Can't install Mountain Lion

Hi
I bought an iPhone 5 a month ago, then found out I needed to upgrade my OS on my 4 year Macbook Pro. I received Snow leopard yesterday and managed to install it without issue. I then found out SL doesn't support iTunes &, which is apparently what you need to sync iPhone 5. All rather annoying. So I then bought and downloaded Mountain Lion and have been trying to install it for the last 24 hours.

Once I run the installer it eventually says (after restarting) that it cannot install because it can't create a recovery folder. There is plenty of room on the main HD.

I've looked at various posts but none explain (clearly enough for a non-techy like me) what to do.

Can anyone help please?

Thanks.

Mac OS 10.6.8
Intel 3.6 GHz core 2 duo
4 GB 1067

Have you got a time machine backup

of what, Louishen? My Macbook is backed up, yes.

Consider doing a clean install, you can reformat your drive from the Mountain Lion installer, since it seems to be a disk format issue with the installer

To create a bootable installer for Mountain Lion see our forum guide

OS X Mountain Lion: The Mac-Forums Guide | Mac-Forums Blog

will do, thanks. i created a bootable installer earlier today. i don't remember seeing the option to reformat the drive though from the ML installer. i'll take another look.