OSX won't install unless drive partitioned

Hi,

I've got a bit of a problem with my 2009 13" Macbook Pro and am hoping someone here might be able to help.

I have reformatted the drive and am attempting to reinstall OSX from the DVD which came with the laptop.

If the drive is partitioned as a single partition, which is how I want it, I get an error every time where it says Install Failed during the install.

If I partition the drive and install to the first partition it fails too. If I install to the second partition it works fine.

Is the start of my drive likely to be broken? I live a long way from my nearest Apple Store and want to exhaust all possibilities before I have to take it it.

Thanks.

Have you used Disk Utility to verify the disk?

I have.

It initially came back with an error which was why I decided to reinstall OSX. When I ran Disk Utility whilst booted from the install DVD it repaired it and now shows as no errors.

I've seen that before. Just partition it into two partition and then again to one and it will work. Some sort of an odd bug I guess.

Thanks for your replies.

Would I partition it back to one before or after I install the OS?

Before...

bobtomay said:

Before...

Click to expand...

Yes, before.

Thanks guys, I've tried that and it still won't work. I'm at a bit of a loss now.

If I try and install onto a single partition or the first partition of the drive it fails with either, and these are from memory so might not be 100% correct, "Install failed, unable to copy the necessary support files" or "Install failed, please contact the software provider for support".

I have created a small 25 gig partition at the beginning of the drive and installed OSX onto the second large one and there's no problems at all. It's most frustrating!

What type of partition table have you selected for the partition and what file system did you format it to ?

Cheers ... McBie

Both have been formatted to OS Extended (Journaled). The partition table is GUID.

I've tried everything I can think of on this now. Looks like a trip to the Apple Store

If you selected GUID your partition table should naturally show two partitions: The first being EFI (approx 200MB) the second would encompass the remainder of the drive and that's where you install OS X.