Incomplete installation of Big Sur upgrade on MacBook Air. Please help!

mrwrightenglish wrote:

I've tried twice to install Big Sur, once in Safe Mode, but both times the progress bar stops about half way and installation pauses. I can't get in unless I boot up in Safe Mode.

As far as I can see, I had enough storage space for Big Sur, and the internet connection seemed to be stable enough to complete the installation.

Please can someone help me understand how I can either install Big Sur or get rid of it? (Can I even get rid of it now, considering that after this I tried instead to install a Catalina and I got an error message saying it's too old?).

Please help!

Thank you.

there are some bare minimums Big Sur states that you will need 35.5 GB of free storage when upgrading from High Sierra or newer, and 44.5 GB when upgrading from an older versions.

however Can you verify your have 20-25% free storage on your machine...to function efficiently.

Empty your Trash — Delete files and folders on Mac - Apple Support

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/delete-files-and-folders-on-mac-mchlp1093/mac

How to free up storage space on your Mac - Apple Support

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206996

See used and available storage space on your Mac

https://support.apple.com/guide/system-information/see-available-storage-space-syspf9b375b9/10.14/mac/10.15

User tip: "Other and What Can I Do About It ?"

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-5142

I tried holding Command + R on my 2017 128Gig MacBook Air after the Big Sur update froze and tried to recover the original Mojave OS from my Time Machine backup. I was able to reboot, but it left the SSD full with the debris from the failed Big Sur update, including a small UPDATE disk and a MacintoshHD-Data disk listed under locations. I'm trying to figure out what to do, but it looks like I will have to erase the hard disk with the Recovery, then try to restore the TimeMachine Mojave backup. The 128Gig hard drive may be too small to do anything useful with Big Sur.

Hello,

Please try to press and hold Command + R for few seconds. And reinstall MacOS from macOS utilities.