Amos Esra

Q: Unable to boot up into OS X installer.

Hi, this morning when I woke up, my iMac was acting very slow (I should mention it was not completely shut off during the night, it was in sleep mode, however). Every click would take around 10 seconds to register, I got fed up of trying to close open programs and such and forced the computer to shut down, I was not able to do it through the computer's interface, because of how unresponsive it was. When I tried to start it back up the progress bar moved very slowly, usually it takes up to 10 seconds to get to around 50% and then the rest finishes very quickly. This time, however, it took a similar amount of time to get to 50%, although a bit longer than usual, and then the rest took probably around 30 minutes, it did reach 100%, but it simply stayed there, for about 10 minutes and I gave up patience. I tried booting up in safe mode and all sorts of other things, nothing worked so I thought I'd just install a fresh os x. So I did, I downloaded the additional files and all of that, once it was finished, the computer proceeded to restart and most likely boot into the installer. But this time it gets stuck almost at the beginning, it takes like 2-3 minutes for the bar to move like half a centimeter, and then it just stays there. I don't know what I can do, I tried safe-mode but it doesn't seem to be working for some reason. What can I do?

iMac (27-inch, Late 2013), OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

Posted on Jul 26, 2016 8:39 PM

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Q: Unable to boot up into OS X installer.

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  • by Amos Esra,

    Amos Esra Amos Esra Jul 26, 2016 8:42 PM in response to Amos Esra
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 26, 2016 8:42 PM in response to Amos Esra

    Some additional info. When it first refused to boot up, I tried booting it up using cmd + s, and I got a boot cache error. Something along the lines of "no such file or directory". Sadly I can't remember the exact error message.

  • by Kappy,Helpful

    Kappy Kappy Jul 26, 2016 8:57 PM in response to Amos Esra
    Level 10 (270,992 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 26, 2016 8:57 PM in response to Amos Esra

    Reinstall El Capitan Without Erasing Drive

     

           Please be sure you back up.

     

    1. Restart the computer. Immediately after the chime hold down the Command and R keys until the Utility Menu appears.
    2. Select Disk Utility and click on the Continue button.
    3. Select the indented (usually, Macintosh HD) volume entry from the side list.
    4. Click on the First Aid icon in the toolbar. Wait until the Done button activates, then click on it.
    5. Quit Disk Utility and return to the Utility Menu.
    6. Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Continue button.

     

    Also, see this User Tip: Basic Steps for Upgrading OS X.

    If the above fails then your system is corrupted and must be replaced after erasing the drive:

    Install Yosemite or El Capitan from Scratch

     

           Backup if possible before continuing.

     

    1. Restart the computer. Immediately after the chime hold down the Command and R keys until the Apple logo appears. When the Utility Menu appears:
    2. Select Disk Utility from the Utility Menu and click on Continue button.
    3. When Disk Utility loads select the volume (indented entry, usually Macintosh HD) from the Device list.
    4. Click on the Erase icon in Disk Utility's main window. A panel will drop down.
    5. Set the Format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)
    6. Click on the Apply button, then wait for the Done button to activate and click on it.
    7. Quit Disk Utility and return to the Utility Menu.
    8. Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Continue button.
  • by Amos Esra,

    Amos Esra Amos Esra Jul 26, 2016 8:47 PM in response to Amos Esra
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 26, 2016 8:47 PM in response to Amos Esra

    Another update: After letting it boot up for some time, I got a gray screen and it then prompted me to with the recovery screen where I could install the new OS X, and for some reason, it just wants to go through the whole process again, downloading the additional data, which I already did. I have a feeling this could become an endless loop. How can this be solved????

  • by Mike Sombrio,

    Mike Sombrio Mike Sombrio Jul 27, 2016 3:26 AM in response to Amos Esra
    Level 6 (17,233 points)
    Apple Watch
    Jul 27, 2016 3:26 AM in response to Amos Esra

    You should run Apple Diagnostics to see if it reports an error. Your symptoms sound like a failing hard drive.

    FWIW starting a second thread with the same topic and then bumping it to the top is considered bad form here.

  • by Amos Esra,

    Amos Esra Amos Esra Jul 27, 2016 3:38 AM in response to Mike Sombrio
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 27, 2016 3:38 AM in response to Mike Sombrio

    Well what should I have done? Made a new thread? The thread clearly got buried.

  • by Mike Sombrio,

    Mike Sombrio Mike Sombrio Jul 27, 2016 5:04 AM in response to Amos Esra
    Level 6 (17,233 points)
    Apple Watch
    Jul 27, 2016 5:04 AM in response to Amos Esra

    You should run Apple Diagnostics Using Apple Diagnostics - Apple Support