Lion installation

J

Jean-ClaudeB

Bit poster
I bought Lion yesterday for my MacBook Pro to upgrade from Snow Leopard. Unfortunately it wont install because of a no-recovery error. Apple clarified that this is related to my virtual system incompatibility.

After checking the Parallel site, I realised that my Parallel version 5 was not compatible. So I bought version 7 and installed it.

After completing the Parallel installation, I run the Lion install and, again, bumped on the same "no-recovery" error. No change! Did I spend 50 € (+ another 30 for Lion) for nothing or is there a way to get out of this nasty situation please?

Any enlightenment on this would be most helpful and appreciated.

Jean-Claude
 
Some facts:

* Although PDM 5 doesn't work on Lion (and PDM 7 does) it doesn't prevent in any way Lion installation, Lion installation should run smoothly with PDM 5 installed, although it's convenient to upgrade to 7 before upgrading to Lion but because PDM 5 will simply not work in Lion.

* I have no idea what the expression "virtual system incompatibility" means, it doesn't have to be related to Parallels just because it has the word 'virtual' in it. If I google for that exact expression the only result is this thread. To the best of my knowledge that expression meaningless/vague.

* If you have a Bootcamp partition with Windows installed on it (used or not in Parallels) and this partition for some reason not correctly identified by Lion (for instance, the partition layout was altered by another tool besides Bootcamp Assistant.app), you might lose access to it, but again, it shouldn't prevent Lion from being installed

* The 'No Recovery' error means Lion can't create the so called 'Recovery Partition', this is not related to Parallels directly, it might be related to an existing bootcamp partition. This can happen for a variety of reasons including lack of space on the drive.

* This thread on another forum might help you: http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/os-x-operating-system/245192-installing-lion-no-recovery-error.html

* According to that thread I suggest you first try to unmount the Bootcamp partition (if you have any) before attempting to install Lion.
 
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Thank you for your suggestion which I followed, to no avail three times.

I am still getting this error message: "Installation failed Mac OSX could not be installed on your computer because it is impossible to create a recovery system. Consult www.apple.com/support/no-recovery".

No option offered but to restart with the previous OS.

For information my Mc HD has 211GB of which 153 GB are available. My Bootcamp partition is 108GB of which 83GB are free. So disk space is not the factor.

From the Apple site support, it appears that there is no alternative to erasing Bootcamp, erase the HD, reinstall everything, and then remake a Bootcamp partition...

If this is really the only way, I sincerely believe this information should be made available to prospective buyers before purchasing so that they know what trouble they have to expect!
 
I suggest you backup your Windows partition, remove it via Bootcamp Assistant, upgrade to Lion, recreate it, restore backup.

(I don't think you need to wipe out Snow Leopard also as they say in that support document)
 
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