Mac Pro won’t load past login screen.

[mrk123]

m not 100% sure what OS I have. I think it’s this one for this thread section.
Mac is from around 2011 and have 16gb memory I added in as well as 1tb hard drive.

Chrome was freezing and crashing on me so decided to restart Mac. Tried to close safari also but it wouldn’t. Held in power button for 10 seconds and force quit.
Started up, got to log in page, added login and password and then on next screen I could see home page pic but massively blurred out (normal) and the little white wheel spinning in middle then 10 seconds later the colour wheel came spinning and that’s it… white wheel froze while rainbow wheel spins. I have tried to restart but it just does the same thing over again. I also did a first aid in recovery but didn’t seem to work.

Any ideas?

 

[chabig]

With little information to go on, I think a likely explanation is that your hard drive died. You might think about replacing it and restoring the system either from backup or as new, if you don't have a backup.

 

[mrk123]

With little information to go on, I think a likely explanation is that your hard drive died. You might think about replacing it and restoring the system either from backup or as new, if you don't have a backup.

Hi what more info do you need?
What about my files on there?
Am I Able to get those saved any way?

 

[Fishrrman]

This is why one always always ALWAYS keeps a second bootable drive close by.

What kind of backup have you maintained through the years?

 

[mrk123]

This is why one always always ALWAYS keeps a second bootable drive close by.

What kind of backup have you maintained through the years?

I know. I wish I had.
No real major back ups. Only a few important text files in iCloud.
I have quite a lot of images I need. I’m a photographer and have travelled a lot. I know it’s bad.
Anything I can try to get access to the drove now whilst it’s in my Mac.
Any easy ways to get files safe from the drive?

 

[mrk123]

This is why one always always ALWAYS keeps a second bootable drive close by.

What kind of backup have you maintained through the years?

Must be something I can do?
Hard drove doesn’t sound damaged. And it’s letting me get to log in screen. I can even see my Home Screen saver image saved but blurred out.

Are there any options I can try

 

[Fishrrman]

"Any easy ways to get files safe from the drive?"

Can you do a safe boot?
Boot holding down the shift key.
See if you can get logged in that way.

 

[mrk123]

"Any easy ways to get files safe from the drive?"

Can you do a safe boot?
Boot holding down the shift key.
See if you can get logged in that way.

I can get to safe boot but once I try to log in it’s the same issue. Log in boxes disappear and wheels spinning on and on.

 

[MarkC426]

As mentioned above, what is your Mac spec...?
Laptop/mini/imac/macpro...

Have you ever upgraded the OS since purchase.

 

[Fishrrman]

Can you boot to INTERNET recovery?
Comand-OPTION-R
at boot?

If so, do you have an external drive around?
Can be SSD or platter-based hard drive.

What I would try:
Boot to internet recovery.
Install OS onto the external drive.
Now, you can "get to work" on the internal drive while booted from the external drive.

I'm wondering if something could be corrupted in your user account...

 

[mrk123]

Can you boot to INTERNET recovery?
Comand-OPTION-R
at boot?

If so, do you have an external drive around?
Can be SSD or platter-based hard drive.

What I would try:
Boot to internet recovery.
Install OS onto the external drive.
Now, you can "get to work" on the internal drive while booted from the external drive.

I'm wondering if something could be corrupted in your user account...

I can get to boot mode and put in logins as normal but then same issue. Login box goes abs I can see my Home Screen saver pic blurred out and the spinning white wheel abs spinning colour wheel. White wheel freezes and colour wheel keeps spinning.

 

[mrk123]

As mentioned above, what is your Mac spec...?
Laptop/mini/imac/macpro...

Have you ever upgraded the OS since purchase.

Mac book pro 2011. 16gb ram. 1tb hd. I have upgraded once but it’s still ok like 10.7 I think. I’m not a Mac expert. I just use it.

 

[mrk123]

I’ve run first aid on it 3 times now. Nothing. Thought it might have let me in. I did that by holding Cmd R and it got me into disk utility. Anything else I can try here? It’s just saying first aid done and that’s it.

Taking to a friend who knows computers but he’s more windows based. Hopefully he can suggest something. I’d be happy just to get all my files off then I’ll get a SSD installed.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:
"I can get to boot mode and put in logins as normal but then same issue. Login box goes abs I can see my Home Screen saver pic blurred out and the spinning white wheel abs spinning colour wheel. White wheel freezes and colour wheel keeps spinning."

If you see a login screen, you probably are NOT in "internet recovery".
If you want help, you have to TRY the suggestions we offer.

