Rescue Macbook

[AJB88]

Hi All,

2010 MBP which I use at home for surfing, got it cheap last year. it has 8gb ram and Samsung SSD.

Because its not my "main machine" I never bothered doing any kind of backup (school boy error)

Decided to try out the MacOS High Sierra BETA on it, install went well but once rebooted it sat on the boot screen for a while (grey one with loading bar), once login screen finally came up, entered password and it just sits there and never logs in.

Went into the recovery menu and did a SSD health check which didn't work so decided to wipe SSD and start again, it now boots into the internet boot menu and asks me to reinstall the OS, it gets all the way to the end then comes up with an error. so it never actually installs.

I am in the process of downloading a .dmg file to flash to a USB on Windows to try rescue it that way.

Any other ideas? Was working perfectly up until then using.

[alorotom]

You'll need to make sure the USB is formatted so the mac can read it correctly

This is the reason I always avoid the beta releases as it's just too much hassle imo

[rich888]

AJB88 said:

Hi All,

2010 MBP which I use at home for surfing, got it cheap last year. it has 8gb ram and Samsung SSD.

Because its not my "main machine" I never bothered doing any kind of backup (school boy error)

Decided to try out the MacOS High Sierra BETA on it, install went well but once rebooted it sat on the boot screen for a while (grey one with loading bar), once login screen finally came up, entered password and it just sits there and never logs in.

Went into the recovery menu and did a SSD health check which didn't work so decided to wipe SSD and start again, it now boots into the internet boot menu and asks me to reinstall the OS, it gets all the way to the end then comes up with an error. so it never actually installs.

I am in the process of downloading a .dmg file to flash to a USB on Windows to try rescue it that way.

Any other ideas? Was working perfectly up until then using.

It sounds like your OS is now well corrupted so probably best to do a fresh install, and bearing in mind you have wiped the SSD there will be little chance of recovering anything off it, though if you do want to have a go then perhaps install a new hard drive or SSD then attempt to read the SSD using an external caddy because it might just be the OS that is broken (am assuming you can fit an SSD in a external caddy - never tried it myself)

Anyway, I posted this info on another thread for another user which might help you out:

Apple make it very easy to reinstall the OS on your iMac, you can either reinstall with the version it originally came with, OR install the latest OS, this is all done via download from their servers. What they don't tell you is just how long this will take which was overnight in my case but at least it all worked and I'm now running El Capitan.

Note that you can install macOS over the same version or earlier version without removing your data. You don’t need to remove or disable the existing system first.

More info on how to reinstall the Mac OS on the same Mac can be found at: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204904

Read down to the paragraph starting with "If you're reinstalling for other reasons".

CAUTION: IF POSSIBLE BACKUP ALL FILES ONTO ANOTHER HDD BEFORE YOU START THIS PROCESS JUST IN CASE - this can probably be done by removing the HDD and placing it in an external caddy then connecting to another computer to copy the files.

It might also be an ideal opportunity to install a new HDD in your MacBook Pro and simply reinstall the OS onto the new HDD, gives you an opportunity to either fit a larger drive (as I did) or fit a faster SSD drive. From that point on you can then connect your old HDD in its external caddy and copy your files back.

After crashing my OS I managed to reinstall the OS and files onto a new drive, then purchased a WD external drive which I now use as a Time Machine backup (when it is connected) so that hopefully I won't lose everything again the next time anything happens!

I did actually corrupt my OS beyond redemption and invested in a data recovery USB from Amazon to recover some of the files before reinstalling everything but you might not have done this to your drive.

Good luck and hope this helps...

BTW, I'm using a 2011 MacBook Pro so assume the layout of your MacBook is pretty similar.

[AJB88]

Full wipe clean install would be nice! I use the cloud to save stuff so there isn't much on the machine anyway.

I attempted the netboot recovery again last night, keeps coming up with an error. It gets down to seconds left the goes to -399 seconds.

Then I get this error:




I have tried setting the time and date by doing this in terminal:

date 0724065417 which works but it doesn't solve the issue.

