Mountain Lion Installation stuck at 21 Minutes Left

Late 2008 iMac. It has been stuck for about an hour now at 21 minutes remaining. The computer just had a new hard drive put in 2 weeks ago, and I can't imagine what is wrong. Should I try a force restart? I'm just worried that I'll erase all of the data on the computer, so what is my best option?

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
The only thing you can do is to restart the Mac holding the Power button. Then, start it and see if you can install Mountain Lion.
If not, hold Command and R keys while your iMac is starting to start in OS X Recovery and reinstall OS X. You should have a backup of your files

Similar Messages

  • Mountain Lion installation stuck

    Hi,
    I have big problems to install Mountain Lion om mbpro late 2008 (Snow Leopard).
    Downloaded from App Store, then restart and install. And here we start:
    Time Remaining: 34 minutes for 1h. Nothing changed.
    I hard reset - same situation.
    I have clear PRAMa and NVRAM - nothing helped.
    So I am stuck at Install loop after every reset - 34 minutes and nothing happens.
    Is it way to "back" to Snow Leopard?
    Or maybe someone have same problem?

    If this would be an hour I wouldn't post this ;-).
    Download is one thing.
    Install was exactly 5 and half hour.
    First install stuck at at begining (34 min remaining).
    So I hard reset.
    After this, same situation.
    So I cleared PRAM and NVRAM.
    Same... then SMC reset. Same situation etc.
    At the end I leave update for hours.
    After 2-3 I saw progress bar in middle, yay :-).
    So I left this and went watch London 2012 Opening Ceremony ;-).
    After next 2h I heard reboot sound.
    Dont ask me why it tooks such a long time. But all works now, no data was lost, I am happy :-).

  • Mt. Lion installation stuck at 4 minutes remaining = help

    Never had this happen before during an installation. I am installing from a usb drive which I made
    from my initial Mt. Lion installation so that I didn't have to tie up the servers/wait with each installation.
    I have used this drive to install Mt. Lion successfully on another laptop (I am installing on a MacBook
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    account. I have seen the Time Remaining get to under 10 minutes and then jump back to a higher time
    before finishing but never seen it just stop. It has been about 45 minutes now. Thanks in advance for
    any ideas.

    Hello hughmourous,
    Thank you for participating in the Apple Support Communities.
    It sounds like your OS X Yosemite installation did not complete.
    If you have not already, and your installation did not complete, I'd recommend holding down the power button on your Mac to turn it off, and try booting into Safe Mode:
    Follow these steps to start up into Safe Mode.
    Be sure your Mac is shut down.
    Press the power button.
    Immediately after you hear the startup sound, press and hold the Shift key. The Shift key should be pressed as soon as possible after startup, but not before the startup sound.
    Release the Shift key when you see the Apple logo appear on the screen.
    After the Apple logo appears, it may take longer than usual to reach the login screen. This is because your computer is performing a directory check as part of Safe Mode.
    To leave Safe Mode, restart your computer without pressing any keys during startup.
    From:
    OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode? - Apple Support
    All the best,
    Jeremy

  • Mountain lion installation crashes with 33 minutes remaining?! then goes onto os x utilities...

    Help!

    I put in the Snow Leopard Disk and it gets past the installation settings but when it gets to where I select the disk to install it, there's a yellow triangle with exclamation mark in it over the hard drive icon and says "Mac OS X cannot start up from this disk". Is the hard drive locked? I don't know what to do next, again any help is appreciated I'm desperate

  • 2008 iMac won't turn on after Mountain Lion installation

    I have a 2008 iMac with 6GB of RAM that was running on OS X 10.6.8 perfectly. Tonight I upgraded it to Mountain Lion. After the installation, my machine was running slower and a little choppy, especially when first opening programs, even though it meets all the requirements for Mountain Lion. After about an hour or two of running like this, I was standing away from the computer for a minute when I saw a flash come from the monitor. I went to it and the screen was black. I thought maybe it had went to sleep, but nope! It was completely off and would not turn back on. No lights or sounds come on at all. There was no power outage or anything, and all other devices plugged into the same surge protector were working fine. I tried plugging it into another outlet and still had no luck.
    Any insight onto what caused this? Is it most likely a power supply failure, and could this have been caused by the Mountain Lion installation? Considering I've had this computer for almost 5 years and this has never happened before, it seems obvious that this contributed somehow.
    Any advice would be appreciated. I'm going to try to take it to an Apple store soon, but the earliest appointment is a few days away.
    Thank you!

    Welcome to Apple Support Communities
    It's quite possible that the power supply failed. The failure is difficult to be related with OS X Mountain Lion, so I would discard that. In some cases, it's normal that you experience slowness after installing a new OS X version because Spotlight indexes the hard drive.
    The best you can do is to take it to an Apple Store or reseller so you can get your Mac diagnosed. Now we can't do anything else apart from thinking that is a power supply issue

  • HT1338 Mountain Lion installation was interrupted - can't restart the download.

