dmnguyen
Level 1 (8 points)
Notebooks

Q: Cannot open Start up manager

I am suing Macbook Pro 13" Retina early 2015, and I cannot open start up manager with option key during booting up to select the start up disc.

It used to work well at first months but now stop working.

I did reset SMC and PRAM but it did not help to solve the problem.

Can you please advise how I can do?

 

Thanks

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch,Early 2015), OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on Apr 15, 2016 1:48 AM

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dmnguyen

Q: Cannot open Start up manager

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  • Helpful answers

  • by macca_229333,

    macca_229333 macca_229333 Apr 15, 2016 2:32 AM in response to dmnguyen
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apr 15, 2016 2:32 AM in response to dmnguyen

    Are you trying to access the recovery options or another system installed on the drive? Holding down CMD + R will boot straight to recovery. You can always choose which system to boot to in system preferences>Start up disk. Have you ran disk utility to check for errors as well?

  • by K Shaffer,

    K Shaffer K Shaffer Apr 15, 2016 2:40 AM in response to dmnguyen
    Level 6 (14,350 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 15, 2016 2:40 AM in response to dmnguyen

    What is the issue you are attempting to resolve by choosing another drive with startup manager?

     

    • How to choose a startup disk on your Mac - Apple Support

     

    • Startup key combinations for Mac - Apple Support

     

    If there is an issue where the computer does not start normally, or issue related to the system

    you could try & use the Safe mode startup, as it can help repair some files; then restart normal.

    This can also help troubleshoot other issues, or resolve them where a simple restart may not.

     

    • Try safe mode if your Mac doesn't finish starting up - Apple Support

     

    Hopefully you have a backup, in addition to Time Machine on separate external drives; so if

    you have to re-install a system (or if a drive is failing) you can restore without much lost data.

     

    PS: This has additional ideas:

     

    • Apple OS X and Time Machine Tips:

    http://www.pondini.org/OSX/Home.html

     

    Not sure what else to say, at near 1:30 AM local time; I should go offline, as I get up in 5 hrs.

    Good luck in this matter...!

  • by dmnguyen,

    dmnguyen dmnguyen Apr 15, 2016 9:17 AM in response to dmnguyen
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Notebooks
    Apr 15, 2016 9:17 AM in response to dmnguyen

    Hi Macca,

     

    I certainly can choose start up disk in system preferences, but it would be more convenient to run when boot up to choose windows or mac ...

    I did check with disk utility and a third party software Life Report Disk to check the SSD, and no errors are detected ....

  • by dmnguyen,

    dmnguyen dmnguyen Apr 15, 2016 9:23 AM in response to K Shaffer
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Notebooks
    Apr 15, 2016 9:23 AM in response to K Shaffer

    HI K Shaffer,

     

    Thanks for your help, but it still does not help to solve my problem. I want to be able to choose Mac or Windows at start up manager since it is more convenient, but it cannot ...

    The only solution now is to choose the start up disk in System Preferences. But what his happening with my start up manager? Why it stops when press Option key when boot up

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Apr 15, 2016 9:27 AM in response to dmnguyen
    Level 9 (60,931 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 15, 2016 9:27 AM in response to dmnguyen

    The Startup Manager run code is all in ROM. It draws a gray screen, and over the span of several minutes, will add an Icon when it discovers potentially-bootable Volumes on your Mac. If you get the gray screen, Startup Manager itself is WORKING.

     

    If you do not see any potentially-bootable Volumes in its display,  your potentially-bootable Volumes or the Boot Drive partitioning information may be damaged.

     

    ¿are you seeing the gray screen? if not, your Mac may have a serious Hardware issue.

     

    ¿are you missing expected Volumes? if so, that is a software or a drive issue, or you used a Windows Utility to revise the size of a Volume, which is know to clobber the partition Map and make your boot drive useless.

  • by dmnguyen,

    dmnguyen dmnguyen Apr 15, 2016 10:07 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Notebooks
    Apr 15, 2016 10:07 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

    Hi Grant,

     

    I can see the grey screen, but I cannot see any icon which should be Mac and Windows disk icon.

    My Mac stops at the grey screen for a few minutes then boot up automatically to the last start-up disk. What is the issue here?

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,Helpful

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Apr 15, 2016 10:22 AM in response to dmnguyen
    Level 9 (60,931 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 15, 2016 10:22 AM in response to dmnguyen

    It sounds like the Startup Manager is working as designed, but the Bootable Volumes are damaged.

     

    If you used any Windows-native Utilities to adjust the Volumes in any way, such a re-sizing a Volume, such a Utility tends to clobber the partition Map on the drive, making a complete re-Install of everything (Mac and Windows) nearly unavoidable.

     

    You can try to use Command-R (or Option-Command-R) to get to Utilities and do a disk Utility Repair. If no joy, you are looking at a re-install, with likely loss of all your data, unless you have separate Trusted Backups of Both your Mac OS X data and your Windows data.