MacBook Pro stuck on boot screen with spinning gear

[frenchfri]

Not entirely sure if I should've posted this in a macOS section or this one; my issue involves both I think.

I own a mid-2014 retina MacBook Pro. For a long time, it was running Sierra on one partition, and Windows 7 via Bootcamp on another. Both were working fine.

About a week ago, I made a USB installer for OS X Mavericks 10.9.5 that I wanted to use for a fresh OS X installation over Sierra. (only because I like the skeomorphic aesthetic of OS X prior to yosemite. I knew it would be compatible, because my MBP version was released before yosemite.)

Before erasing my Sierra volume, I made a time machine backup of it on an external drive. I also installed the Sierra OS on the drive using the time machine backup. So I basically made an external carbon copy of my Sierra volume.

I then installed Mavericks over my internal Sierra volume. Everything was working fine; I was using mavericks for about a week, installed updates, apps, etc. It was also noticably faster than Sierra was.

Yesterday, I shut down my laptop for the first time to use the bootcamp partition (which still works, by the way. I'm using it to post this). However, when I boot it back into Mavericks, it gets endlessly stuck on the apple logo boot screen w/ a spinning gear.

I don't understand why it won't boot now, when beforehand it was working fine upon a fresh install.

 

[DeltaMac]

Some glitch in the system, I think.
You should be able to fix that within about 45 minutes:
Boot to your USB Mavericks installer.
Reinstall OS X.
That will reinstall your system files, and should fix your booting issue. That kind of "repair" install should not affect your own files and documents in any way - other than making your system boot again.

 

[frenchfri]

Some glitch in the system, I think.
You should be able to fix that within about 45 minutes:
Boot to your USB Mavericks installer.
Reinstall OS X.
That will reinstall your system files, and should fix your booting issue. That kind of "repair" install should not affect your own files and documents in any way - other than making your system boot again.

Thanks for the quick reply!

Are you saying that reinstalling OS X won't erase all my files and reset it to factory settings? That's what I always thought reinstalling would do.

Also, if this does work, how can I ensure that the boot issue won't happen again? I don't wanna have to reinstall OS X every time I want to use it, lol

 

[DeltaMac]

Reinstalling OS X will not erase your drive, unless YOU choose to do that first. The reinstall just does a reload of the system files, and does not normally disturb your own files and apps. When it is finished, you will be back with the same desktop background, and everything else should be just the same as before - except it SHOULD get your system to boot properly, and that would be a Good Thing™, I think.

Will it happen again? hopefully this is just a one-time glitch. Yes, I would not want to reinstall the system every time I boot - but I think this should do it for you, unless you are having OTHER problems, such as a failing boot drive.
But, don't go there yet. Try the reinstall. If that fixes it, you should be done for now. If nothing changes, you may need to do a more complete "nuke-n-pave". And, you are not at that point, yet.

 

[frenchfri]

Reinstalling OS X will not erase your drive, unless YOU choose to do that first. The reinstall just does a reload of the system files, and does not normally disturb your own files and apps. When it is finished, you will be back with the same desktop background, and everything else should be just the same as before - except it SHOULD get your system to boot properly, and that would be a Good Thing™, I think.

Will it happen again? hopefully this is just a one-time glitch. Yes, I would not want to reinstall the system every time I boot - but I think this should do it for you, unless you are having OTHER problems, such as a failing boot drive.
But, don't go there yet. Try the reinstall. If that fixes it, you should be done for now. If nothing changes, you may need to do a more complete "nuke-n-pave". And, you are not at that point, yet.

Thanks for the info & help. I didn't know you could reinstall the OS without removing your files. (so much more convenient than the Windows counterpart)

I've successfully reinstalled OS X and everything seems to be working again (except the UI seems to be a little laggier, especially in launchpad)

I've restarted my laptop a couple times with no problems. The issue might be subject to shutting it down (as opposed to restarting), or booting into windows and back. I would troubleshoot that, but I'm almost inclined to just leave Mavericks on forever to avoid problems.

(the emoticons on this forum are so adorable, by the way)

 

[Fishrrman]

My advice:
I would NOT re-install bootcamp.
Unless you have-to-have "native Windows boot capability", I would suggest "a virtual/emulation" solution instead, such as VMWare Fusion, Parallels, or even the free "Virtual Box".

 

[frenchfri]

My advice:
I would NOT re-install bootcamp.
Unless you have-to-have "native Windows boot capability", I would suggest "a virtual/emulation" solution instead, such as VMWare Fusion, Parallels, or even the free "Virtual Box".

I've considered using those in the past. They seem much easier than having to boot between partitions. But in terms of performance, I've found Bootcamp to be reliable. I run a lot of games on my native Windows partition that I don't imagine would run as well under emulation. Then again, I've never tried it so maybe I'm wrong.

Nevertheless, hopefully I won't come to the point where I'd have to make the decision. Thanks for the advice if anything goes wrong