WHY IS IT TAKING 5 HOURS TI INSTALL BIG SUR

First, it is a massive download: more than 12 GB. We have a slow internet connection and the download took almost 2 hours. How fast/slow is yours?

It then expands to 35 - 45 GB in order to install as there are a lot of components. Make sure you have no external drives attached; also make sure filevault is off and that there is no AV or other cleaning app running.

Dunno exactly.. that does seem an excessively long time.

Big Sur has to restart about 3 times to fully install. I’m assuming you have a recent model MacBook Pro. Are you connected by WiFi or Ethernet( for installing Big Sur) ? If you are on connecting via WiFi only, that would somewhat explain the slowness of your installation. I don’t know what version of Big Sur you’re trying to install or what model+ year your MacBook Pro is.

john. b

They were downloading large system files. And some pre-installed Mac Software. In case others are fast, it's depending on the internet connection.