Macbook does not see boot volume. If you cannot boot the system from an external drive. On laptops with a non-removable battery
It refused to boot. CMD+R doesn't help. What should I do?
The start of the working day did not foretell anything bad. A cup of coffee, a good mood, the Power key and the MacBook displays the following sad picture:
A worrying thought immediately flashed through my head about the safety of the data, the current version of the TimeMachine backup (which was not at hand) and the possible loss of information.
Attempt No. 1. Booting into recovery mode
Being an interested user and an avid Mac user, I immediately tried to start the MacBook in recovery mode by holding down the keys CMD+R. Instead of the usual disk utility, the system greeted me with a window with an attempt network recovery.
Having chosen my home network, I began to wait for further developments. After a few minutes, OS X's recovery progress was interrupted error -4403F.
Attempts to start the process again led to exactly the same result. Rebooting the router confirmed that everything was fine with the network connection.
Trying to carry out diagnostics, fix possible hard drive errors, or simply reinstall the system was now out of the question. Section with Recovery HD, in which the tools for restoration are stored, ordered to live long.
Attempt No. 2. Resetting PRAM and NVRAM
Mac computers were created by highly qualified engineers, so the correct organization of the entire system and the presence of “hidden hardware reserves” allows you to avoid a number of interruptions in its operation. One of these reserves is memory sections PRAM And NVRAM. It stores settings data that is not reset even after the computer is disconnected from power. To revive the fallen system, a decision was made reset PRAM and NVRAM settings.
1. Turn on the Mac.
2. After the white screen appears, quickly press the key combination CMD + Option + P + R.
3. Hold until the Mac reboots again and the Mac greets the sound.
PRAM and NVRAM reset completed.
Although they say that hope dies last, it, lifeless and barely alive, continued to lurk in my mind. Resetting PRAM and NVRAM did not affect the error when booting the system. The MacBook continued to test my nerves.
Attempt No. 3. Reset SMS
Having become accustomed to storing all the necessary data “in the cloud” or on removable media, the simplest solution to global problems has always been to reinstall the system “from scratch.” This case was special. I needed data stored in memory and I needed a working Mac today.
In the Mac environment there is something called system management controller SMC. The stability of the entire system depends on the reliability of its operation. Resetting SMC settings can cure a number of problems like:
- — constantly high rotation speed of the cooler even at minimal load;
- — freezes when the system goes into sleep mode;
- — errors related to the operation of additional peripherals or external monitors, as well as correcting system boot problems.
To reset the SMC, follow these steps:
Laptops with built-in batteries
1. Turn off your MacBook and plug in the power adapter.
2. Press and hold the keys at the same time Shit + Control + Option + Power and hold until the MagSafe adapter indicator changes color.
3. Release all keys and press the key again Power.
Laptops with removable batteries (older models)
1. Turn off your MacBook and unplug the power adapter.
2. Remove the battery from the laptop.
3. Hold down the key Power And hold for at least 5 seconds.
4. Release Power, insert the battery and connect the power adapter. Turn on your laptop.
Desktops (iMac, Mac mini, Mac Pro)
1. Completely disconnect the computer from the mains power.
2. Wait at least 30 seconds.
3. Connect the power and wait another 5-10 seconds and then turn on the computer.
The above actions can become really effective and the system will start. In my case, a miracle did not happen.
Attempt No. 4. Recovery using a bootable USB flash drive
An attempt to revive the system using the above actions was unsuccessful. The only option left was to reinstall OS X using a bootable USB flash drive. For this step you will need:
- another computer running the OS X operating system;
- Flash drive with a size of at least 8 GB.
Preparing a flash drive
1. You will need to download the OS X Yosemite distribution from the Mac App Store.
2. To create a bootable USB flash drive, download the DiskMaker X utility (distributed for free). You will need it to deploy the distribution.
3. Format the flash drive using Disk Utility in Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
4. After the distribution has finished downloading, cancel the proposed installation and run the utility DiskMaker X.
5. Choose a system Yosemite (10.10). The utility will detect the distribution in the Applications folder. Click Use this copy(use this copy).
6. Select the drive installed in the USB port and agree to the warning about completely deleting all data present on the flash drive.
7. The process of mounting the distribution kit with OS X Yosemite to the drive will begin.
The copying process takes about 10-20 minutes and depends on the writing speed of the USB flash drive. During mounting, dialog boxes and folders may occasionally open on the screen. Never mind.
Once the OS X Yosemite image has successfully deployed, remove the drive.
System installation
1. Insert the flash drive into the USB port of the “problem Mac”, press the key Power and hold down the key Alt.
2. In the list of available partitions for downloading, select OS X Base System. Please note that there is no Recovery partition..
3. The Mac will boot into recovery mode. After selecting the main system language, the installation menu will open. In the top menu you will find a standard list of utilities.
