Catalina installation error

I need a little more detail so that my coronary arteries can remain open while I solve the problem, if you are so kind

1- I must format / delete the drive (in my case ‘container disk3’) that contains the Macintosh HD, which will automatically format the partitions that are not shown

2- Once this is done, my Mac is "empty", so I deduce that he will automatically ask me to reinstall an operating system. For this I will have a USB-stick boot disk, for example, on which I will have saved ... mojave or the new Catslina that I could not install?

3- And the last step will be to restore my safety copy from Time Machine

Is that right? Do I miss something? Should I do it now or is an Apple update that solves this problem foreseeable?

JA-A, my coronaries and myself thank you

Firstly, make yourself a Catalina installation USB device. There are lots of instructions for doing this but this article is quite thorough. Also, make sure you got multiple backups of your data from the Mojave disk before you start.

Boot the Mac holding down the option key and select the install Catalina USB device. Then use the version of Disk Utility that comes with Catalina. (Note: I had errors on my iMac's Fusion drive that previous versions of Disk Utility could not fix, but the Catalina version worked. I guess Apple have made improvements to recovering APFS errors.) Selecting the 'all devices' menu option allows you to see the container that you need to 'erase'. Look at the log of what it is doing when erasing the container and you will see that it is creating various volumes that are needed by Catalina. Older versions of Disk Utility didn't do this.

Once you've created the volumes, go ahead and run First Aid on everything just to be sure you've got a clean disk. Then quit out of Disk Utility and start the Catalina installation. Finally recover your data from one of your backups.

This worked for me.

Hi HerrDV. Looks right to me.

I see that Patmore responded to your posting and suggested using the Catalina Disk Utility to remove the partitions. Please note, I have not tried this, but it should work the same way as I suggested (but without the terminal :)

Make sure you have taken many backups to ensure you have everything you need to restore and make sure you have a "bootable" USB stick with Catalina on there and you are ready to go.

I should want you that my restore from backup took 7 hours, so you will also need patience (and a large supply of coffee ;)

JAA

error code of -69716. iMac Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017. MacOS Mojave 10.14.6

Tried recovery mode and First Aid, which found no errors, Zap the PRAM, and no success loading new software.. Fortunately, Mojave is still operating so I am hoping a cleaner Catalina vers. can get here soon & help some of us

Thanks - this worked for me :-)

Yes - it did mean that I had to wipe my Mac and rebuild but after few tries for FirstAid, etc decided to bite the bullet as probably quicker in the long run... and some spring cleaning never hurt ;-)

Thanks for the guide and links

It sounds like there are at least two distinctly different issues associated with this (-69716) error message. There are those whose systems have frozen in the process of the Catalina update and they have had to take steps to resuscitate their operating systems and recover their data (sorry about that). Then there are others like myself that get the install error message and we can reboot and go back into Mohave and operate with no problems (other than not being able to accomplish the update) This includes running the disk utility first aid with no issues of corruption, plenty of memory and the fusion drive has not split etc. I have read through the discussion and sorry if I have missed the obvious but does anyone have any possible suggestions for those of us that fall into this operable category trying to get the update or do we all share a similar fate to those who have already crashed and been resurrected?

Restart the SMC and NVRAM with the Mac powered off press Option + Command + P + R, let's restart for like 2 or 3 times and try to install Catalina Again.

If that doesn't work

Start over again pressing Shift +Command + Option + R, and delete all the volume, create a partition Mac OS Extended and install the version coming with your Mac, then Update + Update + Update to get Catalina

OK. Tried all the suggestions and none worked. Bit the bullet, backed up everything, booted from a flash drive and erased the Macintosh HD. Then reinstalled Mojave, ran Disk Utility and then installed Catalina. Seems stable now except it created two versions of Macintosh HD - data. I had to rename one so Time Machine would work again.

1steffano:

Thank you, this is valuable input. It does seem that erasing the Macintosh HD is the solution. But we all need to know from Apple what is causing the Fusion drive in becoming messed up?

I had this problem months ago when I could not update from High Sierra to Mojave. I took my machine in and the Authorized Apple Service Center said I had bad 3rd party RAM. They removed the supposed bad RAM, reformatted the Fusion drive, installed Mojave and then I had to restore everything from Time Machine.

So here I am again, unable to update to Catalina because the Fusion drive is yet again messed up. I'm taking my iMac in next week to see what the excuse will be this time.

Going forward, this is just not right, and Apple is saying nothing to address the Fusion drive corruption issue. Do we all have defective Fusion drives? Nobody is saying...

I used internet recovery ... I found out what the problem was, and I found a solution. There seemed to be a partition on my drive, that I couldn't delete nor change. Maybe I was hacked? Anyway, first, I erased the Fusion Drive completely, deleting all APFS partitions and/or containers. Then I made one partition in HFS+, and then deleted the fusion drive again, and made a APFS container. Now Catalina is installed, and works fine.

Same uses issue!

Totally, this may be a simple bug in specific cases for the install... My Mac Mini has the same problem and I don’t mind reinstalling everything, but, it’s a pain for sure...

Same problem and error -69716 message. No reinstalls help.

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017), same problem!!