Leopard install problem: not finding Macintosh HD during install

[geofffitch]

This issue's been resolved, but I thought I would post my experience here in case anyone else has the same problem.

Installing on PowerBook G4 12" running latest version of Tiger. When I ran the installer, everything proceeded as normal until it got to the screen where I was to choose the install location. At this point, nothing appeared. Under tiger, no problem could be found with the HD - verify/fix was clean. Disk utilities showed the physical HD and Macintosh HD volume as normal. But strangely the disk utilities ran from the Leopard installer showed only the physical HD, not the Macintosh HD volume.

Spent 4-5 hours with Apple tech support and trying various things to no avail. In the end, they recommended an erase and install.

At this point, I decided to do a fresh backup (.Mac backup) and clone the HD with SuperDuper! Strangely, after that the HD appeared as normal in the installer and I could install as normal. The problem seemed to disappear when I backed up.

[squirri]

Same thing happened to me on my G5 iMac. I backed right up to the start of the Installer, fired up Disk Utility(which found the drive OK), then carried on with the Install. The installer then found the drive OK and then went ahead and did the install(I did an upgrade install as I have a (disconnected) SuperDuper clone on a Firewire drive)