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El Capitan - Installation Fails

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chris_thomp

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 12, 2015
15
1
Virginia
I am trying to install the Public Beta version of El Capitan and after about 10-15 mins of trying to install, a message pops up that says "no packages were eligible for install" and the installation fails. Here's what I've tried so far:

Restarting with command + r:
- I do not have a Time Machine backup.
- Disk Utility: I have my internal Mac HD listed, "Apple disk image" with "OS X Base System", and then about 10 or so "untitled" disk images. I ran First Aid and everything checks out.
- Reintall OS X: my only option here is to proceed with the installation of El Capitan. When I try from this screen a message pops up saying it needs to verify my computer's eligibility. When I click Continue an error occurs: "An error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again."

Any ideas?
 
Lowe Lilliehorn

Lowe Lilliehorn

macrumors regular
Apr 30, 2015
211
21
Try rebooting with CMD + R + ALT and internet recovery everything... The bad thing is just that you will be downgraded to the OS that your mac was shipping with... :/

This is (In your case) everything you can do basically!

Hope its work out for ya'!
 
C

chris_thomp

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 12, 2015
15
1
Virginia
Lowe Lilliehorn said:
Try rebooting with CMD + R + ALT and internet recovery everything... The bad thing is just that you will be downgraded to the OS that your mac was shipping with... :/

This is (In your case) everything you can do basically!

Hope its work out for ya'!
Click to expand...

CMD R ALT just brings up the same OS X Utilities app that CMD R brings up. BTW, I have a mid to late 2009 MBP. Thanks.
 
Lowe Lilliehorn

Lowe Lilliehorn

macrumors regular
Apr 30, 2015
211
21
chris_thomp said:
It still only gives me the option to install El Capitan. It then tells me my computer's eligibility needs to be verified by Apple. When I click continue an error comes up.
Click to expand...
Okay, well, when you hold down ALT + CMD + R, what shows up on the screen? A globe? Earth globe?
 
C

chris_thomp

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 12, 2015
15
1
Virginia
Lowe Lilliehorn said:
Weird.... Oh, its from 09... Well, hold down the Alt (only) while booting up, the click your Harddrive
Click to expand...

When I reboot with just ALT, I can select two options: OS X Installer and Recovery- 10.11. Recovery takes me to the OS X Utilities app and OS X installer takes me to the El Capitan installer. I tried both selections with the same results as before.

Any other ideas?
 
Lowe Lilliehorn

Lowe Lilliehorn

macrumors regular
Apr 30, 2015
211
21
chris_thomp said:
When I reboot with just ALT, I can select two options: OS X Installer and Recovery- 10.11. Recovery takes me to the OS X Utilities app and OS X installer takes me to the El Capitan installer. I tried both selections with the same results as before.

Any other ideas?
Click to expand...
Try to install it again... Wait 1 day and see if anything has been changed! :)

Hope it's working out for you! :)
 
S.B.G

S.B.G

Moderator
Staff member
Sep 8, 2010
26,673
10,457
Detroit
Am I to understand, from your first post, that you don't have a backup of your previous OS?
 
S.B.G

S.B.G

Moderator
Staff member
Sep 8, 2010
26,673
10,457
Detroit
chris_thomp said:
That's correct.
Click to expand...
Okay. Here is what I would try.

  1. Boot holding the Option button
  2. From the menu bar go into Disk Utility
  3. Format the primary drive with OS X Extended (Journaled)
  4. Get a 16 GB (or larger) USB 3 flash drive, if you don't already have one. A USB 2 will work, but will be much slower.
  5. Follow the directions in the first post of this thread to create the El Capitan PB installer.
  6. Once completed, plug the USB drive into the Mac, booting up holding the option key.
  7. Choose to boot from the USB drive
  8. Proceed with the installation choosing to load El Capitan on the freshly formatted primary drive.
  9. Good luck!
Take this as a lesson learned from experience, never install a beta over your primary OS, especially if you don't have a good and recent backup available in case things go bad.
 
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C

chris_thomp

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 12, 2015
15
1
Virginia
SandboxGeneral said:
Okay. Here is what I would try.

  1. Boot holding the Option button
  2. From the menu bar go into Disk Utility
  3. Format the primary drive with OS X Extended (Journaled)
  4. Get a 16 GB (or larger) USB 3 flash drive, if you don't already have one. A USB 2 will work, but will be much slower.
  5. Follow the directions in the first post of this thread to create the El Capitan PB installer.
  6. Once completed, plug the USB drive into the Mac, booting up holding the option key.
  7. Choose to boot from the USB drive
  8. Proceed with the installation choosing to load El Capitan on the freshly formatted primary drive.
  9. Good luck!
Take this as a lesson learned from experience, never install a beta over your primary OS, especially if you don't have a good and recent backup available in case things go bad.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'll give this a try. Will this delete everything on my HD?
 
C

chris_thomp

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 12, 2015
15
1
Virginia
SandboxGeneral said:
Carbon Copy Cloner is a popular backup software solution. I use it myself in addition to Time Machine.
Click to expand...

I'm not able to get into any OS right now, so I don't think I can download an application like Carbon Copy Cloner. I know I can get to Terminal from the OS X Disk Utilities--is there a way for me to copy everything on my HD to my external HD, and then do a clean install of an OS?
 
S.B.G

S.B.G

Moderator
Staff member
Sep 8, 2010
26,673
10,457
Detroit
chris_thomp said:
I'm not able to get into any OS right now, so I don't think I can download an application like Carbon Copy Cloner. I know I can get to Terminal from the OS X Disk Utilities--is there a way for me to copy everything on my HD to my external HD, and then do a clean install of an OS?
Click to expand...
I'm sure there is a way to do it via Terminal, as mentioned above, but I do not know how to do that.
 
C

chris_thomp

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 12, 2015
15
1
Virginia
Shirasaki said:
If you are comfortable with terminal, you may try to use terminal to backup old files.
Click to expand...

Shirasaki, what method would you use to copy everything from my HD to an external HD from Terminal? I found this page on using rsync in the terminal, but I'm guessing I would use the rsync -a SourceDirectoryPath DestinationDirectoryPath command? Where the SourceDirectoryPath is my Mac HD and the DestinationDirectoryPath would be my ext HD?
 
Shirasaki

Shirasaki

macrumors P6
May 16, 2015
16,263
11,764
chris_thomp said:
I'm not able to get into any OS right now, so I don't think I can download an application like Carbon Copy Cloner. I know I can get to Terminal from the OS X Disk Utilities--is there a way for me to copy everything on my HD to my external HD, and then do a clean install of an OS?
Click to expand...
I don't know if recovery OS provides basic environment for some simple apps, although Windows PE can run simple apps through command prompt.

But terminal backup would be a decent choice. You may need to know which folder you need to copy, and which you don't need. From my highly limited experience, Applications folder could be a choice because all applications installed on Mac are here.

Library folder might be useful because this folder contains application related data.

Users folder is of course storing all your personal files, and some user specific app data stores in here as well.

Other folders could be ignored since rest of them are mainly system generated.

.Trashes folder is a hidden folder, storing files you have thrown them into trash can. If you have something put inside, go and have a look to see if you need them.

I don't know if those information could help you. You may use it as a reference.
 
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