Do this (and then come back here and tell us what happens):
- Power down, all the way off
- Press the power on button
- IMMEDIATELY hold down Command-OPTION-R and KEEP HOLDING IT DOWN for a little while.
- You will need your wifi password (do you know it?)
- The internet utilities take a while to load, so be patient. You should see the "spinning globe" as they load.
- If successful, you should see the internet utilities screen.

If you can get to internet recovery, you can do things like
- reformat (erase) the drive
- re-install the OS

If you want to re-install an OLD version of the OS, there is a SPECIAL VERSION of internet recovery that will install the original OS that shipped with the MBP:
Command-SHIFT-OPTION-R

You might want to try that.

If you can't get any further, perhaps there's a brick-n-mortar Apple Store you could visit for help.
Where (in the world) are you?

Hmmm... one other thing:
You have a 2011 MacBook Pro?
Is it 13" or 15" or 17"?
Have you ever heard of.... "RadeonGate" ???

 

[mrk123]

OP:
"I can get to boot mode and put in logins as normal but then same issue. Login box goes abs I can see my Home Screen saver pic blurred out and the spinning white wheel abs spinning colour wheel. White wheel freezes and colour wheel keeps spinning."

If you see a login screen, you probably are NOT in "internet recovery".
If you want help, you have to TRY the suggestions we offer.

Do this (and then come back here and tell us what happens):
- Power down, all the way off
- Press the power on button
- IMMEDIATELY hold down Command-OPTION-R and KEEP HOLDING IT DOWN for a little while.
- You will need your wifi password (do you know it?)
- The internet utilities take a while to load, so be patient. You should see the "spinning globe" as they load.
- If successful, you should see the internet utilities screen.

If you can get to internet recovery, you can do things like
- reformat (erase) the drive
- re-install the OS

If you want to re-install an OLD version of the OS, there is a SPECIAL VERSION of internet recovery that will install the original OS that shipped with the MBP:
Command-SHIFT-OPTION-R

You might want to try that.

If you can't get any further, perhaps there's a brick-n-mortar Apple Store you could visit for help.
Where (in the world) are you?

Hmmm... one other thing:
You have a 2011 MacBook Pro?
Is it 13" or 15" or 17"?
Have you ever heard of.... "RadeonGate" ???

Not at home at moment but can possibly get on WiFi.

Right now is there any way at all jjst to get access to Mac as it was before this happened. So I can consider saving all important files.
I don’t want to start reformatting drives without having my data saved.

 

[MarkC426]

If you know someone with a Mac you could try and copy data with Target Disk Mode.

Transfer files between two Mac computers using target disk mode

You can connect an Intel-based Mac to another Mac using a USB, USB-C or Thunderbolt cable, then transfer files.

support.apple.com

 

[mrk123]

Just been to a computer friend. He is mostly windows.
But suggested: get an external SSD, take old hard drive out of Mac, try use a Sata to drag and drop all onto external so they are safe. Then install old drove aka try update OS and see if that works. Can I update OS from my situation. Of course I’m going to want a new drive but be good to see if this one can let me in for now to make sure I have screen shot of apps i need etc?

How’s this sound.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"I don’t want to start reformatting drives without having my data saved."

You can't "get your data saved" until you can get booted and get to the finder.

That requires a bootable copy of the OS.

You can "get there" with the internal drive by re-installing a copy of the OS from Apple. Doing so will not harm the data on the drive, it will just replace the OS.

OR...

You can "get there" by installing a bootable copy of the OS onto an EXTERNAL drive. You can then BOOT FROM the external drive, and from there you may be able to access the internal drive.

I WOULD NOT RELY UPON your friend with a PC, unless he "knows Macs".
Chances are you could end up in a worse position than you're in right now.

I will say this again:
If you're not willing to try what we are advising you, how do you expect to get anywhere?

The instructions I provided to get you booted to internet recovery should work anywhere with wifi.

Why have you come back to this thread without even trying that?

 

[mrk123]

If you know someone with a Mac you could try and copy data with Target Disk Mode.

Transfer files between two Mac computers using target disk mode

You can connect an Intel-based Mac to another Mac using a USB, USB-C or Thunderbolt cable, then transfer files.

support.apple.com

Does that involve a wire of wireless? A

OP wrote:
"I don’t want to start reformatting drives without having my data saved."

You can't "get your data saved" until you can get booted and get to the finder.

That requires a bootable copy of the OS.

You can "get there" with the internal drive by re-installing a copy of the OS from Apple. Doing so will not harm the data on the drive, it will just replace the OS.

OR...

You can "get there" by installing a bootable copy of the OS onto an EXTERNAL drive. You can then BOOT FROM the external drive, and from there you may be able to access the internal drive.

I WOULD NOT RELY UPON your friend with a PC, unless he "knows Macs".
Chances are you could end up in a worse position than you're in right now.