    My Mountain Lion installation was interrupted.  Now, when I try to download, it won't do it.  After clicking "Download" it pauses for a moment, and then nothing happens. 
    Any suggestions?  Thanks!
    - Jeff T

    The server is too busy and your connection timed out with the server. Try doing this at night because there is less traffic.

  • Can't boot Mountain Lion installer on a machine that already has Mavericks installed

    I have upgraded my Mac mini 2012 to Mavericks, and everything is running quite well.  However, I need to also run Mountain Lion (a piece of hardware I need to use is not Mavericks compatible.)
    I am attempting to install Mountain Lion on a 2nd partition on my Mini's internal hard drive by following the following steps:
    * used Disk Utility to repartition my mini's internal drive, creating a 100 GB partition to install Mountain Lion on
    * used DiskMakerX to create a Mountain Lion bootable USB key
    * rebooted machine while holding down Option
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    Hi,
    to calm your nerves: on my computer I have CS3 and CS4, and I work with both versions, but of course, I never use them at the same time. First, I had CS3, CS4 I installed later.
    All the keyboard short cuts, like yours work free from defects.
    Hahns-G.

  • Mountain Lion installer will not let me choose my Lion Partition as an install location

    Mountain Lion installer will not let me choose my Lion Partition as an install location.
    Any ideas why?

    Again, why will the Mountain Lion installer not allow me to select my Lion partition as the location for the install?
    Good question. That's the main way it's supposed to be installed. You shouldn't even need to choose a partition. You purchase Mountain Lion through the App Store, it downloads to the Applications folder and automatically begins the installation on the drive where Lion or Snow Leopard resides as soon as the download is complete.

  • Need help with Os X Mountain Lion Installation

    I have a Macbook Pro (early 2011) 2.3Ghz and Everytime I boot up my macbook this Os X Mountain Lion screen pop up but when I try to install it. A message pop up saying ‘"temperaly unavailable try again ‘later" and sometimes "please contact apple care". I need help getting pass this installation so I can start using My macbook pro. Can someone help me?

    Have you downloaded the Mountain Lion installer from the App Store? It is a stand alone application.

  • Where can I find my mountain lion installer included with 2012 mac mini

    I just bought a 2012 mac mini and I want to install mountain lion on an SSD that I bought separately.  Where can I find the mountain lion installer file to create a bootable USB install drive?  When I go to the mac app store, mountain lion is not listed in my purchases and when I try to buy it, it says "We could not complete your purchase. OS X Mountain Lion is not compatible with this computer."  It's already installed on the mac mini, I just need the installer file so I can install it on my SSD.

    keg55 wrote:
    You might be able to simply boot into the ML Recovery HD, select Reinstall OS X and point to your SSD drive. You won't capture the InstallESD.dmg file to create a USB thumb drive installer.
    OR.... to create a USB thumb drive of your pre installed ML, you would need to redownload Mountain Lion then grab the InstallESD.dmg file and create your USB thumb drive.Here is how I've done it using Internet Recovery to get my pre installed OS X.
    Attach a USB external drive to your system. Formated as Mac OS Extended (Journal) and GUID partition table.
    Restart using Command+R+Option to boot into Apple's Recovery HD. This will get you the original version. Or just Command+R to boot into your ML Recovery HD.
    Select Reinstall OS X from the OS X Utilities menu.
    You will  have to watch the download. After it completes and your system restarts, at the black screen disconnect the external USB drive.
    After you are back to your current desktop, insert the external USB drive. There should be a single folder on the drive called 'Install Data' (I think). Find the InstallESD.dmg file and copy it to a folder on your current system (Downloads, for example).
    Follow any of the internet instructions to create a ML USB thumb drive.
    I tried this method, and while it did get me the installer image, when I restored it to an external and tried to use it to restore a Late 2012 Mac Mini, I got the same "No" symbol I did with other ML installers.
    Here are some screenshots of what was loaded onto my external before I yanked it, when the screen turned black durring the restart. The highlighted file is what I restored to my external to use to restore the Mac Mini.

  • Bootcamp windows7 freezing on start up and taking around 40 minutes to load. Mac mountain lion also taking around 5 minutes to load on start up

    I would like to have your kind support..Bootcamp windows7 freezing on start up and taking around 40 minutes to load. Mac mountain lion also taking around 5 minutes to load on start up.

    My first step would be to get rid of "Norton protection". Boot from your OS 10.6 disc, navigate through your hard drivve and trash anything that is Norton. Empty the trash.
    Next, run Disk Utility and ask it to repair the hard drive.

