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Catalina Install, can it take all day?

Huntn

Huntn

macrumors Penryn
Original poster
May 5, 2008
24,097
27,188
The Misty Mountains
What could go wrong? It’s MacOS! 🥴

I started an update about 11am and at first on the black and white screen, I saw a lot of activity. Now after about 4 hours, when at one point it said 9 min left, the progress bar as seemed to have stalled at about an 1/8 of an inch from being full. I looked online and saw a comment that this update can take a LONG time, and if needed, let it run all night. I’m willing to do that.

Questions:
  • If I force quit it and restart, any ideas where I’ll be besides up the creek? ;)
  • I have a Time Machine backup. Can I force a restart and revert to 10.14? Am I in danger of wiping out my 10.14 backup, or should I disconnect the time machine drive now, before the end of the update?
  • Any other ideas?
I mean at any time the install might complete, but I just don’t know.
 
Good news, update with help from Apple Tech support. They said not too many cases like this, maybe one other.
  • The update stalled. It’s possible that I did not have enough disk space, but it did not warn me.
  • After stalling with the progress bar almost full, I restarted my MBP holding start button. It restarted to the same black screen, white Apple and white progress bar, same point.
  • Restart holding Shift- same result.
  • Restart holding Shift R (I think) same result.
  • Restart holding Command R (I think) got me to an option screen.
  • Choosing Install MacOS- indicated I was 17Gb short of space. Esc.
  • Chose Disk Utility and selected erase startup drive- erased.
  • Escape back to options screen to install MacOS Catalina- success!
  • During new OS setup was asked if I wanted to install data from another source. I said yes, and chose my Time Machine backup restoring my data and apps. Note most of my data is kept on external drives backed up separate from Time zmachine.
  • I’m currently in the final stages of restoring data from Time Machine back to my Mac. :D
 
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There's Trouble In River City.
I will caution against installing Catalina at this point in time.
I'm currently on hold with Apple Tech Support and they are trying to figure out why My Finder shows 2 Macintosh HDs, one Macintosh HD, one Macintosh HD- Data...

More to follow, stay tuned.
 
Please let us know, because I also see Macintosh HD - Data and Macintosh HD. I also did a complete wipe and install from a USB stick, this has been an annoying upgrade for sure.
 
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reden said:
Please let us know, because I also see Macintosh HD - Data and Macintosh HD. I also did a complete wipe and install from a USB stick, this has been an annoying upgrade for sure.
Click to expand...
Is your time machine working? That was my clue, it would not work and was confused about what to back up.
 
Huntn said:
Is your time machine working? That was my clue, it would not work and was confused about what to back up.
Click to expand...

It's working, but I can't see my old backups, this is so annoying because I have backups spanning all the way back to December 2018. Thanks Apple. Also I run a Plex server, ruined that for me too.
 
reden said:
It's working, but I can't see my old backups, this is so annoying because I have backups spanning all the way back to December 2018. Thanks Apple. Also I run a Plex server, ruined that for me too.
Click to expand...
I noticed that when I pull up Time Machine, it looks like there are a bunch of pages, but I can’t access them. My reinstall should be done soon. If I end up in the same place, I‘m scheduled tomorrow for another consultation with the Apple senior tech agent. She talking like if the issue remains, we’ll do some screen shots and send them off to Apple Engineers. More tomorrow...

By the sounds of it, unable to access your Time Machine history, you may have an issue too with your. Catalina install. Of course there might be a glitch that can be corrected to recover Time Machine access.
 
Last edited:
Your internal HD is split into 2 partitions with Catalina.

Macintosh HD (holds OS only)
Macintosh HD- Data (holds all your program/data files)
 
Huntn said:
I noticed that when I pull up Time Machine, it looks like there are a bunch of pages, but I can’t see t them. My reinstall should be done soon. If I end up in the same place, I‘m scheduled tomorrow for another consultation with the Apple senior tech agent. She talking like if the issue remains, we’ll do some screen shots and send them off to Apple Engineers. More tomorrow...

By the sounds of it, unable to access your Time Machine history, you may have an issue too with your. Catalina install. Of course there might be a glitch that can be corrected to recover Time Machine access.
Click to expand...

My Mac mini and MacBook Pro both have this issue. Mac mini was upgraded with fresh install from USB stick and MacBook Pro was just straight upgraded, both can't see past Time Machine history.
 
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I figured out how to access my Time Machine backups, I think this is a bug in Catalina. I have to go to my Recents folder and go back in time and pick a date, then I can browse the other folders from there, restoring stuff now, whew! Complete fluke how I figured this one out.
 
Huntn said:
What could go wrong? It’s MacOS! 🥴

I started an update about 11am and at first on the black and white screen, I saw a lot of activity. Now after about 4 hours, when at one point it said 9 min left, the progress bar as seemed to have stalled at about an 1/8 of an inch from being full. I looked online and saw a comment that this update can take a LONG time, and if needed, let it run all night. I’m willing to do that.

Questions:
  • If I force quit it and restart, any ideas where I’ll be besides up the creek? ;)
  • I have a Time Machine backup. Can I force a restart and revert to 10.14? Am I in danger of wiping out my 10.14 backup, or should I disconnect the time machine drive now, before the end of the update?
  • Any other ideas?
I mean at any time the install might complete, but I just don’t know.
Click to expand...


I did a full clean install with all the bells and whistles and took 20 minutes.
 
Huntn said:
In that first try, migrating data in from Time Machine took the most time was complicated by issues outlined in the Catalina Think Twice thread, now resolved. :)
Click to expand...

All my data is in external drives, I don't use Time Machine to avoid that type of issues. It takes more responsibility but is more easy in case that I want to format and reinstall and have a clean full running system in less that an hour.
 
TokMok3 said:
All my data is in external drives, I don't use Time Machine to avoid that type of issues. It takes more responsibility but is more easy in case that I want to format and reinstall and have a clean full running system in less that an hour.
Click to expand...
Actually I do too, for the most part. I have dual external drives synced and then backed up to the cloud. Otherwise a TM restore might be a real nightmare. :) But as a laptop, I keep a little more on it.
 
Huntn said:
Actually I do too, for the most part. I have dual external drives synced and then backed up to the cloud. Otherwise a TM restore might be a real nightmare. :) But as a laptop, I keep a little more on it.
Click to expand...

Then you know what am I talking about. jajaja
 
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