I will say this again:
If you're not willing to try what we are advising you, how do you expect to get anywhere?

The instructions I provided to get you booted to internet recovery should work anywhere with wifi.

Why have you come back to this thread without even trying that?

Ok. I am home and at WiFi.
So this internet recovery can not harm or damage files?
I can try that shortly.

 

[mrk123]

OP:
"I can get to boot mode and put in logins as normal but then same issue. Login box goes abs I can see my Home Screen saver pic blurred out and the spinning white wheel abs spinning colour wheel. White wheel freezes and colour wheel keeps spinning."

If you see a login screen, you probably are NOT in "internet recovery".
If you want help, you have to TRY the suggestions we offer.

Do this (and then come back here and tell us what happens):
- Power down, all the way off
- Press the power on button
- IMMEDIATELY hold down Command-OPTION-R and KEEP HOLDING IT DOWN for a little while.
- You will need your wifi password (do you know it?)
- The internet utilities take a while to load, so be patient. You should see the "spinning globe" as they load.
- If successful, you should see the internet utilities screen.

If you can get to internet recovery, you can do things like
- reformat (erase) the drive
- re-install the OS

If you want to re-install an OLD version of the OS, there is a SPECIAL VERSION of internet recovery that will install the original OS that shipped with the MBP:
Command-SHIFT-OPTION-R

You might want to try that.

If you can't get any further, perhaps there's a brick-n-mortar Apple Store you could visit for help.
Where (in the world) are you?

Hmmm... one other thing:
You have a 2011 MacBook Pro?
Is it 13" or 15" or 17"?
Have you ever heard of.... "RadeonGate" ???

Just the bit about the original OS, I think I upgraded at some point. But I’m probably on 10.7 or something. I don’t know. Should I just do it as original OS or does it need to be the one I had / have installed?

 

[mrk123]

It’s installing now.
High Sierra.
Fingers crossed.

 

[mrk123]

Ok it’s totally installed new OS and let me set up as new.

Quite amazed actually.

So all of that was just an OS glitch?!

I’m still going to buy a new SSD external and get everything backed up! Possibly even look at cloud storage.

Is there a way to make a mirror copy of my computer now. With all my apps and programs etc? I heard there was. That way of anything happens I can just press one button get it all back?

Afraid to turn laptop off now till I get my external but guess itll Be ok.

 

[MarkC426]

Superduper or Carbon Copy Clone will create a 'bootable clone' of your drive.
The copy drive would need to be the same size as your mac drive.

With this, if you had a problem, you can just boot from the external.

It is worth paying (the small cost) of either, which enables you to do 'incremental' updates to the clone, which just update what has changed since the last copy.

 

[mrk123]

I think my plan of action is.

Buy external SSD and back up all mu needed files. Then buy internal SSD and made carbon copy of my current hard drive. Then run this current one to the ground or maybe squeeze another few months out of it?

Can anyone suggest a good internal SSD. Ideally 1tb? Even trying to find an external SSD is a mine field it appears.

 

[Fishrrman]

If it's a 2011 MacBook Pro, it probably has a platter-based hard drive in it.

You can speed up the performance of the MBP by replacing it with an SSD.

ANYONE can do this. It's just a matter of removing the back cover (numerous screws, Phillips #00 drive required), changing drives, and then putting the back cover on again.

You'll also need a TORX T-6 driver to undo the "bosses" on the sides of the internal drive, and move them over to the SSD.

Best way to do it:
Buy a 2.5" SATA SSD. Don't buy "the fastest". Just "buy for price".
1tb or 512gb should do.

Buy a USB3 2.5" external enclosure, something like this:

SABRENT 2.5 Inch SATA to USB 3.0 Tool Free External Hard Drive Enclosure [Optimized for SSD, Support UASP SATA III] Black (EC-UASP)

SABRENT 2.5 Inch SATA to USB 3.0 Tool Free External Hard Drive Enclosure [Optimized for SSD, Support UASP SATA III] Black (EC-UASP)

www.amazon.com

Put the SSD into the enclosure.
Use disk utility to erase it to "Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format"

Now, use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to clone the contents of the internal drive to the EXTERNAL SSD.

Now, DO A TEST BOOT TO MAKE SURE IT'S GOOD:
Reboot and hold down the OPTION key until the startup manager appears, then select the external SSD and see if it boots.

If you get a "good boot", NOW it's time to power down and "swap the drives".
Put the SSD into the MBP, and put the old drive into the enclosure.

Now, boot the MBP with the SSD inside (use the option key trick again).
Do you get a good boot?
If so, one more thing:
Go to the startup disk preference pane and set the SSD to be the new boot drive.
Then, reboot again, to check your results.

Everything look ok?
Now the old drive (in the enclosure) can become your "cloned backup".