Use disk utility and first try to check the access rights to the system partition and correct any errors. If after rebooting the system still refuses to boot, you will need to separate a partition of at least 20 GB in size in order to install a new system. You can find detailed instructions on how to partition a disk here.
From the same menu, you can either begin the process of installing the system on a newly created partition, or restore the system using a TimeMachine backup (see Working with TimeMachine).
CAREFULLY! Be careful when choosing the installation partition. The installation must be carried out not on top of the old partition, but on a newly created one.
After the installation is complete, you will have access to all the data located on the “damaged” partition with the old version of the system.
If you cannot create an additional disk partition
If for some reason you were unable to create an additional disk partition to install a new version of OS X, and saving the data remaining on the broken partition is still a priority, there is an option to install OS X using a previously created bootable USB flash drive on an external drive.
In Disk Utility, format the partition scheme to GUID Partition (Attention! All data on the external hard drive will be erased) and select formatting type Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
Installing the system on an external drive otherwise completely duplicates the method described above. By booting from an external hard drive, you will have access to the data remaining in the old system.
How you can solve most of the problems that may arise while working with your iPhone or iPad yourself. Today I will share similar tips and tricks regarding Mac. So, the vast majority of users, when any problems arise with their MacBook, MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, MacBook Air, iMac and Mac mini, either call a friend who understands the issue a little better than themselves or rush headlong to search address (at worst, the telephone number of the nearest service center) and, sobbing into the phone, beg for help. Meanwhile, Apple has developed a powerful knowledge base so that users can solve the vast majority of issues themselves, without the help of a service center.
Check connecting cables. Perhaps you carelessly hooked the cable and it does not sit tightly in the socket. Disconnect it and then connect it again. Check your monitor operation. If you're using an Apple Cinema Display with a MacBook, iMac, or Mac Pro, make sure it's connected to your network. If the monitor indicator light blinks in a special way, this may indicate a malfunction. For more detailed troubleshooting information when working with built-in or external displays, see . Check that the components are connected correctly. If you replaced memory modules or hard drive, check that these components are connected correctly. If necessary, disable them and repeat the installation again. If this does not help, return the original parts. Gray screen. If, when you turn on your computer, a gray screen with the Apple logo and a loading indicator appears and nothing happens for a long time, try turning off your Mac, disconnecting all peripheral devices (printers, external hard drives, optical drives, modems, etc.), Ethernet cables, and turning on the computer again. If this doesn't help, reboot into safe mode. If this does not solve the problem, reset PRAM and NVRAM. Flashing question mark. This message indicates that your Mac does not see the boot volume. The reason may be a mouse or trackpad button pressed during boot, corruption of system files, or failure of the hard drive. If the button is actually jammed, release it and try booting again. If this does not help, then check whether your Mac sees available boot volumes. To do this, hold down the Option key during boot. If a list of available volumes appears on the screen and Macintosh HD is among them, then most likely everything is fine with the disk, but Mac OS X itself is damaged. This can be caused by renaming or moving the Applications, automount, Library, System, Users folders or the mach_kernel file. To restore it, you can use these instructions. In general, if you suspect that the problem is in the hardware, you can test the components of your Mac using the Apple Hardware Functional Test utility. If you have a Mac that came with OS X Lion, you need to be connected to the Internet. If your Mac is running earlier versions of Mac OS X, use a boot disk or flash drive for this. This program is launched by holding down the D key during boot.
Kernel Panic. The most difficult error to diagnose. Most often, the cause may be third-party software. However, it is possible that your system is being crashed by some piece of hardware whose drivers do not interact correctly with the Mac OS X kernel. First, try turning off all peripherals and rebooting the computer. If the problem persists, try updating the software installed on your Mac. Pay special attention to non-Apple apps. If you can't solve the problem on your own, use Apple's recommendations for troubleshooting the problem.
Let's deal with everything else
Imagine that you have problems connecting to the Internet. Or, let's say, the email is not sent. There seems to be no reason to go to the service center, but there is no one to ask what to do next. This is also where Apple's knowledge base and some of my experience can come to the rescue. Can't get online. Most often we find out about this by opening the browser. And if there we see a message about the impossibility of displaying the entered address, the Twitter feed has not been updated for a long time and the Dropbox icon has dimmed, we need to find out what is happening with our network connection. If everything was fine with him, we would see the picture shown in the screenshot below.
In our case, there will be either a yellow or green indicator. Both of them indicate that there are problems with the connection. Our further actions depend on how the Internet gets to us. If there is no additional equipment between us and the provider, and the Internet reaches the Mac only using twisted pair, you can first try to disconnect and connect the network cable. If this does not work, then you can safely call your provider. If the Internet is distributed through a Wi-Fi router, reboot it. Or perform troubleshooting according to the manufacturer's instructions. To improve the reliability of your Internet connection, use Google DNS servers. This will significantly increase its reliability. and describes in more detail the steps that need to be taken if the listed methods do not have any result in troubleshooting problems with connecting to the Internet.
