Macbook stuck on boot screen - Recovery not working

[qwerter18]

Hello,

today my Macbook Air Early 2014 - MacOS 10.14.6 - froze during use.
After power off with power button, the apple logo showed up, progress bar went to the end and then nothing happened.

I tried:
1. Boot into Recovery - PWR+CMD+R -> Sound - Screen stays blank (black)
2. Boot of USB Stick 10.14.6 - PWR+Alt -> Sound - Apple Boot Logo and Progress Bar to the end... and then nothing
3. Reset MAC SMC - PWR+Shift+CTRL+Alt ->
4. Reset NVRam/PRam - PWR+CMD+Alt+P+R ->
5. Boot into Single user mode -> tried every one of the 3 options (not knowing what they mean) - some kind of tests, I think.
5.1 /sbin/fsck -fy
5.2 /fsck/mount -uw /
5.3 exit
6. Booting into Safe-Mode does not work either -> Shift+PWR
7. Booting from USB stick - PWR+Alt - with MacOS 10.14.6 on it, which I usually use for installation. -> Stuck with apple logo and full progress bar

But I actually do not know, what I was doing, except for "Recovery" and "Boot from USB Stick"

I never had the problem, that I could not boot into recovery...
Any ideas are highly appreciated.

What could be the problem?
I do not have any other USB stick to flash Linux on right now, to maybe try booting into linux for checks and backups.
I dont have any External Disk with TimeMachine Backup.

At least I would like to save my private files, if the disk can not be saved. 🙁
Or best would be install over existing without harming file structure and keeping private stuff...

Thank you for your time and help,
Jos

 

[chown33]

Use macOS Recovery on an Intel-based Mac

Learn how to use macOS Recovery on an Intel-based Mac.

support.apple.com

Try one or both of these:

• Option-Command-R: Start up from macOS Recovery over the internet. Use this key combination to reinstall macOS and upgrade to the latest version of macOS that’s compatible with your Mac.
• Option-Shift-Command-R: Start up from macOS Recovery over the internet. Use this key combination to reinstall the version of macOS that came with your Mac or the closest version that’s still available.

Please read the start of that support article, because you'll need to establish an internet connection.

If you manage to get it booted, run Disk Utility and see if there's any disk responding. It's possible that your disk has failed in some way. Be sure to choose "Show all devices" in Disk Utility.

 

[qwerter18]

Hi,
yesterday I also tried booting from USB stick with installation 10.14.6 on it.
But: Booting from USB stick - PWR+Alt - with MacOS 10.14.6 on it, which I usually use for installation. -> Stuck with apple logo and full progress bar.

Today I managed to boot my Mac via UBUNTU and USB.
But the SSD of my MAC can not be mounted. I hoped to get some data recovery from there...
Is there a program that can access and recover data from UBUNTU (USB) to at least copy the files.

@chown33
thank you for your quick reply 🙂
If I install MacOS via the internet 2 questions remain:
1. Will all private files on my disk (if not faulty) be available after install? Or will my SSD be wiped out.
2. Can I then reinstall 10.14.6 if oldest or newest MacOS has been installed? I think I did this once with some kind of date-trick, but I cant remember exactly.
3. Will this this work if SSD is damaged?

Thank you very much for your help,
Jos

 

[Fishrrman]

Boot to INTERNET recovery as chown describes above.

KEEP HOLDING DOWN the key combination until you get asked for your password.
The standard key combo is "command-OPTION-R", but if your keyboard doesn't have an "option" key, the "alt" key may work for this instead.

You will need your wifi password.

Be patient "as the globe spins" -- the internet utilities take a while to load.

When you get to the utilities, you could first try re-installing the OS.
This WILL NOT erase your personal data (account, etc.) -- it will just re-install the OS.

If that doesn't work, you could
- erase the internal drive
- reinstall the OS "from scratch"
- restore your data

No backup? (sigh, today you learned "what backups are for")

Do you have another Mac available?
Linux won't do.

