MattoAsh

Q: El Capitan Install Failed - Now getting kernel panic on login

I have been running the most recent version of Yosemite on a 13inch 2014 Retina MacBook Pro. When I installed El Capitan, halfway through it told me the install could not complete due an error extracting the Essentials.pkg file. It advised me to restart and I did, but now when I try to log into my account, white text highlighted on black appears at the top, saying an operating system is not yet set. The computer then crashes.

 

I started in recovery mode, but the option to reinstall El Capitan tells me I have to restore. This is a problem, as I don't have a backup available of my macbook's SSD. Although I can get back most of the things on there, some things would be permanently lost, so I am reluctant to follow this. I am also presented with disk utility, but I am aware the option to repa disks is no longer used in El Capitan and I am worried that it will worsen things. My Macintosh HD drive is also fully blue, which I'm worried is showing I have lost my data.

 

I did several diagnostics tests, which found nothing, and also made it to the guest safari page, which is using San Francisco, suggesting some of my installation is complete. However I found no solutions on the apple site.

 

I've read about a tool called target disk mode, which I'm thinking I could use to transfer my macbook's files to my father's Mac. However, I don't have a thunderbolt to do this (if I went to a Genius Bar, do you think they could do this instore?)

 

If anyone could help me on how to otherwise retrieve any personal files left on my hard drive and get my MacBook running again, it'd be greatly appreciated. While my music library is replaceable, I had to keep files for my music production software Caustic on the SSD, and I don't want to lose them.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014), OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Oct 8, 2015 1:28 PM

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Q: El Capitan Install Failed - Now getting kernel panic on login

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  • by OGELTHORPE,

    OGELTHORPE OGELTHORPE Oct 16, 2015 1:05 PM in response to MattoAsh
    Level 9 (52,700 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 16, 2015 1:05 PM in response to MattoAsh

    A reinstall of an OSX should not have any affect on user data.  However things can go wrong therefore a backup is always highly recommended.

     

    The choices you have are to boot into the recovery partition (COMMAND +R) and select reinstall OSX or boot into Internet recovery (OPTION + COMMAND + R) and reinstall the original OSX that the MBP came with.

     

    Ciao.

  • by MattoAsh,

    MattoAsh MattoAsh Oct 16, 2015 1:11 PM in response to OGELTHORPE
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Oct 16, 2015 1:11 PM in response to OGELTHORPE

    rreally? It says it'll 'restore' OSX, so I took that as meaning the computer will get restored. In that case I'm tempted to just go for a reinstall, but at the same time I'm conscious if the same error occurs my files are probably toast.

  • by OGELTHORPE,

    OGELTHORPE OGELTHORPE Oct 16, 2015 1:29 PM in response to MattoAsh
    Level 9 (52,700 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 16, 2015 1:29 PM in response to MattoAsh

    No, It says reinstall Mac OSX:

    Screen Shot 2015-07-17 at 5.42.23 AM.png

    Ciao.

  • by MattoAsh,

    MattoAsh MattoAsh Oct 16, 2015 1:32 PM in response to OGELTHORPE
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Oct 16, 2015 1:32 PM in response to OGELTHORPE

    can't attach picture, but when I click continue on the installer it says "to download and restore OS X..." That last bit has me pretty worried.

  • by OGELTHORPE,

    OGELTHORPE OGELTHORPE Oct 16, 2015 1:43 PM in response to MattoAsh
    Level 9 (52,700 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 16, 2015 1:43 PM in response to MattoAsh

    The menu I posted is when you access the recovery partition or the Internet recovery.

     

    What is the source of the 'installer' that displays "to download and restore OS X..."?  Is it the App store or a separate OSX installer?

     

    Ciao.

  • by MattoAsh,

    MattoAsh MattoAsh Oct 16, 2015 1:45 PM in response to OGELTHORPE
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Oct 16, 2015 1:45 PM in response to OGELTHORPE

    I'm on the recovery mode accessed by command + r. I clicked reinstall OSX and that came up.

  • by plabrin,

    plabrin plabrin Oct 16, 2015 2:09 PM in response to MattoAsh
    Level 1 (45 points)
    Oct 16, 2015 2:09 PM in response to MattoAsh

    Press on reinstall mac os x and continue. This process will reinstall your latest version of os x that is installed on your computer. The process indicates which OS X you are about to reinstall as you continue. To install you will need to press on the "install" button. In addition, you will need your apple id and password to continue along with agreeing to the terms and conditions. This process will not delete any of your data, it just reinstalls OS X over the OS X already installed to your computer.

     

  • by MattoAsh,

    MattoAsh MattoAsh Oct 16, 2015 2:15 PM in response to plabrin
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Oct 16, 2015 2:15 PM in response to plabrin

    The problem is, I have no OS X version set according to my kernel. Will it still work if I haven't?

  • by MattoAsh,

    MattoAsh MattoAsh Oct 16, 2015 3:10 PM in response to MattoAsh
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Oct 16, 2015 3:10 PM in response to MattoAsh

    Right, I went to reinstall, only to find out I need an extra 1GB of space on my SSD. Do I make a USB installer, or am I just buggered?

  • by OGELTHORPE,

    OGELTHORPE OGELTHORPE Oct 16, 2015 3:16 PM in response to MattoAsh
    Level 9 (52,700 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 16, 2015 3:16 PM in response to MattoAsh

    MattoAsh wrote:

     

    Right, I went to reinstall, only to find out I need an extra 1GB of space on my SSD. Do I make a USB installer, or am I just buggered?

    You will have to get data off of the SSD. 

     

    You might try a safe boot:

     

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

     

    That may create some additional space, but I do not know if that will work.

     

    Ciao.

  • by plabrin,

    plabrin plabrin Oct 16, 2015 4:07 PM in response to MattoAsh
    Level 1 (45 points)
    Oct 16, 2015 4:07 PM in response to MattoAsh

    The extracting seemed to have stopped due to insufficient space on your HD. Do you have an external HD, where we can install OS X and then reboot your computer using the external drive as your start up disk, signing-in, hopefully we can locate your internal drive "macintosh HD" by opening up "finder" and extracting your user folder with all your data to the external drive.

  • by MattoAsh,Solvedanswer

    MattoAsh MattoAsh Oct 16, 2015 5:13 PM in response to MattoAsh
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Oct 16, 2015 5:13 PM in response to MattoAsh

    Good news everyone - I went into internet recovery mode in the end, which installed Mavericks. Much to my surprise that worked, so I then opened the El Capitan installer, and an hour or so later I'm back typing on my trusty laptop! Cheers for the help though, much appreciated!

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