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Mid 2012 model, A1278 / 2.5 GHz i5 or 2.9 GHz i7 processor.

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EL Capitan Error - Help

Hello! So, okay, when I was upgrading my OS earlier, it was stuck at 19 minutes. I waited for 3 hours hoping that it would go back to normal but it didn't so I decided to turn it off by pressing the start button.

When I did, first attempt, it asked me to log-in my account then at the upper left, it says:

panic ( cpu 2 caller ..........................

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: init

Mac OS version: Not yet

Now, when I went to the Recovery Mode, it would let me re-install it once again but the problem is there isn't enough disk space. I have 11GB and it needs 3GB more. What do I do so I can access my file and transfer them on the external harddrive?

Thank you!

UPDATE 10-12-15

Hello sirs!

Thank you for the help. I have a feeling that your techniques going to work. I have one last error, when I am signing in to the App store, it says: There was an error connecting to the Apple ID server.

That's the last question! Haha. Hopefully everything turns out the way they should after :)

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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The App Store error is a network error. You may need to try at a different time when others near you aren't using the network (early morning or late at night) .

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If you have an external hard drive, you have a few options. All of them will require an external hard drive (or a second computer) with a bootable OS.

  1. If the hard drive already has a bootable operating system installed, attach it to the computer and boot holding down the Option key. The external drive will then boot the computer, and the internal drive will be mounted on the desktop. Transfer/trash whatever you need off the internal to make space (if you're copying stuff off, be sure to trash the originals on the internal drive after copying).
  2. If the external drive doesn't have an OS, you can install the OS to the external from Recovery Mode, then proceed as above.
  3. If you have a second Mac, or can borrow one, you can attach it to your computer using Thunderbolt or FireWire (if the second computer is too old for Thunderbolt, Apple has a Thunderbolt-FireWire adapter). Boot the second computer first, then boot your computer while holding down the T key. This puts your computer into Target Drive mode; it disables everything but the drives, which will appear as external drives on the second computer. Empty out space on the internal drive (be careful: the desktop icon will be orange instead of gray - don't get the drives mixed up). Then you can reinstall in Recovery Mode as before, or run an El Capitan installer downloaded to another machine. When the install is finished, you can power down your machine, disconnect everything and restart from the newly-installed El Capitan on your internal drive.

A few observations:

If you got down to 11GB empty space as a result of a failed install, you proabaly didn't have much open space in the first place. That's not good; the system uses empty drive space for virtual memory, and really starts to choke when the drive is too full. Apple's recommendation is that 20% of the total space on your boot drive should be empty; I think they're too liberal with that - I see much better performance on older computers with 25% empty space. How much open drive did you have before you started the install?

My practice with running OS installers is to be right by the computer when the download finishes, so I can stop the installer before it runs. If you do that, you'll find the installer in your Applications folder, named Install OS X El Capitan or whatever. Then you can copy the installer anywhere you want, to avoid downloading again. I usually clone my installers to a USB thumb drive, so I can take it to friends/clients who don't have superfast broadband connections. If you run the installer after downloading it, the operation deletes the installer at the end of the process, so there's nothing left to clean up. That's fine for a one-use-only situation, but it takes opportunities out of your hands.

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Why did you repeat what I wrote?

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I might ask you the same thing, since I posted my original message (since edited for clarity) five minutes before yours. Sort the answers by "Oldest", and you'll see. We've written simultaneous near-identical posts many times; this was just the first time I hit the "Post Answer" button before you did :)

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Ouch! Your are between a rock and a hard place.

OK, you'll need to find a friend with a Mac to help you out here. Basically, there are two ways to get to your drive. The first is connecting your system back to back with your friends then setting up your system in target mode (you will need the correct cable to interconnect the systems, in some cases it won't work). The other way is to create a bootable USB thumb drive which over the long haul will be useful (to service your system on your own).

So bring your system or the thumb drive on your visit to your friend (a good bottle of wine might help here too).

Then follow this Apple T/N: Share files between two computers with target disk mode. This only works if the two systems can be interconnected.

If you bring a USB thumb drive you'll first need to delete the Fat32 partition and reformat the drive for GUID and then setup a journaled partition using Disk Utitilies. Once done download the OS installer (this could be the older OS if your friend already has it on his system). Make a backup as the install process deletes the installer afterwards. Run it and install the OS onto your thumb drive. Once installed reboot the system to make sure the system boots up. To select which drive to boot from use the Option key to gain access to the boot manager and select the flash drive. If the system boots up you know you've got a working drive. I would recommend copying over the OS installer to the flash drive so you can reinstall the OS from the flash drive.

Now boot up your system with the flash or in target mode. Before you do anthing more here copy off anything important if you don't have it backed up. Delete as much as you can so your system has enough space. Once you're ready launch the OS installer from either the flash drive or your friends system.

That should do it.

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The external thing's working for me. I am currently downloading it (730 hours and 29 minutes). Lol I leave in the PH and the internet's really bad today. Hope nothing goes wrong in the downloads!

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My progress bar is already full yet my laptop did not restart. I'm trying to "download" it again

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Your drive may need repairs. If you have everything backed up why don't you just reformat the drive and start again. As to downloading are you doing this from the Apple Store or are you allowing the system to install off of the network. I would recommend getting the OS installer locally onto the thumb drive and then installing it from there.

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I repaired it, erased, etc. It's a WD Passport 1TB. The progress bar would be full but then nothing is happening - it would state 3 minutes or 0 seconds, 10s, etc while I just wait infront of it. D: What is happening to my laptop. D:

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I'm installing it through Recovery could this be the problem?

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