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FloorMatt

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 13, 2007
15
0
Alright, so far I have tried an Upgrade and an A&I and it still fails with that message. I don't know what to do. I have an unusable computer, and the install keeps failing.
 
Did your DVD pass verification?

Have you tried an archive and install yet?

I tried an archive and install. I don't know if my dvd passed verification, because I skipped it. I'm going to try an archive and install again to see if the dvd passes verification.
 
So, the disk failed verification. Out of thousands maybe millions of people who bought Leopard today, I got a bad disk. I'm not happy right now.

So, what do I need to do to get a new disk?
 
I"m sitting here with the same problem. It checked the Installation DVD and continued with the install. 40 minutes later it reported it couldn't install because it couldn't verify the essentials folder. What is this folder and what does it do? Is it on the install DVD or on my disk? I can only boot the install disk now. I tried booting from my old hard drive (via Startup Disk) and the white apple screen stays there for 15 mins before I give up.
I'm trying third time, then maybe I"ll try an Archive and Install if it's not too late. Or I'll go back to apple store, see if it really trashed my system.
 
I have had a friend with the same friend, and some of the other threads it says to do an apple hardware test to see if everything works properly, and also the apple forums are claiming the GUID HD partition causing problems. Does that help to figure out the problem?
 
I had the same problem. The first time round it verified the disc but when it was installing it froze with 51 minutes left. Next time I tried installing for a complete erase and install it froze at verifieying the disc @ 33% eventually the whole computer is down and nothing will work or discs stay in the machine. Apple support told me to take it to a repair place which is now is... they can fix it and install Leopard.. Don't know what I am going to do about the second macbook I have....sheesh
 
Hangs on Essentials finally installs

I was having my install hang on my G5 on the Essentials folder. I did fix it by doing an archive and install. It took three tries but it finally went.

Jeffrey Spahn
 
>>>I'm trying third time, then maybe I"ll try an Archive and Install if it's not too late. Or I'll go back to apple store, see if it really trashed my system. <<<

Ok so the third time failed again with the same message:
"The installer could not validate the contents of the 'essentials' package."

I tried the Archive and Install option with the same results. Remember the DVD disk has successfully been verified 4 times now.
So I run to the Apple store with MBP and they are very helpful in trying to install from one of their disks with various options.... but to no avail, but now they get to see the error message.
The plan now is to boot from the install disk, format a blank HD with GUID formatting. That should let me install Leopard to it in a Full Erase and Install mode. Then I'll copy my disk contents to that drive, erase the MBP system drive and Full Erase and INstall to that, then copy everything back.

What a hassle. If only I knew I would have avoided it like a copy of Windows ME.
 
>>>I'm trying third time, then maybe I"ll try an Archive and Install if it's not too late. Or I'll go back to apple store, see if it really trashed my system. <<<

Ok so the third time failed again with the same message:
"The installer could not validate the contents of the 'essentials' package."

I tried the Archive and Install option with the same results. Remember the DVD disk has successfully been verified 4 times now.
So I run to the Apple store with MBP and they are very helpful in trying to install from one of their disks with various options.... but to no avail, but now they get to see the error message.
The plan now is to boot from the install disk, format a blank HD with GUID formatting. That should let me install Leopard to it in a Full Erase and Install mode. Then I'll copy my disk contents to that drive, erase the MBP system drive and Full Erase and INstall to that, then copy everything back.

What a hassle. If only I knew I would have avoided it like a copy of Windows ME.


My first install had that issue, but I thought it was because I was installing over a beta of Leopard. So, I did an erase/install, which worked. Then I used migration assistant to take over my data from a backup I did.
 
Your experience gives me hope, but..

Installing to second GUID formatted clean HD fails in exactly the same way. I can only assume, after two diff. install disks and 2 diff. target drives, it's the DVD drive. I've never had a problem with this drive before.

Anyone having this problem could you post the type of DVD burner you have? Run System Profiler from the "Install" screen and look at the Hardware tab/Disc Burning for the model and software rev.

Mine is : HL-DT-ST DVDRW GWA4080MA - Firmware Rev. AE39

I'm going to the Apple store again, maybe they can check from another DVD drive.
 
Solved

On my 2nd visit to the Apple store we tried an external DVD drive and formatting the MBP's HD. When that didn't work, they replaced each memory stick, and installed Leopard with out incident.

"could not verity the essentials package"
THIS WAS A MEMORY ERROR. I've run hardware tests before and passed, and I've had no memory problems since buying the machine fully configured with 2GB from Apple in April.

Despite my problems, it was great to have well informed Apple Store employees so committed to resolving the issue. In my time of need... and I've never had anyting like this... the support was there.
Thanks
 
i am now getting this problem and ive have tried every method and read every forum about this for the past week and to no avail have i found a method that works. can anything help me out with this. all i can really do is go to apple and maybe have them replace my leopard disc. my mbp is 1st gen and its out of warranty so i doubt they will doing anything about it.
 
I know it's about a century since the last post, but in case it helps anyone, I had this exact problem and solved it by replacing the RAM.

Who'd have thought? That would have been waaaay down my list of things to try, if I'd not read the post above regarding RAM.

So, thanks to that poster.

Cheers
Mick
 
I know it's about a century since the last post, but in case it helps anyone, I had this exact problem and solved it by replacing the RAM.

Who'd have thought? That would have been waaaay down my list of things to try, if I'd not read the post above regarding RAM.

So, thanks to that poster.

Cheers
Mick
Bad RAM is entirely possible. It seems silly to run memtest or replace it though to install OS X though. :eek:

Some things are just so far down the chain sometimes.
 
I just experienced this same exact problem while I tried to format and reinstall osx yesterday.

SOLUTION: I got past the issue by removing one stick of ram and trying again. I had to take out the other ram and put the first one back in to finally get it to work. Installed osx, set it up, then reinstalled the 2nd stick of ram.

I'm running into weird problems though, as when I'm doing things online using flash or whatnot, I'd greyscreen randomly and ask me to restart.

It's even weirder on my windows partition that I just installed. I can't download any exe files without them being corrupt, no matter how many times I dl, and wherever I dl from. Also, my google chrome constantly crashes when there's a flash animation on the webpage. My steam won't connect/dl any of my games, and neither will any of the HoN install clients work. Pretty much WACK. I should take out that weird stick of RAM and see if I get any of the same problems on using just 1 stick, but this is the 4th time unscrewing the blackplate and I'm tired lol. I did switch the positions of the two rams, and oddly enough, the symptoms on the OSX partition are gone and I can't replicate them.

Called in applestore today and am going in for an appointment. It's definitely a RAM issue in my mind and would think it obvious that they'd give me a replacement set of RAM. We shall see. If you're experiencing this problem, my suggestion is to just go to the applestore, as my experimental fixing has just created more headaches besides the core problem. The geniuses are gunna go roundabout because of this.

This reminds me of the woeful days of PC gaming rig building and those pesky recognition anomalies using 4x1gigz on those nvidia 6xx and 7xx mobos, not to mention the intel p3x's.
 
Update: I dropped by the mac store today, and they did a diagnostics test and immediately detected that one of my ram sticks was faulty. They're going to replace it when the replacement gets shipped in 3 days from now. For now, I'm using just the one good working stick until I go back and get the 2nd new one installed.
 
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