Can't receive or send mail. I use the built-in client to receive and send Mail letters. But I’m sure that similar tools exist in other email clients. If you get some error when trying to send or receive mail and there are no problems with your Internet connection, I recommend checking your connection to the mail server. You can do this using the connection inspector built into Mail. If there are any difficulties with the connection, he will indicate the direction in which to dig. By the way, if you use mail on iCloud, it would be a good idea if such errors occur to look at the iCloud services status page. Perhaps some planned work is being carried out at this moment. Apple's knowledge base contains detailed information on diagnosing and troubleshooting problems with the email client.
Troubleshooting software problems. If you notice that the performance of the system has decreased, that it is taking longer to load, or that errors have begun to appear in the operation of some programs, I recommend checking the rights on the boot disk and also checking whether there is enough free space on it. This can be done using the Disk Utility program. Personally, I generally recommend checking access rights every few months for preventive purposes. Especially if you frequently install or uninstall programs. Well, I advise you to always monitor for updates and install them promptly. Problems with burning discs. As a rule, they occur after a long break in using SuperDrive. If your computer does not react in any way to the empty disk inserted into the drive, it is too early to panic. First of all, you need to check the settings. They may specify that empty media be ignored. If this is not the case, I advise you to conduct a little “trouble shooting” using this topic, and, if this turns out to be ineffective, use these tips to find hardware faults.
The bottom line is that by handling your computer with care, using the latest versions of software, ensuring proper care of your Mac, and using all the capabilities that Apple's knowledge base provides, you can avoid most visits to the service center, save your time, stress and reputation Diagnosis and troubleshooting gurus among friends and acquaintances. The author is an experienced makovodist, head of the service center computersart.com.ua
Several files, took an external drive, connected it and... as a result, the Mac does not “see” the flash drive. Is it really faulty? Or is the computer itself broken? There is no need to throw anything away or take it to a service center. It is better to understand why this problem occurs and how to solve it.
How to solve the problem of identifying a MacBook flash drive.
Causes of the problem and possible solutions
Your Mac may not recognize the media if:
- The USB port is faulty. Check its functionality - try connecting other devices to it.
- The flash drive itself is faulty. Therefore Mac OS does not see it. Insert it into another PC or laptop. If everything works and the files open, then this is not the problem.
- There are no suitable drivers. Update your computer software and restart it. See if any driver or OS related errors occur during boot.
- Malicious software has appeared. Scan your system with an antivirus.
- There are some hardware problems. Check if the other ports and components of the laptop are working. Connect other gadgets to them. Perhaps the problem is not with a specific slot, but with the entire motherboard.
- The file system (FS) of the USB drive is not suitable. Without a special program, the Mac will not be able to “see” the flash drive if it is formatted in NTFS.
It is better to take a broken computer to a service center. If you don't know how to fix your MacBook and USB socket, don't risk it. Same thing with a faulty drive. Does it contain information that has no backup copies left? Give it to a specialist. Is the data not that important or is it easy to recover? Then transfer them to another medium. But if the MacBook does not “see” the flash drive due to the file system, you can change it yourself.
File system
An NTFS drive will not work on a MacOS laptop. There are two options here.
What is the difference between these formats? FAT32 has a limitation - you cannot write a file larger than 4 gigabytes to the media. Even if there is 64 GB of free memory left. You can upload several files of 3 GB, 2 GB each. But not 5 or 6.
If Mac OS does not “see” the flash drive or cannot read data from it, try changing its file system to FAT32. This format is a little outdated. But it is compatible with MacBooks.
MacOS can be launched on a Mac in various ways, which we have already written about. In the same material, we will dwell in detail on the Mac startup mode with booting from CD/DVD, USB or an external hard drive.
Starting a Mac and booting from an external drive may be necessary if you need to run a different version or copy of macOS, troubleshoot any problems, and so on.
To start, the following conditions must be met:
- the computer is based on an Intel system;
- The volume is formatted with a GUID partition type selected;
- The USB storage device is running Mac OS X 10.4.5 or later.
ON TOPIC:
How to start a Mac from a bootable CD/DVD?
1
2
. Hold down the key WITH on the keyboard and hold until the boot menu appears. The Mac should boot from the CD/DVD installed in the optical drive. You can also left-click the mouse when starting the operating system to eject the drive.
You can burn a macOS image to a bootable CD/DVD using " Disk Utility».
How to boot to Mac from an external USB storage device?
1
. Connect a USB flash drive or external hard drive to your Mac.
