el capitan update failed now won't load any os x help

Hi Jayne Victoria,

The same thing happened to my gf's Macbook Pro 2011 model, so I decided to write a post on LinkedIn describing what I did to recover the data:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/did-el-capitan-upgrade-brick-your-macbook-simon-m ccabe

I did end up having to buy a new HDD as it seems that HDD was on it's way out. Very disappointing considering that it was only around 4 years old. Hope this helps you recover your important data.

The solution depends upon where it is stuck, but we can try to boil it down to 2 main types of solutions:

1. Boot to recovery or safe mode and move on from there
2. Boot from external USB drive and reinstall everything.

Start with #1...this assumes that you can actually get to recovery mode. To do this, boot the machine and hold down "Command + R". The various ways to control boot for you Mac can be found here: OS X Yosemite: Ways to start up your Mac

If this doesn't work, then you'll have to try #2. Obviously to start this process, you'll need a bootable USB drive. To make this, you have no choice but to find another machine on which you can make the USB drive. The Apple Store, if no other place, will usually allow you to do this on one of their store machines. Here's a procedure for this: http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/09/how-to-make-your-own-bootable-os-x-10-11-el -capitan-usb-install-drive/

I realize this isn't the whole solution, but it's a start down the path. Post here when you've made some progress.

Definitely try booting from external disk. USB flash drive is easiest, but any USB external HDD will do. You will have to find another machine on which to create the bootable drive.

Once you have this bootable drive, you can try these next:

1. Copy your important data from "old" HDD to some new location
2. Run the OS X Disk Utility to repair the "old" HDD (in case that is causing the problem you are having).
3. Wipe the "old" HDD out and try to do the clean install

Thanks

It is definitely easy. Just use the link I sent you earlier. Good Luck!

Do you mean that when you restart the machine with the USB drive plugged in and holding down the "option" key, that the USB drive does not show as one of the startup options?

This is a bugger...ok, let's try these for diagnosis:

• Are you sure the USB drive is bootable? i.e., on your other machine, can you startup with "option" held down and the drive shows up in the list on that machine?
• Reset the PRAM: Startup with Option-Command (⌘)-P-R

Resetting the PRAM simply clears a bunch of low-level system settings back to default. Sometimes, this unsticks some issues.

So it appears the startup disk that you tried to make is not actually functional. No problem, just try again. Maybe some different instructions would have a better outcome. Try to follow steps here: http://www.macworld.com/article/2367748/how-to-make-a-bootable-os-x-10-10-yosemi te-install-drive.html

The key is to get that machine booted from the external drive. Once you have that, then you can try to recover what you can, and perform clean install of El Capitan.

You might want to backup your data. Try using Disk Utility/Restore to copy the backup to a new location. Please note that this will reformat the destination partition.