Unsuccessful booting after attempting to install High Sierra

[pakupakuman]

Hello -

I finally decided to to install High Sierra on my 2011 Mac Mini, which has 8GB RAM and a (can't remember the capacity) SSD which I installed last year.

I have (had?) two partitions, one for OSX, another for programs and files. the OSX partition has 20GB capacity. I instruct the computer to install HS in the OSX partition. The installer told me to journalize the partition, which I did, and then it started to install HS. After it installed "something" (part or all of the necessary software?) it asked me to restart, and since then, it boots up but does not go beyond filling out the black progress bar; it just hangs.

I tried a safe mode boot, but it does not properly boot; it hangs just like described above.

Any ideas or pointers you could provide?


Thanks much,
Marcos

 

[Fishrrman]

Can you boot to internet recovery?
If not, do you have access to ANOTHER Mac that DOES boot?

 

[pakupakuman]

Can you boot to internet recovery?
If not, do you have access to ANOTHER Mac that DOES boot?

Thanks for the reply! I'll see how I can boot to internet recovery. I do have another Mac, my MBPr, from which I'm replying .

 

[treekram]

20GB seems small to me. It appears that Apple has not specified minimum disk requirements for a clean install of High Sierra, but does say that it does require 1.5GB more than Sierra. If you're doing an upgrade, it does say that you need 14.3GB of space. They do not specify if that space needs to be on the system partition or not. One web site says you need a minimum of 16GB with 32GB recommended. If you can boot from a different disk or partition, how much space does it say there's left on the 20GB partition?

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"I have (had?) two partitions, one for OSX, another for programs and files. the OSX partition has 20GB capacity."

I concur with treekram's assessment above.
I have my external (USB3) set up the same way as you.
HOWEVER -- I give the boot partition much more "breathing room".
My 240gb SSD is divided like this:
- boot partition - 181gb
- main (files) partition - 58gb
(the files I keep are not large in size, and all "media" -- movies, music, photos -- are kept elsewhere).

I'd suggest you repartition the drive.
Give the boot partition at least 60-70gb this time.
That leaves rooms for apps and the invisible files that the OS requires in normal usage.

One other thing:
If you attempt to re-install again, do so from a BOOTABLE USB flash drive with the installer on it.
You need either an 8gb or 16gb flashdrive, and the free little app called Boot Buddy:
https://sqwarq.com/boot-buddy/
Use BB to load the OS installer onto the flash drive and make it bootable -- this takes only a few clicks of the mouse and it's done.

Then boot up from the flashdrive, and retry the install that way.

 

[pakupakuman]

Thanks to both for your replies. I'll try the alternatives suggested this weekend and post results.

 

[pakupakuman]

Hello -

Sorry for taking so long. I did a Sierra reinstall this morning, as it would not perform the High Sierra installation.

Disclaimer: This is what I did to my Mini. Your mileage may vary!

1. I ran Disk Utility from the bootup (pressing the Option button).
2. I journalized and erased the MacOS partition (IDK why it wasn't journalized to begin with - oh well).
3. I reinstalled Sierra in the MacOS partition.

The "data and stuff" partition (the important one, of course) is periodically backed up to an external drive, so no harm, no foul if it wouldn't work.

So I guess the next step is to create a bigger partition and install HS there, no? I'll let you know when I'm done with that. Thanks again for your replies and interest. Regards.