From what I've been able to gather, this issue occurred because of the existence of partition 4. A default install of OS X, as of Lion, involves three partitions: EFI, your OS X boot volume, and the recover partition.
Features such as Recovery Mode and FileVault require original partitioning schemes in many cases - especially when FileVault is already in use on a partition, as it the partition scheme has been converted to a CoreStorage group. This makes things much messier to try installing without an original layout.
This seems to be the most likely cause of your error. Since I have no logs, dumps, or other material to go by, I can only speculate and apply my knowledge and experience to the matter. However, seeing as OS X installed just fine to the 4th partition, which was blank, it seems to me that the partition scheme itself was to blame, as I stated above. Sorry about the inconvenience.
Good luck and happy upgrading!
Mounting the volume
Disk Utility verification and possible repair of the partition map
If you have not already done so, use Disk Utility 13 (426) in OS X 10.8 to select then verify:
- not the greyed-out partition
- instead, the physical disk that contains the partition.
If verification reveals a problem with the partition map, then consider allowing Disk Utility to attempt a repair.
Proceeding without Disk Utility
Credit to Caesium's answer for finding the asr
suggestion.
Here with a disposable JHFS+ volume, an example of adjustments working as expected. Note the file system checks:
macbookpro08-centrim:~ gjp22$ diskutil unmount /dev/disk12s1
Volume sandpit on disk12s1 unmounted
macbookpro08-centrim:~ gjp22$ sudo asr adjust --target /dev/disk12s1 --settype "Apple_UFS"
Fsck /dev/disk12s1 ....10....20....30....40....50....60....70....80....90....100
Adjust completed successfully
macbookpro08-centrim:~ gjp22$ diskutil list disk12
/dev/disk12
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *256.9 MB disk12
1: Apple_UFS sandpit 256.9 MB disk12s1
macbookpro08-centrim:~ gjp22$ diskutil mount readOnly /dev/disk12s1
Volume on disk12s1 failed to mount
macbookpro08-centrim:~ gjp22$ sudo asr adjust --target /dev/disk12s1 --settype "Apple_HFS"
Fsck /dev/disk12s1 ....10....20....30....40....50....60....70....80....90....100
Adjust completed successfully
macbookpro08-centrim:~ gjp22$ diskutil mount readOnly /dev/disk12s1
Volume sandpit on /dev/disk12s1 mounted
macbookpro08-centrim:~ gjp22$
If the type of your own /dev/disk0s4
can not be safely adjusted or (re)set to Apple_HFS
then:
- the operating system may no longer work with the HFS Plus file system (or remnants thereof) that occupies, or occupied, the affected area of the physical disk; and
- you might doubt the integrity of the partition (start and end blocks, and so on).
Relevant lines from /private/var/log/install.log
should reveal what, if anything, happened to disk0s4
before, during or after installation of the OS to disk0s2
. This logged information may become critical to regaining easy access to the data.
Getting the data without mounting the volume
Good luck with your use of Data Rescue 3 – I have the app, but have never attempted to recover from any area of a disk where the partition type has been affected in this way.
Observations
Device/media name
This is sometimes, not always, a match for the volume name. Here for example:
macbookpro08-centrim:~ gjp22$ diskutil info disk0s2 | grep Name:
Device / Media Name: swap
Volume Name: swap
macbookpro08-centrim:~ gjp22$ diskutil info disk0s4 | grep Name:
Device / Media Name: Untitled
Volume Name: spare
For Todd K., presence of the device/media name –
MacBook Data
– raises hope that start and end blocks etc. are good, that only the type
of the partition is wrong.
Recovery HD implies Recovery OS 10.7.x.
In any case such as this, an installation that is incomplete (that is without the expected upgrade to the Apple_Boot
slice) signals that a nonstandard method of installation – with only part of Apple's installer app – may have been used.
Side note
GUID Partition Table, as it's described in Disk Utility, is the norm for this type of modern installation of OS X – not Master Boot Record.
Best Answer
Yes, you can go ahead and install El Capitan to the smaller partition.
You just need to run the "Install OS X El Capitan" application and select the proper destination volume. I would first use the Disk Utility application to erase this destination volume. You do not have to use a USB drive to install El Capitan.
During the installation, the Recovery volume following destination volume will be update with the proper code. The Recover volume for Mountain Lion will be unchanged. The result will be two different Recover volumes on your internal disk. Each will be given a different label so you can tell them apart.
During the installation, I was not asked, if I wanted to use Core Storage. In the event, you are asked, the answer should be
No
.I also have had Yosemite and El Capitan installed in different volumes on my internal drive for some time now. You can switch operating systems by selecting the Startup Disk in System Preferences.