El capitan freeze during install

I was upgrading from 10.6.8 to El Capitan from the App store. I downloaded the software (no progress bar but it took around an hour I guess) and then followed the instructions to install it. When it re-booted the Apple logo appeared and then the progress bar moved over by about 1mm and stopped. After two hours I got bored and switched off, re-started and it did the same thing.

I then tried running diagnostics by holding the D down immediately after powering up and after the grey screen appeared nothing happened for about 30 seconds so I released the key and it started the install again. This time it got past the hang it had previously.

I must say that this kind of unreliability is not very good. This Mac has hardly ever been used and has virtually no software on it. Why wouldn't it wok perfectly? (All my Windows 10 upgrades have worked perfectly.)

Dear grant,

I have had problems logging in in El capitan 10.11.1, 10.11.2 for about a month..

So I decided to go for a clean install at 10.11.3

After some choosing the drive to install and initial installation was finished, it restarted and the grey apple logo appeared and froze at 30 percent.

I can't get into safe mode.

Recovery mode brings me finally to a blank grey screen after the loading is finished..

I don't know, is it my hard drive that is busted? I never had any problems until this El capitan update...

What do I you advise me to do?

FarisTheKnight

It is hard to say whether your problem is the Drive itself or the stuff on it.

The gray Apple is contained in the blob of software loaded brute force by the ROM routine. So seeing the gray Apple says your drive did respond with the right stuff. The File System will be initialized later.

The reason for the initial progress bar (starts from the left, proceeds to about the third point) in regular mode is that your Boot drive will not mount to begin using the File System. It does a Disk First Aid pass to try to fix the directory.

-- if the boot drive still cannot be mounted, your Mac will power off.

-- if the Boot Drive CAN be mounted, it is mounted, and the reason why it could not proceed may be lurking in the console log. You can invoke Verbose mode to see the progress messages as they roll by on the screen. The last few messages may contain clues to why you cannot proceed.

Readers would be happy to help you decode them..

update:

I was able to go into single mode and run a disk repair action:

/sbin/fsck -fy

At the end it gave me that "some files were modified" or something along those lines...

Is that enough to know that my hard disk is fine?

Also, is there maybe a way to reset the installation from single user mode, complete erase and new install from my bootable usb?

If you have a bootable USB Installer, simply insert it and hold down the Alt/Option key at Startup. This draws a gray screen, and over the next several minutes, adds Icons for each potentially-bootable device it finds. This code is all in ROM, and stuff on any drives is extremely unlikely to de-rail the discovery process even if the drives are junk.

Choose the USB-stick Installer, and tell it to proceed, and you will wake up running the stripped-down Installer System from the USB drive, and preparing to Install. If you choose to do so before you begin the Install, you can also get access to Installer Utilities, including Disk Utility.

🙂

Thats the problem. I cant access that anymore, after the bootable disk image appears and I choose it, loading.... and then the screen goes black and then light grey blank screen with nothing.. and the only thing I hear are the fans running in the background

So I dont know if I have any options left other than the single user mode, because all just end up taking me to that state (grey screen, including recovery mode)

safe mode doesnt open at all

FarisTheKnight

That sounds like your USB-stick Installer is damaged or your Mac has a serious Hardware issue, such as a memory problem.

Not getting to Safe Mode suggests the Mac OS X image on the drive is damaged.

I suggest you try the diagnostic, if available, then make a Genius Bar appointment. (your appointment for an evaluation is free, in warranty or out.)

Is there a way I can download the last el capitan from somewhere other than the app store? because every time I download it from there something fishy happens,

That suggests you have a Hardware problem.

I am using a macbook pro from my friend to download it from the app store, download begins at 3.4 - or 4. something GB. He has Yosemite and its running fine right now while i use it.. thats how I made the bootable usb first time, from his mac

If so, is there a way I could find out which hardware part that is causing the problems?? or should I just let the maintenance folk guess by themselves? Talking into consideration its not like the genius bar that is out there in the US..

I've crated a bootable El Capitan USB stick and tried to perform a clean install on MacBook Air 11" (Early 2014). The installation is done to my thoughts. But when the Mac restarts, it is stuck in the boot screen having a progress bar about 80% complete.

As I have erased my SSD, I can't use the safe mode technique. Now what should I do?

I'm new to MacBook. Please help me out 😟

I've crated a bootable El Capitan USB stick and tried to perform a clean install on MacBook Air 11" (Early 2014). The installation is done to my thoughts. But when the Mac restarts, it is stuck in the boot screen having a progress bar about 80% complete.

As I have erased my SSD, I can't use the safe mode technique. Now what should I do?

I'm new to MacBook. Please help me out 😟

Just do the Install again from the USB stick. Something got messed up. If it completes, you WILL have a Recovery partition, but you can only access it with Command-R at startup, it will not show at Option-Boot at startup.

I am so tired of all these bugs in Mac's computers.

I have been a windows man for many years, but 2 years ago I started to buy apple products. Imac, macbook, minimac, Ipad, Iphone.

Now I am in the midst of getting new hardware to some of my staff an myself.

But we will go back to windows computers, as Apple does not take the operating systems in a loyal way to users, as they just release new OS without being sure its working correctly.

Now I have a crashed Mac due to upgrading to El Capitan. So much waste of time. I have had it. No more Apple products.

Also a lot of bugs for MS office pack in Macs. Many thing does not work proper. Dont know if its MS fault or Apple, but we dont have time for this waste of time anymore, as we also need MS office pack for business, as its more durable than apples mail and pages etc. Those not good enough when wants to communicate with the rest of the world in terms of docs etc.

I believe that Apple will now loose its market share due to all these irritation things. Yes apple products looks good, but if its not productive for business, then no good. !!!

best regards

Johnny

I See you show solved which is good. Unfortunately mine is not yet solved. I have tried everything here. The install bar is stuck at 90% under the Apple logo. I cannot enter recovery mode or access the choose start up disc page. All the possible start up key options just goes to the same locked up page. At this point I am feeling that my option is to do a clean install on a new HD and then reload my stuff from time machine.

I suggest you start your own thread instead of posting at the bottom of another thread. In the new thread explain exactly what you problem is, what version of OS X it is running and what you have tried to solve your problem so far instead of just ranting. Maybe then someone might be able to help you.