iMac won't boot after el capitan install. 2009 iMac was being upgraded from snow leopard.

Hi seanfromorangepark,

Thanks for participating in the Apple Support Communities.

I'm sorry to hear that the El Capitan install didn't go smoothly. I see you tried some command line suggestions, and there are a few more steps I can suggest.

Did you try booting to safe mode? If not, that's what I'd try next.

Try safe mode if your Mac doesn't finish starting up

1. Start or restart your Mac.
2. Immediately after you hear the startup sound, press and hold the Shift key.
3. Release the Shift key when you see the Apple logo appear on the screen.

After the Apple logo appears, it might take longer than usual to reach the login screen or your desktop. This is because your Mac performs a directory check of your startup disk as part of safe mode.

To leave safe mode, restart your computer without pressing any keys during startup.

If El Capitan starts up in safe mode, restart and see if it starts up normally. Otherwise, try booting to OS X Recovery by holding Command - R at startup.

From OS X Recovery you can use Disk Utility to verify your hard drive and try reinstalling OS X. For detailed help with these steps, see OS X: About OS X Recovery and How to reinstall OS X on your Mac.

Let us know if this method worked or what happened when you tried these steps.

Best Regards.

Hey seanfromorangepark,

Thanks for your reply. Happy to hear that it worked!

Cheers.

That hasn't worked so well for me.

Hardware checks come up clean.

Now on my third attempt to wipe and restore from Time Machine, but last two times it hangs after about 5 hours.

I do not use File Vault, so that shouldn't be the issue.