![softraid cannot initialize drive softraid cannot initialize drive](https://www.softraid.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/wizard-expanded-shadow-alpha-1030x753.png)
#SOFTRAID CANNOT INITIALIZE DRIVE INSTALL#
And, if it was the "repair permissions" operation in Disk Utility that did the trick (I don't think that's very likely, but really have no way of knowing), people without a separate boot disk/partition to fall-back on should be able to escape the Lion installer by booting from a Snow Leopard install DVD and using Disk Utility from that. I don't know which of those steps did the trick, but I have freed myself from the Lion installer for the time being. My machine booted into 10.6.8 on my "X" volume, just as it always does, and is currently operating normally again. I thought the Lion installer would take over again, but it didn't. (Lion's "Mac OS X Install Data" directory remains in its root directory, but apparently did not interfere.) I thought that, perhaps, this success was a temporary result of the option-key boot drive selection process, so I went to System Preferences, chose the "X" volume as my startup disk, and tried rebooting normally at that point. From the boot disk selector, I chose my Lion-hijacked 10.6.8 boot partition (named merely "X" from way back, when I had both OS 9 and OS X boot drives), and was amazed to find that my Mac booted into 10.6.8 on it, no problem. Then I thought it would be interesting to see if the permission repairs had any effect on the Lion install problem, so I rebooted holding down the option key to select a boot drive on-the-fly.
#SOFTRAID CANNOT INITIALIZE DRIVE UPDATE#
I then rebooted, as Software Update required, and resumed operating from my "maintenance" partition.
![softraid cannot initialize drive softraid cannot initialize drive](https://www.wikigain.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Disk-Initialized-1024x805.jpg)
After that, I let Software Update install the latest batch of software updates. I'm not sure why it is doing so, but, in case it helps anyone else, here's what I did along the way: Having used the Lion installer to designate my 10.6.8 "maintenance" boot partition as the startup disk, and rebooted onto that partition, I ran Disk Utility (doing both the useless file system "repair" which found nothing to repair, and a "repair permissions" which, as always, found some permissions to repair). Further update with some encouraging news: My normal 10.6.8 boot volume, which had been hijacked by the FUBAR Lion installer, is now booting 10.6.8 again.