Non-descript error when installing ML

Hi all,

I've been struggling with getting my 2012 21.5" iMac going. It was passed along to me, and so I wanted to do a clean reboot of the OS. I was able to successfully erase and partition the HDD, but when it came time to reinstall ML, I get the following error:

"An error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again."

This error pops up after I have selected the target disk.

As a curious note, the first time I tried, it got about 30% of the way before saying "Unable to download additional components needed...". Every attempt after that has led to the above error.

Any ideas would be much appreciated!

Are you having problems with your internet service lately?
Sounds like an initial damaged download, and it's unable to download additional components.

I wouldn't necessarily say problems... but it isn't the fastest thing out there. How do I go about repairing it and trying again?

j7house said:

"An error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again."

Click to expand...

So to boil things down from the original post. Is the problem that you are unable to completely download the Mountain Lion install file?

And if this is the issue...have you purchased Mountain Lion previously from the Mac App Store?

- Nick

I currently am unable to install in recovery mode. There is no OS installed right now (booting up leads to the folder with a question mark on it), so I've had to boot in internet recovery mode in order to download the OS. Unfortunately, that's where the error comes in.

Thjs is the problem of the new owner not physically owning the installed software, OS X.8.2 or whatever. One of the joys of no more system install DVDs. OP do you have an Apple ID and access to a Mac using OS X.6.8 or later you can download Mounbtain Lion from the App Store? You should probably have established the Apple ID, and after that downloaded Mavericks free of charge and used that for a clean install before erasing the hard drive.

Unfortunately I do not have any other Macs in the house. Anything else I can do?

j7house said:

I was able to successfully erase and partition the HDD...

Click to expand...

In the original post you mentioned being able to erase & partition the HD. How did you do/accomplish this?

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

In the original post you mentioned being able to erase & partition the HD. How did you do/accomplish this?

- Nick

Click to expand...

Hi Nick,

I did this using Disk Utility in internet recovery mode. Erased Macintosh HD.

Really? Without having an operating system burnt to a USB flash drive? Do you have an Apple ID?

Boy this really peeves me. This is the second post in 3 days where a Mac device has not been properly prepared for resale or gifting to another by the original owner.
Perhaps its a failing of Apple that they do not properly explain the relationship between the Apple ID and ownership/authorization/registration of an Apple device.
There are so many web sites, not to mention Apple's own that explain how to prepare for resale of a Mac.
Perhaps it's all too complicated? Deauthorise the device in iTunes. Remove it from your Apple account (My Devices). Perform an erase and clean reinstall of the OS. All of which requires the original owners' Apple ID. Omitting any of these steps causes enormous problems for the new owner especially if the previous owner cannot be contacted.
Sounds simple enough huh?
But no, the last post on this subject appeared to suggest that the previous owner had simply deleted the MacHD partition before passing it on. *** were they thinking?
A friend of mines son recently gave her his old iPhone. Didn't do anything to set it up. Turned out his Apple ID had been suspended. Took a week of overseas communication to get him to restore his account before I could reset the phone to factory settings.
Ah well! Sorry for the rant but surely this process could be made easier or more publicly available.

This is one benefit of making a USB thumb drive with each new operating system. When selling a computer use it to format, do a clean install and leave everything like passwords, network info etc for the new owner.

One of the handicaps of no more system install DVDs to pass on to the new owner.

i7house, by chance are you close to an Apple Reseller or Genius Bar? If so they may well do a clean install of Mavericks for you. Just ring first.

Hi guys, thanks for your concern! I've actually made some progress, but the OS X download is stalling part way through again. Looking in the installer log, I get to about 40 chunks out of 423 when it has the following two errors (copied from the log):

Connection did fail with error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=22 "The operation couldn’t be completed. Invalid argument"

and...

Chunklist download failed with error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=9 "The operation couldn’t be completed. Bad file descriptor"

Is this just a internet connection thing now? I'm plugged straight into the router...

harryb2448 said:

i7house, by chance are you close to an Apple Reseller or Genius Bar? If so they may well do a clean install of Mavericks for you. Just ring first.

Click to expand...

Closest one is 2.5 hours away!