Brews1962

Q: sierra failed to install on mid 2012 mac mini

Late-2012 Mac Mini 16gb RAM 500gb HD

 

Kind of screwed here.

 

Sierra Install.jpg

Mac mini (Late 2012), OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

Posted on Sep 22, 2016 10:33 PM

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Q: sierra failed to install on mid 2012 mac mini

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  • by K Shaffer,

    K Shaffer K Shaffer Sep 23, 2016 12:48 AM in response to Brews1962
    Level 6 (14,513 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 23, 2016 12:48 AM in response to Brews1962

    You may have to start in OS X Recovery and use the Disk Utility there

    to see if the hard drive needs a repair. Could be it may have a problem.

     

    • About OS X Recovery - Apple Support

     

    If you have a backup or used Time Machine to create one, there are a

    few good tips among other treasures here, by James Pond:

     

    • Apple OS X and Time Machine Tips:

    http://www.pondini.org/OSX/Home.html

     

    Also, you could still get El Capitan 10.11.6; but I wonder what's up in

    the Mini. Perhaps a visit to an Apple store if available, to see Genius?

    You'd need an appointment & hope to get time with a product expert.

     

     

    Without seeing a system report or status log, I'd have no way of knowing

    what may be the cause of your Mac Mini's issue. I have a Late 2012 Mini

    and it still is running the OS X it shipped with (nearly two years now) & that

    is Mavericks 10.9.5. It is stable... Because mine is a server, with dual 1-TB

    hard drives (rotational and so may be the bottleneck to performance) there

    is the option to partition each of these for more than one OS X installation.

     

    You could try & see what kind of results a report Etrecheck generates; it

    may show some revealing characteristics. Sometimes helpful people  here

    can see a problem among the report if you post one in your thread:

     

    http://etrecheck.com/#about

     

    While I've downloaded the El Capitan installer about 12 days ago, it's still

    in the Applications folder (would also appear in LaunchPad, etc.) And I see

    there is a link to still get El Capitan, though it's not shown in App Store now.

    link: https://itunes.apple.com/app/os-x-el-capitan/id1147835434?mt=12

     

    My mini may still have upgrade application options, free, in El Capitan.

    Ones that should have been used in Yosemite, but I held off; too late now.

     

    If the computer has an issue, any issue, avoid upgrading because that tends

    to only mask the actual problem and makes it harder to troubleshoot. One

    problem an upgrade can bring, may be too many older applications, any old

    or new antivirus (trash them) or any adware or malware you've acquired. A

    clean totally new installation on another drive may be a way around trouble.

    And avoid using Migration Assistant if your original system may be suspect.

     

    Good luck & happy computing!