Can't reinstall macOS from recovery mode, won't allow me to select system disk

[Silverstring]

I am attempting to re-install Big Sur 11.3 from recovery mode on my system disk.

When selecting my internal disk when attempting to do this, I receive the following error:

The operation couldn't be completed. (com.apple.BuildInfo.preflight.error error 21.)

Have no idea what it could be, searches weren't any help.

Troubleshooting steps already tried to no avail:

• Restarting
• Resetting the SMC and PRAM on the Mac Mini
• Running First Aid from Disk Utility on the target drive
• Running First Aid on all drives connected to the system

I'm at a loss as to what to do next, or even knowing what's causing the error, let alone how to fix it. Hoping someone can help!

 

[4sallypat]

1. Connect your Mac to the Internet first (use a wired LAN connection for best speed).
2. Start up your computer in macOS Recovery:
   • On a Mac with Apple silicon: Restart your M1 Mac, press and hold the power button until you see “Loading startup options,” select Options, click Continue, then follow the onscreen instructions.
   • On an Intel-based Mac: Restart your Mac and before the startup chime:
     • Press and hold Option-Command-R until you see the spinning globe.
3. In the Recovery app window, select Reinstall macOS, then click Continue.
4. Follow the onscreen instructions. In the pane where you select a disk, select your current macOS disk

Remember, this assumes your Mac can support Big Sur (newer machines).

 

[Silverstring]

1. Connect your Mac to the Internet first (use a wired LAN connection for best speed).
2. Start up your computer in macOS Recovery:
   • On a Mac with Apple silicon: Restart your M1 Mac, press and hold the power button until you see “Loading startup options,” select Options, click Continue, then follow the onscreen instructions.
   • On an Intel-based Mac: Restart your Mac and before the startup chime:
     • Press and hold Option-Command-R until you see the spinning globe.
3. In the Recovery app window, select Reinstall macOS, then click Continue.
4. Follow the onscreen instructions. In the pane where you select a disk, select your current macOS disk

Remember, this assumes your Mac can support Big Sur (newer machines).

Thanks for responding! Unfortunately, this is what I did originally—start up in recovery mode.

It is in recovery mode where I get the aforementioned error when attempting to select my current macOS disk.

 

[4sallypat]

Can you get to the disk utility window - last choice under Utilities?

If so, erase the internal disk.
Then reinstall Mac OS

 

[DeltaMac]

Which Mac are you trying to reinstall? M1 or Intel?

 

[Fishrrman]

It sure helps if you tell us WHICH Mac you have and WHAT YEAR it was made...

 

[Silverstring]

Can you get to the disk utility window - last choice under Utilities?

If so, erase the internal disk.
Then reinstall Mac OS

I can. I know I might have to erase and reinstall as a last resort, but hoping there might be another step/way to approach the problem I haven't already tried.

Plus, not only do I want to fix this problem, I also want to know what it is/what causes it!

Which Mac are you trying to reinstall? M1 or Intel?

It sure helps if you tell us WHICH Mac you have and WHAT YEAR it was made...

2018 Mac Mini

 

[DeltaMac]

If you are not offered your disk for the install, you may need to erase your drive, then install.

How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support

You can use macOS Recovery, your computer's built-in recovery system, to reinstall the Mac operating system. Reinstalling macOS doesn't remove your personal data.

support.apple.com

(Why do you need to reinstall? Just routine maintenance? Or, have you had problems with the drive?)

I think the difference here is Big Sur. The error that you get is pointing to some problem in your system, and it is not the system on your SSD, but the system that your Mac actually boots from - the system snapshot (Your boot volume is securely locked, and you boot to that snapshot. Something has affected that snapshot, so a normal reload/reinstall can't work. Your way out is to erase/install.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

PRINT THIS OUT and follow the steps exactly.

1. Power down, all the way off.

2. Boot to INTERNET recovery
Command-OPTION-R at boot
(yes, you may have already done this, but there are "additional steps")

3. When you get to the internet utilities, open Disk Utility.

4. VERY IMPORTANT STEP:
Go to the "view" menu and choose "show all devices".

5. On the left, locate and click on "the top line" that represents the physical hard drive inside the Mini

6. ERASE IT using "APFS with GUID partition format".
Then quit disk utility.

7. Open the OS installer and try again. The Mini will restart a few times, and the display may go dark for several minutes with no indications of anything happening. Be patient. Just "let it be" for a while.

8. Does this work?
You should get an OS install and then get the initial startup screen "choose your language"...

 

[Silverstring]

If you are not offered your disk for the install, you may need to erase your drive, then install.

How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support

You can use macOS Recovery, your computer's built-in recovery system, to reinstall the Mac operating system. Reinstalling macOS doesn't remove your personal data.

support.apple.com

That's the weird part. It's offered—the disk shows up, and it isn't greyed out—but once I select it, I get the error.

