macOS Catalina

First, repair the drive:

Repair the Drive for El Capitan or Later

1. Restart the computer. Immediately, at or before the chime, hold down the Command and R keys until the Apple logo and progress bar appear. Wait until the Utility Menu appears.
2. Select Disk Utility and press the Continue button.
3. Then select the indented (usually, Macintosh HD) volume entry from the side list. 
4. Click on the First Aid button in the toolbar and wait for the Done button to activate. Click on it, then quit Disk Utility.
5. Select Restart from the Apple menu.

To install Catalina, first download the installer. See How to upgrade to macOS Catalina. The installer link is at the end of Section 4.

Before You Upgrade macOS

1. Fix any problems before upgrading.
2. Run First Aid in Disk Utility while booted from your Recovery HD.
3. Backup. Make a bootable clone using CarbonCopy Cloner or use TimeMachine.
4. Be sure your startup disk has 18-20GB of free space during the installation.
5. Upgrade third-party software for compatibility. See App Compatibility Table - RoaringApps. If you have mission critical software, then DO NOT upgrade until you know that software is compatible with the version of macOS you are about to install.
6. Disconnect all third-party peripherals.
7. Download the installer which will be in the Applications folder. Quit the installer after it opens, then make a copy of the installer and save it in the Downloads folder. The one in the Applications folder will be deleted after a successful installation.
8. The download is large, anywhere between 5 and 9GBs. It takes time to complete. Be patient.
9. Double-click on the installer in the Applications folder. Click on the start button to begin the installation.

You would be more effective if you could tell the OP how to repair the drive. There are no permission repairs allowable in High Sierra, or later. So, you will know for next time.

Repair the Drive for El Capitan or Later

1. Restart the computer. Immediately, at or before the chime, hold down the Command and R keys until the Apple logo and progress bar appear. Wait until the Utility Menu appears.
2. Select Disk Utility and press the Continue button.
3. Then select the indented (usually, Macintosh HD) volume entry from the side list. 
4. Click on the First Aid button in the toolbar and wait for the Done button to activate. Click on it, then quit Disk Utility.
5. Select Restart from the Apple menu.

when upgrading to High Sierra in 2018, i had to install and repair permissions when i had this issue.

then the upgrade ran smoothly.

i forgot how to repair permissions but i used a link through the apple website.

and High sierra downloads works better at different times of the days

In may i upgraded a neighbors MacBook pro which stop at a certain %

i tried the next morning and everything went smoothly, which might be the case with Catalina

i hoped this info helped