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I've got an old MacBook A1342 (white polycarbonate, Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz, 4GB 1067 MHz DDR3) which came with OS X 10.6.8. I've downloaded and installed Yosemite 10.10.5 which worked fine and I also rebooted the device afterwards 2-3 times. Then I opened the AppStore and installed updates. It had like 4 Updates... 2 RemoteDesktop, Safari and a Security Update. After the security update it requested a reboot which I accepted.

Now it's stuck on the reboot. It shows the Apple logo with the progress bar. It takes like 15min or more for the bar to reach about 50% and then it stops. I waited for over 4h but there was no progress anymore. I powered off and rebooted, but it stays the same. Sometimes the mouse cursor appears, sometimes not. Also sometimes it stops at like 45%, sometimes 50%.

I have no clue how to continue. I've read that holding down CMD+R when powering up would open a recovery menu, but that doesn't work. What else can I do?

I do NOT have an additional Mac - only Windows. I can create DVDs or USB sticks.

David Anderson
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xsrf
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  • I noticed that I can hold down ALT during power-up and then I get the option to select "Macintosh HD" or "Recovery 10.10.5". But regardless what option I double click, the result is the same. Apple logo with progress bar slowly getting to 50% and then getting stuck... Maybe that's why I thought CMD+R didn't work? It looks exactly the same. – xsrf Jan 04 '24 at 11:08
  • That's a 2010 MacBook, for the record. Is it the original hard drive? I'd expect that to have failed by now. – benwiggy Jan 04 '24 at 12:18
  • @benwiggy that's a bold assumption and not really helpful.

    I tried downloading the InstallOS.dmg for Sierra, converting it to img using dmg2img (Linux) and writing it to a USB Stick using AnyBurn. But the Mac didn't show the USB stick when booting with ALT pressed. It actually shows another bootable USB Stick I created with Ventoy though, but even though the Ventoy menu can be booted into, I just get a white "_" on a black screen wehn I boot the InstallOS.img

     – xsrf Jan 04 '24 at 13:03
  • even if the drive failed and I replace it - how would I proceed? I failed to create a USB stick that it would boot from and I can't write the IMG I created from the DMG to a DVD because it's to big (5.3GB). Also - isn't the Recovery part of the UEFI firmware? Shouldn't it run without HDD? https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1450 – xsrf Jan 04 '24 at 13:14
  • I created a bootable GParted USB Stick directly (not via Ventoy) and it booted. smartctl shows the drive is fine. GParted shows 3 Partitions. sda1 EFI, sda2 Macintosh HD and sda3 Recovery HD. sda2 has a Warning symbol next to it. GParted said it has an open/pending journal and it doesn't show its used/unused size. I didn't let GParted to replay the journal... – xsrf Jan 04 '24 at 13:52
  • I do not think you actually made a Sierra installer. I say this because answers posted here at Ask Different seem to have more steps than you used. I installed Yosemite early last year in a VM to run some old software. I was unable to install all available updates because I ended up having the same problems you are encoutering. – David Anderson Jan 04 '24 at 14:10
  • "I do not think you actually made a Sierra installer"... yeah, me neither... Can you link to a proper documentation on how to do that that won't cost me weeks to understand and is full of linux commands that won't work? – xsrf Jan 04 '24 at 14:13
  • Testing the hard drive on a 13-year-old computer that just stopped working after doing lots of writing (update) is the first thing I'd try. Your Mac should have firmware Internet Recovery; but a Recovery Partition on disk came with Lion. Testing whether it will boot with any OS on an external drive is also a good step to ruling out the hardware (other than the internal drive). Creating bootable installers without access to another Mac is not easy, IIRC. – benwiggy Jan 04 '24 at 14:29
  • @benwiggy already did that. The recovery does not boot (same result as regular OS). It boots fine from a USB Stick, like GParted, and the HDD SMART says it's fine. I don't understand why Apple can' just provide an ISO. – xsrf Jan 04 '24 at 14:33
  • xsrf: See here for making OS X/macOS installers from Windows. A user of a 2011 iMac installed High Sierra yesterday. The user starting with Lion. – David Anderson Jan 04 '24 at 14:46
  • So, a lot happened yesterday. I created https://github.com/xsrf/macOSBoot since all the previous Instructions seemed way to complicated. I got the Sierra BaseSystem on a USB Stick and booted it - which worked. First I checked the HDD and then I started the Sierra install. However, Sierra install failed with basically "Something went wrong, try again". I then tried again but this time the BaseSystem wouldn't boot properly from USB. It said it's missing some files and just offered to reboot. I recreated the Stick, but still same. However, then holding SHIFT while powering, bootet Yosemite! – xsrf Jan 05 '24 at 10:29
  • Your github Readme.md file seems to indicate you can create a working USB installer. However, your previous comment seems to indicate the opposite. In other words, you were not able to install Sierra. Anyway, since you have booted Yosemite, can I assume you have solved your problem? – David Anderson Jan 05 '24 at 10:41
  • @DavidAnderson well I can extract the BaseSystem.img, write it to USB and boot it. It also worked once to execute Terminal, Harddisk check utility and start the Installation. So I assume the Stick I created works. I don't know why the Stick failed to boot later. I think it still depends on the HDD but that's not an issue with my bootdisk extraction process. It's an issue of how the bootdisk works in general, I guess. I don't know, I have no experience with macOS prior this. Since Yosemeite boots (now also regular again, not only safemode ?!) I will attempt the update to Sierra via AppStore – xsrf Jan 05 '24 at 10:48
  • I think booting the installer is not the same as actually installing Sierra. Anyway, I was not aware Sierra was available in the App Store. If it is, let me know. I think High Sierra should be available in the App Store, although the application may only be good for upgrading. – David Anderson Jan 05 '24 at 10:56
  • The BaseSystem is only ~2GB so it's obviously not the whole installation (that's ~5GB), but I find really conflicting information on how this all works. I think the installer actually tried to download the installation via Internet. When I started the installation it actually told me that it will attempt to contact Apple to verify and my Wifi was actually connected (without me stting it up). I also read a lot about "Internet recovery". But yeah - I understand basically nothing. – xsrf Jan 05 '24 at 11:07
  • The missing files need to be copied to the flash drive after first adding free space to the volume on the flash drive. That is not required when making a Lion or Mountain Lion USB installer. Your Mac is on Apple's list of Macs which can use Internet Recovery after first installing firmware updates. Some firmware updates are standalone updates and some are automatically installed during certain operating system installs/updates. – David Anderson Jan 05 '24 at 13:11

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