Mac Pro won't let ML upgrade?

ok, I have been searching all over the net. I cant seem to get any where with this. Posted on the "official" Apple support form a couple weeks ago, no answers.

I have a 2009 Mac Pro, with 10.7.5, been trying to upgrade to 10.8. I down load the program from app store. I click to install, and choose my main hard drive. It runs a little bit, then says its restarting. And thats it. Once it goes to restart, I get the Apple Logo, with the spinning cog. It will stay that way for a min or so, then the Apple logo turns into a circle with a slash through it. I have to hard rest, boot into safe mode, and remove the OSX installer file, so that my computer will boot back correctly.

Ive tried this many different ways. Ive created an osx installer thumb drive, and tried to do a fresh install. When I tried this, It didnt give me any drive options, other then my external drives. For the heck of it, I tried to install to one of the external drives, went through its process, and when it reboot, it just loaded osx normally from my internal SSD. Im at a loss, as to why it wont work for me.

Anyone have any thoughts about this?

Problem is, it didnt install to an external drive

wonderspark said:

I thought you said it went through the install process, and I assumed it was successful. Pull out the SSD with the external attached, and then see where it boots.

Click to expand...

I guess I didn't clearly state what I meant. When i tried installing to an external drive, i booted, holding the option key. choose my thumb drive, clicked fresh reinstall of osx, didnt give me any drive options, other them the externals. It did its "checking drive" process, then automatically reboot. Instead of the installer coming back up, it's simply booted to Lion (my SSD).

wonderspark said:

Are you rebooting with that OSX installer thumb drive in place while holding the Option key? After re-reading it, it sounded like you tried to run the installer straight from the app, not rebooting while holding Option key, THEN choosing the drive to install ML onto.

It's just a matter of finding the right sequence, haha!

Click to expand...

Im still working on it. Think Ive tried every sequence. Ive made Lion thumb drives and done fresh installs from it.

Im redownloading ML right now. Found an app that creates the thumb drive for you. Finds the correct file on your computer and creates it. When I ran it, it said it found the download ML, but the correct file it needed wasnt there. So, Im downloading again and see if it finds it. I had zero problems going from SL to Lion. I started this process over christmas, and still trying to figure it out. At least now, I've figured out how to fix everything I mess up.

No luck again. Downloaded ML from App Store. Used a program to create the thumb drive. Created a 10.8.2 boot drive. I restarted, holding option key. Choose the thumb drive. Took me to the installer, clicked to install,and gave me an error and told me to try reinstalling.

So I booted back into lion, and tried once again to initiate from there meet through its check disk process, then restarted. Again I get logo, then circle with slash. Had to boot to my backup, go into my man drive, and in the system folder delete the osx upgrade file.

Just added this on apple support forum.

Maybe a little better summary of what I've tried, and hopefully someone can help.

I've purchased and downloaded Mountain Lion. I start the install process, ML checks my disk and goes to reboot. OSX shuts down, and goes to start up again. The Apple logo and spinning cog appear. After about a min or two, the Apple logo disappears and is replaced by a circle with a slash through it. After that, nothing, just spinning cog and circle with slash. I've let is sit for 15 min to see if something eventually happens. Nothing does. I then have to boot into safe mode, or my USB clone drive, go into the system folder of my main drive, and delete the osx install folder (think that's what it's called), that was created prior to rebooting (when I started the ML installer). That's the only way I can get my main drive to boot back to the desktop.

I've tried creating a USB thumb ML boot drive, same result. I've tried installing to another internal drive, other then my main drive. To try and create a 2nd bootable drive. Still wont get past spinning cog and circle with slash.

My computer is a 2009 Mac Pro, 10.7.5 (current os), Quadro 4000 Mac video card. 240gig SSD main drive, and three 2tb drives. I have a Blackmagic designs Intensity Pro card in one f the pci slots, and an esata card, with two 1tb drives (one is time machine drive.

I've been struggling with this for a month.

Could it be any of the hardware I have added to my machine?

My next course of action is to pull all my PCI cards, and try without them installed. Then if successful, reinstall them. Of that doesn't work, I might try and install the stock video card (came with the Mac), and try.

Anyone have any thoughts? Do I have a permissions problem someplace? Do I need to click on the "get info" for system folders, and make sure, their not locked off?

Thank you for the help,
Jeff


On a side note, for here at the MacRumors forum. Am I waisting my time trying to install ML?

My machine if for video editing, 3D motion graphics work. I currently have a Quadro 4000mac installed, and am about to add a gtx580 (for its cuda processing). Do I even have a need to upgrade, am I just waisting my time? Been reading a lot about using PC Cards in Mac Pros, and see a lot of mention of 10.8.2, so I keep figure I'm better off upgrading. I keep thinking this must be a hardware compatibility issue, because I've tried reformatting my drive and doing a clean install, and I continue to get the same issue.

Thanks for the help.

Well, been doing some web reading. I have a rockeRAID 622 esata card. Currently running a couple drives (the enclosure I bought sounded like a jet engine, so I scrapped it). Any ways, I was going through my components, and noticed it wasn't showing a driver installed for this card. So started looking on the web seems this is a common issue with this card. Will work, but won't show an installed driver. Also read some people having issues with 10.8.2 and this card not working. I'm wondering if this could be my issue? Going to pull the card tonight, and see if that gets me going. If it does, I'll run my time machine over USB.

came back to update this thread, in the event someone else has a similar issue. Some how this topic got picked up in another post I made, and this one fell to the way side.

In an effort to not post duplicate post, I am going to place a link to that other thread.

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=16735050&posted=1#post16735050