Internet recovery "this might take a while": How long is "a while??"

I was instructed by Apple tech support to use Internet Recovery (option-command-r) to restore my non-functioning computer. It has been stalled at the initial step ("this may take a while") for over four hours now.


What is a reasonable amount of time to wait before starting over?

iMac 27″, OS X 10.11

Posted on Sep 28, 2021 8:51 PM

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Posted on Sep 29, 2021 7:45 AM

It dawned on me that I should unplug my external drives and try again. Took about 2 minutes and then I'm in. Um . . . . why didn't Apple support recommend this??

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Internet recovery "this might take a while": How long is "a while??"

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