unable to boot into Catalina by any method, progress bar keeps freezing...even in safe mode

ninose wrote:

I've had to erase my Mac hard drive after repeated kernel panics. The problem is that I can now not even perform a recovery install via any method. My 2012 macbook pro retina won't install via the regular recovery method when I boot into safe mode. I then tried a recovery via Internet. After the spinning globe, I get taken to the Mac logo screen with a progress bar that freezes 75% of the way. I finally downloaded Catalina to an external hard drive and tried to install that way. But again the same issue. When I hold down the option key, I see "Install Calatina" and then get taken to the Mac logo window with a progress bar. But again it freezes about 80% of the way.

I already took it to an authorized Apple repair center. They diagnosed it and said I needed a new battery and that software was corrupted. So at this stage, I'm wondering whether it would help if I replaced the hard drive. Perhaps the hard drive itself is fatally compromised? Does anyone know why installing Catalina via a perfectly healthy external hard drive would cause the macbook pro to vfreeze? Am I missing something? Could the motherboard or logic board be the issue? If it's software related wouldn't it be the hard drive and no other hardware at fault???

Thank you in advance for any help with this.

If your Mac doesn't turn on

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204267

If your Mac doesn't start up all the way

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204156


If your Mac starts up to an Apple logo or progress bar

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207019

It's sounding like your hard drive has failed. You can check that by trying to boot into Target Disk Mode.   It it does then the drive is working and you'll have to look elsewhere for the answer.

Do you have a current backup of your boot drive, i.e. Time Machine or a clone?

ninose wrote:

Thank you very much for your help leroydouglas, but I’ve already gone through all those steps with no luck.

In or out of warranty you can get a free over the counter 'Apple Service Diagnostics' test /assessment

Make an appointment for a "hardware issue"—

https://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/

Outside the USA

https://locate.apple.com/country

From iOS device using the app to make a online Genius Bar appointment is easy: 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/apple-support/id1130498044?mt=8

(note: due to the temporary closure of Apple Stores and the staggered reopening there may be some delays.

 ref: https://www.apple.com/shop/browse/store/temporary_closures )

 Mac notebook, contact us and we'll send you a box you can use to ship it to an Apple Repair Center. We'll return your repaired product to you as quickly as possible. Depending on where you get service, you might be able to check the status of your repair online. Start a service request https://support.apple.com/mac/repair/service

Call Customer Support  (800) MY–APPLE (800–692–7753) 

or on line  https://getsupport.apple.com/

or call  AppleCare Support at 1-800-APLCARE (800-275-2273)

Get your Mac ready for service - Apple Support   https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209095

When you boot from the external drive, can you run Disk Utility on the internal drive and check SMART status? A more detailed examination of the internal drive can be done with DriveDx or TechTool Pro or other utilities, although you can also do some of that via Terminal commands if you know how to use unix and Terminal. For instance, we had a 2010 Macbook Air whose internal SSD was failing; Apple's Disk Utility SMART status was ok, but TechTool Pro's more detailed SMART status showed marginal readings and it failed DriveDX's tests. A 2012 computer is 8 years old and may have hardware that is wearing out. I would suspect that the drive has some bad spots because you can consistently get 75% or 80% of the way through the install then it fails. Another possibility is worn out solder joints on the motherboard or elsewhere and after 80% of the install the temperature rises enough to cause the joint to fail.

As several of us have suggested earlier, it appears that your hard drive has failed. Or that your computer has a more serious and different hardware failure. The message in several languages means your computer "crashed" -- that is caused by either software or hardware, but since you had no software (not even an operating system) installed, it was clearly hardware.

I don't think people in this forum are likely to be able to troubleshoot this much further. You will need to find an Apple authorized service center (there are some open) to diagnose the problem, which will likely require opening up the computer and doing some specialized tests to find the problem, something only a trained technician should do. If you are lucky, just the disk is bad, as that is straightforward and relatively inexpensive to replace.

Since you have a 2012 model, you might also seriously consider simply replacing it with a new computer.