Hi guys. hopefully someone can help. I decided to update to El Capian from yosemıte. After the computer restarted ı got an error message. Whıch ı forgot what ıt was. possıble about some fıle. ANyways. ıt gave me an optıon t restart and ı dıd. However ıt would go back to the same screen. would not revert to yosemıte. I believe next I shut down the computer. WHen ıt restarted ı would see the progress bar and then about 40 percent of the way through the machıne would just shut down. <I was abe to log on ın recovery mode but not safe mode. so ı decıded ı would be a great tıme to salvage data. ım just copyıng my my famıly pıcsş vıdeos and docs. I ran the dısk check and ıt came back clean When I trıed doıng the reınstali, ıt wıll Dl the fıle ın abut 6 hours and then start over agaın. after the snd or thırd tıme ıt would gıve a error sayıng downlaod faıled ty downloadıng from purchase page. ı haave no ıdea what thıs means. <ı would just love to walk over to a Apple store and hand thıs to a genıus. Unfortuetly I am overseas at the moment and there ıs not one ı can take ıt to. <Any suggestıons? Please help. ıts 2 days now and no mac. I am workıng on PC wıth a foreıgn keyboard. appologıes for all the typos ın advance.
El Capitan Catastrophie
- Thread starter Fuzail
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Do you still have the "Install OS X Yosemite" file someplace? I could never understand that once one downloads and installs an OS, and then wants to go back to a prior OS, why the App Store will not let one download that prior OS? Of course, this has never happened to me, as I always make a copy of that "Install OS X Whatever" file in another location (along with having it ob my backups). But, a number of folks have posted issues with trying to do just that here on some of these forums.
I don't think I have a copy of Yosemite... I'm
Quite sure I don't as I was cleaning out old files a few months ago. Is there another way to get them?
Cory Cooper
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Hello and welcome.
Listed in the Purchased tab of the Mac App Store are any previous OS X installers that you can re-download if your Mac supports them. Currently, I have access to Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite, and El Capitan in the Mac App Store, as well as their corresponding Server apps, that can be downloaded and installed.
Fuzail - it sounds more like there is an issue with RAM or your hard drive, which is causing the install failure. How much free space is on the hard drive?
C
Listed in the Purchased tab of the Mac App Store are any previous OS X installers that you can re-download if your Mac supports them. Currently, I have access to Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite, and El Capitan in the Mac App Store, as well as their corresponding Server apps, that can be downloaded and installed.
Fuzail - it sounds more like there is an issue with RAM or your hard drive, which is causing the install failure. How much free space is on the hard drive?
C
I have over 1.3TB of free space on disk. My RAM is fine. I even unplugged a combination of RAM chips and tested and it made no difference. I think the El Capitan install files may have been curropted causing these issues. Not sure what else to do at this point. Luckily I made a disk image of my pictures and video folder. In the event there needs to be a clean install I'll have the family moments.
I'm not able to DL El Capitan from the Apple Store on my wife's old Mac. It's not supported by that machine. I believe Lion is as far as it goes. That would be the only thing I can DL. I realized I didn't specify my Mac specs. It's a mid 2011 iMac 27". 2TB HD. 12GB Ram. I think there's an i5 chip in it. Yosemite was working flawlessly. Perhaps because I still had iPhoto and Apeture maybe a reason for the issues?
Any other options?
Cory Cooper
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This is a tricky situation indeed, since the download of the installer seems to fail. If it ends up that you have to do a clean install, you may be able to make a bootable installer (using a flash drive or external hard drive) using your wife's Mac, installing Lion, then upgrading it back to Yosemite or El Capitan via the App Store once you get it up and running.
Sone your iMac does boot into the Recovery Partition, is that where the download fails?
C
Sone your iMac does boot into the Recovery Partition, is that where the download fails?
C
I believe that it's at the recovery partition where it's failing. When I run a first aid check on the main drive it comes back clean. But I don't believe I'm able to do a check on the partition. So that's probably where the issue is. Any fix around that? If not then it's the clean install.
