Resolved Extra Startup option "OS X Installer" - help removing

[crjackson2134]

So I was installing Yosemite to a spare HD and ended up with an extra Option Key startup entry on my MAIN drive called "OS X Installer".

I can see this partition when running Disk Utility from the maintenance partition but I can't delete, erase, unmount or modify it in any way.

I actually even selected to boot it from the "Option Key-Boot" menu to let it run its course but it only errors out and does a spontaneous reboot.

Help me dump this thing please. I'm about to just erase the whole drive and start from scratch just to get rid of it, but I would rather just remove it.

TIA

 

[crjackson2134]

The sad part is that I did this once before a very long time ago and managed to to fix it. For the life of me I just can't remember how I did it.

It's looking more and more like a fresh install is about to happen.

 

[simonsi]

Has the Yosemite install converted your drive (ie all partitions), to Core Storage? If so you will need to revert the drive before Disk Utility can manage your partitions for you again. To see:

In Terminal:

diskutil cs list

Then post the results

 

[crjackson2134]

Has the Yosemite install converted your drive (ie all partitions), to Core Storage? If so you will need to revert the drive before Disk Utility can manage your partitions for you again. To see:

In Terminal:

diskutil cs list

Then post the results

No, it's a standard partition or rather a mounted Apple Disk image according to DU. It's like the installer put a stub file/partition/image somewhere, and it gets mounted on startup. I'm likely going to blow the whole drive away today and do a fresh install. I hate doing that, it's a lot of work, but may be my best course of action.

 

[crjackson2134]

So I just did a CLEAN install of 10.10.2. Now starts the long argues procedure of installing all my apps/data. This is the part I really hate the most.

On the upside, this certainly fixed many small issues, but the main issue remains somehow.

 

[crjackson2134]

Problem NOT fixed!

Okay, so I blew away the partitions on my SSD,and re-installed Yosemite and apps from scratch.

I Option boot to check the status and it's still there. DU from the recovery partition says it's an install partition so I can't delete it. What is going on here and how can I get rid of this thing?

 

[crjackson2134]

I've searched all my drives for an OS X Installer file and found nothing. Does anyone else have any ideas?

 

[donlab]

I've searched all my drives for an OS X Installer file and found nothing. Does anyone else have any ideas?

Is the OS X installer hanging off the Hitachi 2?

Greeting fellow Charlatan? Charlottite? I just moved from charlotte in November to Finland of all places. Missing food truck fridays in south end.

 

[crjackson2134]

Is the OS X installer hanging off the Hitachi 2?

Greeting fellow Charlatan? Charlottite? I just moved from charlotte in November to Finland of all places. Missing food truck fridays in south end.

No I don't think so, I deleted that partition and reformatted and the issue remained. I have since turned it into a TM backup drive for the freshly installed Yosemite.

My wife had a co-worker move from Charlotte to Finland recently too. Must be something in the water.

 

[donlab]

does she work for a large multinational food service corporation group?

 

[crjackson2134]

does she work for a large multinational food service corporation group?

No, she works at the University, but had a partime job in retail. She knew him from the retail PT job.

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I found a file on my SSD root called installer.failurerequests, is it safe to delete this file and is it related to my problem I wonder.

I'm booted to Linux right now so that I can look at everything on all my drives. I don't think the "OS X Installer" is a partition, I think a file/img is mounted somewhere. I don't show any actual partitions that are suspect.

 

[donlab]

you still have usb drive with 10.10.2 attached to machine?

 

[crjackson2134]

you still have usb drive with 10.10.2 attached to machine?

No. I wish it was that simple.

 

[crjackson2134]

Does anyone know where the option startup routine is stored? I mean if I take out ALL of my drives and power on while holding the OPTION button, what will show, and where is that part of the startup stored? NVRAM?

So, I zapped everything and reinstalled and I still have that Damned OS X installer showing. What #P()*&#()* ^A$% does it take to make that !@(*$&$ go away?

 

[crjackson2134]

I's obvious no one knows what is causing ths anomaly. This weekend I guess I'll proceed to partial disassembly. I'll start pulling drives one by one just to be sure I have the culprit (99.9% sure it's the SSD restore partition).

Once I nail that down, I'll boot into a live Linux DVD and nuke all the partitions with Gparted so that its a raw drive. Hopefully that will kill the annoying thing. Then I'll try a TM restore.

 

[crjackson2134]

Still no resolution, anyone else have a clue how to correct this?

 

[crjackson2134]

Amazing. Finally problem is resolved and no partition work required.

 

[DeltaMac]

Good job!

Did you actually remove the installer partition - or did it just spontaneously disappear, with no action on your part?

 

[crjackson2134]

Good job!

Did you actually remove the installer partition - or did it just spontaneously disappear, with no action on your part?

It just disappeared. Apparently praying to Apple works better than calling tech. support

 

[Gosha-747]

Amazing. Finally problem is resolved and no partition work required.

crjackson. i did not understand what You did to make it disappear? Could you explain it, please, because i have absolutely the same problem?...

 

[crjackson2134]

There was another copy of the install OS X.App hanging around on a different drive. After locating the file and deleting it, a simple reboot and it was gone. The file could be on any drive, it's the file itself that is bootable.

 

[Federico Lupo]

There was another copy of the install OS X.App hanging around on a different drive. After locating the file and deleting it, a simple reboot and it was gone. The file could be on any drive, it's the file itself that is bootable.

hello ! can you explain me what files i got to delete? my disc are with kernel panic in the boot because of a failed install, thank you !

 

[DeltaMac]

hello ! can you explain me what files i got to delete? my disc are with kernel panic in the boot because of a failed install, thank you !

If you were trying to reinstall the macOS system, and that failed, you can try another install. Just boot to your installer drive, and try again. Be sure that other storage drives are not attached. That can help.