My Late 2014 Mac mini boots from a Monterey installation flash drive into Recovery Assistant and goes to sleep after a while, with no way to get it to wake up. I want to be able to erase the boot drive (a 2½-in SATA SSD) and install a clean copy of Monterey on it.
How can I get it to got to the installer screen, instead of the Recovery Assistant?
Earlier Mac models
On a Late 2014 Mac mini, booting from a Monterey installation USB drive normally takes you into macOS Recovery rather than directly into a traditional installer screen.
Recovery Assistant is the expected starting point. From there, you should be able to open Disk Utility, erase the internal SSD, and install a clean copy of macOS Monterey.
If the Mac mini enters Recovery Assistant and then goes to sleep before you can continue, first try forcing it to boot properly from the USB installer.
Shut the Mac mini down completely, insert the Monterey installer USB drive, and start the Mac while holding the Option key.
When the startup disk selection screen appears, choose the USB installer, which is usually named Install macOS Monterey.
The recovery environment may take several minutes to load from USB.
Once Recovery Assistant appears, open Disk Utility.
Important>> Select View and choose Show All Devices.
Select the physical internal SSD rather than only the volume beneath it.
Erase the drive using the APFS format and GUID Partition Map scheme.
After erasing the SSD, quit Disk Utility and choose the option to reinstall macOS Monterey.
On a Late 2014 Mac mini, booting from a Monterey installation USB drive normally takes you into macOS Recovery rather than directly into a traditional installer screen.
Recovery Assistant is the expected starting point. From there, you should be able to open Disk Utility, erase the internal SSD, and install a clean copy of macOS Monterey.
If the Mac mini enters Recovery Assistant and then goes to sleep before you can continue, first try forcing it to boot properly from the USB installer.
Shut the Mac mini down completely, insert the Monterey installer USB drive, and start the Mac while holding the Option key.
When the startup disk selection screen appears, choose the USB installer, which is usually named Install macOS Monterey.
The recovery environment may take several minutes to load from USB.
Once Recovery Assistant appears, open Disk Utility.
Important>> Select View and choose Show All Devices.
Select the physical internal SSD rather than only the volume beneath it.
Erase the drive using the APFS format and GUID Partition Map scheme.
After erasing the SSD, quit Disk Utility and choose the option to reinstall macOS Monterey.
What you are describing is not the normal Monterey installer process.
On a Late 2014 Mac mini, booting from a valid Monterey installer USB drive should normally allow you to select the installer by holding the Option (⌥) key at startup.
After selecting the external installer, the Mac should boot into the recovery environment contained on the installer itself and then display the macOS Utilities window, where you can choose Disk Utility to erase the internal SSD or Install macOS to begin a clean installation.
The fact that you are seeing Recovery Assistant instead of the macOS Utilities window suggests that the Mac is not actually booting from the installer, or that something is preventing the installer from loading correctly.
One possibility is that the Mac is booting from its internal Recovery partition or Internet Recovery rather than from the USB installer.
If the USB installer is not recognised as bootable, the Mac may fall back to another recovery environment.
Another possibility is that the USB installer was not created correctly.
If it was made using a third-party utility rather than Apple's createinstallmedia command, it is worth recreating the installer from a fresh copy of the Monterey installer using Apple's recommended method.
It is also worth resetting the NVRAM. Shut the Mac down completely, turn it on while holding Option, Command, P and R together, keep the keys held for about twenty seconds, and then try booting from the USB installer again by holding the Option key during startup.
The behaviour you describe, in which the Mac eventually appears to enter sleep and cannot be awakened, is not normal.
This could indicate a display issue, a problem with the USB installer, or a hardware fault. If possible, try using a different USB flash drive, a different USB port, a different monitor or display cable, and a wired keyboard.
Sometimes the computer continues running while only the display fails to wake.
A failing internal SSD can also interfere with the recovery process.
If you are able to open Disk Utility, check whether the SSD appears normally.
If the drive is missing or Disk Utility becomes unresponsive while accessing it, the SSD itself may be contributing to the problem.
The Late 2014 Mac mini is officially supported by macOS Monterey, so compatibility should not be the issue.
D. Hoffmann wrote:
“I do boot from the install media via the Option key. However, i never get to see the selection screen, before the computer goes into a Snow-White-like sleep, from which i can only recover by forcing a shutdown with the power button.”
Try using a wired USB keyboard since wireless keyboards may not go ready soon enough for recognizing special startup keys.
Make sure to hold the PRAM Reset for three chimes if possible (I think the 2014 will allow you to hold it that long, USB-C Intel Macs won't).
Disconnect the USB installer. Try to Option Boot the Mini. Can you access the Apple boot picker menu? If you don't see the Apple boot picker screen, then you have some sort of hardware issue preventing it.
If you do see the Option Boot Apple boot picker menu screen, then connect the USB stick with the bootable macOS USB installer to see if it is scanned & posted as a boot option on the screen (don't wait too long since it may not scan for newly connected drives after a certain amount of time has passed).
Make sure you have properly created the bootable macOS USB installer using the instructions in the following Apple article (requires access to a working Mac that is compatible with Monterey or whatever OS you are trying to create):
Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support
If you have properly created a bootable macOS USB installer, then maybe the USB stick is not good or compatible (Macs are very picky about drives used for booting & many USB sticks are terrible anyway).
I do boot from the install media via the Option key. However, i never get to see the selection screen, before the computer goes into a Snow-White-like sleep, from which i can only recover by forcing a shutdown with the power button.
The flash install media was created using Apple’s recommended procedure. I have not yet tried resetting the parameter RAM. It’s been so long that I have worked with an Intel Mac that I totally forgot about that.
By the way, this is my post, just using the incorrect Apple Account:
“I do boot from the install media via the Option key. However, i never get to see the selection screen, before the computer goes into a Snow-White-like sleep, from which i can only recover by forcing a shutdown with the power button.”
I took it apart, because I wanted to pull out the SSD, in order to reformat it on another computer as an external. However, it turns out that, contrary to my thinking that I had replaced a hard drive with a SATA SSD, it contained an OEM SSD with an X2-style connector.
I am now trying to boot from the internet to see, whether I’ll have more luck.
D. Hoffmann wrote:
I took it apart, because I wanted to pull out the SSD, in order to reformat it on another computer as an external. However, it turns out that, contrary to my thinking that I had replaced a hard drive with a SATA SSD, it contained an OEM SSD with an X2-style connector.
I am now trying to boot from the internet to see, whether I’ll have more luck.
All I can say having had the older 2012 Mac Mini , gutted the original Fusion Drive for a WD SSD drive and upgraded the RAM at the same time
Having made a Bootable Installer of macOS 10.13 High Sierra and used the steps already suggested
Was able to use the Boot Picker and choose the USB Installer and proceed from there, successfully
Did this at least 2 - 3 time with the USB Installer
The last time was when I was Gifting the machine to our daughter
Ah, the good old days when we could pop open the computer and replace or upgrade components
I am sure by colleague @ HWTech can reminder those days
Mac mini boots into Recovery Assistant and then falls into a deep sleep