2
. Turn on your Mac by pressing the power button or restart your computer if it is already running.
3
. Hold down the key ⌥Option (Alt) on the keyboard and hold until the boot menu appears.
4 . Select the desired volume using the mouse, arrows, or trackpad.
Note: If the volume you want is not displayed, wait a few seconds while Boot Manager finishes scanning the mounted drives.
5 . Press the key Return (Enter) to boot your Mac from the selected volume.
How to start Mac from another hard drive (USB) / select default startup disk from macOS system settings?
1
. Open menu → System settings...
2
. Click on the " Boot volume».
3 . From the list of available volumes, select the desired disk that will be used as a boot disk.
After rebooting macOS or next startup? The Mac will start the operating system from the selected volume.
macOS won't boot from an external hard drive, what should I do?
Answer:
1
. Some older external USB drives require additional power. It is possible that it needs to be connected to an external power source or use a second USB in the Mac.
2
. Make sure the external drive is turned on (again, the prerogative of old USB drives).
3
. .
4
. Make sure the drive is formatted with the GUID partition type selected.
5
. Try connecting the external drive to a different USB port.
6
. Make sure the external drive is bootable.
7
. Connect the drive directly, without using a USB hub.
Most users are faced with the problem of creating a boot disk for Apple computers when reinstalling the system.
These instructions will help you create a boot disk and rebuild your system from scratch.
Before you begin reinstalling the system, make sure that you have everything you need:
- Flash drive with at least 8 GB. The flash drive should not contain important files, since during preparation we will have to format it. Or DVD DL (Dual Layer DVD)
- iLife 11
If you bought Mac OS X Lion or Mac OS Mountain Lion and you don’t have an image, don’t worry, you need to click on the operating system installer, which is located in the program folder, right-click and click “Show package contents”
The contents of the installer will open in a new window. Go to Contents->SharedSupport folder and copy InstallESD.dmg to your desktop. This is your boot image.
Everything necessary has been sorted out. Now you need to carry out simple manipulations to prepare an installation flash drive or burn the installation image to a DVD DL disk.
Creating a bootable Mac OS USB flash drive.
1) Open the Disk Utility program, which is located on the path Finder->Programs->Utilities
2) In the top menu, click File -> Open disk image, and select your installation system image
3) Insert the flash drive and make sure it shows up in Disk Utility
4) Click on it and go to the "Disk Partition" menu
5) In the “Partition Scheme” drop-down menu, select “Partition: 1”
6) Just below is the “Options” button, click on it and check the box next to “GUID Partition Scheme”
7) And in the “Format” section, select the disk format “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” as shown in the picture below, and enter it to your liking
10) Click on the “Apply” button for the changes to take effect. Let us remind you: all data from the flash drive will be deleted
Now all we have to do is clone the image onto a flash drive. To do this:
11) Go to the “Restore” tab and drag the USB flash drive to the “Destination” item, and the image to the “Source” item
12) Click the "Restore" button
13) Disk Utility will warn you that it will delete all data from the flash drive, we agree by clicking on the “Erase” button
Copying takes up to 20 minutes. After which you can begin installing the operating system.
Creating a Mac OS boot disk.
In addition to a bootable USB flash drive, you can create a boot disk with the system. In some cases, this option is simpler, for example, if you don’t have a flash drive at hand or you often reinstall the system.
As written above for the boot disk you will need:
- installation system 10.7 or older
- DVD DL disc (double layer DVD disc)
- We strongly recommend that you have an installation disk with iLife 11 since the programs iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand are not installed with the system, but come as a separate package.
1) Open the Disk Utility program, which is located on the path Finder->Programs->Utilities
2) From the top menu, click the “Burn” button and select your installation system image
3) After a short preparation and checking of the disc, the “Burn” button will light up, which you need to press to start recording to the disc.
Installing Mac OS from scratch
Now it's time to move on to installing the Mac OS operating system.
1) Turn off your computer.
2) Turn on the computer and hold down the Alt button until a selection of boot volumes appears.
3) To boot from the installation flash drive, double-click on it and wait for it to fully load.
4) 2-3 minutes after selecting the boot volume, you will be prompted to choose a language - choose a convenient one, for example Russian.
5) After a few seconds, you will see a window with utilities that will help you reinstall the operating system.
6) Run Disk Utility and format the disk, to do this follow steps 4-10 of this instruction, but not for the flash drive, but for the internal disk. Then close the program. As always, I have to warn you that all your files, data, programs, etc. will be deleted. If you want to save your data, use the instructions Setting up a backup copy on Mac OS
7) Now you will need the utility located just above - “Reinstall OS X”. This is the last program that we need to use on our way to a reinstalled system. Launch it and follow the instructions that will be displayed on the screen.
If you have any difficulties or questions, they will make every effort to help you.