Had some problems with my Mac recently and a thread here suggested erasing the disc and reinstalling the OS. I try to reinstall High Sierra but the installation stops saying "2 minutes remaining" and then nothing more happens. I have tried to restart it by pressing the power button and also tried to start it in safe mode which only led me to a white screen with a "stop mark" on it. Any ideas?
MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.13
Use CMD+r to restore OS & choose the External Drive as the Destination...
1. Start up from macOS Recovery
To start up from macOS Recovery, turn on your Mac and immediately press and hold one of the following combinations on your keyboard. Command-R is generally recommended, especially if you never installed macOS Sierra 10.12.4 or later.
Command (⌘)-R
Install the latest macOS that was installed on your Mac.
Option-⌘-R
Upgrade to the latest macOS compatible with your Mac.
Shift-Option-⌘-R
Install the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available.
2. Decide whether to erase (format) your disk
If you need to erase your disk before installing macOS, select Disk Utility from the Utilities window, then click Continue. You probably don't need to erase, unless you're selling or giving away your Mac or have an issue that requires you to erase. Learn more about when and how to erase.
3. Install macOS
After starting up from macOS Recovery, follow these steps to install macOS:
1 Choose Reinstall macOS (or Reinstall OS X) from the Utilities window.
2 Click Continue, then follow the onscreen instructions to choose your disk and begin installation.
3 If the installer asks to unlock your disk, enter the password you use to log in to your Mac. If it doesn't see your disk, or it says that it can't install on your computer or volume, you might need to erase your disk.
1 Please allow installation to complete without putting your Mac to sleep or closing its lid. During installation, your Mac might restart and show a progress bar several times, and the screen might be empty for minutes at a time.
If your Mac restarts to a setup assistant, but you're selling or giving it away, press Command-Q to quit the assistant without completing setup. Then click Shut Down. When the new owner starts up the Mac, they can use their own information to complete setup.

If you never installed macOS Sierra 10.12.4
If macOS Sierra 10.12.4 or later was never installed on your Mac, macOS Recovery works differently:
• Command-R is still the recommended way to start up from macOS Recovery. This combination makes sure that the installation isn't associated with your Apple ID, which is important if you're selling or giving away your Mac.
• Option-Command-R installs the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available.
• Shift-Option-Command-R isn't available.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904
Yep. The installation process finally ended but then it said that "the installer resources were not found". So I then tried to install Lion which is the OS that was on the Mac when I bought it. First I was unable to locate a disk to install on but after erasing and creating a new one I was able to start installing but then the estimated time for installing changes from 0 seconds to 2,456,3435,345 hours or something like that. And then it says that it is unable to get the extra components that is required or something like that. Have been googling and checking A LOT of forums, is it worth making an appointment with Appel support?
And to answer your second question, I have an external drive I can try to install to but I'm not sure how I should do that, from another computer? Or how does that work?
okay, I'll try to install to an external drive tomorrow! Too late for dealing with this stuff now. After I have done that, should I try to install the os on the computer from the external drive instead of from/via the internet recovery?
Does the Disk check out in Disk Utility?
Can you get an external drive to try to install to?
Let's see what that does wilst I ponder next step.
Reinstalling High Sierra stops at 2 minutes left