(Why do you need to reinstall? Just routine maintenance? Or, have you had problems with the drive?)

I've had a bunch of weird problems with Big Sur. The biggest is that, no matter how many times I delete/reindex, remove from spotlight privacy and put back, my Spotlight index gets corrupted/erased, so I can't search for anything on my drives. After a regular reboot, the machine starts to index again, and that process finishes, and it works for awhile. Then, after roughly an hour or so (I can't pin it to any particular trigger, or any length of time, it happens even if I don't touch my machine) the index erases. Then, when I click on "Recents" in the finder, it's blank. Searches in mail don't find anything. Even trying to search for applications to launch from spotlight doesn't work. I tried troubleshooting that behavior on its own, but nothing I found worked.

The other bigger thing that'll happen is I'll boot into a user account, and it'll act like it's the first time it's ever booted into that account. It'll ask me to set preferences for apps that launch on login, it'll ask me to reauthorize apps that I've already been using and are already authorized in the "Privacy" tab of Security & Privacy in System Preferences.

There are other things, but those two alone make me want to go to the reinstall option, after trying to troubleshoot the problems piecemeal.

I think the difference here is Big Sur. The error that you get is pointing to some problem in your system, and it is not the system on your SSD, but the system that your Mac actually boots from - the system snapshot (Your boot volume is securely locked, and you boot to that snapshot. Something has affected that snapshot, so a normal reload/reinstall can't work. Your way out is to erase/install.

Thanks for the additional context! If it comes to that (erase + reinstall), it comes to that, but I'm hoping something else might work first.

OP:

PRINT THIS OUT and follow the steps exactly.

1. Power down, all the way off.

2. Boot to INTERNET recovery
Command-OPTION-R at boot
(yes, you may have already done this, but there are "additional steps")

3. When you get to the internet utilities, open Disk Utility.

4. VERY IMPORTANT STEP:
Go to the "view" menu and choose "show all devices".

5. On the left, locate and click on "the top line" that represents the physical hard drive inside the Mini

6. ERASE IT using "APFS with GUID partition format".
Then quit disk utility.

7. Open the OS installer and try again. The Mini will restart a few times, and the display may go dark for several minutes with no indications of anything happening. Be patient. Just "let it be" for a while.

8. Does this work?
You should get an OS install and then get the initial startup screen "choose your language"...

THANK YOU! This is a method I haven't seen or tried. I'll make sure my backups are in order, then try it! Hoping for the best.?

 

[Silverstring]

Thanks to everyone who responded.

Oddly enough, before I set aside the time to do the internet recovery steps very helpfully provided by Fishrrman, 11.4 came out. I updated to that, tried the reinstall without erasing again, and this time it worked!

No other configuration changes to my setup, so 11.4 must have just kicked the Gremlins out of my machine.

 

[profdraper]

Exact same problem here. Yes, Internet recovery works.

 

[DeltaMac]

Does a bootable USB installer work then?

 

[Darrenvo]

OP:

PRINT THIS OUT and follow the steps exactly.

1. Power down, all the way off.

2. Boot to INTERNET recovery
Command-OPTION-R at boot
(yes, you may have already done this, but there are "additional steps")

3. When you get to the internet utilities, open Disk Utility.

4. VERY IMPORTANT STEP:
Go to the "view" menu and choose "show all devices".

5. On the left, locate and click on "the top line" that represents the physical hard drive inside the Mini

6. ERASE IT using "APFS with GUID partition format".
Then quit disk utility.

7. Open the OS installer and try again. The Mini will restart a few times, and the display may go dark for several minutes with no indications of anything happening. Be patient. Just "let it be" for a while.

8. Does this work?
You should get an OS install and then get the initial startup screen "choose your language"...

Not sure if you'll ever read but i madr an account just to say thank you. Stress that this gave me arghhh, thanks so much lol

 

[JLReeher]

Can you get to the disk utility window - last choice under Utilities?

If so, erase the internal disk.
Then reinstall Mac OS

I’m new here but have been a Mac user for over 15 years. I’m having all kinds of issues with all the upgrades as I simply want to put my 2000 song library onto my iPhone and iPad. I went through this same issue when trying to get rid of Monterey and go back to Mojave. When using the “Reinstall macOS” I also couldn’t find my HD. First had to go into “DiskUtility” and erase the HD. Then reboot and use the Reinstall tab. It will put the original version that the computer came with. Don’t worry. When restoring from Time Machine (make sure you have backed up before starting all this), the version that you backed up will restore.

 

[Beachcomber31]

OP: Thanks for this advice which others have clearly found helpful. Before carrying out this procedure myself can you pleaase tell me whether step 6 will erase all my data on my computer? I dont want to do that. I'm talking about emails, files and folders, notes, etc. Nor do I want to go through the lengthy process of checking backups etc if I can avoid it. Thanks

PRINT THIS OUT and follow the steps exactly.

