ar7apple

Q: cannot do safe mode or recovery on macbook

Can you please help me on starting my macbook in safe mode? I have tried many times to hold the shift key after startup sound and soon after entering safe mode the macbook does auto restart. It doesn´t continue in safe mode.

 

I have serious problem since trying to upgrade from Yosemite to El Capitan and the computer freezes on trying to backup from time machine or says harddisk doesn´t have enough memory if I try to continue reinstalling OS X.

 

(1) I thought getting into safe mode would be the first thing I should do.

 

(2) Also I cannot do restore either as command+r seems to have no effect whatsoever.

 

Will appreciate very much some help. Thanks in advance.

MacBook Air, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on May 8, 2016 4:44 PM

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Q: cannot do safe mode or recovery on macbook

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  • by theratter,Apple recommended

    theratter theratter May 8, 2016 4:53 PM in response to ar7apple
    Level 4 (3,907 points)
    Desktops
    May 8, 2016 4:53 PM in response to ar7apple

    You have some major issue with the system you upgraded. i suggest you do the following:

     

    Install Yosemite or El Capitan from Scratch

     

    Restart the computer. Immediately after the chime hold down the Command and R keys until the Apple logo appears. When the Utility Menu appears:

     

    1. Backup your files and data.
    2. Select Disk Utility from the Utility Menu and click on Continue button.
    3. When Disk Utility loads select the volume (indented entry, usually Macintosh HD) from the side list.
    4. Click on the Erase icon in Disk Utility's main window. A panel will drop down.
    5. Set the Format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)
    6. Click on the Apply button, then wait for the Done button to activate and click on it.
    7. Quit Disk Utility and return to the Utility Menu.
    8. Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Continue button.
  • by ar7apple,

    ar7apple ar7apple May 8, 2016 5:10 PM in response to theratter
    Level 1 (11 points)
    Notebooks
    May 8, 2016 5:10 PM in response to theratter

    Thanks very much for this quick reply. I will follow and update.

    Best regards

  • by ar7apple,

    ar7apple ar7apple May 9, 2016 8:10 AM in response to theratter
    Level 1 (11 points)
    Notebooks
    May 9, 2016 8:10 AM in response to theratter

    I found out that my time machine has no backups of all my files and data from the hard disk.

     

    Given that I do not have any OS working on the computer, I can only get into utility or restore options.

     

    Can you please help me on how to backup files and data from hard disk to an external drive under current circumstances?

    Appreciate your help!

  • by OGELTHORPE,Apple recommended

    OGELTHORPE OGELTHORPE May 9, 2016 11:54 AM in response to ar7apple
    Level 9 (52,313 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 9, 2016 11:54 AM in response to ar7apple

    Do you have the original installation disks?

     

    You can use Target Disk Mode to copy the data to another HDD:

     

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201462

     

    Ciao.

  • by ar7apple,

    ar7apple ar7apple May 9, 2016 1:54 PM in response to OGELTHORPE
    Level 1 (11 points)
    Notebooks
    May 9, 2016 1:54 PM in response to OGELTHORPE

    Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately I don,t have the original.

     

    I will try target disk mode... need to buy thunderbolt.

     

    Thanks again, appreciate it.

  • by ar7apple,Apple recommended

    ar7apple ar7apple May 13, 2016 9:40 AM in response to ar7apple
    Level 1 (11 points)
    Notebooks
    May 13, 2016 9:40 AM in response to ar7apple

    Just wanted to update how I solved my problem. I used an external drive to install the El Capitan and that started up the computer. I then deleted some more files in the computer HD to give plenty of storage for installing OS on HD. Then I reinstalled El Capitan directly on the computer. So far so good... it has also the personalisation I had before and OS is now El Capitan.