  • HT1657 I have rented a movie via apple tv and it gets stuck at 4 minutes left to download. I have not been able to watch and I can't get it to completely download.

    I have rented a movie via apple tv and it gets stuck at 4 minutes left to download. I have not been able to watch and I can't get it to completely download.

    You've tried restarting the film ? If it still skips then try the 'report a problem' link from your purchase history : log into your account on your computer's iTunes via Store > View My Account and you should then see a Purchase History section with a 'see all' link to the right of it ; click on that and you should see a list of your purchases ; find that film and use the 'Report a Problem' link and fill in details about the problem (iTunes support should reply within, I think, 24 to 48 hours).
    Some people have had a problem with the 'report a problem' link (it's been taking people to this site on a browser instead of showing a form in iTunes) - if it does that to you then try contacting iTunes support via this page : http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/contact/- click on Contact iTunes Store Support on the right-hand side of the page.

  • Prevent Mountain Lions Installer Automatic Delete

    I want to do a clean reinstall of Mountain Lion on my MacBook.  I recently learned how to do it, yippee!  However, in following the instructions that supposedly an 8 year old could follow, I hit a brick wall.  I could not find the application/installer.  I searched and searched banging my head in frustration.  Then I discoverd that, after download, it is automatically deleted.  Anyway, I apparently need to re-download the app from the app store.  Is it that simple first?  Second, how do I ensure it is not automatically deleted upon download.  I hope that makes sense.  It is my intent to first, make my current MacBook Pro back to original settings.  Second, it is my intent to create a boot disk with a flash drive to install Mountain Lion on two other MacBooks (it is my understanding I can use it on up to 5 of my machines).  Thanks in advance.

    BigSky13 wrote:
    Anyway, I apparently need to re-download the app from the app store.  Is it that simple first?
    Correct. As you purchased it in the past, you can download it as many times as you want for free, from App Store or starting into Recovery (pressing Command and R keys while your Mac is starting). If you want to download the installer, you have to download Mountain Lion from the App Store.
    BigSky13 wrote:
    Second, how do I ensure it is not automatically deleted upon download.  I hope that makes sense.  It is my intent to first, make my current MacBook Pro back to original settings. 
    It's only deleted when you upgrade OS X, but if you download the OS X Mountain Lion installer and you don't install it, you won't get it deleted
    BigSky13 wrote:
    Second, it is my intent to create a boot disk with a flash drive to install Mountain Lion on two other MacBooks (it is my understanding I can use it on up to 5 of my machines).  Thanks in advance.
    To do it, first download OS X Mountain Lion from the App Store. Then, use Lion Diskmaker to create the USB drive with Mountain Lion > http://liondiskmaker.com
    You can upgrade to OS X Mountain Lion all your Macs without any problem, so you don't have to worry about paying OS X Mountain Lion again to install it in your other Macintoshes

  • Mountain Lion installation to new drive stuck

    Hi all,
    My laptop drive was starting to suffer from regular I/O errors which would freeze the machine. I decided to get a new SSD, and used Recovery Assistant to make an existing external drive a Recovery Disk.
    Everything seemed to go well, but now it's been stuck at "3 minutes remaining" for well over an hour. I'm starting to think that the only solution will be to force reset the computer, but of course I don't know what this will have done to my installation. Has anyone experienced this? Does anyone have any better suggestions than to try again?
    Thanks!
    Ed

    Hi,
    Okay, so I restarted the mac and after reboot it continued with the installation - so no idea why it froze but if anyone else in in the same situation, probably it is actually finished with that step.
    One gotcha that caused me an additionall stress - I was worried that there was an issue with the external drive I was using for the recovery, and so I used my imac to make a USB key into a recovery disk. This didn't work (I got the 'stop' symbol). I then tried another external disk. Same problem. By now I was getting very concerned... and went back to the original drive... which worked perfectly. As far as I can tell, you can't assume you can use a recovery disk made with another computer (even if they're on the same version of ML) with your laptop. I guess this is related to the drivers installed, but it is very very annoying of Apple (especially since the failure is so opaque).
    Anyway, I'm done now.
    Cheers,
    Ed

  • HT1338 My installation of Mountain Lion is stuck on "paused" at the bottom of the screen, HELP!!!

    I started to install Mountain Lion onto my iMac with Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and I now have a “ghost" picture of a mountain lion at the bottom of the screen. When I hover my mouse over it, it tells me that it is paused. Whether it will pounce or not I don't know, but it seems to have paused for hours. I can't find a way of making it move. Is it stalking me silently? Will it wake up and growl loudly when I'm asleep? I think we should be told.
    Does anyone know how to wake up a sleeping Mountain Lion when it is trying to replace a Snow Leopard?

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