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OS X wants to reinstall

Hi everyone,


Here's the context : I have been installing Yosemite on a memory stick to be able to boot my Macbook Pro whose hard drive has just died. I have done this on an iMac by downloading the installer, simply run it and made it install on the memory stick.

Problem? When I reboot the iMac (memory stick unplugged) he acts like I just also reinstalled the OS on the hard drive. I know it has not been formatted thanks to a Bootcamp partition by which I can see that everything is still in place. I don't dare to proceed to the "installation" because I'm afraid to lose all the data on it...


Any idea of what to do to make it run the way it was before? I would really appreciate some help as it is not my computer....


Thank you SO much in advance, and sorry if there are some mistakes, I'm not a native English speaker...

Posted on Feb 23, 2015 2:30 PM

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5 replies

Feb 23, 2015 3:51 PM in response to Power51

I am a bit confused:


You downloaded Yosemite on an iMac to use on an MBP - is that correct? As long as both of them are your computers, that should be fine. I am confused because later you say "as it is not my computer" - since the OS license is not transferable, you should not use your Apple ID for someone else's download because that will be tied to your Apple ID forever.


Can you post a screenshot of the Disk Utility window (Applications > Utilities) showing your hard drive and what is on it.

Feb 23, 2015 7:49 PM in response to babowa

Thank you for your quick answer!

Yes I was not really sure whether it would work, but it seems to be OK, it is even recognized as a MBP. I said it was not my iMac, but it is not completely unknown as it is my parent's one (that is why I am worried about making it run again as they don't have any other computer).

Here is the screenshot, there are my memory stick with two partitions on it plus the optical drive.

I took my hard drive off my MBP because it doesn't even boot on it. The HD keeps on parking its heads just like I was shaking it all the time, and is unable to read anything then.

User uploaded file

Feb 23, 2015 8:39 PM in response to Power51

Ok, I was getting at this: if you downloaded it on the iMac (which is your parents'), then how did you log into the app store? With their Apple ID/password or yours?


Next, not sure I can make sense of your Disk Utility screenshot: it is showing your usb stick, but no internal hard drive at all. What was the stick plugged into when you took that screenshot? Was it plugged into the MBP without a hard drive? If so, you appear to be booted from it since I see a regular desktop, dock, etc. If that is the case, then it is working.


So, if you are booted from Yosemite on your MBP - are you trying to install Yosemite on the iMac or ?


And, what exactly has not been formatted? The iMac or the USB stick or ?

Feb 23, 2015 11:08 PM in response to babowa

Ok sorry I may not have explained it right... Let's do it more clearly 😝


I don't have a hard drive anymore in my MBP because of what I told. But I still need it for working purposes. So I wanted to install Yosemite on a memory stick to boot from it and keep on using my MBP. That's temporary for sure, I'm just waiting for receiving a new hard drive. So you guessed it, the screenshot was taken on my MBP booted on the USB stick.


When I created this bootable stick, I first downloaded the Yosemite installer on my parent's iMac, then double-clicked on it and made it install on the USB stick. And not on the iMac's hard drive, I must insist! When the installation was over, I unplugged the memory stick in order to try it on my MBP, and rebooted the iMac since it had booted on the stick meanwhile.

The issue I have is that now when I reboot the iMac as usual on its hard drive, it acts like I was going to install Yosemite on it too. I don't have acces to the desktop or whatever. It sounds like it is running the installer automatically, in full screen. With no way to cancel it apparently....

And this is precisely what I need : cancel this installation. I don't want it to install again, format the hard drive and lose all my parent's data.


I hope it is easier to understand... Would you have any idea?

Mar 1, 2015 3:24 AM in response to Power51

Ok problem solved!

If it can help someone, I first used Diskwarrior to 'rebuild' the iMac's OS X installation. It was still booting on the Yosemite installator but the good thing was that the hard drive was called MacintoshHD (as before) instead of OS X Installation. So I booted on my memory stick and selected MacintoshHD as the booting hard drive and it's now working.

OS X wants to reinstall

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