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I thought this would be an easy install

D

darklord1968

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 20, 2011
6
0
London, Ontario
Good day all

I new to the Mac world, but I do know computers. I have been working with computers in the early 90's, the good ole days of DOS :).

I few weeks ago I bought a Macbook Pro: Dual Core Intel processor (2.33ghz) with 2 gb of ram. It has Mac OS 10.5.8. This system was my sister's and she bought it as a “refurbish” system from a local mac store, So she did not get any install disk. Now I would like to upgrade my system to Lion, I know I have to upgrade to Snow Leopard first, so I go to the local mac store and bought the upgrade disk. I was looking forward to installing Mac OS for the first time (after installing MS-Windows/Linux). I thought this should be pretty easy, but it end up being a headache.

So the first time I tried to install it, it seem to installing it .... I walk away from my system, and the installer was closed up and I check the version and it still just 10.5.8, and now every time I put the install disk in, it get ejected ... so after check out a few forms, I cleaned my DVD lens, and still the same thing. I check the DVD in another system (My Linux Box and in an iMac) and both had no problem accessing the disk. So I put in my window 7 install disk into my Macbook no problems, then I put in the install disk for the iMac. Again no problem so I thought I would try it, then I got an error message saying something like “Can't install on this Mac”. Ok so I know that my DVD player is working and the install disk is good. I have never seen this before ...
So the next thing I tried was “Remote Install” how ever the iMac has Lion and no Remote installer. So I went out an got a firewire and tried to install using “Target Drive” ... now I'm not sure if I was doing this correctly, on iMac I put in the dvd, made sure it was shared out, then open “Migration Assistant” then selected the option to “To another Mac”, I rebooted macbook and pressing “T” I entered in the firewire screen .... then that's it ... nothing more ... now on the iMac a new disk pop up, witch was macbook hard disk.

Now if I was doing something wrong here could some one point me into the right direction.

Thank you
 
Are you attempting to do a clean install of Lion?

If you are, there is no need to install Snow Leapord first.

1.Download Lion from the Mac App Store. The installer should show up in your Applications folder.

2. Right-click on the installer and hit "Show Package Contents". Navigate to Contents > SharedSupport and look for a file called "InstallESD.dmg".

3. Open up Disk Utility and drag the DMG file into the left-hand sidebar. If you're burning it to a DVD, insert your DVD, select the disk image in the sidebar, and hit the "Burn" button. Skip down to the last step to use it.

4. If you want to burn Lion to a USB flash drive, plug it in and click on it in the left-hand sidebar in Disk Utility. Go to the Partition tab and select "1 Partition" from the dropdown menu. Choose "Mac OS Extended (Journaled) on the left.

5. Hit the Options button under the partition table and choose "GUID Partition Table". You'll need this to make the drive bootable on a Mac. Hit the Apply button when you're done to format your drive (note: it will erase everything on the drive).

6. Click on the "Restore" tab, choose the InstallESD.dmg file as the source and your flash drive as the destination. Hit the Apply button and it will create your bootable USB drive.

7. Reboot into OS X and hold the option key when you hear the startup chime. You can boot into your DVD or flash drive from there.
 
PS65 said:
Are you attempting to do a clean install of Lion?

If you are, there is no need to install Snow Leapord first.
Click to expand...
He can't download Lion without Snow Leopard as the App Store isn't on Leopard.

OP, did you try rebooting with alt/Option held down? That ought to show the boot loader and allow you to pick the SL DVD to boot into the installer. Try a clean install (again if you already did the first time) if you get that far.
 
I'm unsure as to why it won't upgrade but if there's nothing important on your computer than you could always do a clean install (reformat). The Snow Leopard upgrade disc can be used to do a full install (it's not locked to just upgrades).

If that does not work you could always see a Genius at a Apple Store can help. Even if your computer is no longer under warranty I'm sure they will offer some help.

Also note that you CANNOT install Lion on Core Duo machines (you need a core 2 Duo or better).


P.S. Upgrade to at least 4GB of RAM if your budget allows it, it will make everything run much smoother.

How to Clean Install OS X

Part One: Partitioning the hard drive

  1. Insert the Mac OS X Install DVD into the optical drive, or insert the Software Reinstall Drive into the USB port.
    .​
  2. Turn on or restart the computer.
    .​
  3. Press and hold the Option key at startup to select the volume containing the installer.
    .​
  4. If your are using a wireless mouse, a mouse icon should appear asking you to turn the mouse on so that the computer can discover it.
    .​
  5. Select a language, then press the right arrow key.
    .​
  6. Click the Utilities menu, the choose Disk Utility.
    .​
  7. In the box to the left Select your hard drive.
    .​
  8. Click the Partition tab.
    .​
  9. Under Volume Scheme choose "1 Partition" (This will Erase the Entire drive, including Boot Camp Partitions)
    .​
  10. Click the Options button and make sure "GUID Partition Table" is selected.
    .​
  11. To the right of Format choose "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)".
    .​
  12. To the right of Name Type "Macintosh HD".
    .​
  13. Click Apply.
    .​
  14. After the partition is formatted, choose Quit Disk Utility from the Disk Utility menu.

Part Two: Installing the operating system

  1. When the Mac OS X Installer screen appears, click Continue.
    .​
  2. When the license agreement appears, click Agree.
    .​
  3. Select the disk you partitioned. It should now be highlighted with a green arrow.
    .​
  4. Click Install. A status bar appears on the bottom of the screen while Mac OS X installs.
    .​
  5. An Additional Information screen appears, advising you that you operating system has been installed. Click Continue.
    .​
  6. An Install Succeeded screen appears. Click Restart.

Original Steps Edited from: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3910
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Okay I just tried "ALT/Options" and "C" at boot up, with both the dvd got ejected .... I'm still at lost here ... When I did "ALT/Options" the only option was the Macintosh HD ... I push the dvd back in then it ejects ...
 
someone28624 said:
Can you play, say a movie, DVD on the computer?
Click to expand...

Yes ... I used vBox and I was able install ms-windows from the dvd. It can also play movies from the dvd. I also put in install disk from iMac and the installer pop up ....

So I am thing of return this disk and see about getting another ... the strange thing is, this dvd seems to work on other systems ....
 
darklord1968 said:
So I am thing of return this disk and see about getting another ... the strange thing is, this dvd seems to work on other systems ....
Click to expand...


Okay I thought I share this what happen with the install, I did got it to install.

I went back to the store and got another disk, and the installer loaded (I check it before leaving the store, it was also used to install on another system, with out no problem). I got home and started the installation, but in about 10%-20% into the install it failed. (some thing like "couldn't copy support files") So here we go again ... so after another 2 tries I noticed "Logs", so, I check them out, and I notice that there was some I/O errors. So it was my DVD ROM, had an intermittent problem. So I went out and got an external DVD rom and it install no problems ...

Thank you Apple for including Log files that can be easily read .. (unlike window's blue screen of death)
 
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