Question Faulty Monterey upgrade - cannot get into OS

[biostud]

I was handed a Intel macbook air 2017 128GB to help upgrade to Monterey.

I cleaned up space so there was 40GB available and ran disk utility to fix disk problems.

I then tried to do a backup with time machine to an external harddrive which failed, even though I had made a 200GB partition it could use.

Several times it failed upgrading inside MacOS, I also tried just upgrading Mojave to the newest version which also failed.

Then at some point the installation seemed to continue as it was supposed and finished inside MacOS and I then rebooted. I was met with the apple logo and the progress bar stating 30 minutes left. At 17 minutes it said something went wrong and aborted the installation.

I've tried rebooting into recovery running disk repair and rebooting, and I can get the installation as far as less than one minute remaining, where it has been overnight.

I've tried choosing install MacOS Monterey in recovery via internet, but I can't choose the internal drive. Only if I put in my external drive am I able to choose that for installation?

In recovery I can choose to use the PC as a "harddrive" via thunderbolt which I have none.


What would be the next step here?

Obviously, I would like to get the data off the computer if possible, how would I do that?

 

[biostud]

It wont even install MacOS on an external harddrive...

 

[Eug]

This is with a stock OEM 128 GB SSD right, and not a third party NVMe?

I was going to suggest doing a full wipe using Disk Utility in the setup menu, but that won't help you because you want to get data off it. Is there no backup anywhere else (hard drive, cloud)?

Can you boot into safe mode?

Start up your Mac in safe mode

Starting up your Mac in safe mode may help you diagnose problems with your Mac.

support.apple.com

 

[biostud]

This is with a stock OEM 128 GB SSD right, and not a third party NVMe?

I was going to suggest doing a full wipe using Disk Utility in the setup menu, but that won't help you because you want to get data off it. Is there no backup anywhere else (hard drive, cloud)?

Can you boot into safe mode?

Start up your Mac in safe mode

Starting up your Mac in safe mode may help you diagnose problems with your Mac.

support.apple.com

I cannot boot into safe mode.

Yes, it's the original 128gb drive.

At this point I would need need to use a lightning cable and connect it to another Mac to extract the data.

What really bothers me is that I can't even install a the OS on an external drive. It crashes with the same error.

So I'm wondering if there is some faulty hardware...

 

[bba-tcg]

I cannot boot into safe mode.

Yes, it's the original 128gb drive.

At this point I would need need to use a lightning cable and connect it to another Mac to extract the data.

What really bothers me is that I can't even install a the OS on an external drive. It crashes with the same error.

So I'm wondering if there is some faulty hardware...

What version have you tried on the external drive and what is the error message?

 

[biostud]

What version have you tried on the external drive and what is the error message?

12.7.5 Monterey as it is the only one it will accept without wiping the computer.

It either runs the installation until less than on minute remaining, and then simply hangs (I've tried waiting over night) or it says something about an error occurred while preparing the installation.

 

[bba-tcg]

Monterey should be new enough to work. Without a specific error message, it's hard to venture what to do.

 

[biostud]

Luckily she didn't have any important data, so I've just wiped the drive and try to install Monterey again.

 

[biostud]

So after wiping the disk it came up with the same error trying to install Monterey.
Then I cleared the disk and tried recovery from internet where it would choose to install High Sierra, but couldn't contact the servers (yes I was online)
I then created a Mojave boot disk (USB) and ran the installer and got same error that something went wrong during the installation.

I'm starting to suspect some kind of hardware failure...

 

[bba-tcg]

Mojave may well be EOL which would mean you would need to change the system date (to 2018) before you can install from USB.

Did you check the disk with Disk utility before trying to install?

 

[biostud]

Mojave may well be EOL which would mean you would need to change the system date (to 2018) before you can install from USB.

Did you check the disk with Disk utility before trying to install?

How do I change the date if I can't get into the OS?

