Mid-2011 Imac - High Sierra progress bar stuck

[Captain Brillo]

Hi ya, my iMac mid-2011 won't load since I tried restarting it. It had successfully upgraded 10.13.2 but now the progress bar slowly fills but never loads.

I've tried nearly all options I've found online but if you have a solution please let me know. Only shut down on Christmas Eve to find it dead Christmas day! And No back up since Dec 2016! :-(

Recovery (Reinstall High Sierra) - loads but never finishes (even from a USB)
Safe Mode to fix macOS Sierra - shift key doesn't seem to work
Disk Utility - Finds no errors

Just loads and stays there and I've left it for 24 hours!

Any ideas?

 

[Fishrrman]

What kind of drive is inside?

 

[Captain Brillo]

What kind of drive is inside?

Hi ya, where can I see what drive I have? I can access the Disk Utility.

 

[xraydoc]

Hi ya, my iMac mid-2011 won't load since I tried restarting it. It had successfully upgraded 10.13.2 but now the progress bar slowly fills but never loads.

I've tried nearly all options I've found online but if you have a solution please let me know. Only shut down on Christmas Eve to find it dead Christmas day! And No back up since Dec 2016! :-(

Recovery (Reinstall High Sierra) - loads but never finishes (even from a USB)
Safe Mode to fix macOS Sierra - shift key doesn't seem to work
Disk Utility - Finds no errors

Just loads and stays there and I've left it for 24 hours!

Any ideas?

No back up for a year? Dude...

 

[Captain Brillo]

I know... someone had the smart idea of doing it yearly...

 

[dfine1966]

Does it go to a blank white screen and then reboot.

 

[Captain Brillo]

Does it go to a blank white screen and then reboot.

Not by itself. I have to force reboot via the power button or in Disk Utility.

 

[h9826790]

Did you try the basic stuff e.g. PRAM reset or SMC reset yet?

 

[haruhiko]

It happened to my MacBook Pro when I had Symantec Endpoint Protection on it. After removal of this thing the machine booted without problem.

 

[Captain Brillo]

Did you try the basic stuff e.g. PRAM reset or SMC reset yet?

Yep. I'd like to remove Avast protection which I think may be an issue but don't know how, or if it's even a problem.

 

[h9826790]

Did you try just leave it there for few hours?

 

[madeirabhoy]

Hi ya, my iMac mid-2011 won't load since I tried restarting it. It had successfully upgraded 10.13.2 but now the progress bar slowly fills but never loads.

I've tried nearly all options I've found online but if you have a solution please let me know. Only shut down on Christmas Eve to find it dead Christmas day! And No back up since Dec 2016! :-(

Recovery (Reinstall High Sierra) - loads but never finishes (even from a USB)
Safe Mode to fix macOS Sierra - shift key doesn't seem to work
Disk Utility - Finds no errors

Just loads and stays there and I've left it for 24 hours!

Any ideas?

a colleague had similar with an ancient MacBook that he tried to put high sierra on, it kept as it it was installing, then when it restarted it would just go back to installing it. similar to yours disk utility wouldn't work, and putting high sierra on a usb stick just did the same thing albeit much slower.

i got him to buy a usb external drive, started up the MacBook and when it came up with the installation app i got it to install high sierra on the external drive, then started up from the external drive and the internal drive appeared so we could copy all his files onto the external drive, then reformat the drive and reinstall and its been fine since.

 

[Captain Brillo]

It happened to my MacBook Pro when I had Symantec Endpoint Protection on it. After removal of this thing the machine booted without problem.

I'd like to remove Avast and looking to see how.

install high sierra on the external drive, then started up from the external drive and the internal drive appeared so we could copy all his files onto the external drive, then reformat the drive and reinstall and its been fine since.

If I can't remove Avast, or it fails to solve it, then I'll try this next! Thanks!