Prohibitory symbol on startup

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Level 1

4 points

Prohibitory symbol on startup

I have a mid-2012 MacBook Pro which has been crashing and freezing, and now will not start up.

On startup I am getting an Apple symbol with a loading bar, and then a prohibitory symbol.

I have a lot of data that I DO NOT want to lose and 99gb of free space.

I have researched far and wide and some say reinstalling the MacOS won’t erase any data while others say it will. Please help me, I have my kids photos on there which are not backed up (I know, I know).

Is there any way I can fix this myself without losing data?

MacBook Pro Retina

Posted on Jan 5, 2019 10:33 PM

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Answer 1

DonH49

Level 6

16,716 points

Jan 6, 2019 7:20 AM in response to miss_alia

hopefully its just the operating system that borked. You can boot that Mac from a compatible external drive and hopefully get to your photos or at least the files. you could also remove the internal drive and place it in an external. Although all these scenarios are most likely over your head to do.

crashing and freezing can be lots of different issues, most common some user induced piece of incompatible software installed.

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Answer 2

Eric Root

Level 10

685,257 points

Jan 6, 2019 10:38 AM in response to miss_alia

If you just reinstall the OS, it will not affect your data unless there is a major oops.

Startup Issues - Resolve

Startup Issues - Resolve (2)

Startup Issues - Resolve (3)

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Prohibitory symbol on startup

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