Need help reinstalling MacOS

[rmcat]

I was trying to re-install macOS on my intel based macbook pro 2016 because I was going to sell it, however after I erased/formatted the disk, it was showing error when I tried to re-install Sierra under internet recovery. I did First aid, made two partitions, but it always got stuck a few minutes into the installation and showed the same error. Really not sure what to do now, could someone help please...

 

[untfan]

First thin I would do is completely erase the SSD, boot into Internet recovery or off a USB and go into disk utility and chose the Apple SSD entry at the top and then click erase and format as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Then shutdown.

Next, reset the NVRAM. Press and hold CMD + OPTION + ‘P’ + ‘R’ (minus the quotes) all at the same time and while keeping them pressed turn on your MacBook. Keep holding the keys down, it will gong and then reboot and the gong again, release after three gongs (two should be sufficient but do three).

Now boot into internet recovery and try again - I would format the drive again, just to be safe.

 

[ifrit05]

Might help of you enable the log window while installing. I believe it's under the Window menu option.

 

[rmcat]

Might help of you enable the log window while installing. I believe it's under the Window menu option.

The main error shown within the log is something about "Failed to get physical whole disk SKDisk"

 

[rmcat]

First thin I would do is completely erase the SSD, boot into Internet recovery or off a USB and go into disk utility and chose the Apple SSD entry at the top and then click erase and format as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Then shutdown.

Next, reset the NVRAM. Press and hold CMD + OPTION + ‘P’ + ‘R’ (minus the quotes) all at the same time and while keeping them pressed turn on your MacBook. Keep holding the keys down, it will gong and then reboot and the gong again, release after three gongs (two should be sufficient but do three).

Now boot into internet recovery and try again - I would format the drive again, just to be safe.

I just tried these but no luck. I opened up the log while installing, and the main error it seems to show there is something like "Failed to get physical whole disk: SKDisk"

 

[rm5]

Do you suppose this is a problem with the drive? What if you did Option + Cmd + R to get internet recovery from the latest supported version (Monterey)?

 

[rmcat]

Do you suppose this is a problem with the drive? What if you did Option + Cmd + R to get internet recovery from the latest supported version (Monterey)?

I don't think there's a problem with the drive because it has been working perfectly without any issue until I erased the drive and tried to reinstall the system a few hours ago. The only version with internet recovery seems to be Sierra although the latest supported version for this model is Monterey. Could it be any problem on the Apple server side since it's a very old MacOS version(Sierra)?

 

[Brachaci]

I honestly do not remember if Sierra had a system data on a separate volume and by formatting the APPLE SSD** you did not removed it. Have you tried to install the macOS from a bootable USB?

 

[rm5]

Could be a server problem, that's something I didn't think about until you mentioned it...

 

[rmcat]

I figured out the problem... I was pressing cmd+R when rebooting which brought me to Sierra internet recovery where the installation of system couldn't go through(must be a server problem since it's an old OS). Instead I should've pressed option+cmd+R when rebooting which would bring me to Monterey where I was able to format the disk using APFS and the installation also went smoothly. I'm sure installing from a bootable usb will do the trick too.

Thanks everyone for helping out! Really appreciate it!

 

[Fishrrman]

Command-R IS NOT "internet recovery".
It's the recovery partition.

Command-OPTION-R IS internet recovery. It will install the most recent OS that will run.

Command-SHIFT-OPTION-R is a special version of internet recovery that will install the original OS that shipped with the computer

 

[rmcat]

Command-R IS NOT "internet recovery".
It's the recovery partition.

Command-OPTION-R IS internet recovery. It will install the most recent OS that will run.

Command-SHIFT-OPTION-R is a special version of internet recovery that will install the original OS that shipped with the computer

I see, what's confusing was that when I used cmd+R, it was still showing internet recovery on the screen after I entered the password to connect to the wifi, so I thought it had to be the right place to format/re-install.

 

[bretcvan]

I'm having the same issue. I received my mac from a friend who had completely wiped it.

• I first had to follow these instructions to fix a split Fusion Drive
  • https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207584
• I then used ⌘-SHIFT-OPTION-R for internet recovery (macOS Sierra)
• Installation failed: 'Error Occurred While Preparing the Installation Error'
• Checked date in Terminal and it was accurate
• Reset the NVRAM. (Press and hold ⌘ + OPTION + P + R)
• Tried again, same error
• Shut down and restarted using Option-⌘-R
• Monterey installation failed ‘An error occurred loading the update.’

 

[unclemiltie]

Give this a try.... REALLY erase the drive

Boot the installer, from the utilities menu open a terminal

type
> diskutil list

This will give you a list of your disks, your disk is probably disk0 but make sure from that list (e.g. compare sizes, etc)

Then use diskutil to repartition the disk with only one partition on it.