How would I be able to do that since it only boots in recovery mode?
Thank you much for your help.
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When you say "When I run a first aid check on the main drive it comes back clean", are you doing that after booting to the Recovery Partition? If that is the case, then you should be able to have Disk Utility, via the Recovery HD partition, perform its' other functions. That is, 1) Repair at the Volume (ie, top) level, and 2) Repair at the Partition (ie, second) level. You can even use Disk Utility to Erase and Format (and if necessary, partition) the internal drive. Again, though, before you do any such repairs, it is imperative that you have a backup, on an external device, of any critical stuff you need.
So... When I turn on the machine I hold down Command R or control R.. It takes me to the screen with 4 option I believe and I choose disk utility. The Option of Internet recovery kept failing. It DL the file multiple times and would not work. So at this point I think my only options is to erase the drive and reinstall. Am I right?
If that's the case, I have a couple of questions.
I didn't have everything backed up for the past two months. I'm concerned about family photos and videos mostly. So I made a disk image of the pictures and movies folder. Will all of my iPhoto and aperture photos be good to recopy once I get the system up? Do need to save iPhoto and Aperture applications too? If so, where do I find these?
The other thing, is there a way to DL El Capitan from Apple off an unsupported Mac or PC? My wife's max is 2006 model and it will only allow me to DL Lion. So I'll have to install look and then update to El Capitan etc etc. since I may have to do a clean install I rather not have to install look on my machine and then DL El Capitan and then do another clean install for El Capitan.
Any suggestions? I'm getting cold feet DL El Capitan off a torrent.
Thank you for helping.
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This is a "sticky" situation, that's for sure.
When you install the OS again, you should be able to "get/obtain" both iPhoto and Aperture, and then be able to "import" what you have saved. But, it sure would be best if the stuff you are saving is to an actual external device.
Regarding Cory's suggestion:
"If it ends up that you have to do a clean install, you may be able to make a bootable installer (using a flash drive or external hard drive) using your wife's Mac, installing Lion, then upgrading it back to Yosemite or El Capitan via the App Store once you get it up and running."
I believe there is a way of "kind of" doing that. First, what is the exact Mac Model you have? Same question for your wife's machine.
If both machines have a Firewire 800 port, or if yours has a Thunderbolt port, then it would/should be possible to connect your machine to your wife's Mac, boot your machine in Target Disk Mode, have your wife just download Yosemite (I believe she can get the final, full installation 10.10.5 version), use Disk Utility on your wife's machine to Erase and Format the internal drive on your Mac, and finally install OS 10.10.5 from the Yosemite download on her Mac onto your Mac. Then, disconnect your Mac from hers, boot up your Mac, and you should be good to go.
But, we need to know what Mac models you have.
Cory, what do you think of my plan? Would it work?
When you install the OS again, you should be able to "get/obtain" both iPhoto and Aperture, and then be able to "import" what you have saved. But, it sure would be best if the stuff you are saving is to an actual external device.
Regarding Cory's suggestion:
"If it ends up that you have to do a clean install, you may be able to make a bootable installer (using a flash drive or external hard drive) using your wife's Mac, installing Lion, then upgrading it back to Yosemite or El Capitan via the App Store once you get it up and running."
I believe there is a way of "kind of" doing that. First, what is the exact Mac Model you have? Same question for your wife's machine.
If both machines have a Firewire 800 port, or if yours has a Thunderbolt port, then it would/should be possible to connect your machine to your wife's Mac, boot your machine in Target Disk Mode, have your wife just download Yosemite (I believe she can get the final, full installation 10.10.5 version), use Disk Utility on your wife's machine to Erase and Format the internal drive on your Mac, and finally install OS 10.10.5 from the Yosemite download on her Mac onto your Mac. Then, disconnect your Mac from hers, boot up your Mac, and you should be good to go.
But, we need to know what Mac models you have.
Cory, what do you think of my plan? Would it work?