Snow Leopard to Yosemite - no joy.

Joined
Nov 22, 2014
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Points
1
I decided to upgrade my MacBook pro from Snow Leopard to Yosemite and now I am stuck. Yosemite wants to install on the ‘Macintosh HD’ partition but can't. I should say that ‘Macintosh HD’ is the largest of 3 partitions and I think the only one on the physical drive on which it reside and it takes up nearly all the drive space; other 2 are much smaller and on different disk I think - an OS X Install ESD partition at 1.3 GB and an OS X Base System partition at 5.4 GB. Getting back to the install, the process dies because it is unable to verify/repair a problem with the Macintosh HD partition. The install will begin (says it will take 22 minutes) then fails. Other times, it tells me the drive is locked and it can't begin the install on the ‘Mac HD’ partition. This leaves me in OS X Utilities limbo land. I figured I would erase the Macintosh HS partition and reformat it in the hopes the bad sectors on the drive would be marked and then the install could process. Can’t do this either. When I try to erase, It tells me the drive can’t be un-mounted. I even tried to un-mount from the command line using the terminal utility – no go. I have managed to restore/copy the ‘Macintosh HD’ partition to an external HD so I am hopeful my data is protected. Full disclosure - I am not an Apple OS person and my logic may not be correct which is why I am posting. Other constraints, I am working in Mexico and won’t be back to the states until mid-December. There is no genius bar where I am working otherwise I would have dumped this in their lap. There is an Apple store at a mall near me but that’s it.
 

pigoo3

Well-known member
Staff member
Admin
Joined
May 20, 2008
Messages
44,210
Reaction score
1,418
Points
113
Location
U.S.
Your Mac's Specs
2017 15" MBP, 16gig ram, 1TB SSD, OS 10.15
Need to know at least two things:

1. Exactly what model MacBook Pro do you have?
2. How much free space on the hard drive partition you are trying to do the Yosemite install on?

- Nick
 
M

MacInWin

Guest
1) Unless you absolutely NEED Yosemite, I recommend waiting until you get back to the States and near an Apple store again.

2) You cannot unmount the drive from which you are booted, which is why you cannot reformat or do much with your Macintosh HD partition.

3) Well done on making the backup!

4) If you have a USB memory stick with 8GB of space, it is possible to make it bootable and to have the Yosemite installer on it. But if you are, in fact "not an Apple OS person" that could also be fraught with some peril. Again, I suggest you wait if you can.
 
M

MacInWin

Guest
BTW, as a former road warrior, there are two rules to success:

1. Never buy new shoes when on the road.
2. Never update your computer when on the road.

Both cause about the same amount of pain.
 

pigoo3

Well-known member
Staff member
Admin
Joined
May 20, 2008
Messages
44,210
Reaction score
1,418
Points
113
Location
U.S.
Your Mac's Specs
2017 15" MBP, 16gig ram, 1TB SSD, OS 10.15
1. Never buy new shoes when on the road.

That's a good one!:)

Or if you do buy shoes on the road…don't wear them till you get home.;)

- Nick
 
Joined
Aug 19, 2014
Messages
792
Reaction score
4
Points
18
i have to agree i wouldn't update via the app store in mexico because the app store will detect your ip address and if your in mexico you might just end up with a spanish version of mac os x this is also why i think your mac won't let you install it because in mexico there efi configuration on there macs is in a different region so only that regions software will work in that regions machine.
 
OP
S
Joined
Nov 22, 2014
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Need to know at least two things:

1. Exactly what model MacBook Pro do you have?
2. How much free space on the hard drive partition you are trying to do the Yosemite install on?

- Nick

Nick,

1. Looks up the serial number and it just says 'Mac Book Pro (13 - inch, early 2011)
2. 54.8 GB Free Space

Thanks.
 
OP
S
Joined
Nov 22, 2014
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Points
1
BTW, as a former road warrior, there are two rules to success:

1. Never buy new shoes when on the road.
2. Never update your computer when on the road.

Both cause about the same amount of pain.

Touche!! Rules I normally live by but. However, on occasion it seems I have to remind myself why the rules are there in the first place. At present, I would be all to happy to pull back from where I am now and go to back to where I was before.
 
OP
S
Joined
Nov 22, 2014
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Points
1
I agree that forestalling the upgrade to Yosemite would be the best course of action. Is it possible for me to get back to the old OS X (10.6.8) or am I committed to moving forward? If the choice is being without the machine until I get back to the US or plowing forward with Yosemite, I am inclined to try and complete the install.
 
Joined
Oct 16, 2010
Messages
17,496
Reaction score
1,541
Points
113
Location
Brentwood Bay, BC, Canada
Your Mac's Specs
2011 27" iMac, 1TB(partitioned) SSD, 20GB, OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan
If you did your backup with CCC or SD to create a bootable clone, your OS X 10.6.8 should be available to boot from and/or clone back.
 
