Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

bamufg8tr81

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 14, 2011
3
0
Hey everyone,

I've run into a problem. Last night i created a USB Lion install disc and was going to install Lion on to a separate partition dedicated to just the Lion install. I was able to create the install USB fine, and booted to it. It booted up with the Lion Recovery partition and I chose to install a new Lion install. I went through the steps, and when it asked me where i wanted to install i selected my Lion Partition. Well after about 10 min, it finished and rebooted my system, and brought me to a "installing OSX" screen. It asked me where i wanted to install Lion, but wouldn't let me select my Dedicated partition. So I canceled the whole thing, and wiped the USB and the External drive formatting them right, and tried again.

Now however every time i boot to the USB Recovery stick it takes me straight to the "Installing OSX" screen, and then pops up a error box saying that OSX can't be installed. I have formatted the drives two and three times, and even tried different drives. Every time i get the same result. I can get back into my Snow Leopard install just fine, but CAN NOT get back to the beginning Recovery screen where it gives me the option of installing a fresh copy of Lion. Did it put something on my Snow Leopard drive that i need to remove? What am i missing?!

HELP!!! Sorry for the lengthy post!
 
Last edited:

xgman

macrumors 603
Aug 6, 2007
5,672
1,378
Hey everyone,

I've run into a problem. Last night i created a USB Lion install disc and was going to install Lion on to a separate partition dedicated to just the Lion install. I was able to create the install USB fine, and booted to it. It booted up with the Lion Recovery partition and I chose to install a new Lion install. I went through the steps, and when it asked me where i wanted to install i selected my Lion Partition. Well after about 10 min, it finished and rebooted my system, and brought me to a "installing OSX" screen. It asked me where i wanted to install Lion, but wouldn't let me select my Dedicated partition. So I canceled the whole thing, and wiped the USB and the External drive formatting them right, and tried again.

Now however every time i boot to the USB Recovery stick it takes me straight to the "Installing OSX" screen, and then pops up a error box saying that OSX can't be installed. I have formatted the drives two and three times, and even tried different drives. Every time i get the same result. I can get back into my Snow Leopard install just fine, but CAN NOT get back to the beginning Recovery screen where it gives me the option of installing a fresh copy of Lion. Did it put something on my Snow Leopard drive that i need to remove? What am i missing?!

HELP!!! Sorry for the lengthy post!

Try partitioning the root drives in disk utility rather than reformatting them.
 

bamufg8tr81

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 14, 2011
3
0
yeah i repartitioned them too... They are Partitioned as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). I even went as far as Zeroing them out.

I'm attaching the Installer Log. Maybe one of you guys will see something in it I'm not.
 

Attachments

  • Installer Log 14-Jun-2011.txt
    10.2 KB · Views: 614

Sneakz

macrumors 65816
Jul 17, 2008
1,217
332
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I don't know how you created your USB install but it doesn't seem the be the same way others have been doing it. You shouldn't have to restart and then have the install continue, it should just install at once like Snow Leopard did for example.

Follow these steps. Make sure your USB media is formatted GUID partition table and Mac OS Extended (Journaled).


1. Open Terminal and paste this the show hidden files.

Code:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder

2. Open your Lion DP4 image and Mount BaseSystem.dmg.
3. Open Disk Utility and restore BaseSystem to your USB media.
4. Once completed, copy the mach_kernel file from the Lion DP4 image to the root of your USB drive.
5. In your Lion DP4 image copy all of the .pkgs from the /Packages folder and copy them to you USB drive. Paste them in the folder /System/Installation/Pacakges/ and move the Packages alias already in the folder to the trash.

You should have a bootable USB drive that will allow you to install Lion without needing to restart mid-way.

6. Paste to hide hidden files.

Code:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
killall Finder

This install method is more like past OS X installs. This method installs Lion without creating a "Recovery HD" partition on the target volume so you may want to keep the USB drive on hand.
 

bamufg8tr81

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 14, 2011
3
0
So i figured it out. I think it was a mixture of things. Like was mentioned I think my initial USB image was messed up. But once it messed up there was something else. I wound up reseting the PRAM (Command + Option + P +R) and rebooted the machine. After that I was able to boot to my USB thumb drive and everything worked perfectly! Thanks for all the advice guys! Hope my experience helps someone out there!
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.