When I couldn't install from the OS, I ran disk utility and it found errors which it fixed. Then I could run the installation, but it now crashes during the installation and the OS is gone.

 

[bba-tcg]

When you boot from the USB stick, you can run Terminal and change the date.

 

[biostud]

When you boot from the USB stick, you can run Terminal and change the date.

Ok any other things that might be relevant to run from the terminal?

 

[bba-tcg]

Ok any other things that might be relevant to run from the terminal?

Not that I can think of, atm. If you cleared the disk before, you should be able to start the install.

 

[biostud]

Not that I can think of, atm. If you cleared the disk before, you should be able to start the install.

It now can only boot into 10.13.6 High Sierra recovery where it cannot get contact to the servers to download the OS. As I don't have acces to a functional mac it is a bit difficult to get the correct installation files and create a bootable installer :/

 

[Shmee]

Have you tried booting into a live Linux to check the hardware? Specifically the NVMe drive and RAM. I am not sure if if the NVMe drive is soldered, but if not, you could possibly replace it with a new drive, though you would probably need an adapter for the m.2 format to whatever format Apple uses.

 

[biostud]

Have you tried booting into a live Linux to check the hardware? Specifically the NVMe drive and RAM. I am not sure if if the NVMe drive is soldered, but if not, you could possibly replace it with a new drive, though you would probably need an adapter for the m.2 format to whatever format Apple uses.

Nope how would I do that?

 

[Shmee]

You will need a spare USB drive. Download the Linux image of choice, and either image it to the USB drive with something like Rufus, or make a new Ventoy USB drive where you will be able to boot multiple images. You can look up Ventoy or Rufus to see how these work if you are not familiar with them.

I don't recall the key strokes to boot from USB on every Mac, but that is basically the next step, is to boot into the live Linux OS from your USB drive. Next, you will want to look into the Linux commands / options on how to check SMART data or run SMART tests. Many distros will have built in tools, some may be located in the GUI menu, others may require terminal commands.

As one of the options when booting many Linux images, you should also be able to choose running Memtest86, if you wish to test the RAM.

 

[biostud]

I now found out that cmd-R will try install High Sierra (where i can't contact servers) and alt-cmd-R will try to install Monterey (where it fails during installation)

I really don't want to sink to much more time into this, but it is not nice trying to help someone with a computer that works but cannot be updated, and then give them back an unusable computer.

 

[bba-tcg]

It now can only boot into 10.13.6 High Sierra recovery where it cannot get contact to the servers to download the OS. As I don't have acces to a functional mac it is a bit difficult to get the correct installation files and create a bootable installer :/

I guess I'm confused. I thought you already had a bootable Mojave installer:

So after wiping the disk it came up with the same error trying to install Monterey.
Then I cleared the disk and tried recovery from internet where it would choose to install High Sierra, but couldn't contact the servers (yes I was online)
I then created a Mojave boot disk (USB) and ran the installer and got same error that something went wrong during the installation.

I'm starting to suspect some kind of hardware failure...

 

[biostud]

I guess I'm confused. I thought you already had a bootable Mojave installer:

So did I. I booted once from the Mojave and ran fine, but the next time I tried running it then it simply started saying that it was missing som installation files. :/

 

[biostud]

I'm now trying to see if I can get a Monterey console and see if that will help, as Monterey recovery install once again failed.

 

[bba-tcg]

With the Mojave USB drive, if you hold the option key when you power on, does it show up as a boot choice?

 

[biostud]

With the Mojave USB drive, if you hold the option key when you power on, does it show up as a boot choice?

yes, but then as it boots into the installer it says it is missing some installation files, do I want to restart or choose start disk.

At this point I'm thinking about installing win10 instead.

 

[bba-tcg]

yes, but then as it boots into the installer it says it is missing some installation files, do I want to restart or choose start disk.

At this point I'm thinking about installing win10 instead.

At the very least, you'll need a good installation flash drive. But, it does sound like there may be other hardware issues.