Edited by AJB88 on Monday 24th July 07:01

[rich888]

Apparently it might not be frozen at this point and is just carrying on with other checks which might take a hell of a lot longer, I read this item from BeeBom who encounted the same problem as you are experiencing:

Note: You might encounter an issue, where the installer gets stuck on “About 0 seconds remaining“. Don’t panic, though, the timer counts down independently of the actual installation of the OS (I don’t know why!), and while it might look as if the installer has frozen, it’s actually doing background tasks. You can check this by pressing “Command + L” to open logs, and then pressing “Command + 3” to view all logs, and you can see what the installer is doing. You just need to be patient, and the installer will automatically restart your Mac in sometime. It took 10-15 minutes for me, but some people had to wait up to an hour.

https://beebom.com/how-install-macos-sierra-public...

EDITED TO ADD: Have you tried changing the SSD/hard-drive to ensure that it's not that unit that is playing up, I know that SD cards sometimes get corrupted and revert to write-only, so assume SSD may behave in a similar manner.

Edited by rich888 on Monday 24th July 12:29

[AJB88]

it doesnt freeze it just comes up with that error, reading online that 2010 MBP might not be able to use network install, looks like it was on 2011 onwards.

SSD was new 6 months ago and has been working perfectly till I installed MacOS High Sierra.

Basically I need to get hold of the MacOS Sierra DMG installed from somewhere (I don't have another MacOS device to download it on)

[rich888]

Have you tried your local Apple store because they have always proved to be pretty good with sorting out tech stuff for me.

[rich888]

I've looked at the downloads available from Apple and it appears to be one of these:

https://support.apple.com/en_US/downloads

They are listing two variants:

Download macOS Sierra 10.12.6 Combo Update OR Download macOS Sierra 10.12.6 Update

Which one do you want and I will download it to a DVD for you unless you know someone closer who could download it for you.

[AJB88]

rich888 said:

I've looked at the downloads available from Apple and it appears to be one of these:

https://support.apple.com/en_US/downloads

They are listing two variants:

Download macOS Sierra 10.12.6 Combo Update OR Download macOS Sierra 10.12.6 Update

Which one do you want and I will download it to a DVD for you unless you know someone closer who could download it for you.

Bingo I should be able to download that and flash it on a USB via a Windows machine.

Will try that when I get home, wasn't aware you could download it directly, even Apple support in California said it had to be done via Appstore.

[Bikerjon]

You need the full install - those are just the update packages. You're going to need access to another Mac to create the USB installer from a full install package (which you can get from the App store)

[AJB88]

Ah damn, I read somewhere somebody can download the install package from appstore and send it to me.

[Bikerjon]

Yes you can download from the app store, but you'll still need a Mac to do that and also build a USB installer - I do not know of any way of doing that on a windows machine.

[AJB88]

there a programme I downloaded the other night for Windows that can do it. but as you say you need to download the file via App store firstly.

Need to find somebody who has a Mac haha.

[rich888]

Have you tried calling into your local Apple store to ask the question because I've always found them to be pretty good with sorting things out for me - in my case I booked a Genius Bar reservation and cannot fault the service I've received on several occasions.

https://www.apple.com/uk/retail/storelist/

Additional link which may be useful: https://www.apple.com/uk/retail/geniusbar/

Edited by rich888 on Monday 24th July 15:59

[AJB88]

Il try that if all else fails, as its a 2010 MBP thought I was expecting them to say p155 off.

I did quickly speak to a chap in California via chat earlier today but as the MBP is at home there wasn't much he could do.

[stemll]

Andrew, I have a Sierra installer and it's being written to an old USB stick as I type.

I'm also in MK, where do you want it dropping off (PM me rather than post details in the forum)?

[scjgreen]

Download it from the AppStore and then use http://diskmakerx.com/ to create a Bootable USB Drive

[stemll]

scjgreen said:

Download it from the AppStore and then use http://diskmakerx.com/ to create a Bootable USB Drive

Bit tricky to do either of those if his Mac won't boot

[AJB88]

Stemll I just got your email on my phone.

I think I have actually resolved it, I had an old Snow Leopard DVD which has managed to restore Snow leopard onto the machine, I'm now in the middle of the long and slow process of updating from 10.6.8 back to 12.6!!!!!

[AJB88]

Back up and running on 10.12.6