Mojave Update stalled at "Estimating time remaining"

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Mojave Update stalled at "Estimating time remaining"

Hi all! It seems this is a common issue without a common solution, here is what we are facing after losing 48 hours on this upgrade.

Power Mac 5,1 Mid 2010

Processor JUST upgraded to 6-Core 3.46GHz Intel Xeon X5690 Westmere Processor Upgrade

Upgraded to 48 GB of RAM: PC-8500 1066MHz DDR3 ECC-Registered SDRAM

Upgraded Graphic Card: OWC Radeon RX 580 8GB

Steps:

Backup 480 GB OWV MErcury Elite SSD
Downloaded Mojave update from App Store app
Installation of Mojave while booted in High Sierra went smooth until the Mac restarted
Install continued but stalled at "21 minutes remaining" for 30 hours.
Booted the Mac in "Safe" mode to discover that while it APPEARED Mojave was running, under System Preferences/Startup DIsk there was NO DISK!
Rebooted Mac in Command-R mode, opened Disk Utility, erased drive then formatted it as APFS.
Tried Mojave Install but got "Could not create a APFS partition" error 3 times.
From command-r, relaunched Disk Utility, erased SSD drive again and formatted for Journaled Not APFS.
Reinstalled High Sierra... SUCCESS!
After booting and setting up HS, Began Mojave install through App Store., all is well, then the Mac restarted to finish install.
All is well until 20 minutes to go, the installer stops giving times and displays "estimating remaining time".
This hangs for 2 hours.
Force hard restart, Mac resumes the installation.
At exactly 20 minutes, we're stuck at "estimating remaining time" again. It's been 2 hours and that's where she's stuck!

I'm about to give up and just restore the old graphics card, processor and start looking for another hardware option but wanted to try and conquer this install and hopefully get this configuration to work.

FYI, my first Mac was an LCII, I don't do Windoze but I've always done my own upgrades/tech support, so I'm a pretty good hand at this stuff but this one has us all completely stumped.

Thanks for you attention!

Mike

Mac Pro

Posted on Oct 2, 2020 6:21 PM

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Answer 1

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TheLittles

Level 10

195,657 points

Oct 2, 2020 9:32 PM in response to iamkingdude

iamkingdude Said:

"Mojave Update stalled at 'Estimating time remaining': Hi all! It seems this is a common issue without a common solution, here is what we are facing after losing 48 hours on this upgrade[...]"

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A Few Thoughts:

Reset the SMC and your NVRAM:

Sometimes when changes are made to the system(i.e. updates), system configurations (i.e. for Power) become manipulated, technically. So, reset the SMC and NVRAM. Use a different external keyboard, if available option.

Use Ethernet (Hardwired-Connection)

Ethernet will allow for a reliable connection.

Install Via a USB Bootable Installer:

Try installing via a USB Bootable Installer. Use a separate Mac to create one of these - use a 16GB flash drive. It is create in Terminal, with the correct drivers.

Go Here: How to Create a Bootable Installer for macOS - Apple Support

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Answer 2

TheLittles

Level 10

195,657 points

Oct 3, 2020 10:38 AM in response to iamkingdude

iamkingdude Said:

"Mojave Update stalled at 'Estimating time remaining': Yes, stalled at exactly 21 minutes remaining. Could thius be a drive issue?”

———-

I wouldn’t conclude that as of yet.

Bad Sectors:

Perhaps the sectors on the drive are all mixed up (spread). So, try running First Aid In Recovery Mode, having attempted a new install.

If that does not work...

Go Here: How to Fix a Mac Stuck Installing a macOS Update - Macworld

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Answer 3

iamkingdude Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 4, 2020 9:14 AM in response to iamkingdude

Tried it on another internal drive and the install crapped out at “Your Mac will restart when the update is completed”. Left it for 20 hours, same message is displaying. I am going back to High Sierra. In 30 years of Mac OS Updates going back to Mac OS Sytem 6!!! I’ve never had an upgrade fail so miserably as this one. As a Side note, I was able to successfullyt update an iMac 2017, 27 inch in 70 minutes with no issue. This leads me to conclude that Mojave upgrades into Mac 5,1 are problematic at best and impossible at worst.

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Answer 4

Oct 3, 2020 12:59 AM in response to iamkingdude

There is speculation of Apple servers being overloaded. My Macbook failed to update several times but eventually it worked.

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Answer 5

iamkingdude Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 3, 2020 9:18 AM in response to TheLittles

Made a bootable USB drive (thanks!!) but the install process after initial install revets to the “Time remaining....” screen I’m at 30 minutes now, I fear she’ll stall at 21 again; will report back!

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