So, did disk utility say everything is OK, no errors and no permission problems? If it did, then I have to think there is something else going on with your machine. If it were me, I would clone my drive (time machine backup will be OK as well, but I like having a clone), and then reformat and load OS X from scratch. I’d make a new admin user account with a different name than my old account, and then migrate my data back from the old drive. That will pull over your old user account as well. There is a point in the setup where it will ask if you have anything from another drive/computer/time machine backup to move over.
If anything else weird happens, I’d check the new account to see if the problem is only on the old account. If it is something in the old account, then you can selectively move data files to a new account and when everything is moved, delete the old account.
You can also use something like rember to check for RAM issues, and if your hard drive is suspect at all, then I’d probably replace it if you can.
I was informed by App Store that an update to 10.10.3 was waiting. I clicked on the install and it told me I needed a restart. This I did. Off went the installer and shut down my machine, restarted and started the installation. After some time I noticed that the dialog box said ‘8 minutes remaining’. It stayed like that for about 4 hours, no movement. I pressed the on/off button until the machine shut down.
Then I started it up again with the on/off key. It booted fine but back in to 10.10.2. SO I tried it again from the App Store, exactly the same as previously. Exactly the same happened, shut down, restart, dialog box starting with about 33 minutes remaining, gradual increase in progress bar then stopping at 8 minutes left. Stayed there for about 2 hours. So I on/offed it again, then started up and booted straight into 10.10.2.
So, I did that. I Verified the disk with no problems but the Repair Disk option produced a long list of fixes. After that I ran the Repair Disk again, no issues.
Ran the ComboUpdate again. Exactly the same, right up to the 8 minutes remaining. That one, however, I left overnight. In the morning it was still showing 8 minutes remaining! So I made this post:
[quote=188142:@Simon Berridge]No go on all the above.
6 hours stuck on ‘8 minutes left’. Cancelled it again.
Now lost…[/quote]
I am loathe to reformat and start again. I have done that a couple of times as I am on my third hard disk on the MBP and installed from scratch twice before. This is a long process (but not an onerous one as I have all my software on an external hard disk and my data on dropbox). I just think it is overkill for a point upgrade 10.10.2 to 10.10.3., especially as the machine boots properly to 10.10.2 and works just fine. All the other programs have downloaded and installed from the App Store, it’s just the upgrade that is failing!
I will try the Install OS X Yosemite without the reformat tomorrow.
[quote=188526:@Simon Berridge]So, I did that. I Verified the disk with no problems but the Repair Disk option produced a long list of fixes. After that I ran the Repair Disk again, no issues.
[/quote]
That would make me think there could be other issues on the drive. When you ran the repair were you booted off of another drive/restore partition? If not, you might want to try that. Also, disk utilities repair is not 100% in some cases. I used to use disk warrior when I was unsure about apple’s disk repair. Disk warrior often fixed things that disk utility wouldn’t find in those cases.
These days reformatting and migrating the data back with time machine or a clone is pretty straight forward even if it can take a while. Of course you can always just stick with 10.10.2 until 10.10.4 comes out and see if it performs better.
Just a little background regarding these kind of updates, purely from my own experience.
I’ve owned several Macs in recent years; I’m not a ‘fanboi’; I buy them because they suit my needs and I enjoy using them. My current (and temporary) system is a Mac Mini from 2011 (The one with the discrete GPU).
When I have tried to run these updates in the past direct from the App Store, they have sometimes stalled part way through, just as you describe and I had to restart. Repeat the process, and so it goes on. No apparent reason for it.
So I then switched to updating slightly differently as I mentioned previously in the thread. That is to download the standalone installer for the updates and run them from the desktop. Everything that is offered from Apple in the App Store is always avilable as a standalone download also. This includes all the OSX updates, upgrades etc.
I’ve never had a problem yet applying the updates this way, and I always keep a copy of the downloaded files on an external USB drive just in case I should need them again.
This approach has proved more reliable for me and is now the only way I do the updates.
As I mentioned, this is my own personal experience and I know it may be different for other people, but this just works for me.
MBP 15" mid 2014. 10.10.3 Install from zero. Choices: Language PT, keyboard Swiss-German. During install it asked me the Wi-Fi info, done. Then… Frozen! Waited, waited… nothing. Clicked “<-back”. The window got insane with mixed content from previous page and the current. Back again, more garbage. Advancing again same results. Needed to shutdown and try again. Twice! Then it worked. Conclusion: Yosemite still prematurely released and needs a 10.10.4