Bootable USB Installer for Catalina 10.15.4 Error "An error occurred validating the installer data. The download is either damaged or incomplete."

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Bootable USB Installer for Catalina 10.15.4 Error "An error occurred validating the installer data. The download is either damaged or incomplete."

Hello! I recently downloaded and prepared installation media, a USB installer as directed on the Apple support website, to install Catalina on my 2017 Macbook Pro A1708 which was running High Sierra. After installing Catalina, which went off without a problem, I noticed a few quirky issues and decided to do a clean install and not have it restore my data, apps, etc., from Time Machine.

I followed the instructions from the Apple support site to erase the disk using Disk Utility directly after boot and then proceeded to install Catalina. It gets to about 2% left to complete and gives the error:

"An error occurred validating the installer data. The download is either damaged or incomplete."

I decided to recreate the USB installer using another Macbook Pro and tried the install again, but it returns the same error.

After that, I reset the NVRAM and SMC, but the error persists.

Finally, I tried to install macOS from the internet option per the Apple support instructions and made sure the Catalina USB installer was not plugged in. The installation completes, but it will not boot. It will always boot into the restore utility and if I choose to select the boot device using the startup disk tool, it will reboot and go back into the restore utility.

It seems like there is an issue somewhere buried and inaccessible through Disk Utility tools, First Aid, and Diagnostics, as they all come back without problems or issues. Please let me know what, if anything else I am able to try. Thanks!

MacBook Pro

Posted on May 12, 2020 4:21 PM

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Answer 1

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HWTech

Level 9

60,284 points

May 12, 2020 8:18 PM in response to raquelpelota

Did you erase the physical drive before reinstalling macOS? By default Disk Utility now hides the physical drives from view so you must now click on "View" within Disk Utility and select "Show All Devices" before the physical drive appears in the left pane of Disk Utility.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208496

See if your laptop qualifies for this free Apple SSD repair program:

https://support.apple.com/13-inch-macbook-pro-solid-state-drive-service

FYI, here is a current list of all the publicly acknowledged free repair programs for various Apple products (some products may have multiple repair programs available):

https://support.apple.com/exchange_repair

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Answer 2

raquelpelota Author

Level 1

9 points

May 14, 2020 3:57 PM in response to HWTech

Apparently my comments regarding the cover-up by Apple of issues with Catalina bricking logic boards due an EFI corruption were deleted, so here they are again. I believe this is the issue:

After using various USB installers and attempting to boot from an external drive w/ Catalina freshly installed, all of this failed in similar fashion. Further research uncovered some disturbing information, I am quite confident that EFI corruption is the issue. The fact that a simple software update can brick a "state of the art, engineered system" like a Macbook Pro is ridiculous:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/if-catalina-bricked-your-mac-read-this.2220592/

https://9to5mac.com/2019/10/24/efi-firmware/

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250745000

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250728927?answerId=252135809022

It would be great if an update from the Apple engineers would come out.

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Answer 3

raquelpelota Author

Level 1

9 points

May 13, 2020 2:09 PM in response to HWTech

Hello! It looks like the device is possibly an SSD replacement candidate. I'll have to check into that. I did erase the drive after clicking on the option to view all devices. I deleted both the partition and the root physical drive using the Disk Utility. I'm wondering if maybe the EFI is corrupted or if the creation of the boot records when installing are somehow not what they should be. Other solutions have talked about having to have the Apple support team do a firmware upgrade, fix the EFI, etc., which I'm not sure why I couldn't do myself.

I appreciate the response and will keep working on it while our Apple stores are closed. Thanks!

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Answer 4

HWTech

Level 9

60,284 points

May 13, 2020 6:07 PM in response to raquelpelota

As long as you erase the whole physical drive as GUID partition and APFS (top option) you don't need to worry about the partitions since Disk Utility automatically takes care of that as does the Catalina installer. Since you were able to install/upgrade macOS previously and experienced issues it would seem your laptop may have a hardware failure. When using a USB stick for the installer it can be complicated because the quality of USB sticks is quite bad and Macs can be extremely picky about their boot drives. Try using another brand of USB stick. You can use a standard USB hard drive for the macOS installer if you wish.

Another option would be to install Catalina to an external drive. If you can boot the external drive without problems, then it likely indicates an issue with your built-in SSD.

I don't know what type of failure the SSD will have if the laptop qualifies for the free SSD repair program. I do know that Apple will attempt to update the firmware on the SSD to fix the issue, but if the SSD firmware cannot be updated then Apple will replace the SSD. No matter what you will need to have a good verified working backup before you have Apple perform the free SSD repair since the SSD will be erase or replaced during the repair.

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Answer 5

raquelpelota Author

Level 1

9 points

May 13, 2020 7:56 PM in response to HWTech

Thanks for the information. I previously installed Catalina from the same USB installer successfully, which is why this all seems odd. When on High Sierra, rather than do an upgrade I wanted to do a clean install of Catalina, so I created the installer and followed the steps for a clean install. It worked fine, but after restoring files and other items from Time Machine the machine started acting weird. So, I wanted to do a clean install of Catalina again and followed the exact same steps with the same USB installer and now I get that error.

When installing High Sierra (factory reset option) it reboots to a flashing folder with a question mark. I suppose the next step may be to try another USB drive or external disk. The USB drive I'm using is a brand new Kingston, one of the higher quality ones, not that it matters. Also, when attempting to reinstall from Time Machine backup on a new external USB drive, the flashing folder with a question mark happens as well. I appreciate the assistance.

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Bootable USB Installer for Catalina 10.15.4 Error "An error occurred validating the installer data. The download is either damaged or incomplete."

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