And I thought Macs were idiot-proof!!!!

[Buford]

I guess they're no match for my idiocy!

I have boogered up my MacBook Pro.

Every now and again I do an erase of the hard drive, and then re-install the operating system (Mac OS X Lion). I guess it's just part of me being paranoid. I use the Mac OS X Utilities.

I started through the process yesterday. Depending on how many passes I select for the erase portion, the process can take nearly 24 hours. I erased the hard drive and then started to install the OS. Then I had a wonderfully dumb idea. I thought that if I stopped reloading via the internet that I could shove the OS X Install DVD into the MacBook and reload faster!

I believe what I ended up doing was copying the Install DVD into the hard drive; versus opening it and installing the OS. That's why if you look at this picture the highlighted drive is named Mac OS X Install DVD, versus whatever it used to be named.

Of course I realized immediately that all was not well in Mudville. When I backtracked to the Utilities menu and tried to install the OS via the interwebs, I was unable to do so. At first I was told that the (newly renamed) hard drive was full.

I attempted to go back and erase the drive. But then when I returned to the OS installation utility I just got a message stating that the drive was locked.

At this point I think I just panicked. I embarked on an experimental series of blind mounting/unmounting/partitioning drives, attempts to restore from a Time Machine backup drive, voodoo, and other random button pushing.

When I restart the computer I get a slightly different (but equally saddening) installation message that indicates the drives don't have enough space. I believe that in this situation one of the copies of the DVD (which must still be on the hard drive) it trying to install the OS on top of itself.

I'm not worried about recovering any data (obviously). This is just sort of a spare computer. All my stuff is safe on an iMac and a couple Time Machine backup drives (and I never mess around with them like I typically do with the MacBook).

Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this thing?

 

[Buford]

HOLD THE PRESSES! I think we're good.

A buddy sent me this link and said to follow it at erase & install your brain. At first I was thinking that this was the same stuff I had done to get into this mess to start with. But I'm a good sport, so I went thru the steps. When I got to #4 there was a part that I had not done (rename the hard drive).

Once I did that the OS installer was more than happy to start sucking the Mac goodness out of the ether.

I'll know for sure tonight when the OS finishes downloading, but if I had to bet I'd say we're back in business. My work here is done. Carry on.

 

[Kaveman]

Please Folks don't do try this at home. There is absolutely no need to randomly erase your Hard Drives and re-install your OS.

After doing this you will also need to download and install large and numerous updates, a very time consuming and broadband sucking excise.

 

[Buford]

In my defense...

1) If you follow the instructions in that link, it works fine. I've deleted and reloaded maybe a dozen times. I never had any problems until I decided to go rogue and try to use the installation disk.

2) It was not actually a random decision to do this.

a) Sometimes I do it because I'm considering selling it (which was the case this time)

b) I sort of think it's not a bad idea to "start over" every now and then. Wipe out all the forgotten applications you downloaded that weren't any good. Like MacCaching, Microsoft Silverlight and Batch PDF Merger. What the heck were those things? Did I download them or are they important? Delete 'em all and let Mac sort 'em out.

c) I'm mostly a crazy person. I think it may be a bit of my OCD that drives me to "start over" with a fresh OS download once in a while. The electronic version of hand washing.​

3) The updates don't take long.

4) I don't care about using bandwidth. Death to the electrons!!!!