Yosemite install fails

Yosemite install fails when I choose to install on my hard disk. It says that this disk is used for Time Machine backups. I use an external 1TB for back up. Anybody know what I can do?

stravaign said:

Yosemite install fails when I choose to install on my hard disk. It says that this disk is used for Time Machine backups. I use an external 1TB for back up. Anybody know what I can do?

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With the information given…it sounds to me that the incorrect hard drive was chosen for the install.

Or…maybe the wrong hard drive (or both of them) have been used for Time Machine backups…and this is why the Yosemite installer is flashing this message.

- Nick

Thanks for the reply Nick.
I didn't have my Back up external HD connected when I tried to install Yosemite so chose the internal HD as the install drive. I have a Macbook pro with 53Gb free space. I have never used my internal HD as a time machine backup. I renamed my HD to see if that would fix it but to no avail.

stravaign said:

I didn't have my Back up external HD connected when I tried to install Yosemite so chose the internal HD as the install drive. I have a Macbook pro with 53Gb free space. I have never used my internal HD as a time machine backup. I renamed my HD to see if that would fix it but to no avail.

Click to expand...

Ok…this info helps. If the external HD for the Time Machine backups was not connected…and if the internal drive was never used for Time Machine backups…then this does seem to be a curious/confusing situation.

I will mention one thing. If your hard drive has only 53gig of free space remaining…this hard drive is getting kind of full. We usually recommend not letting a drive get more than 80% full (I'm assuming you have a fairly large HD…250gig or more).

- Nick

You may have "ghost" backups remaining on your MacBook Pro hard drive. Whenever you remove your external Time Machine backup drive but do not turn off Time Machine, it will continue to make backups but will use your internal hard drive to store the backups until you re-attach the external drive. I suspect the Yosemite installer is "seeing" some of those that may be left over. Find them and delete them from the internal hard drive and you should be OK.

This disk used for Time Machine backups error message

I would love to delete them, but I have been unable to find them, any clues on how to do so

Hello chscag.

Thanks for that information. after thinking about it for some time I had suspected that might be the problem and when I saw your reply I thought I might be right.
I found the backup file (said it was an iPhone backup) and deleted it and bingo, the installer worked.
Many thanks for your informed reply.

Frank