 

[qwerter18]

Hi,
I tried both,
Shift+Alt+CMD+R+PWR -> gives me a Sound and then a blank black screen (slightly iluminated)
Alt+CMD+R+PWR -> gives me exactly the same.
I tried holding down the keys for a while, and letting them go after startup sound.
There is no spinning globe coming up, nor a Wifi login.
But:
After approx. 5 minutes with a dark illuminated screen,
there was the Startup Sound again and then a large "folder smbol" with a "?" (question mark) inside comes up and blinks.
After a couple of minutes blinking, I put in a USB MacOS installation stick and instantly an Apple and the progressbar popped up, after 3 minutes the first screen with the "macOS Utilities" came up... Result.
Unfortunatly "Disk Utility" shows only the external drive (USB Stick 32GB) and "macOS Base System" (Image with 2GB). I cant see any other disk.
When I try to install macOS, I cant choose any other drive, than the protected USB drive.
It seems, the SSD harddrive is gone.

I have another MAC available.

 

[Fishrrman]

"Unfortunatly "Disk Utility" shows only the external drive (USB Stick 32GB) and "macOS Base System" (Image with 2GB). I cant see any other disk."

VERY IMPORTANT:
Does the version of disk utility you have, have a "view" menu (older versions don't, newer versions do)?

IF there is a "view" menu, you MUST go to it and choose "show all devices".

Do that, and THEN look at "the list on the left".
You can't see the internal drive until you do this!!

Having said that...
Since you have another Mac, could you connect to the MB's drive using "target disk mode"?
IF you can connect this way, you might be able to copy your personal stuff (such as the home folder) to another drive, and then "wipe the drive" and start over.

Apple's page on how to use that:

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

Quick test (I think this might work):
Power off MBair
Press power button and IMMEDIATELY hold down the "T" key (just that key), and keep holding it down.
Do you see anything on the display?

 

[qwerter18]

Yes, unfortunatly it has the "view" and with "show all devices" it still does not show any other internal disk/device.

I must search for a cable like that...

When I power up the MBAir PWR+T -> there is immediatly a moving flash-a-circle jumping around the screen, I guess that's the "target disk mode", is it not?

 

[winxmac]

Aside from words, pictures would help, or better yet, a short video...

 

[qwerter18]

Here are the respective images:
1. The first 5 pictures are with USB Installation (as Network install ends in Questionmark)
2. The last one is the internal disk being recognized by Ubuntu LiveDisk (but Ubuntu cant mount the image, because of APFS format, I think)

 

[MBAir2010]

.
It seems, the SSD harddrive is gone.

that was the first diagnosis I thought of when i read the first post.
several companies offer ssd drives for your macbook air for nice cheaper prices.
depending were you live i recommend OWC because their drives last longer than amazon ones.
and they still have humans working there.

hoped this helped!

 

[Fishrrman]

MBAir, I think, is right.
The internal SSD has failed.

 

[qwerter18]

Unfortunatly, yes.

I was trying to find a bootable USB .iso with a program that can read APFS disks. So far, no luck.
The only one I could find was HDDLiveCD. But its not bootable via USB-Stick. <- I found a way to make them bootable

Any other ideas how to read the remains of my harddrive?

I found couple of adapters/konverters on ebay/amazon but no idea which to use...

@MBAir2010
Thank you very much for your recom! Didn't know those SSDs became that cheap! 🙂
I checked OWC on Amazon for around 140€ -
The cheaper ones at around 100€
Do you think 40€ more is still worth, while the MBAirs sell around 120€ on ebay? 🤔

Edit:
I found HDDLiveCD (xubuntu linux), which can boot from USB.
I used Rufus 3.12 on Windows, USB Stick 8GB - MBR - Fat32
Settings in Rufus... "MBR" and "BIOS and EFi" -> Rufus creates boot partition.

 

[MBAir2010]

Unfortunatly, yes.


The cheaper ones at around 100€
Do you think 40€ more is still worth, while the MBAirs sell around 120€ on ebay? 🤔.

how is the battery life?
how much RAM and speed does the MBA have?
I’would repair yours since that is easy and these newer ssd drives speed up our macs.
these MBA on ebay could be bad.
Personally im attached to all my MacBooks, only 3 tho!

my 2010 macbook air just received a new battery and power chord and runs mountain lion.
that sits on a table in a porch near a tv and speaker for entertain purposes.
so i say get a new ssd drive because the 2014 still can function even with Catalina.

 

[qwerter18]

You're right.
Battery life sucks... but I am using a powercord 90% of the time, so it does not matter.
And without the ssd problem, I would not even have thought of buying another one...
So, I try to get as much data recovered as I can, and then build a new clean lean system 🙂
Thank you guys for advise, help and pushing me in the right direction!

 

[qwerter18]

Do you know if the OWC Aura x2 is boot camp compatible?