Time Machine for backups.

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Question marked as Best reply

Aug 14, 2014 5:56 PM in response to christina868

There are a number of possible causes. The first thing I suggest you do is:


Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions


Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.


If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.

While you are using Disk Utility select your startup volume then look in the status area to see if it shows that the volume is Journaled. Your computer must have 2 GBs of RAM installed in order to install Mavericks. You also need about 20 GBs of free space on the hard drive.

I would be sure your computer does not have Time Machine backups on it: OS X- Cannot install on a volume used by Time Machine for backups.

When installing Mavericks, I am prompted to select the disk I want Mavericks installed on. But when I try to select my only option, it won't let me.. it says this disk cannot be used to start up your computer ?

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