1. Power down, all the way off.

2. Boot to INTERNET recovery
Command-OPTION-R at boot
(yes, you may have already done this, but there are "additional steps")

3. When you get to the internet utilities, open Disk Utility.

4. VERY IMPORTANT STEP:
Go to the "view" menu and choose "show all devices".

5. On the left, locate and click on "the top line" that represents the physical hard drive inside the Mini

6. ERASE IT using "APFS with GUID partition format".
Then quit disk utility.

7. Open the OS installer and try again. The Mini will restart a few times, and the display may go dark for several minutes with no indications of anything happening. Be patient. Just "let it be" for a while.

8. Does this work?
You should get an OS install and then get the initial startup screen "choose your language"...

 

[DeltaMac]

Yes, step 6 will completely erase your drive. Everything will be deleted as part of that erase.
If you don't have any other backup, here's one method that works for me:
Make a bootable USB installer for the macOS system that you have now.
Boot to that installer, and install a fresh install of the system on another, external drive.
When that completes, you will be asked if you want to tranfer data from another Mac or another drive. Choose your internal drive, and continue with the process to transfer your files and apps from the internal drive to your freshly installed system on your external drive. This can take some time, so be patient. When that is complete, you will have a full backup on your external drive.
Now, boot to your USB installer again. Open Disk utility at the menu screen. Erase your internal drive.
And, now run the Reinstall macOS again, choosing your newly erased internal drive as the destination.
When complete, you will go through the same process to transfer your files and apps from the external drive (the one you just prepared as the external backup.)
This process should work for you, just keep in mind that it takes several hours to finish the "install system, then copy files and apps", because everything is done twice. It's just a method that I often use when no backups exist, or existing backups are not current.

 

[Beachcomber31]

Yes, step 6 will completely erase your drive. Everything will be deleted as part of that erase.
If you don't have any other backup, here's one method that works for me:
Make a bootable USB installer for the macOS system that you have now.
Boot to that installer, and install a fresh install of the system on another, external drive.
When that completes, you will be asked if you want to tranfer data from another Mac or another drive. Choose your internal drive, and continue with the process to transfer your files and apps from the internal drive to your freshly installed system on your external drive. This can take some time, so be patient. When that is complete, you will have a full backup on your external drive.
Now, boot to your USB installer again. Open Disk utility at the menu screen. Erase your internal drive.
And, now run the Reinstall macOS again, choosing your newly erased internal drive as the destination.
When complete, you will go through the same process to transfer your files and apps from the external drive (the one you just prepared as the external backup.)
This process should work for you, just keep in mind that it takes several hours to finish the "install system, then copy files and apps", because everything is done twice. It's just a method that I often use when no backups exist, or existing backups are not current.

That's bad news. More to learn. I already have an iCloud subscription and that would do a lot of the backup for me. However I must confess it is a very confusing form of backup to use because it's never clear what it has stored on hard disc and what it is storing in the cloud. Like another user I'm left wondering what the actual cause of the mystery message is and whether there's a simpler way. In my case the problem I'm actually seeking to cure is that my MAC OS won't shut down completely but keeps itself hanging. Any simple cure for that?

 

[DeltaMac]

How long did you wait for a potential full shut down? Give it at least 30 minutes.

I would probably try a macOS reinstall. That may take care of the long shut off delay (or just hanging at shutdown)
Best method is to use a bootable installer USB for whatever system you are using currently.

 

[Beachcomber31]

How long did you wait for a potential full shut down? Give it at least 30 minutes.

I would probably try a macOS reinstall. That may take care of the long shut off delay (or just hanging at shutdown)
Best method is to use a bootable installer USB for whatever system you are using currently.

Now I can report that the system is behaving. All I did was ensure that all programmes and windows were shut down before shutdown and that I had ticked the option on the shutdown box to say I didn't want any programmes to reopen when I started up again. I strongly suspect that the trigger for all my problems is an attempted update. As soon as I use the option to search for updates all the problems resurface. That includes hanging boxes, endless hanging on shutdown, show processing, etc. My original attempted solution was to attempt to reinstall Big Sur. Trios had led me to a dead end with a message 'The operation couldn't be completed. (com.apple.BuildInfo.preflight.error error 21.' That's what led me to this thread. I'm not sure anyone will learn anything from my contribution. Apple Helpdesk was completely hopeless. I only came here after three sessions with them. I still dont have Monterey! Trying to install it was the first mistake. Apple lists Monterrey as compatible with my computer but they should say 'only if you have a three month lockdown to wile away trying'.

 

[HDFan]

I already have an iCloud subscription and that would do a lot of the backup for me.

iCloud is not considered a backup service.