> diskutil partitionDisk disk0 GPT jhfs+ "Macintosh HD" 0

this says: partition the disk that you find at disk0 with a GUID Partition structure, one journaled hfs+partition named "Macintosh HD" and the 0 tells it to use the whole disk for it.

That'll take a few minutes

Now exit the terminal and continue with the install.

The output of "diskutil list" should look something like this:

admins-iMac:~ admin$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            999.3 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

the above system has a single 1TB SATA disk in it. The disk has 3 partitions, one for the EFI boot block, one for MacOS and one for the recovery boot. What's important is the /dev/disk0. So in the above example, you would use disk0

 

[unclemiltie]

Oh, one other thing

I was recently trying to re-install a copy of El Capitan on an older machine since I needed a browser that allowed flash plugins (long story) and found that the certificate for El Capitan to install had expired since it was so old. Changing the system time to a date just after El Capitan was released allowed the installation to proceed.

I can't remember the error message that I got on the first try, but that might be your issue here

 

[bretcvan]

Give this a try.... REALLY erase the drive

Boot the installer, from the utilities menu open a terminal

type
> diskutil list

This will give you a list of your disks, your disk is probably disk0 but make sure from that list (e.g. compare sizes, etc)

Then use diskutil to repartition the disk with only one partition on it.

> diskutil partitionDisk disk0 GPT jhfs+ "Macintosh HD" 0

this says: partition the disk that you find at disk0 with a GUID Partition structure, one journaled hfs+partition named "Macintosh HD" and the 0 tells it to use the whole disk for it.

That'll take a few minutes

Now exit the terminal and continue with the install.

The output of "diskutil list" should look something like this:

admins-iMac:~ admin$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            999.3 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

the above system has a single 1TB SATA disk in it. The disk has 3 partitions, one for the EFI boot block, one for MacOS and one for the recovery boot. What's important is the /dev/disk0. So in the above example, you would use disk0

Thanks for your assistance unclemiltie. Before I go ahead and erase, I want to show how it's currently setup after having followed these instructions originally https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207584
Please take a look and let me know if you think I should go ahead and do it

 

[bretcvan]

Oh, one other thing

I was recently trying to re-install a copy of El Capitan on an older machine since I needed a browser that allowed flash plugins (long story) and found that the certificate for El Capitan to install had expired since it was so old. Changing the system time to a date just after El Capitan was released allowed the installation to proceed.

I can't remember the error message that I got on the first try, but that might be your issue here

Thanks I had tried that with Sierra, setting the date to 9/20/16, but I'll try again with a later date. I also try it with Monterey using its release date

 

[bretcvan]

Oh, one other thing

I was recently trying to re-install a copy of El Capitan on an older machine since I needed a browser that allowed flash plugins (long story) and found that the certificate for El Capitan to install had expired since it was so old. Changing the system time to a date just after El Capitan was released allowed the installation to proceed.

I can't remember the error message that I got on the first try, but that might be your issue here

I tried it for Sierra, setting the date to 9.20.16 (0920214016) and get the error UNTRUSTED_CERT_TITLE. I set it for a month later and go the same error. If I reset the date to today then it will proceed with the installation before it ultimately errors out.

 

[unclemiltie]

Thanks for your assistance unclemiltie. Before I go ahead and erase, I want to show how it's currently setup after having followed these instructions originally https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207584
Please take a look and let me know if you think I should go ahead and do it

So you have a fusion drive, which are kind of a pain in the ass. If you do as I said above you will "split" the fusion drive into two drives, which is probably not what you want.

there is a terminal command to repair a fusion drive back to what it should be, I'm trying to get out of the house right now so don't know it off hand.

So what you could do is reformat and erase both disk0 and disk1 (disk0 = the SSD part of the fusion drive, disk1 is the hard disk part) and then find that command (google will help) to re-merge the fusion drive. Then install again.

 

[bretcvan]

So you have a fusion drive, which are kind of a pain in the ass. If you do as I said above you will "split" the fusion drive into two drives, which is probably not what you want.

there is a terminal command to repair a fusion drive back to what it should be, I'm trying to get out of the house right now so don't know it off hand.

So what you could do is reformat and erase both disk0 and disk1 (disk0 = the SSD part of the fusion drive, disk1 is the hard disk part) and then find that command (google will help) to re-merge the fusion drive. Then install again.

The drive was split when I first got the computer. The drive had been completely erased and two disks showed in disk utility, a spinning disc and SSD. I followed the instructions to rebuild the fusion drive: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207584. I did it via the terminal like you describe. Are you suggesting that I need to start over and do it again?

 

[unclemiltie]

I'd do it if the disk has not been erased before this install attempt.