OP
S
Joined
Nov 22, 2014
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Points
1
My apologies but I am not sure what the acronyms CCC and SD are. I was stuck in OS X Utilities (Yosemite) when I decided I better find a way to backup the drive because it was acting up and I had not been able to repair it. What I did was use the disk utility tool to copy/restore the 'Macintosh HD' partition to an external drive. I have that set aside.

I have made some progress. As suggested by MacInWIn, I looked elsewhere on this forum and learned how to made an external bootable drive. I installed Yosemite on a 250 GB WD Passport drive. It look a Looooooong time. However, it has worked!! I was able to boot up the machine so it is running Yosemite from the external drive. As soon as the machine finished booting, it tried to read the internal drive and reported "OS X can't repair the disk Macintosh HD " and told me I need to backup the disk and reformat it. Of course that's the one thing I already knew in all this. In any case, the machine is running from the external drive and I have access to the 'Macintosh HD' partition that needs to be fixed.

So I need to move forward from here. Here are some questions:
1. I still think I would do well to make another backup. So what's the best way to back up the drive - just copy everything to an external drive?
2. Once I get the drive backed up, I assume I use Disk Utility to reformat it?? Advise if you see it otherwise.
3. Once reformatted, I suppose I just install Yosemite on it like I did on the external drive??
4. I would like to recover the same look and fell of my machine once Yosemite is installed (ie background, favorites, and other settings) Is there an easy way to do that?
5.Is there a way to move my Applications (particularly Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat) without the original disk? They are back in the states of course.

Having said all this, I am making the assumption that moving ahead with Yosemite is now the easier option since I was able to boot using Yosemite on the external drive. If that is not the case and it would be easier for me to pull back to 10.6.8, please advise that as well.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Oct 16, 2010
Messages
17,496
Reaction score
1,541
Points
113
Location
Brentwood Bay, BC, Canada
Your Mac's Specs
2011 27" iMac, 1TB(partitioned) SSD, 20GB, OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan
M

MacInWin

Guest
As pm-r says, CCC is Carbon Copy Cloner and SD! is Super Duper!. Both are cloning software that copies drives.

Great that you got a boot drive. Let me address your questions in order:

1. Mount and open the external drive where the earlier backup is. Look to see if it looks OK (try opening a file, or viewing a picture or just survey the directory). If it's good, no reason to do it again. If it's not good, then by all means repeat the process. You need a backup.

2. Yes, you'll need to reformat the drive, but that can be part of the install process. When prompted, partition and format the drive you are installing to. That'll trigger all the cleanup you'll need (and wipe out everything in the process).

3. Yes, but you can format/install all in one go.

4. At this point I think that is going to be difficult, unless your backup has that information on it. You may get lucky, but be prepared to spend some time doing that customization.

5. Ouch. MS and Adobe are sticky as they use "activation" processes to allow the software to run. Normally you wold de-activate the software, which tells the mothership that you have stopped using the license, then re-activate it after an install. Can you see those applications on the internal drive when booted from the external? (Look in /Users/<your account>/Applications, if you can get there?) If you can run them, then you can try to run them, write down the activation codes from the screens that may show them (you'll need them), then de-activate and you'll be fine. Otherwise you'll have to either do without, or maybe try calling Microsoft/Adobe and throwing yourself on their mercy, explaining what has happened to see if they can de-activate them so you can re-activate them. Adobe helped me out with that a couple of weeks ago. I think I had to convince them I was who I claimed I was, but it wasn't that painful.

Good luck with it!

EDIT: Now that you can boot and see the backup drive, is it bootable? How did you make the backup? What did you backup? Since you didn't know what CCC and SD! were, I assume the backup is NOT a bootable clone. It's been a long time since I last worked with SL, but I remember installing from a disc, so I don't think it's (legally) downloadable (and I would NOT trust any illegal download). But if you used TM and if it backed up everything, you could try to see if the Yosemite TM can restore a SL backup. DOn't know if that works, but nothing tried, nothing gained..
 
OP
S
Joined
Nov 22, 2014
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Thanks MacInWin. I will just be happy to get the machine back up and running. I can tweak the settings to get the look and feel back to the way I like it. I will reinstall Office and Acrobat when I get back home.
 
Joined
Nov 28, 2007
Messages
25,564
Reaction score
486
Points
83
Location
Blue Mountains NSW Australia
Your Mac's Specs
Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
As for your reply 54.8GB free space. Just adequate if the drive is say 200GB, or larger. Bad news if smaller. With a laptop believe the best way is to burn Yosemite to a USB thumb drive prior to installing using Lion DiskMaker X.

Then format the drive and do a clean install. Back up first.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top