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Macbook Wont Boot to MacOS
- Thread starter djflaco
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Fishrrman
macrumors Nehalem
Looking at the image you posted in reply 46 above...
... it looks like there are two additional (Mac?) partitions (other than your bootcamp partition)...
BUT...
... There's NOTHING on either one of them, at all.
One more thing to try:
Power down, all the way off
Put your finger on the "T" key. KEEP HOLDING IT DOWN.
Press and release the power-on button
KEEP HOLDING DOWN the "T" key (and no other keys).
What happens? Do you see an "icon" appear onscreen?
ANOTHER thing to try:
Power down, all the way off
Insert the bootable flash drive
Hold down the option key and keep holding it down
Press and release the power on button.
KEEP HOLDING DOWN the option key
You're telling us that when it boots from the flashdrive, the FIRST screen we see is the one you posted in reply 48 above?
I've never seen a similar screen when booting from a flashdrive...
Hmmm...
What happens if you go in and choose Sequoia instead?
Or Sonoma?
Or High Sierra?
(do you get my meaning to try each one?)
I have to ask?
Where did you GET this Macbook Pro?
Did you buy it new?
Did you buy it used?
Do you have a brick n mortar Apple Store anywhere nearby?
... it looks like there are two additional (Mac?) partitions (other than your bootcamp partition)...
BUT...
... There's NOTHING on either one of them, at all.
One more thing to try:
Power down, all the way off
Put your finger on the "T" key. KEEP HOLDING IT DOWN.
Press and release the power-on button
KEEP HOLDING DOWN the "T" key (and no other keys).
What happens? Do you see an "icon" appear onscreen?
ANOTHER thing to try:
Power down, all the way off
Insert the bootable flash drive
Hold down the option key and keep holding it down
Press and release the power on button.
KEEP HOLDING DOWN the option key
You're telling us that when it boots from the flashdrive, the FIRST screen we see is the one you posted in reply 48 above?
I've never seen a similar screen when booting from a flashdrive...
Hmmm...
What happens if you go in and choose Sequoia instead?
Or Sonoma?
Or High Sierra?
(do you get my meaning to try each one?)
I have to ask?
Where did you GET this Macbook Pro?
Did you buy it new?
Did you buy it used?
Do you have a brick n mortar Apple Store anywhere nearby?
Last edited:
The Disk Management screenshot is actually good news: the 379 GB partition shows Healthy with 100% free because Windows can't read APFS, not because it's empty. The physical disk enumerates, so the SSD and its connection are alive. That moves this away from "dead drive" and toward firmware/boot policy.
Two things that would narrow it down:
1. Startup Security lives inside Recovery, so if you can't reach Recovery you can't change it — that's the catch-22 mentioned above. On a T2 machine the way out is a DFU revive with Apple Configurator from a second Mac. A revive rewrites the bridgeOS firmware and leaves data intact; it's the step before a restore, which does erase. If you have access to another Mac and a USB-C cable that carries data, that's the cheapest thing left to try.
2. Before that, worth confirming which key sequence you're using from full shutdown: hold Command-R from the moment you press power, not after the chime, and leave it held for a good 20-30 seconds. If you get a black screen and reboot loop instead, that's consistent with the firmware issue rather than with you doing it wrong.
If the revive doesn't take, then it's a logic board question and the corrosion mentioned earlier is the likely story.
Two things that would narrow it down:
1. Startup Security lives inside Recovery, so if you can't reach Recovery you can't change it — that's the catch-22 mentioned above. On a T2 machine the way out is a DFU revive with Apple Configurator from a second Mac. A revive rewrites the bridgeOS firmware and leaves data intact; it's the step before a restore, which does erase. If you have access to another Mac and a USB-C cable that carries data, that's the cheapest thing left to try.
2. Before that, worth confirming which key sequence you're using from full shutdown: hold Command-R from the moment you press power, not after the chime, and leave it held for a good 20-30 seconds. If you get a black screen and reboot loop instead, that's consistent with the firmware issue rather than with you doing it wrong.
If the revive doesn't take, then it's a logic board question and the corrosion mentioned earlier is the likely story.
