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Mid 2010 MacBook Pro 6,2 Had 10.9.1 installed on an SSD drive which failed. Got a replacement drive (same brand, model) Have a USB bootable thumb drive with 10.9.0 installation files on it Mac boots from USB and install starts It sees the new drive (formatted Mac OS Extended Journaled) I set the date via Terminal so that isn't the issue Goes through the preparing to install routine, and then eventually fails with the following error:

An error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again.

Saw previous posts which said date was incorrect; but date has been set correctly. I've confirmed the files exist on the USB drive. After it fails and I go to Disk Utility, the SSD drive is suddenly not visible. Anyone have a clue?

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  • Is there a Trim enabler with that disk. what brand/model is it?
    – Ruskes
    Commented Apr 15, 2015 at 16:33
  • No. It's an OWC Mercury Electra 3G
    – Libby Gregg
    Commented Apr 15, 2015 at 17:19
  • What does the Installer log say? You can enable it from the menu. During installation, the menu is invisible, but can be shown by hovering over with the mouse. Alternatively or in case the installer took a hit and got corrupt, you could install the original system (Mac OS X 10.6), update it and then download Mac OS X 10.9 again from the App Store. It's more tedious, but possible, if you obtained Mavericks when it was still available.
    – Phoenix
    Commented Apr 15, 2015 at 17:26
  • I'll check the installer log. However 10.6.3 won't recognize the SSD drive. Cause I already have that install cd. Let me check the installer log.
    – Libby Gregg
    Commented Apr 15, 2015 at 17:26
  • Point taken. Though you could install 10.6 also onto an external HDD and download Mavericks there. Unless even 10.6.8 does not detect the SSD, this would also be possible if you have a Mac-formatted external HDD with 10+ GB space. Other than that, if you have another Mac, you can try to create another boot media there.
    – Phoenix
    Commented Apr 15, 2015 at 17:31

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I had the same problem "an error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this applications again". When you run the installer again, instead of trying to install to the SSD, install the Mavericks OS onto the usb drive (hopefully you have a big enough usb drive to contain mac os and installer) and then reboot with the USB Mavericks OS. Computer is now running os off usb drive. Then open the installer that is also on usb and find the ssd. I had to restart once to get the ssd to show up in disk utility, but you might get lucky. Good luck hope it works for you. (my ssd OWC Mercury 240).

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