How Do I Fix This? Can't reinstall Catalina OS Macbook Air

[Indigovalley]

I am new to Macs and I'm trying to get my niece's Macbook Air up and running again. Its a model from recent years (Intel) running Catalina.

It hangs up (goes to about 70% on the progress bar) and stops: It will not boot to desktop, boot in safe mode, boot to disk utility or boot to recovery. The laptop was working for her before it stopped booting to desktop.

I tried the Internet Recovery Mode and was able to use First Aid on her drives but when I go to reinstall Catalina I get a message saying I need to be connected to the internet (and obviously I am already connected to the internet). I have a USB ethernet adapter and tried using ethernet but it is not recognized by the laptop. So I am stuck. I have a new M1 Macbook Air but I've read that I can't make a Catalina bootable flash drive with it.

Thoughts? I need some Mac expertise. Just thought maybe someone out there would have a suggestion for me...Would appreciate it. At a loss what to do next.....

 

[DeltaMac]

You can download the Catalina installer, using the MDS app.
(The M1 won't let you download a version of the macOS installer that is not supported by the M1 Mac, but you can certainly download the Catalina installer, using a non-App Store method, such as the MDS app.)
When you have the app, follow the normal steps to create a bootable installer through the terminal.

 

[Indigovalley]

Awesome! I will give it a try. Much appreciated. I found the website and directions. thanks!

 

[Audit13]

If the install still gets hung up, install the OS to and boot from an external drive. If it manages to do this, it's possible that there is something wrong with the internal drive.

 

[Significant1]

I would try alt+CMD+r to download the latest supported version. There is good chance Big Sir is supported (it supports my 2013 MBA) and it's installer might not hang.

How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support

You can use macOS Recovery, your computer's built-in recovery system, to reinstall the Mac operating system. Reinstalling macOS doesn't remove your personal data.

support.apple.com

 

[Significant1]

There is a good chance it supports Big Sur and maybe it's installer will not hang, so I Would try alt+CMD+r at boot to install latest supported version.

 

[Indigovalley]

Thanks for all the assistance--I will try them out..