No reboot after installing Lion

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MacInWin

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Then Lion is NOT installed. Boot from the Recovery partition, run Disk Utility and format the internal drive. Make sure it's formatted for Mac OS Extended Journaled and GUID Partition Table. Then install and choose that drive to install to. The download of LION will take a while, I seem to recall it was 3 or 4 GB, and then it will install. You'll need to connect to the internet and provide your AppleID when it calls for it.

BTW, I never heard the term Virtual File. I have no idea what that means. But from the video and the fact that you have a recovery partition, at one time Lion or better was installed on the machine so you can do a network install like the video. It's going to take a while to download, so you'll need to be patient.
 
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I think this is what I've been trying all along, but it might actually work this time. If it does, I'll get back to all of you.
 
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Well, I tried to reinstall again, and it was looking pretty good. The progress bar got full, but then the timer restarted, and I had to wait another hour or so. It just finished a few minutes ago, and once again all I see is the OS X utilities window. I tried to restart it and boot Macintosh HD, but it wasn't there. I just don't know what I'm doing wrong.
 
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MacInWin

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At this point your best bet is to call Apple Support. I am surprised how quickly you are back with this report as the Lion install typically takes a couple of hours to complete. Something is not right in your download. Since you just bought Lion, they should help you install it.
 
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Totally confusing showing how to install Lion on a machine with Lion already on it. You need to download Lion again from the App Store and burn it to a USB thumb drive before running the Installer. Then you can boot from the thumb drive, hold down 'C' after rebooting and the thumb drive connected.erase and format the drive and do a clean install. Lion OSXDiskMaker will show you how to make the thumb drive.
 
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Let me ask the question a different way. You said your friend "redeemed" this code for you on your account. At that point the install file was on HIS machine. How did you get the install file to YOUR machine? USB, DVD, whatever?

You said: if that's so, then how are you using your Apple ID? How did you get an Apple ID? And was did you mean when you said, "I'm only using my apple account?"
Been a long time lurker, but had to chime in on this one. I can't believe you guys don't understand how he's installing it without having an install disc or USB boot stick. He boots from the recovery partition, obviously Lion was previously on it or it wouldn't have a Lion recovery partition.

He then chooses to install Lion, enters his Apple ID/pass, Apple recognizes that he has purchased Lion and then proceeds to download the Lion installer and tries to install Lion, which seems to fail for some reason.

My guess would be a bad/failing hard drive, or a hard drive that needs to be booted from something like DiskWarrior to check for errors that simply erasing the Lion partition isn't fixing, or he needs to get a bootable Lion USB Recovery stick so he can totally repartition the drive to wipe both the recovery and main partition.
 
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We quite understand how he's installing Lion from a recovery partition. I personally am trying to understand why, if he already has Lion, as seen by the Lion recovery partition, he has to 'buy' Lion from Apple again to install.
If he had Lion on there legally before all he needs is an Apple ID to reinstall. No need to 'redeem' or buy Lion again.
And I agree about the possible failing drive. Probably needs to be replaced.
 
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MacInWin

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In addition to what Craig said, the OP threw in that he "redeemed" some code by having his friend log in with his AppleID. If he had access to Internet and a Recovery partition from which to boot, he didn't need to have anybody "redeem" anything for him. And if you read the thread from top to bottom, he didn't disclose the fact that he didn't have access to the App Store until post #13. And then, as Craig said, the video he said he was following and said seemed to work REQUIRES App Store access, again confusing the issue. Did he or did he NOT have access to the App Store?

For 99% of installations, you either download the installer directly to the drive, or if you have to use a separate machine, you download the installer and then copy it to either a DVD or USB memory stick. We were struggling with how he got the installer from the store to his machine if he didn't have access to the App Store and wasn't using USB or DVD. I don't know if the HD failed or not, but from the symptoms the partition for OSX was not being created. If he called Apple support, they can talk him through it step-by-step on the phone. They might even be able to take over his machine remotely from the Recovery Partition and install it for him. (Never tried that, but it might work.)
 
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The reason I had to purchase Lion with my Apple ID is because it was originally my Aunt's computer. She used her ID when originally setting everything up. She sent it to me with a formatted hard-drive, but she didn't realize that I would need her Apple ID to reinstall Lion. She forgot her Apple ID, and Since this is my first Apple Computer, I didn't have a copy of Lion. So I had to redeem it onto my account. Hopefully this clears things up.
 
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Why did your aunt format the HD? She could have just restored her HD to the original state without any of her stuff installed? I do not think it is advised to share ones ID for this. Just make a new ID. Once you get this installed just install Mavericks. It is free.
 
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MacInWin

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Yeah, aunts can be that way! I think the lesson to be learned here is that when asking for help, it's better to disclose pretty much everything so that the folks trying to help you can make better suggestions. Now that everything is out, we could probably get you going without so may back-and-forth posts.

Did Apple get it going for you?
 

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